Some thoughtful articles this week.......
1/ A heartfelt and most interesting essay on what has become of America.....as the right wail about how we have changed from their concept of 1920's Amerika, if you think about it we truly have morphed, and not in good ways. The changes just sneak up on you, and all of a sudden it's the new normal....
This is one of those very insightfularticles, letting you look at where we truly are.....
Machine Guns, MRAPs, Surveillance, Drones, Permanent War, and a Permanent Election Campaign
Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com
Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com
I never fail to be amazed -- and that’s undoubtedly my failing. I mean, if you retain a capacity for wonder you can still be awed by a sunset, but should you really be shocked that the sun is once again sinking in the West? Maybe not.
The occasion for such reflections: machine guns in my hometown. To be specific, several weeks ago, New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton announced the formation of a new 350-officer Special Response Group (SRG). Keep in mind that New York City already has a police force of more than 34,000 -- bigger, that is, than the active militaries of Austria, Bulgaria, Chad, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Kenya, Laos, Switzerland, or Zimbabwe -- as well as its own “navy,” including six submersible drones. Just another drop in an ocean of blue, the SRG will nonetheless be a squad for our times, trained in what Bratton referred to as “advanced disorder control and counterterror.” It will also, he announced, be equipped with “extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns -- unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.” And here’s where he created a little controversy in my hometown. The squad would, Bratton added, be “designed for dealing with events like our recent protests or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris.”
Now, that was an embarrassment in liberal New York. By mixing the recent demonstrations over the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others into the same sentence with the assault on Mumbai and the Charlie Hebdo affair in France, he seemed to be equating civil protest in the Big Apple with acts of terrorism. Perhaps you won’t be surprised then that the very next day the police department started walking back the idea that the unit would be toting its machine guns not just to possible terror incidents but to local protests. A day later, Bratton himself walked his comments back even further. (“I may have in my remarks or in your interpretation of my remarks confused you or confused the issue.”) Now, it seems there will be two separate units, the SRG for counterterror patrols and a different, assumedly machine-gun-less crew for protests.
2/ Jon Stewart reacts to the coverage he received on Fox News when he announced he was leaving the Daily Show.....he nails it.......quite an interesting segment as he is making a serious point about what is happening in the media and indeed all of our institutions - every time an entity is attacked for being too liberal, they cave......
Jon, of course, didn't! A very good 9 minutes indeed......and if you want the essence of why Stewart is so good, watch this clip.....
Ever since Jon Stewart announced he was leaving The Daily Show, there’s been a lot of media coverage of that fact, not all of it positive. Fox News, for one, has reacted by going after Stewart for what they say is deceptive and selective editing on his part. And Stewart responded tonight by challenging Fox to a “lie-off,” making the point that whatever lies they think he may have told, he can throw dozens and dozens of theirs back at them.
But beyond that, Stewart seemed to run out of f*cks to give, because the rest of the segment consisted of trashing the right for “pretending that our truthfulness is what’s really important to them” when their real goal is “discrediting anything that they believe harms their side.”
So to Stewart, conservative complaints about many American institutions are about getting “those things to reinforce their partisan conservative ideological viewpoint.” And he personally is tired of conceding so much in what he called a “chronically angry war for ideological purity.”
3/ ISIS - yes they're evil, but the mainstream media and the Presidents critics seem obsessed with the language - what we call them is more important that the bigger picture of who they really are, and where did they come from - "Islamic Terrorists", or just "Terrorists"....
This article gives you a look at the reality of ISIS.....it's controversial because it discusses the role of Islam and the Islamic philosophy that is the core of this group of psychopaths....
One of the best articles we have seen on this subject, from The Atlantic magazine.....Our ignorance of the Islamic State is in some ways understandable: It is a hermit kingdom; few have gone there and returned. Baghdadi has spoken on camera only once. But his address, and the Islamic State’s countless other propaganda videos and encyclicals, are online, and the caliphate’s supporters have toiled mightily to make their project knowable. We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million.
4/ Bill Maher's panel discussed the Atlantic article, and Maher pulls no punches with his comments on religion......not one of his funny ones, a serious commentary from some intelligent people....nine minutes of discussion.....quite interesting.....
Bill Maher (Credit: HBO/Janet Van Ham)
Islam and terrorism was a topic again on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, which included a long discussion about The Atlantic’s controversial ISIS story, the Iraq War and last week’s White House conference.
Maher noted the irony of President Obama insisting America is not at war with Islam, “even though he’s dropping bombs on them all the time.”
He also suggested that Saddam Hussein “looks better all the time,” as does the late Libyan strongman Moammar Khadafy. He imagined a conversation between the dictators and American leaders that went: Yes, I’m a bad guy, but you have no idea how crazy the people in my country are. “I am keeping the shit to shoe level,” he said, “you should be thanking me.”
Maher also quarreled with the president’s word choices. “This idea that we cannot even call it Islamic terrorism seems Orwellian to me,” he said. “It seems we’re paying a very high price for this … which is you can’t discuss it even rationally.
“Can’t we at least say there are a number of factors that are involved and the religion is certainly one of them? (Obama) presented this idea that, well, it’s poverty and education. It is poverty and education also — but why are they impoverished and uneducated? It’s mostly because of the religion.”
5/ An amusing one minute commercial from Organic Valley about saving the "Bros"......treating jocks like a bee colony facing collapse...
Interesting to see healthy food promoted so well and with a sense of humour.....worth watching....
Our bros are in trouble. Learn how you can help save our beloved Bromo Sapiens from chugging toxic chemical junk found in their favorite food source: protein shakes. Organic Valley has a solution. It's called Organic Fuel. Watch this important film and share it with a bro. Get the facts....
6/ I found this story from the Times quite moving.....written by a Bostonian, who describes what it's really like living through the worst winter in recorded history for that city, and although we see the images of snow etc, it doesn't describe the chaos of daily life.....
I'm so glad we have to endure Florida winters.....
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — BY now you’ve seen the starkly beautiful shots of Boston buried under snow: the panoramic city under a white blanket; snowbanks so high they crest over parked cars; piercing icicles glinting for two full stories from gutters dammed with ice; coat-muffled people dwarfed by snow-walled corridors that once were sidewalks.
You may have seen the funny images as well: the man snowboarding down an all-but-empty major boulevard, pulled by his friend’s snowmobile; drunk men diving out of second-floor windows into six-foot snowbanks; windows that merely frame a wall of snow.
But for those of us living here, it’s not a pretty picture. We are being devastated by a slow-motion natural disaster of historic proportions. The disaster is eerily quiet. There are no floating bodies or vistas of destroyed homes. But there’s no denying that this is a catastrophe.
7/ Paul Krugman specialises in speaking his mind about our problems and serious issues in society, so read this and your bullshit detector will be fully up to date about the right wing spin on how to fix inequality in our society.....
Regular readers know that I sometimes mock “very serious people” — politicians and pundits who solemnly repeat conventional wisdom that sounds tough-minded and realistic. The trouble is that sounding serious and being serious are by no means the same thing, and some of those seemingly tough-minded positions are actually ways to dodge the truly hard issues.
The prime example of recent years was, of course, Bowles-Simpsonism — the diversion of elite discourse away from the ongoing tragedy of high unemployment and into the supposedly crucial issue of how, exactly, we will pay for social insurance programs a couple of decades from now. That particular obsession, I’m happy to say, seems to be on the wane. But my sense is that there’s a new form of issue-dodging packaged as seriousness on the rise. This time, the evasion involves trying to divert our national discourse about inequality into a discussion of alleged problems with education.
And the reason this is an evasion is that whatever serious people may want to believe, soaring inequality isn’t about education; it’s about power.
Just to be clear: I’m in favor of better education. Education is a friend of mine. And it should be available and affordable for all. But what I keep seeing is people insisting that educational failings are at the root of still-weak job creation, stagnating wages and rising inequality. This sounds serious and thoughtful. But it’s actually a view very much at odds with the evidence, not to mention a way to hide from the real, unavoidably partisan debate.
8/ Guy video - a road race between an Audi R8 V10 and two superbikes on an Brazilian Autostrada.....filmed from behind the driver, who appears to have road rage syndrome.....absolutely terrifying because they are doing up to 175 mph at times, but you can't look away!
Five minutes of "high T".....reminds me of I-95 in Miami....
9/ Lady Gaga at the Oscars was amazing.......she out-Julied Julie Andrews.......a wonderful four minute sound of music......strange tats though....
Mike Blake/Reuters
Going into Oscars night, ABC made sure viewers knew that Lady Gaga would perform; missing from the promotional ads and press material, though, was any mention of what she’d be doing. In the moments before she took the stage, host Neil Patrick Harris promised that what was about to happen would be talked about plenty the next day. And with Gaga's history at awards shows—hatching out of an egg, dying bloodily, getting dirty with Elton John, playing drag king, The Meat Dress—who could doubt him?
Gaga’s stunt, it turned out, was to have no stunt at all. After a montage of Sound of Music film clips honoring the 50th anniversary of the movie musical, she appeared on stage in a wedding-appropriate gown and, with great control and stillness, sang "The Hills Are Alive," "My Favorite Things," "Edelweiss" and "Climb Every Mountain." The music was faithful; the décor was understated. Julie Andrews emerged afterwards with sincere-seeming congratulations—“it really warmed my heart, it really did”—and Internet commenters raved. Consequence of Sound called it Gaga’s best performance ever; Twitter was alive with the sound of people saying that they didn’t know she could sing like that.
10/ John Oliver, our best comedic journalist looks at how we get our judges, i.e. electing them......an excellent 12 minutes, and if you had any faith in our justice system you won't after you watch this piece....
John Oliver
On “Last Week Tonight” John Oliver did some digging into the practice of electing judges to the bench. What he revealed was truly disturbing: The election process mixes the money and bias of political elections with what is supposed to be a fair judicial system. It involves judges shaking down lawyers for campaign donations, super PACs, terrible campaign ads and potential bias on the bench — just to name a few problematic factors.
“Faith in a strong independent judiciary is essential for civilized society,” Oliver stated. “Without it we’re settling disputes in either Thuderdomes or via The Purge.’”
“Look, if we are going to keep electing judges, we may have to alter our idea of what justice is,” he continued. “In fact, at the very least to be a bit more representative, we should tweak the blindfolded lady holding scales, to put a tip jar in her hand and a give her a fucking winking emoji for a face.”
11/ An excellent column from Timothy Egan in the Times, and it's kind of a eulogy for Jon Stewart.....we will miss him, because TV news is a parody of itself.
One of the things that surprised me with the Brian Williams scandal was that his audience for the NBC nightly "news" was over 9 million, and that between them almost 30 million people watched network news. What this really means is that 30 million people every night think they're informed, because they've watched "the news", which explains a lot about the endemic stupidity in this country.
If you watch TV's version of world events, you have no clue what's happening internationally. None. Nationally, you're caught up with the outrage de jour and cat videos.....pathetic.....
Since the golden era of fake news is over, does this mean that what passes for real news and real politics are also over?
If only. Tune into one of the Sunday interview shows, if you can, and you’re bound to find the inevitable Senator Lindsey Graham talking about all the places we need to bomb now. Senator Ted Cruz will do an impression of the Tin Man without a heart or a brain, and Nancy Pelosi will demonstrate that humor impairment is bipartisan.
Throughout the week, the morning shows will be stuffed with viral pet videos, diet and makeup tips and — hey, Taylor Swift said what? They will do follow-ups on listicles and assorted click-bait from blogs, and someone will take Donald Trump seriously.
Sadly, it’s gotten only worse since Jon Stewart built a secular church around the nightly ritual of mockery of the deserving class. So, while more people are in on the joke, more people continue to offer a steady stream of material for the jokes.
“If he’s shooting fish in a barrel, we don’t always have to provide the fish,” said a Fox News personality, Greg Gutfeld, in a moment-of-Zen acknowledgment this week, following Stewart’s announcement that he’s stepping down from “The Daily Show” after more than 16 years as host. “And we provide a lot of fish.”
12/ This is funny - Jennifer Aniston and Jimmy Fallon doing a "lip flip"......a little silly, but very amusing, especially when they lose it.....four minutes....
The pair took turns gabbing as one another, with Fallon's lips first making Aniston talk like Sling Blade-era Billy Bob Thornton and the most amped, obnoxious Bonnaroo attendee. Aniston took a simpler route, turning Fallon into a sweet Southern belle: "I'm just pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty little thing, y'all," she said. "I think I'm gonna flip a house!" Her impression was cut short, however, by a near-fatal sneeze attack, which she played off as just a hairball.
Fallon and Aniston then jumped into a fierce debate about the most pressing issue of the day: Who will win the Super Bowl? Fallon had Aniston pulling wicked hard for the New England Patriots, while Aniston made Fallon the chillest Seattle Seahawks fan ("We got all the weed, man!"). Though the real game won't be settled until February 1st, Aniston and Fallon did provide an entertaining bout, shouting back and forth the best both cities had to offer: "Brady!" "Wilson!" "Chowdah!" "Coffee!" "Cheers!" "Frasier!" "Aerosmith!" "Pearl Jam!"
Two health related articles, about the food you eat....#13 and #15.
13/ You may have read, listened to and maybe even followed government guidelines for healthy eating. Guess what? It's all bullshit, including eating anything lowfat.
A new report admits many of the recommendations were based on faulty data.....
And look at this quote "Indeed, cutting fat and cholesterol, as Americans have conscientiously done, may have even worsened our health".
Your diet should be anything your grandmother may have eaten.....
FOR two generations, Americans ate fewer eggs and other animal products because policy makers told them that fat and cholesterol were bad for their health. Now both dogmas have been debunked in quick succession.
First, last fall, experts on the committee that develops the country’s dietary guidelines acknowledged that they had ditched the low-fat diet. On Thursday, that committee’s report was released, with an even bigger change: It lifted the longstanding caps on dietary cholesterol, saying there was “no appreciable relationship” between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Americans, it seems, had needlessly been avoiding egg yolks, liver and shellfish for decades. The new guidelines, the first to be issued in five years, will influence everything from school lunches to doctors’ dieting advice.
How did experts get it so wrong? Certainly, the food industry has muddied the waters through its lobbying. But the primary problem is that nutrition policy has long relied on a very weak kind of science: epidemiological, or “observational,” studies in which researchers follow large groups of people over many years. But even the most rigorous epidemiological studies suffer from a fundamental limitation. At best they can show only association, not causation. Epidemiological data can be used to suggest hypotheses but not to prove them.
14/ The second surprising musical performance [see Lady Gaga above] of the month was Miley Cyrus at the SNL 40th show.....she was wonderful, and has a damned good voice......even Mary was impressed!
Miley Cyrus continued the festivities by paying tribute to Simon with an impressive rendition of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Slinking through the verses, Cyrus took the chance to break out her booming, diva vocals during the song's soulful and stomping chorus — all of which was anchored by Fred Armisen's indispensable auxiliary percussion.
15/ This story is even more horrifying that the government telling us exactly the wrong advice [above] and millions of stupid people following it - it's a story from the Guardian about food engineering, and how pre-packaged foods have been made cheaper and more efficient by the uses of chemicals, and even a conscientious consumer who checks ingredients will never know. It's written about an industry food conference in the EU, but everything they talk about applies to American products, and perhaps worse. Big Food is global, and the EU has much higher standards than the US....so you KNOW it's worse here.....
Mary and I never, ever eat packaged food unless it's a treat [crackers etc]....but the extent of the corruption of our food supply is amazing, so if you want to stay healthy, eat like your grandmother used to....
Shares
24,931
On a bright, cold day in late November 2013, I found myself in the dark, eerie, indoor expanses of Frankfurt’s Blade Runner-like Festhalle Messe. I was there undercover, to attend an annual trade show called Food Ingredients. This three-day exhibition hosts the world’s most important gathering of ingredients suppliers, distributors and buyers. In 2011, when it was held in Paris, more than 23,000 visitors attended from 154 countries, collectively representing a buying power of €4bn (£2.97bn). Think of it as the food manufacturers’ equivalent of an arms fair. It is not open to the public. Anyone who tries to register has to show that they work in food manufacturing; I used a fake ID.
While exhibitors at most food exhibitions are often keen for you to taste their products, few standholders here had anything instantly edible to offer. Those that did weren’t all that they seemed. Canapé-style cubes of white cheese dusted with herbs and spices sat under a bistro-style blackboard that nonchalantly read “Feta, with Glucono-Delta-Lactone” (a “cyclic ester of gluconic acid” that prolongs shelf life).
A pastry chef in gleaming whites rounded off his live demonstration by offering sample petits fours to the buyers who had gathered. His dainty heart- and diamond-shaped cakes were dead ringers for those neat layers of sponge, glossy fruit jelly, cream and chocolate you see in the windows of upmarket patisseries, but were made entirely without eggs, butter or cream, thanks to the substitution of potato protein isolate. This revolutionary ingredient provides the “volume, texture, stability and mouthfeel” we look for in cakes baked with traditional ingredients – and it just happens to be cheaper.
This is the goal of the wares on show, something the marketing messages make clear. The strapline for a product called Butter Buds®, described by its makers as “an enzyme-modified encapsulated butter flavour that has as much as 400 times the flavour intensity of butter”, sums it up in six words: “When technology meets nature, you save.”
Todays video - the diner scene from "Five Easy Pieces" with the wonderful Jack Nicholson....two minutes....
Todays medical joke
A married couple went to the hospital to have their baby delivered. Upon their arrival, the doctor said he had invented a new machine that would transfer a portion of the mother’s pain to the baby's father. He asked if they
were willing to try it out.
They were both very much in favor of it.
The doctor set the pain transfer to 10%, for starters,explaining that even 10% was probably more pain the father
had ever experienced before. However, as the labor progressed, the husband felt fine and asked the doctor to go ahead and "kick it up a notch."
The doctor then adjusted the machine to 20% pain transfer. The husband was still feeling fine.
The doctor checked the husband’s blood pressure and was amazed at how well he was doing at this point, so they decided
to try for 50%. The husband continued to feel quite well.
Since the pain transfer was obviously helping out the wife considerably, the husband encouraged the doctor to transfer ALL the pain to him.
The wife delivered a healthy baby boy with virtually no pain. She and her husband were ecstatic
When they got home, the mail man was dead on the porch.
Todays Bubba joke
Each Friday night after work, Bubba would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak.
But all of Bubba's neighbors were Catholic....And since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Friday.
The delicious aroma from the grilled venison steaks was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their priest.
The Priest came to visit Bubba, and suggested that he become a Catholic.
After several classes and much study, Bubba attended Mass ... and as the priest sprinkled holy water over him, he said, "You were born a Baptist and raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic."
Bubba's neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma of grilled venison filled the neighborhood.
The Priest was called immediately by the neighbors, and, as he rushed into Bubba's yard clutching a rosary and prepared to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.
There stood Bubba, clutching a small bottle of holy water which he carefully sprinkled over the grilling meat and chanted: "You wuz born a deer, you wuz raised a deer, but now you are a catfish."
Todays rude joke collection
Q: WHAT IS AN AUSTRALIAN KISS?
A: It's the same as a French kiss, but 'downunder'.
Q: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH 365 USED CONDOMS?
A: Melt them down, make a tire, and call it a Goodyear .
Q: WHY WERE HURRICANES ORIGINALLY NAMED AFTER WOMEN?
A: Because when they come, they're wet and wild, and when they go,they take your house and car with them.
Q: WHY DO GIRLS RUB THEIR EYES WHEN THEY GET UP IN THEMORNING?
A: Because they don't have any balls to scratch...
BONUS JOKE
Q: What is a man's Ultimate embarrassment?
A: Running into a wall with an erection and breaking his nose.
Nominated as the world's best short joke
A 3-year-old boy examined his testicles while taking a bath.
"Mom", he asked, "Are these my brains?"
"Not yet," she replied.
The Nightly Show, Larry Wilmore’s new Daily Show follower that’s about to end its second week on-air, has thus far been a funny, loose, and slightly edgy comedy show, tackling everything from Bill Cosby rape allegations to Tom Brady’s balls with the extra grit you’d expect from a cable version of the major nightly franchises.
