To those who cleanly compete in the great Games, whose talents are manifest and assets made obvious for a wondering world: Before Nine salutes you!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
A Salute To Those Who Compete
An Inspiration To Mankind
To those who cleanly compete in the great Games, whose talents are manifest and assets made obvious for a wondering world: Before Nine salutes you!
To those who cleanly compete in the great Games, whose talents are manifest and assets made obvious for a wondering world: Before Nine salutes you!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
It's A Strange Multiverse
Let's Keep It That Way
Screenshot: New York Times, July 21, 2012; Certain
Advertising Elements Have Been Altered Just Because.
(Click On Image To Enlarge! It's Easy And Fun!)
I admit not knowing any answers to The Big Questions: What the universe is, how it works; its origins or its purpose; and what our reason for existence -- as a species, and personally -- may be in that universe, if any.
I do assume that it had to come from somewhere, and have a structure 'midst the maelstrom of physical and chemical chaos that even the most casual observations of our immediate environment will show.
Essentially, the universe is like a rerun of Three's Company, with pants, gigantic waterfalls, bats, toilet paper, sex, jets and elephants, and Mitt Romney (I don't know about you, but I'm happy with the bats and waterfalls and elephants, and throw up in a bucket when I see Mitzy. I am deeply grateful for the sex. Also toilet paper). However, I don't claim to have any answer as to where whatever-all-this-is came from, where it's going, what its structure is, how it operates or whether 'it' even notices we're here.
No matter how much I yearn to know the answers to The Big Questions, I have an instinctive distrust of anyone who claims to know what they are. My personal bar for the burden of proof on that is astoundingly high.
For Some Questions, The Bar Is Low: Local Phenomenon
(Click On Image To Enlarge! It's Easy And Fun!)
For example: You've got your Macro level of the universe, where certain observable phenomena (chemical reactions; Newton's laws of motion; Lard Boy's steady weight gain) can be tracked. This is the big-stuff world where we live, the E-Ticket ride of trips to the beach, bad teevee, rude people on public transportation, paychecks, and Spam™.
But wait! On the really micro, Sub-Atomic level, a whole 'nother kind of physics applies -- where particles (smaller stuff, that makes up the big stuff) can be in two places at once, move forward or back in time, or change their characteristics depending upon whether or not they're observed. It also allows for our existence in a Multiverse -- with many many multiple copies of Mongo, and You, and everything else, playing out all the various outcomes of all actions at all levels of existence.
It also means that in some of these alternate universes, the nazis and Japanese won the Second World War; that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was not defused by backdoor diplomacy and ended in thermonuclear war; or that Mary Sue actually did let you Get Lucky on Prom Night, instead of telling you that you should take her home.
Somewhere in all this is the belief that the physical world can be manipulated for the benefit of those able to do so, based upon practices and doctrines thousands of years old and passed down through a variety of traditions, nearly all of them secret.
If you accept this view, Alchemy may be metaphorical and the perception of the observable universe on a seven-minute DMT trip may be closer to the true structure of the Multiverse. Daniel Pinchbeck may know that better than I do (but as a Dog, I tend to get around, so maybe).
Floating on the surface of this interpretation of the universe are public traditions; storefronts, if you like -- portals to finding an answer to the Big Questions: Buddhism, traditional and non-traditional christanity; Islam; Gurdjieff-Ospenskyism; Talmudic study and Kaballah; Yoga and Zen.
Fire Bad; Repeat: Fire Bad
Stupid Is Not Covered By Your Health Plan
Then, there are the real storefronts of mysticism -- est; Scientology; Course Of Miracles; The Secret; Think And Grow Rich. The people who run some public storefronts are often greedy but harmless (though some have very dark, toxic motivations). They have a strong, personal belief that the Universe is as they perceive it; this perception works for them, and they want to share it, generally for a price.
This is where I have difficulty with some philosophic or esoteric traditions, and in particular the Pay-For-Play types: Things which are not manifest in the observable world -- that is, something seen and consistently verified -- are more difficult to claim as being "true". They may be, for the person who experiences them, but not for everyone, and not in the Big World with the sex and elephants and Spam™ and Lard Boy's hefty abdominal fat, which is the place most of us live.
So, this weekend, a number of people discovered, as Young Frankenstein did -- a simple truth: Fire Bad!! In walking (oh, come on; you run) across hot coals at a Tony Robbins motivational seminar here in the Bay Area, "Unleash The Power Within", 21 people suffered burns.
It's a Big-Tent world, and as a Dog, I've seen all kinds of stuff. Good or bad, almost anything can happen.
I'm willing to admit to the possibility of changing the immediate physical reality around you through the power of belief -- but more often, it's of the Fat Karl Rove, "We create new realities for you liberals to ponder" variety of belief; an "I have The math", two-plus-two equals 271 kind of belief, which ultimately leads to a constricting hubris, a third chin, and the inability to walk for a week or more.
Fat And Stupid (In A Philosophic Sense) Is No Way To
Spend A Life, No Matter How Rich You Think You Are
I don't know what the universe is. I do know this much: It's a pleasant Summer's day out; I'm hungry, have nothing in my Dog Bowl at the moment, and am going out under the blue sky to see what I can see. And while that may not provide an answer to the Big Questions, or uncover a massive conspiracy to keep the bulk of humanity in a state of ignorance about the true nature of Things, it'll have to do. Plus, I'll still be able to walk at the end of it.
Screenshot: New York Times, July 21, 2012; Certain
Advertising Elements Have Been Altered Just Because.
(Click On Image To Enlarge! It's Easy And Fun!)
I admit not knowing any answers to The Big Questions: What the universe is, how it works; its origins or its purpose; and what our reason for existence -- as a species, and personally -- may be in that universe, if any.
I do assume that it had to come from somewhere, and have a structure 'midst the maelstrom of physical and chemical chaos that even the most casual observations of our immediate environment will show.
Essentially, the universe is like a rerun of Three's Company, with pants, gigantic waterfalls, bats, toilet paper, sex, jets and elephants, and Mitt Romney (I don't know about you, but I'm happy with the bats and waterfalls and elephants, and throw up in a bucket when I see Mitzy. I am deeply grateful for the sex. Also toilet paper). However, I don't claim to have any answer as to where whatever-all-this-is came from, where it's going, what its structure is, how it operates or whether 'it' even notices we're here.
No matter how much I yearn to know the answers to The Big Questions, I have an instinctive distrust of anyone who claims to know what they are. My personal bar for the burden of proof on that is astoundingly high.
For Some Questions, The Bar Is Low: Local Phenomenon
(Click On Image To Enlarge! It's Easy And Fun!)
For example: You've got your Macro level of the universe, where certain observable phenomena (chemical reactions; Newton's laws of motion; Lard Boy's steady weight gain) can be tracked. This is the big-stuff world where we live, the E-Ticket ride of trips to the beach, bad teevee, rude people on public transportation, paychecks, and Spam™.
But wait! On the really micro, Sub-Atomic level, a whole 'nother kind of physics applies -- where particles (smaller stuff, that makes up the big stuff) can be in two places at once, move forward or back in time, or change their characteristics depending upon whether or not they're observed. It also allows for our existence in a Multiverse -- with many many multiple copies of Mongo, and You, and everything else, playing out all the various outcomes of all actions at all levels of existence.
It also means that in some of these alternate universes, the nazis and Japanese won the Second World War; that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was not defused by backdoor diplomacy and ended in thermonuclear war; or that Mary Sue actually did let you Get Lucky on Prom Night, instead of telling you that you should take her home.
Somewhere in all this is the belief that the physical world can be manipulated for the benefit of those able to do so, based upon practices and doctrines thousands of years old and passed down through a variety of traditions, nearly all of them secret.
If you accept this view, Alchemy may be metaphorical and the perception of the observable universe on a seven-minute DMT trip may be closer to the true structure of the Multiverse. Daniel Pinchbeck may know that better than I do (but as a Dog, I tend to get around, so maybe).
Floating on the surface of this interpretation of the universe are public traditions; storefronts, if you like -- portals to finding an answer to the Big Questions: Buddhism, traditional and non-traditional christanity; Islam; Gurdjieff-Ospenskyism; Talmudic study and Kaballah; Yoga and Zen.
Fire Bad; Repeat: Fire Bad
Stupid Is Not Covered By Your Health Plan
Then, there are the real storefronts of mysticism -- est; Scientology; Course Of Miracles; The Secret; Think And Grow Rich. The people who run some public storefronts are often greedy but harmless (though some have very dark, toxic motivations). They have a strong, personal belief that the Universe is as they perceive it; this perception works for them, and they want to share it, generally for a price.
This is where I have difficulty with some philosophic or esoteric traditions, and in particular the Pay-For-Play types: Things which are not manifest in the observable world -- that is, something seen and consistently verified -- are more difficult to claim as being "true". They may be, for the person who experiences them, but not for everyone, and not in the Big World with the sex and elephants and Spam™ and Lard Boy's hefty abdominal fat, which is the place most of us live.
So, this weekend, a number of people discovered, as Young Frankenstein did -- a simple truth: Fire Bad!! In walking (oh, come on; you run) across hot coals at a Tony Robbins motivational seminar here in the Bay Area, "Unleash The Power Within", 21 people suffered burns.
It's a Big-Tent world, and as a Dog, I've seen all kinds of stuff. Good or bad, almost anything can happen.
I'm willing to admit to the possibility of changing the immediate physical reality around you through the power of belief -- but more often, it's of the Fat Karl Rove, "We create new realities for you liberals to ponder" variety of belief; an "I have The math", two-plus-two equals 271 kind of belief, which ultimately leads to a constricting hubris, a third chin, and the inability to walk for a week or more.
Fat And Stupid (In A Philosophic Sense) Is No Way To
Spend A Life, No Matter How Rich You Think You Are
I don't know what the universe is. I do know this much: It's a pleasant Summer's day out; I'm hungry, have nothing in my Dog Bowl at the moment, and am going out under the blue sky to see what I can see. And while that may not provide an answer to the Big Questions, or uncover a massive conspiracy to keep the bulk of humanity in a state of ignorance about the true nature of Things, it'll have to do. Plus, I'll still be able to walk at the end of it.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
The Return Of Crazy Lady
Somewhere, Joe McCarthy Is Drunk And Smiling
In A Different Job Life, A Conversation With Crazy Lady
Would Begin With I Need You To Step Out Of Your Vehicle
And Move Directly To A Field Sobriety Test
After running a campaign
To the extent that Crazy Lady can focus on anything, since returning to her anti-environment bunker in a remote deforested area of her consciousness, Grand Turtlebear Bachmann has focused on the Islamic threat -- and recently contacted federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, asking for an investigation of infiltration of the U.S. government by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Bachmann’s accusation came in a handful of letters to intelligence and national security agencies raising questions about the Muslim Brotherhood. The letters [were] also signed by four other Republicans...The other four
Most prominently, Bachmann focused on an accusation that Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was influenced by the Brotherhood. Abedin, she said, had three family members (her deceased father, her mother, and her brother) "connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations." Abedin's position with Clinton's staff "affords her routine access to the secretary [sic] and policy-making."
She also cast similar aspersions on a Democratic colleague in the House, Keith Ellison, who is Muslim. Ellison wrote to Little Michele on July 12th and asked for details supporting her allegations, and Crazy Lady responded almost immediately -- in fact, her response came the next day.
Beginning, "Dear Representative Ellison" it went on for 16 pages and 59 footnotes. Nowhere did it mention her suspicions about Ellison's alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood...One can imagine Crazy Lady sitting up all night to type that 16-pager, thinking I'm speaking for white America and for Jesus; praise god, yes I am...
In her... letter to Ellison, Bachmann cited as evidence reports in Arab-language media, including Al-Jazeera. She also cited a 2002 law review article that referenced Abedin's father, who died two decades ago, as a founder of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs in Saudi Arabia. That group allegedly had "quiet" but unspecified support of the then-general secretary of the Muslim World League, a group with "a longtime history of being closely aligned" with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Her letter closed politely by thanking Ellison and offering to "revisit" the issue once she got the answers to all her questions. "It is my intention to wait for the investigations to be completed to comment further," Bachmann wrote.
Grand Turtlebear Bachmann Channeling Norma Desmond
(Photo: MNProgressive Project)
Almost a week later on July 19th, she appeared on the radio show of Little Glenn Beck, four years old, and repeated her accusations. She also took pains to share with Glenny that Congressman Ellison had "a long record of being associated with CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] and with the Muslim Brotherhood."
"All we're doing is asking questions," Crazy Lady told Glenny -- a nod, I suppose, to Beck's similar, signature line (After delivering an incendiary tirade of accusations against 'The Left', Beck has asked if what he's just said is true, adding, "I don't know; I'm just asking the question").
The leadership of her own Rethug party responded as if she were a leper out of the Dark ages, wandering into their little Potomac village wrapped in rags with a bell hung around her neck, and ran as far away from Crazy Lady as they could. It's an election year.
Though the Republicans are the party of gutter-crawling Poll Tax racism and violent intolerance, its leaders in Congress had to be seen publicly repudiating Grand Turtlebear Bachmann. Senator John McCain (who already had his own experience with the deranged Moose Lady) appeared on the floor of the Senate and all but declared Little Michele a public Loon.
"When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation," McCain said...
Behind the scenes, [Congressional Rethug] leadership aides said they were shaken by the comments from someone as prominent as Bachmann.
Senator Guy Says Grand Turtlebear Should Only Say Specious
And Degrading Things About Obama
A 'prominent' Republican claims, in the spirit of long-dead-and-thank-god Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy, that our government is riddled with
In a season when the GOP's sorry excuse for a presidential candidate is an überrich empty suit with an expensive haircut, Crazy Lady is a reminder that the GOP is the party of Batshit Crazy. She's an unwelcome spectacle -- like a deranged aunt (whom they keep locked upstairs when company comes visiting) suddenly bounding into the living room, demanding that god purify the world of sin and cheese, while she urinates on the carpet.
In response to the avalanche of criticism about her remarks, Grand Turtlebear Bachmann said only that her letters were being "distorted" by the media.
I'd like to say this is an election year, and so, the 'Silly Season'... but Crazy Lady's pathetic attempt to grab the spotlight for another few minutes by pandering to hate and fear (so typical for persons like her), trying to divide Americans instead of finding ways to unify us around something other than consumerism... is frightening, despicable, and wrong.
MEHR: An earlier version of this article noted that also, too, Grand Turtlebear Bachmann had accused the wife of former Representative Anthony Wiener of New York as being influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.
What I was too stupid to know at the time is, Huma Abedin, Secretary of State Clinton's deputy chief of staff, is Anthony Wiener's wife.
Police and federal officials have placed security around ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, after a New Jersey man threatened her, law-enforcement sources said.But, the Grand Turtlebear can't be bothered with such little details. She has a country to save!
An individual, described as a Muslim man, made the unspecified threat after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last week claimed Abedin’s family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and asked for a probe to see if she is helping the Islamist organization.
The man was questioned by the NYPD and the State Department and has not been charged, sources said.
People like Crazy Lady are never held accountable for what they set in motion. Never.
Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein: Frank Bruni in the New York Times Opinion section, reminds us of the wonders of The Grand Turtlebear:
What I find most fascinating about Michele Bachmann — and there are many, many more where she came from — is that she presents herself as a godly woman, humbly devoted to her Christian faith...
Does [Bachmann's faith] call for smearing people on the basis of flimsy conspiracy theories? That’s what Bachmann just did to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by essentially suggesting she might be a mole for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Does it endorse scaring young women away from immunizations that could spare them serious illness? Bachmann did that during her memorable presidential campaign, when she blithely drew an unsubstantiated link between a vaccine for the human papillomavirus and mental retardation.
Does it encourage gratuitously divisive condemnations of Barack Obama as “anti-American”...? And does it compel a war against homosexuality waged with the language and illogic she uses?
She has said that gay men and lesbians are dysfunctional products of abuse and agents of “sexual anarchy”... when the singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge was battling breast cancer years ago, Bachmann helpfully chimed in:“This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”
Bachmann’s concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that?
...Most of us distinguish, rightly, between Muslim extremists and other followers of Islam. Perhaps we should start noting the difference between Christians of real compassion and those of exclusionary spite.
Bachmann’s on to something: dangerous fundamentalists have indeed set up camp deep inside the capital. She can find one in her office. She need only look in the mirror.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Distant Drummer
You Might Want To Pay Attention
Over the previous several months, two separate meetings between representatives of the current Iranian government and UN officials over the status of their nuclear 'energy' program came to nothing. The Iranians continued to play Lucy, and the UN the part of Charlie Brown, in a game of pull-away-the-football-at-the-last-moment. They've perfected this delaying tactic, over this specific issue, for nearly a decade.
I've mentioned before a cascade of events that have occurred since President Obama took office in January of 2009: Discovery of a secret uranium enrichment facility, which the Iranians tried to hide from the UN; the Stuxnet virus attack; assassinations of Iranian physicists; even a possible commando raid on an Iranian military site.
Iran's intransigence bought them a new round of economic sanctions, which went into effect on July 1st. The Iranian government is already being pressured by previous sanctions, but this latest round included a ban on banking or funds transfers related to the sale of oil, a state enterprise that costs the Iranians millions.
In the week before the fourth of July, a friend who tracks these things mentioned to me that every single aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy which had been in port suddenly put to sea; I haven't been able to confirm that.
On July 3, the New York Times reported that our Navy had "increased its presence" in the Straits of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world's oil is transported. The Iranians made bellicose statements in response -- that they would turn the Persian Gulf into a graveyard for American ships, etc., etc.
The Israelis have said they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran to their north. The Iranian president, Little Mahmood, five years old, said again a few weeks ago that if Iran were attacked that Israel would be "wiped off the map" -- this, with a rising Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government in Egypt, right next door.
Then, in case it escaped your attention, Iran's proxy in the Arab world, Hezbollah, carried out a suicide bombing in Bulgaria, targeting busloads of Israeli tourists. Both Israeli and U.S. officials name Hezbollah, specifically, as responsible. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was the work of “Hezbollah, the long arm of Iran,” and promised there would be a response.
Intelligence analysis doesn't take place in a vacuum; information and assumptions are often shared, even down to the level of a large metropolitan police department. It's probable that the NYPD report reflects the consensus of a broader intelligence community -- including the CIA -- this is the way the wind's blowing, fellas.
Earlier this week, a fishing boat apparently approached an American support vessel operating in international waters in the Straits of Hormuz; its captain did not heed calls to turn away, and the U.S. ship opened fire. The incident was apparently an accident; an Indian fisherman was killed.
Tensions over possible attacks on U.S. Navy ships by small, high-speed boats -- which the Iranians have in force in the Straits -- are high. And so is the possibility that another, similar incident could trigger a response on either side out of proportion to a given situation.
I'd like to point out that yesterday, July 19, was the Dark Of The Moon -- tonight, the first sliver of a New Moon appears, ramping up through waxing phases to the next Full Moon. The next Dark Of The Moon will not occur until August 17th.
I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a neighborhood where the occupants of others houses tell you to your face that they want to blow up your house with rocket-launched, tactical nuclear weapons and turn your wives and daughters out to Turkish bikers. I'm not in favor of war, or violence; but given everything, I think the Israelis have a point. If they attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, just to buy another few years of security, I'd understand completely.
Meanwhile, are all these relatively low-key news reports proof that the U.S. and other Western nations are just staking out their positions, backing them up with military force? Or is something else about to happen in the aftermath of the tragedy in Bulgaria -- an indication that we keep hearing A.E. Houseman's Distant Drummer for a reason?
Over the previous several months, two separate meetings between representatives of the current Iranian government and UN officials over the status of their nuclear 'energy' program came to nothing. The Iranians continued to play Lucy, and the UN the part of Charlie Brown, in a game of pull-away-the-football-at-the-last-moment. They've perfected this delaying tactic, over this specific issue, for nearly a decade.
I've mentioned before a cascade of events that have occurred since President Obama took office in January of 2009: Discovery of a secret uranium enrichment facility, which the Iranians tried to hide from the UN; the Stuxnet virus attack; assassinations of Iranian physicists; even a possible commando raid on an Iranian military site.
Iran's intransigence bought them a new round of economic sanctions, which went into effect on July 1st. The Iranian government is already being pressured by previous sanctions, but this latest round included a ban on banking or funds transfers related to the sale of oil, a state enterprise that costs the Iranians millions.
In the week before the fourth of July, a friend who tracks these things mentioned to me that every single aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy which had been in port suddenly put to sea; I haven't been able to confirm that.
On July 3, the New York Times reported that our Navy had "increased its presence" in the Straits of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world's oil is transported. The Iranians made bellicose statements in response -- that they would turn the Persian Gulf into a graveyard for American ships, etc., etc.
The Israelis have said they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran to their north. The Iranian president, Little Mahmood, five years old, said again a few weeks ago that if Iran were attacked that Israel would be "wiped off the map" -- this, with a rising Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government in Egypt, right next door.
Then, in case it escaped your attention, Iran's proxy in the Arab world, Hezbollah, carried out a suicide bombing in Bulgaria, targeting busloads of Israeli tourists. Both Israeli and U.S. officials name Hezbollah, specifically, as responsible. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was the work of “Hezbollah, the long arm of Iran,” and promised there would be a response.
The attacks, the [U.S.] official said, were in retaliation for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, for which Iran has blamed Israeli agents ... “This was tit for tat,” said the American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.Today, an article appeared in Bloomberg News online ("New York police link nine 2012 plots to Iran, proxies") state that reports prepared by "intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department... say three [terrorist] plots were foiled" in January of this year, three in February and three more since the end of June and the newest round of sanctions.
The bombing comes amid heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but Israel and the West say is a cover for developing weapons...
A senior Israeli official said on Thursday that the Burgas attack was part of an intensive wave of terrorist attacks around the world carried out by two different organizations, the Iranian Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as by Hezbollah.
The reports detail two plots in Bangkok and one each in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Baku, Mombasa and Cyprus. Each plot was attributed to Iran or its Lebanese Hezbollah militant allies, said the reports, which were produced following the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria of a bus carrying Israeli tourists.The reports were issued in the aftermath of the attack on the tourists in Bulgaria, and tie together a string of terrorist actions or incidents since the beginning of the year -- which the NYPD analysts indicate are ultimately the responsibility of Iran.
Iran on Thursday dismissed "unfounded statements" by Israel linking Tehran to the Burgas blast, saying they were politically motivated accusations...
Intelligence analysis doesn't take place in a vacuum; information and assumptions are often shared, even down to the level of a large metropolitan police department. It's probable that the NYPD report reflects the consensus of a broader intelligence community -- including the CIA -- this is the way the wind's blowing, fellas.
Earlier this week, a fishing boat apparently approached an American support vessel operating in international waters in the Straits of Hormuz; its captain did not heed calls to turn away, and the U.S. ship opened fire. The incident was apparently an accident; an Indian fisherman was killed.
Tensions over possible attacks on U.S. Navy ships by small, high-speed boats -- which the Iranians have in force in the Straits -- are high. And so is the possibility that another, similar incident could trigger a response on either side out of proportion to a given situation.
I'd like to point out that yesterday, July 19, was the Dark Of The Moon -- tonight, the first sliver of a New Moon appears, ramping up through waxing phases to the next Full Moon. The next Dark Of The Moon will not occur until August 17th.
I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a neighborhood where the occupants of others houses tell you to your face that they want to blow up your house with rocket-launched, tactical nuclear weapons and turn your wives and daughters out to Turkish bikers. I'm not in favor of war, or violence; but given everything, I think the Israelis have a point. If they attacked Iran's nuclear facilities, just to buy another few years of security, I'd understand completely.
Meanwhile, are all these relatively low-key news reports proof that the U.S. and other Western nations are just staking out their positions, backing them up with military force? Or is something else about to happen in the aftermath of the tragedy in Bulgaria -- an indication that we keep hearing A.E. Houseman's Distant Drummer for a reason?
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Campaign 2012
Just Sayin'
MALONE: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital; you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Reprint Heaven: Oh; So That's What They Call That
(This, from January Of 2010. Hard to believe what's happened in the two and a half years since, isn't it?)
In order to make decisions, human beings need information -- as clear, reliable, and precise as we can get; in other words, the Truth. Without it, complex decisions involving a consensus, or even something as simple as meeting someone for a movie, is almost impossible.
Nearly a year ago (on the day of Barack Obama's Inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, in fact), Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine posted an article about the work of Robert Proctor, a Historian of Science at Stanford University.
Cover Of Wired, January, 2009 (Photo: Wired Magazine)
Proctor has said that, ordinarily, the more information we have about a subject, the clearer it becomes. However, when contentious subjects are involved, our usual relationship to information is reversed -- ignorance increases.
Daily, second by second, we take in millions of bits of information about the world around us. Matrix-like, that shifting curtain of input shapes our sense of consciousness about that world -- and while most of it has to do with events happening to us, personally, what we listen to, see and read through culturally-designated sources for information is also part of that input.
United Press' Newsroom, In New York City, 1960's (Photo: UPI)
The job of a news reporter, on network television or in the pages of newspaper, was once to determine facts -- Who, What, Where, When, and Why; the Truth -- about events, and no matter where the chips fell, to accurately inform viewers and readers. Even the opportunistic, abrasive, nosy reporter (a character in our culture from plays and movies like The Front Page in the 30's, to All The President's Men in the 70's) was driven by a search for those facts, and the truth.
News and issues reported in the mainstream media, years ago, were certainly being spun on occasion by special interests, or the government. But those were exceptional interventions rather than the rule -- America's Media consisted of journalists who considered themselves professionals, and their level of success in their work was based on their accuracy. Their tradition really did believe in reporting fact, not cant. And (with some exceptions; Hearst's and McCormick's newspapers in the 30's are a good example), so did their editors.
Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and Redford as Bob Woodward In
All The President's Men (1976): For A Little Longer, American
Journalism's Primary Role Would Be Accurate, Reliable News
Whether we picked it up on the radio, in the New York Times or on the 'The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite', information our Press provided to us and the rest of the 'Free' world was trusted as accurate and uncensored. We believed, as the journalists did, that the Media had an obligation to report the truth, independent of the government, the interests of a specific class on Left or Right, or the interests of business. These were American traditions; so we were told.
But the "news industry", and journalists, in the 21st Century aren't like that now, and haven't been for at least twenty years. The three major networks, ABC (owned by Disney), CBS (owned by Westinghouse), and NBC / MSNBC (about to be bought by Comcast from General Electric); cable news channels like CNN (excepting Fox, which is an unabashed propaganda channel); even PBS, through The News Hour -- and even with various Net sites and Blogs, teevee is now the primary venue for disseminating what passes for news in the United States.
Shields And Brooks On PBS' News Hour With Jim Lehrer:
Two Points Of View, And Both Are Just As Accurate...
In 2010, we believe the immediacy of an image in the same way that people once listened to and trusted what they heard on radio. Our belief in the accuracy of what we watch on television is a basic assumption that our Media wouldn't lie to us -- Christ; this is America, not some Banana Republic!
News and information are now commodities; just points of view, packaged and presented using the same tools 'n tricks of network episodic television. It's fast food, not a meal -- like Cafe Mocchas, or 'flame-broiled' hamburgers. News is less and less about any commitment to accuracy and real impartiality.
Fox: No News, Please; Just Insults And Screaming
(If, Instead Of O'Reilly's Usual Behavior With Guests,
["Shut Up! Shut Up! Shut Up!], He'd Ask Barney Frank
Why His House Banking Committee's Position On Regulation Has
Favored The Banksters At Our Expense, I Might Watch Him)
The format in providing information about the "contentious issues" Proctor mentions is always the same -- two or more advocates for sides of an issue answer questions put to them by a journalist, who isn't there to uncover basic truths about the issue; they're only a moderator. When solid facts are presented by any side, they're treated as points of contention rather than the truth, and lost in the adversarial nature of the process.
Viewers are left to decide who "won" what amounts to a debate between the Talking Heads. We're left feeling that no one is right; no one is wrong; gosh, reality is just a point of view, isn't it? Small wonder many people watching might fall back on emotional, rather than reasoning, responses to an issue (unless people are watching Fox, whose programming is slanted to evoke such emotional, and one-sided, responses).
Whatever either side claims is given equal weight in this format. If one advocate spouts an obvious lie, the journalist's job isn't to point that out, or emphasize the facts to show they're wrong. They simply nod, and toss softball questions so that "all sides of the topic is covered for viewers" (PBS' News Hour is famous for this kind of pap). And, the 'news' program can't be accused of biased reporting by either side, can they?
The 1984 Film Version Of Orwell's Book, 1984: Don't Expect This
Soon; But Radicals Always Seize Radio And Teevee Stations, First
We may not know the exact nature of the World we find ourselves in; there is more in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in all your philosophies, Horatio. But, misdirection and manipulation of news information is a common feature of the dictatorships and Failed States, and Banana Republics of the world -- so we've been told -- and not part of life in These United States.
So we've been told.
In order to make decisions, human beings need information -- as clear, reliable, and precise as we can get; in other words, the Truth. Without it, complex decisions involving a consensus, or even something as simple as meeting someone for a movie, is almost impossible.
Nearly a year ago (on the day of Barack Obama's Inauguration as the 44th President of the United States, in fact), Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine posted an article about the work of Robert Proctor, a Historian of Science at Stanford University.
Cover Of Wired, January, 2009 (Photo: Wired Magazine)
Proctor has said that, ordinarily, the more information we have about a subject, the clearer it becomes. However, when contentious subjects are involved, our usual relationship to information is reversed -- ignorance increases.
As Proctor argues [notes Thompson], when society doesn’t know something, it’s often because special interests work hard to create confusion. Anti-Obama groups likely spent millions insisting he’s a Muslim; church groups have shelled out even more pushing creationism. The oil and auto industries carefully seed doubt about the causes of global warming. And when the dust settles, society knows less than it did before.Proctor has also coined a term to describe this condition -- Agnotology: Culturally constructed ignorance, purposefully created by special interest groups working hard to create confusion and suppress the truth. Proctor coined it from the Greek, agnōsis, "not knowing"; the condition where more knowledge of a subject leaves one more uncertain than before.
“People always assume that if someone doesn’t know something, it’s because they haven’t paid attention or haven’t yet figured it out,” Proctor says. “But ignorance also comes from people literally suppressing truth—or drowning it out—or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what’s true and what’s not.” (emphasis added)
Daily, second by second, we take in millions of bits of information about the world around us. Matrix-like, that shifting curtain of input shapes our sense of consciousness about that world -- and while most of it has to do with events happening to us, personally, what we listen to, see and read through culturally-designated sources for information is also part of that input.
United Press' Newsroom, In New York City, 1960's (Photo: UPI)
The job of a news reporter, on network television or in the pages of newspaper, was once to determine facts -- Who, What, Where, When, and Why; the Truth -- about events, and no matter where the chips fell, to accurately inform viewers and readers. Even the opportunistic, abrasive, nosy reporter (a character in our culture from plays and movies like The Front Page in the 30's, to All The President's Men in the 70's) was driven by a search for those facts, and the truth.
News and issues reported in the mainstream media, years ago, were certainly being spun on occasion by special interests, or the government. But those were exceptional interventions rather than the rule -- America's Media consisted of journalists who considered themselves professionals, and their level of success in their work was based on their accuracy. Their tradition really did believe in reporting fact, not cant. And (with some exceptions; Hearst's and McCormick's newspapers in the 30's are a good example), so did their editors.
Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and Redford as Bob Woodward In
All The President's Men (1976): For A Little Longer, American
Journalism's Primary Role Would Be Accurate, Reliable News
Whether we picked it up on the radio, in the New York Times or on the 'The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite', information our Press provided to us and the rest of the 'Free' world was trusted as accurate and uncensored. We believed, as the journalists did, that the Media had an obligation to report the truth, independent of the government, the interests of a specific class on Left or Right, or the interests of business. These were American traditions; so we were told.
But the "news industry", and journalists, in the 21st Century aren't like that now, and haven't been for at least twenty years. The three major networks, ABC (owned by Disney), CBS (owned by Westinghouse), and NBC / MSNBC (about to be bought by Comcast from General Electric); cable news channels like CNN (excepting Fox, which is an unabashed propaganda channel); even PBS, through The News Hour -- and even with various Net sites and Blogs, teevee is now the primary venue for disseminating what passes for news in the United States.
Shields And Brooks On PBS' News Hour With Jim Lehrer:
Two Points Of View, And Both Are Just As Accurate...
In 2010, we believe the immediacy of an image in the same way that people once listened to and trusted what they heard on radio. Our belief in the accuracy of what we watch on television is a basic assumption that our Media wouldn't lie to us -- Christ; this is America, not some Banana Republic!
News and information are now commodities; just points of view, packaged and presented using the same tools 'n tricks of network episodic television. It's fast food, not a meal -- like Cafe Mocchas, or 'flame-broiled' hamburgers. News is less and less about any commitment to accuracy and real impartiality.
Fox: No News, Please; Just Insults And Screaming
(If, Instead Of O'Reilly's Usual Behavior With Guests,
["Shut Up! Shut Up! Shut Up!], He'd Ask Barney Frank
Why His House Banking Committee's Position On Regulation Has
Favored The Banksters At Our Expense, I Might Watch Him)
The format in providing information about the "contentious issues" Proctor mentions is always the same -- two or more advocates for sides of an issue answer questions put to them by a journalist, who isn't there to uncover basic truths about the issue; they're only a moderator. When solid facts are presented by any side, they're treated as points of contention rather than the truth, and lost in the adversarial nature of the process.
Viewers are left to decide who "won" what amounts to a debate between the Talking Heads. We're left feeling that no one is right; no one is wrong; gosh, reality is just a point of view, isn't it? Small wonder many people watching might fall back on emotional, rather than reasoning, responses to an issue (unless people are watching Fox, whose programming is slanted to evoke such emotional, and one-sided, responses).
Whatever either side claims is given equal weight in this format. If one advocate spouts an obvious lie, the journalist's job isn't to point that out, or emphasize the facts to show they're wrong. They simply nod, and toss softball questions so that "all sides of the topic is covered for viewers" (PBS' News Hour is famous for this kind of pap). And, the 'news' program can't be accused of biased reporting by either side, can they?
The 1984 Film Version Of Orwell's Book, 1984: Don't Expect This
Soon; But Radicals Always Seize Radio And Teevee Stations, First
We may not know the exact nature of the World we find ourselves in; there is more in heaven and earth that are dreamt of in all your philosophies, Horatio. But, misdirection and manipulation of news information is a common feature of the dictatorships and Failed States, and Banana Republics of the world -- so we've been told -- and not part of life in These United States.
So we've been told.
Aber Natürlich
It Is Exactly What You Thought It Was
On February 16th of this year, Ari Berman published an article at Alternet, "How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election". It described with enough detail what the state of American politics is, and who it is that Romney and the Rethugs represent in this election -- and Berman wrote it before Romney was the chosen, empty-suit, expensive-haircut Rethug front-runner.
(Also, Too, see Lawrence Lessig, "Big Campaign Spending: Government By The 1%", The Atlantic Monthly Online, July 10, 2012.
The facts behind Berman's article should be enough to make everyone in the United States think soberly about whether we are as "free", whether America is an "open and democratic" Republic, as we tout to the rest of the world. Whether the structure and assumptions our culture rests upon are just a carnival barker's come-on.
Today, Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture has his own commentary, "Defective Government By Design"; I'm quoting a portion of it with the links he included intact:
I don't know who will win in November. But I do know that Romney is treating this election in the same manner he ran Bain Capital, and the United States Of America is just another acquisition.
He'll buy it with money from his principally unknown and invisible investors, and offshore this part, sell that; finally, when there's nothing left to bust or break or sell, he'll walk away.
That's what the 196 people who are buying him, and the election, are paying for.
On February 16th of this year, Ari Berman published an article at Alternet, "How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election". It described with enough detail what the state of American politics is, and who it is that Romney and the Rethugs represent in this election -- and Berman wrote it before Romney was the chosen, empty-suit, expensive-haircut Rethug front-runner.
(Also, Too, see Lawrence Lessig, "Big Campaign Spending: Government By The 1%", The Atlantic Monthly Online, July 10, 2012.
Here's what we must come to see: America has lost the capacity to govern. On a wide range of critical issues -- from global warming to tax reform, from effective financial regulation to real health-care change, from the deficit to defense spending -- we have lost the capacity to do anything other than suffer through a miserable status quo. If there is a ship of state, its rudder has been lost. We are drifting. We can't change course. And eventually, and with absolute certainty, in waters such as these, a drifting ship will sink.The best 'Democracy' money can buy. Not that there was ever any doubt, really; it's only more so, now. The rich are willing to make themselves visible, allow the Peasantry to see their tiny little red eyes and long tails, their viciousness and ruthless arrogance, as they line up to shove money at Mitzy. They've become visible as a warning -- We run this circus; don't get in our way -- and then, they'll disappear again.
The cause of this drift is clear, and it is not "polarization." Polarization -- of the political class at least -- is real. In Congress, it is worse than at any time since the Civil War...
... because of the way we fund the campaigns that determine our elections, we give the tiniest fraction of America the power to veto any meaningful policy change... the tiniest fraction of the one percent have the effective power to block reform desired by the 99-plus percent.
Yet by "the tiniest fraction of the one percent" I don't necessarily mean the rich. I mean instead the fraction of Americans who are willing to spend their money to influence congressional campaigns for their own interest.)
The facts behind Berman's article should be enough to make everyone in the United States think soberly about whether we are as "free", whether America is an "open and democratic" Republic, as we tout to the rest of the world. Whether the structure and assumptions our culture rests upon are just a carnival barker's come-on.
Today, Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture has his own commentary, "Defective Government By Design"; I'm quoting a portion of it with the links he included intact:
We live in an era of defective government.There's more, and you can read it. You can get angry -- get as angry as you like, but it won't matter a damn, because in the system as we know it, Money Talks.
This corruption is not an accident. It is the product of years of very patient work. It has been brought about through expensive lobbying, relentless propaganda, agnotology. You can see it in this election cycle, where 196 Americans — 0.000063% of the population — have given more than 80% of Super PAC dollars.
Is it democracy or plutocracy when less than 200 people drive election spending in a nation of 300 million?
Previously, we have pointed out how brazen the lobbying has been to actually cut the SEC enforcement budget. This has created an agency that is defective by design. Take a guess who loses in the battle between you, the individual taxpayer versus the corporation.
Wall Street has taken advantage of the crisis and morphed into a cartel. The tragedy is the only entity that is large and powerful enough to offset their wealth and power are national governments. Yet where ever we look, we see that government has been corrupted and rendered neutered by corporations...
I don't know who will win in November. But I do know that Romney is treating this election in the same manner he ran Bain Capital, and the United States Of America is just another acquisition.
He'll buy it with money from his principally unknown and invisible investors, and offshore this part, sell that; finally, when there's nothing left to bust or break or sell, he'll walk away.
That's what the 196 people who are buying him, and the election, are paying for.
Friday, July 13, 2012
I Dunno; Whadda You Wanna Do Tonight?
Ernest Borgnine (1917 - 2012)
The Legendary Drew and Josh Alan Friedman's Any Resemblance
To Persons Living Or Dead, 1986 (Fantagraphics)
Ernest Borgnine, born Ermes Effron Borgnino, passed away earlier this week. In case no one noticed.
It would have been different if Borgnine believed himself to be a towering talent, his career frustrated by lesser mortals (god knows there are plenty of card-carrying SAG and AFTRA members today who think that's true for them) -- but Borgnine was more realistic than that, about himself and his career.
Borgnine with a copy of Josh Alan Friedman's 2011
Autobiographical "Black Cracker" (Borgnine)
It's not easy to play a heavy; ask the actors who've made a living doing it. But in the Best Picture Oscar-winner for 1953, From Here To Eternity, Borgnine made Master Sargent "Fatso" Judson, the brutal stockade NCO (he beats Frank Sinatra to death in the third reel) into a believable figure -- the sort of man you hope you never find yourself at the mercy of.
And he made you suspend your disbelief enough that when he loses that knife fight in a Honolulu alley to Montgomery Cliff, you watch the narrow, sadistic character Borgnine created roll over, and lie still, and find yourself thinking Good; that asshole had it coming.
Judson Brandishes His Knife: Borgnine's First Career Move
In Fred Zinneman's From Here To Eternity (1953);
George Reeves Of Teevee 'Superman' Fame In Background
He followed Eternity up by playing in the sword-and-sandals 1954 costume drama, "Demetrius and The Gladiators", but his portrayal of Judson led director John Sturgis to cast Borgnine as another supporting heavy in the 1955 Bad Day At Black Rock. His Coley Trimble is another sadistic bully, one of three men in a tiny desert town who murdered a local Japanese man after Pearl Harbor -- but unlike Fatso Judson, this character is deeply disturbed, barely held together by bad dreams and manic laughter.
Little More Hot Sauce For Your Coffee; Borgnine And
Spencer Tracy In Bad Day At Black Rock (1954)
In 1953, Playwright Paddy Chayefsky's television screenplay, Marty, was broadcast with a rising star, Rod Steiger (later of The Pawnbroker), in the title role as a blue-collar butcher and lonely bachelor in Yonkers, battling his own self-image and family ties to break through to happiness, and a stronger sense of himself. When casting was being done for a film version in 1955, Borgnine was chosen for the title role, and it led to his being awarded the Oscar for Best Actor in 1956.
Any actor will tell you that the Craft is also a Job, and if you're not making a paycheck it doesn't matter how talented you think you are. Borgnine worked steadily in film and television in the next fifty-six years following his only Oscar (when he died, he was the voice of Mermaid Man on Spongebob Square Pants), and it was steady work -- I remember him in Flight Of The Phoenix; The Poseidon Adventure; The Dirty Dozen; The Wild Bunch; Escape From New York, among others. As a character actor, he was a fixture.
And naturally, I remember him from McHale's Navy (1963 -1967) -- his real signature role, much as Andy Griffith (who died a few days before Borgnine) will always be known as the television sheriff of Mayberry.
My Cartoon Tribute To Borgnine (1995)
Borgnine did not have a wide range, but he was a decent actor. The proof was in his portrayals of Fatso Judson and Coley Trimble -- evil, but not completely two-dimensional characters whom we recognized -- and distinct opposites from Ernest Borgnine the man, who from all reports was kind, engaging and genuine.
Borgnine the actor persuaded us to accept the likes of Judson and Trimble. You wouldn't cast him as Thomas Moore in 'A Man For All Seasons'; you wouldn't find him in a play by Stoppard or Beckett or O'Neill, but he might have done justice to Willy Loman. He would have been a decent Coach Bob in Hotel New Hampshire, and Borgnine definitely could have played Don Ciccio, the Sicilian mafioso who kills the father of the young Don Corleone, in The Godfather, Part II.
He was a perfect choice to play Chayefsky's Marty because the character could have been Borgnine's next-door neighbor, back in the day. He knew Marty's neighborhood, because he had grown up in one almost identical to it, leaving it during WW2 as a seaman and returning to it after VJ Day. But for different life choices, Borgnine might have gone on to become a regular in that neighborhood much like Marty, and he probably knew it.
Where life did take him were places nearly everyone he grew up with in his old neighborhood had never gone and could never go; he knew he'd been lucky, and never pretended otherwise -- in the 1980's, he made a film, Borgnine On The Bus, about driving across America in a Winnebago; no matter how painful it may be to more sophisticated tastes to watch, it was Borgnine's celebration at being alive, and he gently mocked his own 'stardom' in the process.
It's easy to be cynical; believe me, I know -- but Ernie was a Mensch, and a class act.
The Legendary Drew and Josh Alan Friedman's Any Resemblance
To Persons Living Or Dead, 1986 (Fantagraphics)
Ernest Borgnine, born Ermes Effron Borgnino, passed away earlier this week. In case no one noticed.
It would have been different if Borgnine believed himself to be a towering talent, his career frustrated by lesser mortals (god knows there are plenty of card-carrying SAG and AFTRA members today who think that's true for them) -- but Borgnine was more realistic than that, about himself and his career.
Borgnine with a copy of Josh Alan Friedman's 2011
Autobiographical "Black Cracker" (Borgnine)
It's not easy to play a heavy; ask the actors who've made a living doing it. But in the Best Picture Oscar-winner for 1953, From Here To Eternity, Borgnine made Master Sargent "Fatso" Judson, the brutal stockade NCO (he beats Frank Sinatra to death in the third reel) into a believable figure -- the sort of man you hope you never find yourself at the mercy of.
And he made you suspend your disbelief enough that when he loses that knife fight in a Honolulu alley to Montgomery Cliff, you watch the narrow, sadistic character Borgnine created roll over, and lie still, and find yourself thinking Good; that asshole had it coming.
Judson Brandishes His Knife: Borgnine's First Career Move
In Fred Zinneman's From Here To Eternity (1953);
George Reeves Of Teevee 'Superman' Fame In Background
He followed Eternity up by playing in the sword-and-sandals 1954 costume drama, "Demetrius and The Gladiators", but his portrayal of Judson led director John Sturgis to cast Borgnine as another supporting heavy in the 1955 Bad Day At Black Rock. His Coley Trimble is another sadistic bully, one of three men in a tiny desert town who murdered a local Japanese man after Pearl Harbor -- but unlike Fatso Judson, this character is deeply disturbed, barely held together by bad dreams and manic laughter.
Little More Hot Sauce For Your Coffee; Borgnine And
Spencer Tracy In Bad Day At Black Rock (1954)
In 1953, Playwright Paddy Chayefsky's television screenplay, Marty, was broadcast with a rising star, Rod Steiger (later of The Pawnbroker), in the title role as a blue-collar butcher and lonely bachelor in Yonkers, battling his own self-image and family ties to break through to happiness, and a stronger sense of himself. When casting was being done for a film version in 1955, Borgnine was chosen for the title role, and it led to his being awarded the Oscar for Best Actor in 1956.
Any actor will tell you that the Craft is also a Job, and if you're not making a paycheck it doesn't matter how talented you think you are. Borgnine worked steadily in film and television in the next fifty-six years following his only Oscar (when he died, he was the voice of Mermaid Man on Spongebob Square Pants), and it was steady work -- I remember him in Flight Of The Phoenix; The Poseidon Adventure; The Dirty Dozen; The Wild Bunch; Escape From New York, among others. As a character actor, he was a fixture.
And naturally, I remember him from McHale's Navy (1963 -1967) -- his real signature role, much as Andy Griffith (who died a few days before Borgnine) will always be known as the television sheriff of Mayberry.
My Cartoon Tribute To Borgnine (1995)
Borgnine did not have a wide range, but he was a decent actor. The proof was in his portrayals of Fatso Judson and Coley Trimble -- evil, but not completely two-dimensional characters whom we recognized -- and distinct opposites from Ernest Borgnine the man, who from all reports was kind, engaging and genuine.
Borgnine the actor persuaded us to accept the likes of Judson and Trimble. You wouldn't cast him as Thomas Moore in 'A Man For All Seasons'; you wouldn't find him in a play by Stoppard or Beckett or O'Neill, but he might have done justice to Willy Loman. He would have been a decent Coach Bob in Hotel New Hampshire, and Borgnine definitely could have played Don Ciccio, the Sicilian mafioso who kills the father of the young Don Corleone, in The Godfather, Part II.
He was a perfect choice to play Chayefsky's Marty because the character could have been Borgnine's next-door neighbor, back in the day. He knew Marty's neighborhood, because he had grown up in one almost identical to it, leaving it during WW2 as a seaman and returning to it after VJ Day. But for different life choices, Borgnine might have gone on to become a regular in that neighborhood much like Marty, and he probably knew it.
Where life did take him were places nearly everyone he grew up with in his old neighborhood had never gone and could never go; he knew he'd been lucky, and never pretended otherwise -- in the 1980's, he made a film, Borgnine On The Bus, about driving across America in a Winnebago; no matter how painful it may be to more sophisticated tastes to watch, it was Borgnine's celebration at being alive, and he gently mocked his own 'stardom' in the process.
It's easy to be cynical; believe me, I know -- but Ernie was a Mensch, and a class act.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Natur
What I'm Missing
Thunderstorm Over Berlin, June 29 (Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters)
Click On Image To Expand: Einfach und Spaß!
Thunderstorm Over Berlin, June 29 (Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters)
Click On Image To Expand: Einfach und Spaß!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Elusive Higgs Boson Found, Maybe
Fifty-Year Hunt Comes To Quiet End On A Quiet Street
While you slept, a team of investigators in Switzerland announced that after nearly fifty years, they may have apprehended Higgs Boson, described as "one of the heaviest" and most elusive of figures in the universal underworld.
Higgs Boson In Custody In Geneva; The Unique Fingerprint Which
May Confirm His Identity (Photo: Interpol)
The move was carried out by Switzerland's Criminal Elimination of Robbery and Narcotics unit, or CERN, which had conducted sporadic raids at various locations world-wide for the past decade, seeking information about Boson's whereabouts.
According to CERN chief investigator Rolf-Dieter Heuer, after developing promising leads several years ago the unit had reduced Boson's possible hiding places "down to a narrow range", predominantly in Switzerland, though unconfirmed sightings of Boson had recently occurred in the United States.
Swiss Tactical Polizei Taking Boson Into Custody
(Photo: Neue Züricher Unterwäsche Tagliche Zeitung)
Acting on tips from multiple informants, CERN's investigators determined that Boson was livinging in a specific Geneva address, between numbers 100 and 135 Genvieve-Victoriastrasse. In a pre-dawn raid of the entire street, Boson was found hiding in a bathroom at number 125 Ge-Vc.
"He was sitting on the toilet, drinking coffee and reading a copy of Hello magazine," Heuer said. "He was very calm, very polite. While he would not positively admit to his identity, we're fairly certain -- this is Higgs Boson."
It was further reported that when apprehended, Boson's copy of 'Hello' magazine was open to an article on the recent appearance of talented British classical-pop crossover singer Katherine Jenkins at the recent Epsom Downs Derby Day celebrations.
Alleged Photo Of Boson, 1980; British Mezzo-Soprano
Katherine Jenkins: Did An Obsession With Singer Lead
To Boson's Capture? (Photo: South Wales Evening Post)
Higgs Boson came to the attention of investigators worldwide after a late-night discussion following an Interpol conference in London the early 1960's. "Was there a controlling figure behind other activities we were reporting?" asked T.W.B. Kibble, a retired investigator who attended the meeting. "Some force which had to be considered, causing other parts of the dark universe that lives around us to do as they directed?"
"The Activities Of Higgs Boson Touch Each Of Us At
Our Most Fundamental Level", Say CERN Investigators
The small group of detectives agreed to look in their own areas for evidence of such a figure. "Eventually we had to admit -- such a controlling presence was undeniable", recalled investigator Robert Bout, who also remembered that there was evidence to support their belief, "but whoever this was, their influence was brief, instantaneous. As quickly as they showed up, they disappeared."
Boson apparently began to come to the attention of The London Metropolitan Police with the rise and disappearance of Doug and Dinsdale, the infamous Piranha Brothers. Met Detectives knew "a more sophisticated hand had been put into the glove what was the Piranha Brothers," said retired Met Detective ChiefMurdoch Bagman Inspecting Constable Reginald Prouthee.
Was Higgs Boson The Terrible Force Behind Britian's
Infamous Piranha Brothers? (Photo: Maxine Piranha)
"I mean, you don't walk into a grocier's and threaten to use a tactical nuclear weapon just to get the poor bugger to buy a fruit machine," Prouthee recalled. "That's a bit of overkill, that is, and we all agreed down the Met -- Dougie and Dinsdale weren't that sophisticated and some other bugger's what's behind it all. And that's when we started looking at this Boson chap."
Rare Surveillance Photo Of Younger Boson On London
Street, 1980's (London Met / Rebecca Brooks Division)
Higgs Boson resided primarily in London, "but could have been from anywhere, really," said Gerald Guralnik, another of the early group trying to determine Boson's existence and activities. "All we knew was, he seemed to have his hand in everything, worldwide. He was a pervasive influence."
"If he wants to," Heuer added, "He affects people's kids. He affects their wives, their parents, then he goes after their parent's friends, their businesses. He gets into everything they need or own, or ever will -- and then, like that -- he's gone, like he was never there."
Boson was, they came to believe, more powerful than any Narco-baron. "We're convinced he killed Kaiser Söze," Rolf-Dieter Heuer told reporters in Geneva. "Personally shoved him into a tree-mulcher, feet first. Boson is worse than any Russian mafioso, more heartless than any hedge fund manager or central banker."
Kaiser Söze, Feared Underworld Leader Who Disappeared
Into A Tree Mulcher In The Late 1990's. Did His Interest
In Singer Jenkins Lead To His End? (Photo: Examiner)
Boson's interests, say CERN investigators, run the entire spectrum of activity in the known world. "We have to ask ourselves; what wasn't Higgs Boson involved in?" said Heuer. However, despite his ability to manipulate so much, Boson lived modestly and traveled almost constantly, not usually noticed but accepted at the highest levels of society.
Photo Which Investigators Say Was Emailed Anonymously
To Singer Jenkins: Was Boson Behind The Breakup With
Gethin Jones? (Photo: Rex Features / UK Telegraph)
While the Swiss team is not 100% certain that whom they hold in custody is Higgs Boson, they are confident they will be able to confirm his identity. "It's all a matter of time," says CERN's Heuer. "He hasn't even requested an attorney, yet. All he's asked for is a copy of Hello magazine with Katherine Jenkins' picture in it."
"That's why I think we've got him," Heuer says. "Time will tell."
Why Is Higgs Boson Focused On A British Singer?
Or, Are The Answers To That Question Too Obvious?
While you slept, a team of investigators in Switzerland announced that after nearly fifty years, they may have apprehended Higgs Boson, described as "one of the heaviest" and most elusive of figures in the universal underworld.
Higgs Boson In Custody In Geneva; The Unique Fingerprint Which
May Confirm His Identity (Photo: Interpol)
The move was carried out by Switzerland's Criminal Elimination of Robbery and Narcotics unit, or CERN, which had conducted sporadic raids at various locations world-wide for the past decade, seeking information about Boson's whereabouts.
According to CERN chief investigator Rolf-Dieter Heuer, after developing promising leads several years ago the unit had reduced Boson's possible hiding places "down to a narrow range", predominantly in Switzerland, though unconfirmed sightings of Boson had recently occurred in the United States.
Swiss Tactical Polizei Taking Boson Into Custody
(Photo: Neue Züricher Unterwäsche Tagliche Zeitung)
Acting on tips from multiple informants, CERN's investigators determined that Boson was livinging in a specific Geneva address, between numbers 100 and 135 Genvieve-Victoriastrasse. In a pre-dawn raid of the entire street, Boson was found hiding in a bathroom at number 125 Ge-Vc.
"He was sitting on the toilet, drinking coffee and reading a copy of Hello magazine," Heuer said. "He was very calm, very polite. While he would not positively admit to his identity, we're fairly certain -- this is Higgs Boson."
It was further reported that when apprehended, Boson's copy of 'Hello' magazine was open to an article on the recent appearance of talented British classical-pop crossover singer Katherine Jenkins at the recent Epsom Downs Derby Day celebrations.
Alleged Photo Of Boson, 1980; British Mezzo-Soprano
Katherine Jenkins: Did An Obsession With Singer Lead
To Boson's Capture? (Photo: South Wales Evening Post)
Higgs Boson came to the attention of investigators worldwide after a late-night discussion following an Interpol conference in London the early 1960's. "Was there a controlling figure behind other activities we were reporting?" asked T.W.B. Kibble, a retired investigator who attended the meeting. "Some force which had to be considered, causing other parts of the dark universe that lives around us to do as they directed?"
"The Activities Of Higgs Boson Touch Each Of Us At
Our Most Fundamental Level", Say CERN Investigators
The small group of detectives agreed to look in their own areas for evidence of such a figure. "Eventually we had to admit -- such a controlling presence was undeniable", recalled investigator Robert Bout, who also remembered that there was evidence to support their belief, "but whoever this was, their influence was brief, instantaneous. As quickly as they showed up, they disappeared."
Boson apparently began to come to the attention of The London Metropolitan Police with the rise and disappearance of Doug and Dinsdale, the infamous Piranha Brothers. Met Detectives knew "a more sophisticated hand had been put into the glove what was the Piranha Brothers," said retired Met Detective Chief
Was Higgs Boson The Terrible Force Behind Britian's
Infamous Piranha Brothers? (Photo: Maxine Piranha)
"I mean, you don't walk into a grocier's and threaten to use a tactical nuclear weapon just to get the poor bugger to buy a fruit machine," Prouthee recalled. "That's a bit of overkill, that is, and we all agreed down the Met -- Dougie and Dinsdale weren't that sophisticated and some other bugger's what's behind it all. And that's when we started looking at this Boson chap."
Rare Surveillance Photo Of Younger Boson On London
Street, 1980's (London Met / Rebecca Brooks Division)
Higgs Boson resided primarily in London, "but could have been from anywhere, really," said Gerald Guralnik, another of the early group trying to determine Boson's existence and activities. "All we knew was, he seemed to have his hand in everything, worldwide. He was a pervasive influence."
"If he wants to," Heuer added, "He affects people's kids. He affects their wives, their parents, then he goes after their parent's friends, their businesses. He gets into everything they need or own, or ever will -- and then, like that -- he's gone, like he was never there."
Boson was, they came to believe, more powerful than any Narco-baron. "We're convinced he killed Kaiser Söze," Rolf-Dieter Heuer told reporters in Geneva. "Personally shoved him into a tree-mulcher, feet first. Boson is worse than any Russian mafioso, more heartless than any hedge fund manager or central banker."
Kaiser Söze, Feared Underworld Leader Who Disappeared
Into A Tree Mulcher In The Late 1990's. Did His Interest
In Singer Jenkins Lead To His End? (Photo: Examiner)
Boson's interests, say CERN investigators, run the entire spectrum of activity in the known world. "We have to ask ourselves; what wasn't Higgs Boson involved in?" said Heuer. However, despite his ability to manipulate so much, Boson lived modestly and traveled almost constantly, not usually noticed but accepted at the highest levels of society.
Photo Which Investigators Say Was Emailed Anonymously
To Singer Jenkins: Was Boson Behind The Breakup With
Gethin Jones? (Photo: Rex Features / UK Telegraph)
While the Swiss team is not 100% certain that whom they hold in custody is Higgs Boson, they are confident they will be able to confirm his identity. "It's all a matter of time," says CERN's Heuer. "He hasn't even requested an attorney, yet. All he's asked for is a copy of Hello magazine with Katherine Jenkins' picture in it."
"That's why I think we've got him," Heuer says. "Time will tell."
Why Is Higgs Boson Focused On A British Singer?
Or, Are The Answers To That Question Too Obvious?
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