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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 10 to 34 of 50. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on August 1, 2011, at 13:25:38
In reply to Re: Murdoch » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on July 28, 2011, at 1:07:32
Politics has always been vicious. There used, nonetheless, to be an idea of the common good or the commonwealth.
Murdoch's strategy since 1972 has been to greatly (and of course adversely) affect the debate, but to contrive his support so that he ends up backing the winner from whom he can extract regulatory favours. So it was no surprise that he had his man in Cameron's office, though I did not expect to see his man with the Met.
Some institute did a calculation of the value of the regulatory favours done in every election cycle. I forget what it was, it was long ago anyway so the figures would be out of date, some hundreds of millions of dollars 20 yeas ago.
Posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 15:25:04
In reply to Re: Murdoch, posted by sigismund on August 1, 2011, at 13:25:38
I see News Limited so described. This needs to be encouraged.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 16:15:28
In reply to A cultural Chernobyl, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 15:25:04
> I see News Limited so described. This needs to be encouraged.
I went over to News Limited, and didn't find recent reference to Murdoch, but saw that London has been sustaining riots for three days. The NL article did not give a cause.
What provoked them?
(Off topic, but it was the online front page....)
Posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 20:24:07
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 16:15:28
>What provoked them?
Good question. Nothing to do with Murdoch and the consequences of 30 years of aggressive neoliberalism and the crash provoked by it?
Maybe the people do not think they should be left holding the parcel?
Ayn Rand might have something to answer for too.
I never read her. I couldn't believe this was something worth paying attention to. I'd read Neitzche, of course......I don't know if there is any connection.
But this Europe thing...it has a long way to go.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 20:36:02
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 20:24:07
Apparently police shot a young man, maybe a known dealer. Police said he was armed. Family says it was a replica?
Now people are, actually strike that, media are saying it's about the economy.
I imagine that the current economic state might fuel anything.
I feel my deeply sad to have seen the photos of all those young people resorting to such, I don't know, dreadful
rampage.I thought, well, maybe if their elders had been on their toes a bit more. Like not eye deep in scandal and deceit. But I can't parcel out any blame, really.
People get very angry at police intervention sometimes for good cause. Years of living in LA and NY gave witness enough to a mindless and at times deeply misanthropic trend occurring in law enforcement.
I guess I could have ended that second sentence up there with *years of living*.
Posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 20:43:12
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 20:36:02
I believe, but cannot know or prove, that if the elites had shown more decency and principle, there would be less rioting generally.
Someone Pullman, the kids author, has started a committee in the UK, something about how they have been taken over by A FERAL ELITE and the idea is to bring decency back into politics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/31/public-jury-campaign-feral-elite
Posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 21:51:32
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 20:43:12
> I believe, but cannot know or prove, that if the elites had shown more decency and principle, there would be less rioting generally.
>
> Someone Pullman, the kids author, has started a committee in the UK, something about how they have been taken over by A FERAL ELITE and the idea is to bring decency back into politics.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/31/public-jury-
campaign-feral-elite
Wow. That is some coinage. That is truly an amazing phrase. Thank you for the link.
About Pullman's fiction:The third part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, was the first 'children's book' to win the Whitbread prize. The trilogy was widely acclaimed for its gripping plot, absorbing characters, richly inventive imaginative landscape and fearless exploration of big ideas, from the nature of hell to the existence, or otherwise, of God. Some critics, however, found the third volume baggier than the previous two. The only sour note came from the religious lobby, with the Catholic Herald describing his work as "truly the stuff of nightmares... worthy of the bonfire." Not surprising, given Pullman's hatred of organised religion and his statement that "I am all for the death of God." Yet he is a firm believer that writers have a duty to tackle the great moral questions, and it is his ability to do this in such a rich and versatile manner that elevates his work above the fantasy or genre pigeonholes.
Posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 23:12:56
In reply to A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 8, 2011, at 21:51:32
I have always been interested in and vaguely sympathetic to religions, feeling that they are like languages of the spirit and worth preserving in a similar way.
I have just finished listening to a religion program which featured John Lennox, Oxford professor of mathematics talking about Hitchins and Dawkins, though really I have been so unimpressed by that form of atheism and agreed with the German professor he mentioned who said that they are seen there as simply to trivial to mention (they having a different experience of atheism). If there is any sense in this, it comes from something like osmosis, because I have not read any Dawkins since The Blind Watchmaker, which I didn't much like, and he seems to have got worse.
Even so, the plague of our times is fundamentalism, of every stripe.
What was this in aid of?
Posted by floatingbridge on August 9, 2011, at 5:34:10
In reply to Re: A feral elite » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 23:12:56
I have listened to both Hawkins and I think Hitchins, though the last name I am not sure about, another devout atheist, and even I overturned them in my thinking, being myself absolutely under read in any sort of philosophic thought.
I admit to an initial titillation with Dawkins only because I was force fed religion as a child and spiritually invalidated in the process.
I have mentioned Stephen Fry before, and he may be quite soft as far as a thinker goes, I don't know, but he is far more reverent regarding the role of religion, though he absolutely bashes the Catholic Church while upholding the respect of individual practioners. I found him on YouTube looking at bipolar topics (seems he has cyclothymia, my first dx). He's like listening to a really brainy friend hold forth.
A concern, in my akward paraphrase is that the new atheists have only taken up a contrary position and left the very human driven roots of religion unexamined. Fry is into the Enlightenment and science and mystery and imagination.
He also said something I recall is that it is every thinking person's duty to, regardless of belief, to imagine the possibility that there is no afterlife just to see what that would do to their thinking and decision making, though he seems alright with someone having a belief in an afterlife. He speaks about the institutional cruelties perpetuated by both extremes.
3:30 am ramblings.
Posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:31:07
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2011, at 20:24:07
>>What provoked them?
Look how they have spread. Bit of a problem of social cohesion, from the looks of it. Impossible to imagine this in war time or post war Britain.
Blair is particularly interesting. I don't know enough about him. I find him worse than Bush....fewer excuses, more narcissism. But I don't know enough.
Thatcher said 'There is no such thing as society', and she seems to have been proved right by the march of events, but she would not like the mobs breaking into her house and ransacking it.
Our leaders really bother me. One of the wikileaks docs was about Kevin Rudd advising Hilary Clinton to (if I am not wrong) wage war on China under certain scenarios. Australia has this terribly tedious thing about punching above its weight, but even so.........how could he? The ALP?
Posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:39:35
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl, posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:31:07
This is really dreadful,or indiscreet or something. There must be better ways to express concern than this.
Posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:42:05
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl, posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:39:35
I mean, really! It is actually quite funny in a terrible way.
>But Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the leak would not affect growing ties with China, which has become Australias largest trading partner as it imports natural resources to feed its booming economy.
>We have a very strong relationship with China and that arrangement will continue, McClelland told journalists.
>There was no immediate response from Beijing.
>Australia has a robust relationship with China, Rudd said Monday, and would not contact Beijing over the cable.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 9, 2011, at 16:22:54
In reply to Re: A cultural Chernobyl, posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 14:39:35
"Then-Australian leader Kevin Rudd told the United States it should be prepared to use force against China if everything goes wrong, a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reveals."
The "if everything goes wrong parts" alarms me.
Interesting. I see what you mean, maybe about Rudd, and what you have mentioned before about Australia punching above it's weight. I read this as Rudd hedging alliances to China and the US. It strikes me as driven by a fearful vulnerability. Then again, if Australia is being used as a mining resource....
Posted by sigismund on August 9, 2011, at 16:50:02
In reply to Clinton/Rudd » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 9, 2011, at 16:22:54
It may become a really difficult dangerous situation where Australia is in a bind, so it needs to be very carefully managed.
Rudd was really silly. Beating his chest, really.
Everything said in these situations needs to be said as if it could be overheard.
Posted by sigismund on August 10, 2011, at 9:08:00
In reply to Re: A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 9, 2011, at 5:34:10
The political debate has to emphasise the criminality of the riots. But the way it has spread so easily makes me see it as a reflection of the appalling behaviour of our elites. Australia has been lucky. I wouldn't be saying this about Howard, even though I disagreed with him. But the standards in the UK have been dragged through the mud. I'm thinking of the culture of impunity mainly. Murdoch is part of it. Those feral elites. And the hooray henries for whom life is a game. All in the name of classlessness too. Everyone knows lots of things. All that crap Blair kept talking about Iraq. Inquiry after inquiry. It doesn't matter how many damn inquiries. That doesn't make it look any better. The problem is my generation. Maybe Blair is younger? We need to be replaced by people who think better and differently.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 10, 2011, at 10:12:26
In reply to Re: A feral elite, posted by sigismund on August 10, 2011, at 9:08:00
Maybe younger, but not sure, sigi. The inquiry after inquiry thing seems to lead no where except somewhere very obscure. But I have seen countless inquiries bring any real crime to naught.
Then we had to impeach our thinking, activated president here (Clinton). How can I not despair? Even my mom who watched Fox tv 24/7 was embarrassed by those preceedings. Like myself, she had never traveled, and only read crime novels. She said one day, the French must think we are so
ridiculous how we go on and on about the dna on Monica Lewinski's dress.There are men and women of your and my generation who
have excellent ideas who have been shouted down. I have seen Gore shouted down. The gentleman you quoted,
Andrew B. was certainly ridiculed if he spoke out against the war. Anyone was. But I have complained before I believe
meaningful discussion no longer takes place in my country.I hope I am using enough I statements here.
I have been a mom long enough to see the linguistic complexities and maneuverings that arise around cleaning legos off the floor....
Back on point, regarding criminality, it is easier to discuss
and treat crime rather than the causes. My country spends lavishly on the penal system. The corporate looters get off while UK kids are smashing windows and grabbing their
knock-off luxury goods and status symbols. A great diversion. I don't say that lightly. I dispise the waste of youth on criminality. I despair. I remember the LA riots. But there is such racial tension in our country. And disparity.With the emphasis on criminality, I come round again to
the idea of a police action sparking both riots. Because the police are supposed to, I think in old mythology, work for the citizenry. But they are really the arms of a higher power. So, yeah, let's discuss the petty crimes while international and national ones perpetuate. Makes a more sensational front page story in a Murdoch paper.Not that feral elite planned the riots. People get fr*gg*ng
angry, and anger is irrational. From the country that produced the (excellent IMHO) film, 28 Days. But like anger,
when it explodes, the person or group that is angry is marginalized because anger and outrage are marginalized emotions. They are infantilized, sedated (free booze/uncontrollable influx of street drugs), or locked down.A comic once said Bush senior was the great fisherman of men's souls. He fought for the right of every embryo to see birth, then cut back social services to sigle moms, families, education and health care, only to uphold the death penalty for adults. The comic said Bush sr. was like, save them now, throw back, kill em later.
I had better stop for the morning.
Posted by sigismund on August 10, 2011, at 13:54:14
In reply to Re: A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 10, 2011, at 10:12:26
This is pretty good.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 10, 2011, at 19:02:43
In reply to Re: A feral elite » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 10, 2011, at 13:54:14
> This is pretty good.
>
> http://www.truth-out.org/panic-streets-london/1312999377I want to quote this because it is making me cry right now:
Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like fire on a warm summer night. And now people have lost their homes, and the country is tearing itself apart.
The author used the word viral at least three times.
Thank you for the link.
Posted by sigismund on August 12, 2011, at 19:14:18
In reply to Re: A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 10, 2011, at 19:02:43
Do you remember where one conservative party MP was using his parliamentary allowance to install a moat around his (what's the right word?) house.
That's rather endearing in its way.
The whole of the parliament, it seemed, was on the take.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 13, 2011, at 14:00:17
In reply to Re: A feral elite » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 12, 2011, at 19:14:18
> Do you remember where one conservative party MP was using his parliamentary allowance to install a moat around his (what's the right word?) house.
:-)
Oh dear. No. Would their have been crocodiles, too?
>
> That's rather endearing in its way.
>
> The whole of the parliament, it seemed, was on the take.Another reason why I twitch at the word 'corporation'
http://www.truth-out.org/shiny-happy-corporate-people/1313243063
I am a sorry conversationalist at the moment. A little copy and paste now is about my limit. On my new slate device. You have one, too? The little book sized thing that has no wires (gee, I sound like my dad. We had a dial wall phone in our old house until about six years ago...).
Posted by sigismund on August 13, 2011, at 15:11:31
In reply to Re: A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 13, 2011, at 14:00:17
I don't like a lot of ozrock, but here are some songs from an 80's 90's band.
David McComb had a heart problem, then a heart transplant. Then he OD'd on heroin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6y1nISLVq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGP6fmpIxt0
I saw them once.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 13, 2011, at 19:25:44
In reply to Re: A feral elite, posted by sigismund on August 13, 2011, at 15:11:31
> I don't like a lot of ozrock, but here are some songs from an 80's 90's band.
>
> David McComb had a heart problem, then a heart transplant. Then he OD'd on heroin.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6y1nISLVq4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGP6fmpIxt0>;
> I saw them once.For some reason the last link won't load. The first the long Infidelity was fabulous. I also surfed a bit and really liked fields (plains?) of Glaas and my baby thinks she's a train.
1985 places it rightvwhen I would have loved their live shows. Plus their name references a favorite StarTrek episode :-)
I might be able to get a copy of the first album. Sending the link to a friend too (a kitchen table recording artist with lovely quiet songs).
Did you know them?
I hope this isn't callous, but it crossed my mind, the old question, and a heroin overdose isn't the worst way to go, among the list of ways. Am I very mistaken? (I am not implying his overdose was intentional, nor anything else.)
This was a treat.
Posted by sigismund on August 13, 2011, at 19:37:19
In reply to Re: A feral elite » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on August 13, 2011, at 19:25:44
>Am I very mistaken?
No, you are not mistaken.
Let me try a different way
Posted by floatingbridge on August 13, 2011, at 19:42:52
In reply to Re: A feral elite, posted by sigismund on August 13, 2011, at 15:11:31
If anything, see if you can locate the story Emergency. I have never read anything liike it. Actually, the entir chain of stories would take one long sitting.
I had the pleasure of seeing the author read. He read two full stories. A woman seated next to me had never heard
them/read them. She was giddy and harrowed like she had been at a carnival ride that left her white knuckled.I have never quite experienced such eloquent, painful, black comedy to date.
Oh, oh. I went on too long.
But this came out, hmmmm, maybe 1993? Guessing?
The movie is actually o.k. But the main character is Billy Cruddup, a hopelessly handsome, charismatic man. I like to think the the character known through the stories/novel known simply as F*ck Head had less natural charm. Not a bad movie though. Lots of cute VW bugs and crazy young people in old farmhouses.
Posted by floatingbridge on August 14, 2011, at 14:35:02
In reply to Re: A feral elite » floatingbridge, posted by sigismund on August 13, 2011, at 19:37:19
Have you heard of this?
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