More ancient greek differences and similarities
The Ancient Greeks
Were they like us at all?
Victor Davis Hanson
The New Criterion, Vol. 22, No. 9, May 2004
The classical Greeks were really nothing like us-at least that now seems the
prevailing dogma of classical scholars of the last half-century. Perhaps due
to the rise of cultural anthropology or, more recently, to a variety of
postmodern schools of social construction, it is now often accepted that the
lives of Socrates, Euripides, and Pericles were not similar to our own, but
so far different as to be almost unfathomable. Shelley's truism that "We are
all Greeks" has now become, as we say, "inoperative."
M. I. Finley, the great historian of the ancient economy, spent a lifetime
to prove his questionable thesis that the Greeks-who imported grain from
southern Russia, calibrated the cost of the Parthenon to the drachma, and
left us a plethora of mortgage stones, financial inventories, and
complicated estate exchanges-were to be understood as economically
unsophisticated and irrational, more as tribal barterers than calculating
capitalists without much abstract appreciation of interest, supply, demand,
or any of the other practices associated with the complex market. Historians
of gender more recently have sought to show that the Greeks were without
real sexual identity, their sexual mores not understandable through innate
natural proclivities, much less fathomable by analogy to common social
customs across time and space. With whom and how one had sex was instead
"constructed" and thus explicable only through understanding of Foucauldian
power relationships of submission and dominance.
By the same manner, ancient Hellenic childhood is supposedly equally
enigmatic to us. Art historians have pointed out that Greek kids were not
customarily sculpted and painted as real children, but most often portrayed
through convention (or is it due to artistic incapacity?) as veritable
shrunken adults-mature frowns and puzzled expressions slapped on tiny faces.
The proverbially rich Greek language, we are often reminded further, lacks
the variety of English's clearly defined and evolving hierarchy of childhood
nomenclature: "baby," "toddler," "kid," "teenager," "adolescent," "young
adult." The chronological inexactness of Greek's numerous generic terms for
youth-pais, kouros, neanias-is offered as further proof of the great divide
that separates attitudes toward coming of age in both ancient Greece and
modern America.
And yet the sophisticated maritime loans in the Attic orators, or the
scurrilous attacks on promiscuity, sodomy, and effeminate men in
Aristophanes' comedies, or the prevalence of love among married couples in
ancient Athens makes us wonder whether the Greeks really were all that
different from us in their likes, dislikes, prejudices, and habits.
Purportedly locked away in their northern European Victorian studies so far
from the dust and stones of Greece, so ignorant of the new Cambridge
anthropology, were our nineteenth-century classicists all that far off in
thinking that the founders of Western civilization were familiar and
approachable to us precisely because we as Westerners were their spiritual
and intellectual successors? This feeling of a shared and common human
experience is exactly what we receive from a wonderful new exhibition of
classical Greek art depicting children and adolescents through gravestones,
red- and black-figure vases, and terracotta miniature sculptures.
Ponder the title of this fascinating exhibition currently at the Cincinnati
Art Museum, organized by Jenifer Neils of Case Western Reserve University
and John Oakley of the College of William and Mary under the auspices of the
Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the Hood Museum of Art at
Dartmouth College, and the National Endowment for the Humanities: "Coming of
Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past."[1] The
phraseology is derived from Margaret Mead's own famous (and flawed)
anthropological study of adolescent sexuality among Samoan teenagers that
sought to introduce Westerners to an unfathomable alternate universe of
young female ritual among third-world peoples, who were purportedly much
more relaxed about their sexual needs and desires. Thucydides may have
reminded us that human nature is unchanging across time and space, but
contemporary classical schol- ars have countered that ancient Athens would
seem a very bizarre place to us today-witness the current popularity by
classical scholars of quoting the poet Louis MacNeice's famous lines, "And
how one can imagine oneself among them/ I do not know;/ It was all so
unimaginably different/ And all so long ago."
The effect of viewing some 126 displays from American, Canadian, and
European museums is an almost eerier resonance between past and present not
discernible even through close reading of Greek literature. Greek children
in a variety of contexts in the current exhibition are shown playing with
familiar household pets like cats, small birds, and geese. Their toys seem
to have come right out of small-town America of the 1940s-spinning-tops,
hoops and sticks, jointed dolls, even seesaws. Greek moms, we learn, had
their potties and training chairs-and rooms full of assorted cluttered junk
such as mechanical toy rollers, pig-rattles, and wheeled horses. If we think
clay for plastic, the experience is not much different from strolling
through the aisles of Toys-R-Us. One terracotta spherical ink-well is
identical to a Voit soccer-ball-even down to the familiar pattern of
stitched ridges.
We are told that Greece was a male-dominated society where women were often
segregated and relegated to the kitchen and care of the children, while men
fought, conducted business, or ran the government. Perhaps-as, for example,
a group of terracotta sculptures from central Greece shows a young girl
learning to cook from an older woman. But from this exhibition there also
emerges a sense of female confidence and a familiarity between the sexes
unknown even today in much of the world. Carefree young girls play
knucklebones. They carry one another piggyback as punishment for not hitting
a target with stones or balls in the popular game of ephedrismos, and
bare-armed, bare-faced, and bare-ankled they are taught to dance.
On an Attic red-figure cylix or stemmed drinking-cup there is a surprising
scene of two young women who appear to be headed for school. One
nonchalantly carries her writing stylus. Does the vase suggest that females
were more commonly educated than we think, or are the two meant to be a
weird parody by the painter of an everyday male ritual-or again are they
young courtesans who embrace book-learning because it is indispensable to
the seductive arts plied in the male-dominated symposia? In any case,
learning seems ubiquitous from these scenes of everyday life, as both boys
and girls are seen with writing materials. In addition, there are
fascinating examples of papyrus paper and wood tablets from Egypt on which
school children have left to us unfinished and error-plagued rote
assignments-including a particularly poignant example where the young
student confused his alphabet, transposing phi and chi.
There is subtlety in much of Greek ceramic art that strikes an immediate
chord with modern viewers. On a mid-sixth-century Attic black-figure
amphora, for example, four men seem to be watching a young girl on a swing.
But on closer examination something a bit strange seems to be going on. Most
likely we are witnessing the ritual of the Aiora ("swinging"), in which
youth reenacted the myth of Erione, the young teen who committed suicide by
hanging herself in sorrow over the murder of her father Ikarios. Was this
just an annual rite, or sometimes an impromptu expiation conducted to stop
teen-age suicides-a tragedy that may well have transpired in waves of
despair as we sometimes see today among high-school cliques? In any case,
swinging amid friends and mentors in the ancient Greek world seems as wise a
prophylactic to depression and angst as do Prozac and visits to the local
shrink in ours.
In the past two decades-given the understandable hysteria over sexual
predation by clergy and Michael Jackson and his coterie of pre-teen
sleep-overs-American society has turned its attention to a purported
epidemic of sexual molestation. Like Claude Rains in Casablanca we are
shocked to see improper behavior in an age of easily accessible pornography,
a crass popular culture of simulated sex and breast-grabbing on Super Bowl
Sunday, and pre-teen beauty pageants. We are even troubled over the proper
nomenclature of this apparent outbreak of physical relationships between
adults and those under eighteen-sometimes looking to ancient Greece to learn
whether our wayward mentors are pedophiles ("sexually interested in all
children") or pederasts ("dominant pursuers of passive male teens").
It is not that Greeks were prudes. Indeed, as we see from a number of a
variety of red-figure vases, the casualness of male nudity on the racecourse
and in the wrestling ring gives off a definite sexual air. But we also see
young boys with older tutors in both work and play-Hermes with the infant
Arkas, or a near naked youth sitting at the feet of an aged beer-bellied
tutor or paidagogos. The proximity of older relatives with young boys and
girls conveys a naturalness and non-sexual familiarity belied by the lurid
stories of Greek love. Why so? Perhaps it is the active participation of
vigilant parents -ubiquitous in the exhibition-who escorted their children
to school, who were physically proximate to their kids for most of the day,
and who felt that everything from cooking to playing were skills acquired
only through parental instruction in a society where latch-key kids and
day-care centers were unknown.
If we can learn anything from these examples of the grind of everyday life
as portrayed on vases and in stone, the danger of abuse lies not from the
close interaction per se of child and adult, but rather from the absence of
parental involvement, coupled with the abrogation of family responsibility
in favor of the school, church, or baby-sitter. Thus additional Boeotian
terracotta figurines capture a balding old man offering grapes to a young
solitary girl, in a touching scene that suggests love for a
grandchild-similar to a picture from a black-figure Attic vase that portrays
a young boy learning the craft of shoemaking surrounded by the company of
older adults.
Of course, we must avoid stereotypes. Not all parents and children are
either happy-or even alive. The exhibition presents grim examples of marble
grave steles where parents grieve over lost infants-a common occurrence in a
premodern society where perhaps half of all pregnancies were not successful,
and of those that were, one in three infants did not survive childhood.
There is also evidence that the Greeks had no illusions that they all were
always either good spouses or parents. In a particularly chilling red-figure
calyx-krater from Italy, Jason vents his fury at Medea, even as their two
murdered sons (her revenge for his infidelity) lie nearly neglected on a
nearby altar. The parents bicker, while only their nurse and male tutor seem
to mourn the two young bodies nearby.
There is a rich diversity in the show-and Professors Oakley and Neils are to
be congratulated for the selection of vases, metal jewelry, stone and
terracotta sculpture, and wood and paper artifacts that leave us with an
appreciation that Hellenic excellence in art spanned four or five centuries
and was found throughout the Greek-speaking Mediterranean.
A final surprise of the exhibition is that the most moving everyday scenes
and toys seem to be from Boeotia-the ancient equivalent of our own rural
heartland. If we naturally associate sophisticated Greek art only with
Athens and to a lesser extent with Corinth and Italy, we forget that
thousands of other Greeks in the shadows in places like the perennially
maligned Boeotia were just as artistically adept, and perhaps possessed an
eye for the everyday things that matter but are forgotten by their more
heralded urban counterparts. And that seems yet another lesson for us as
well-that there is plenty of art and culture beyond our own triangle of New
York, Washington, and Los Angeles that sees what is important in life in
pretty much the same way as did these rural Greeks.
Victor Davis Hanson is at work on War Like No Other, a military history of
the Peloponnesian War forthcoming from Random House.
Notes
"Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the
Classical Past" opened at the Cincinnati Art Museum on May 1 and remains on
view through August 1. The exhibition was previously on view at the Onassis
Cultural Center, New York, from January 22 to April 15. It will next be seen
at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, from September 14 to December 5,
2004.
©2004 Victor Davis Hanson
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Alexander the Gay part II
Oh.. Wonder why you have such high gas prices
The connection, however, lies in an order issued last year by President Hu Jintao to seek secure oil supplies abroad – preferably ones which could not be stopped by America in case of conflict over Taiwan.
now lets process this with another important line
The West, however, has paid little attention to these developments. For the United States and Europe are far more concerned with the even more sensitive issues of China's relations with "pariah states".
In September, China threatened to veto any move to impose sanctions on Sudan over the atrocities in Darfur. It has invested $3 billion in the African country's oil industry, which supplies it with seven per cent of its needs.
Then, this month, it said that it opposed moves to refer Iran's nuclear stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council.
when you hear about the lack of support for the Iraq war in the security council, lack of support to stop the genocide in dafur, the lack of international will to stop Iran from having nukes
China needs lots of oil... this means high gas prices
China needs to sell weapons
unstable world when those two things come togther
Shocking things in my email
Syria... helping terrorists? No.... I am shocked
Syrian bank funded insurgency with Saddam's millions
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, November 19, 2004
The United States has concluded that Syria helped finance the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Officials said the regime of President Bashar Assad used the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria to relay hundreds of millions of dollars to Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq. They said the money has been deployed to finance the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition primarily in Iraq's Sunni Triangle.
The Commercial Bank of Syria held more than $1 billion in Saddam regime accounts on the eve of the U.S.-led war in Iraq in March 2003, officials said. Most of that money stemmed from Iraqi arms and oil smuggling as well as illegal commissions obtained from Iraqi oil sales overseen by the United Nations.
During a hearing by the Senate subcommittee on Nov. 15, Treasury Assistant Secretary Juan Carlos Zarate asserted that Syria has disbursed $600 million to unidentified Iraqis. Zarate, responsible for terrorist financing and financial crimes at Treasury, said a U.S. team was auditing the Commercial Bank of Syria in an attempt to trace the transfer of funds.
"What we found was when we sent our investigators to Damascus, upon review of the documents and review of the transactional data, it became clear that the Syrians had, in fact, paid out the vast bulk of the amount that had existed in that particular account," Zarate said.
Officials said that over the last 18 months Damascus transferred up to $800 million of Saddam's assets to senior aides of the former president, several of whom have been based in Syria. They said much of the money was believed to have been transferred to ex-Iraqi Vice President Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri, identified as the chief financier of the Sunni insurgency.
"We have folks on the front line right now that are sacrificing their lives, that are under fire, and somewhere, somehow, there's money being used to fuel that insurgency," Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the permanent investigations subcommittee of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, said. "And I would just hope that a very strong message is delivered to the Syrians, that we get their cooperation, that we track this down and we figure out what's what."
Officials said Syria has asserted that the money was relayed to Iraqi brokers and traders. They said Treasury was seeking to examine these claims, but said Damascus has failed to cooperate.
"I would have to say poor," Zarate said in his description of Syrian cooperation with Washington.
The United States has identified the Commercial Bank of Syria as a primary money-laundering concern. Officials said the bank, which has come under threat of U.S. sanctions, facilitated illicit activity with Iraq, including the financing of the insurgency war in Iraq.
"This issue has been front and center in terms of the dialogue with the Syrian government," Zarate said. "It's been part of the dialogue at the highest levels. So we are very much concerned, as you are, that the amounts paid out were either not paid out to legitimate claimants or were paid out to people who are attempting to do us harm now."
Officials said Damascus has failed to honor its assurances to the United States regarding Iraq. They said Damascus has also refused to relay any of Saddam's assets to help develop Syria's eastern neighbor.
The Bush administration has been under pressure from Congress to impose additional sanctions on Syria for its failure to halt the flow of weapons, money and fighters to the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Officials said this would comprise a key issue when Congress begins its new session in 2005.
Zarate said Treasury was working with other U.S. government agencies to trace U.S. currency seized in Iraq to determine the flow of funds to the insurgency. He did not elaborate.
"We also have assets within Iraq, and that's why the Department of Defense, our soldiers on the ground, the FBI and others are working so hard to try to find those caches of cash within Iraq," Zarate said. "And then finally you have traditional sources of terrorist funding in the region which are mobilizing for the Iraqi jihad, in essence."
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_11.html
Syrian bank funded insurgency with Saddam's millions
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, November 19, 2004
The United States has concluded that Syria helped finance the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Officials said the regime of President Bashar Assad used the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria to relay hundreds of millions of dollars to Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq. They said the money has been deployed to finance the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition primarily in Iraq's Sunni Triangle.
The Commercial Bank of Syria held more than $1 billion in Saddam regime accounts on the eve of the U.S.-led war in Iraq in March 2003, officials said. Most of that money stemmed from Iraqi arms and oil smuggling as well as illegal commissions obtained from Iraqi oil sales overseen by the United Nations.
During a hearing by the Senate subcommittee on Nov. 15, Treasury Assistant Secretary Juan Carlos Zarate asserted that Syria has disbursed $600 million to unidentified Iraqis. Zarate, responsible for terrorist financing and financial crimes at Treasury, said a U.S. team was auditing the Commercial Bank of Syria in an attempt to trace the transfer of funds.
"What we found was when we sent our investigators to Damascus, upon review of the documents and review of the transactional data, it became clear that the Syrians had, in fact, paid out the vast bulk of the amount that had existed in that particular account," Zarate said.
Officials said that over the last 18 months Damascus transferred up to $800 million of Saddam's assets to senior aides of the former president, several of whom have been based in Syria. They said much of the money was believed to have been transferred to ex-Iraqi Vice President Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri, identified as the chief financier of the Sunni insurgency.
"We have folks on the front line right now that are sacrificing their lives, that are under fire, and somewhere, somehow, there's money being used to fuel that insurgency," Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the permanent investigations subcommittee of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, said. "And I would just hope that a very strong message is delivered to the Syrians, that we get their cooperation, that we track this down and we figure out what's what."
Officials said Syria has asserted that the money was relayed to Iraqi brokers and traders. They said Treasury was seeking to examine these claims, but said Damascus has failed to cooperate.
"I would have to say poor," Zarate said in his description of Syrian cooperation with Washington.
The United States has identified the Commercial Bank of Syria as a primary money-laundering concern. Officials said the bank, which has come under threat of U.S. sanctions, facilitated illicit activity with Iraq, including the financing of the insurgency war in Iraq.
"This issue has been front and center in terms of the dialogue with the Syrian government," Zarate said. "It's been part of the dialogue at the highest levels. So we are very much concerned, as you are, that the amounts paid out were either not paid out to legitimate claimants or were paid out to people who are attempting to do us harm now."
Officials said Damascus has failed to honor its assurances to the United States regarding Iraq. They said Damascus has also refused to relay any of Saddam's assets to help develop Syria's eastern neighbor.
The Bush administration has been under pressure from Congress to impose additional sanctions on Syria for its failure to halt the flow of weapons, money and fighters to the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Officials said this would comprise a key issue when Congress begins its new session in 2005.
Zarate said Treasury was working with other U.S. government agencies to trace U.S. currency seized in Iraq to determine the flow of funds to the insurgency. He did not elaborate.
"We also have assets within Iraq, and that's why the Department of Defense, our soldiers on the ground, the FBI and others are working so hard to try to find those caches of cash within Iraq," Zarate said. "And then finally you have traditional sources of terrorist funding in the region which are mobilizing for the Iraqi jihad, in essence."
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_11.html
Random thought on my play watching tonight
and why is it that i have a weak spot for women in a bodice...*oh wait i said that outloud crap.... run away*
Meanwhile in Frog town
OXFORD, England - French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council does not represent today's world and should be expanded to include Germany, Japan and developing nations such as Brazil and India as permanent members.
All nations stangely with Larger economies and Militaries ( with the exception of Japan) then FRANCE
thank you for pointing out why we need to remove your country from the Security council.
but wait folks... he isn't done
Chirac said the decision-making U.N. Security Council "is no longer truly representative of the world as it is today. So it needs to be modernized."
Britain has also backed expansion of the Security Council. Britain, France, China, the United States and Russia are all permanent members.
Chirac suggested the body's membership should rise from 15 permanent and rotating nations to 20 or 25 to reflect how the world had changed since the United Nations was founded in 1945.
"You cannot simply take a snapshot of 1945 and apply it to 2004," Chirac said.
to true
thanks for telling us why we need fire you
The "Rice in 09" teaser for GUn Nuts
Rice has said memories of Birmingham's racial turmoil shaped some of her core values.
During the bombings of the summer of 1963, her father and other neighborhood men guarded the streets at night to keep white vigilantes at bay. Rice said her staunch defense of gun rights comes from those days. She has argued that if the guns her father and neighbors carried had been registered, they could have been confiscated by the authorities, leaving the black community defenseless.
;-) gun nuts... bow to your Heston
Check it out
http://www.adamyoshida.com/
that mad man Adam Yoshida has a blog
If you've been in a political Sim online you've probably met Adam or heard of him
Adam is one of the most far right people in online political sims.. and he is a Canuk to
that mad man Adam Yoshida has a blog
If you've been in a political Sim online you've probably met Adam or heard of him
Adam is one of the most far right people in online political sims.. and he is a Canuk to
Dr. Drew:" Your gay"
Ok kids.. lets sit right back while while i rant a while
HOMOSEXUALS DID NOT EXIST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Am i saying no hot girl on girl or guy on guy action happened, no i am not saying that at all. I am saying our defective concepts on sexuality did not exist.
Lets say your an ancient greek.. H*** Lets say your Alexander the great. You gotta spawn, period. Your family forms integrative alliances. You marry for wealth and power.. its simply the nature of things.
Whats some one to do in that situation if they have "The love that dare not speak its name?"
why you Spawn baby.. Spawn like the wind.
In our world today we have the luxury of having sex around love.... that wasn't the way the ancient world worked.
Can alexander have had sex with tons of women and still been gay, sure... it was his JOB to have sex with tons of women. Impregnanting women made his ruling people much much easier.
Get Killed in a Coup or have Hetrosex... that was an easy problem in Alexanders day.
If you exist on a more subservient level... you need kids to run the family farm... you may have a "beloved friend"... but hey you gotta do what you gotta do back in ancient times
Women having affairs with men back int he olden days were frowned upon cause children=property issues.
Sex had to do with power and social position
today sex is different sociologically
Saying Alexander the great or any ancient was gay, bisexual, or lesbian is stupid
So stop being so dumb
HOMOSEXUALS DID NOT EXIST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Am i saying no hot girl on girl or guy on guy action happened, no i am not saying that at all. I am saying our defective concepts on sexuality did not exist.
Lets say your an ancient greek.. H*** Lets say your Alexander the great. You gotta spawn, period. Your family forms integrative alliances. You marry for wealth and power.. its simply the nature of things.
Whats some one to do in that situation if they have "The love that dare not speak its name?"
why you Spawn baby.. Spawn like the wind.
In our world today we have the luxury of having sex around love.... that wasn't the way the ancient world worked.
Can alexander have had sex with tons of women and still been gay, sure... it was his JOB to have sex with tons of women. Impregnanting women made his ruling people much much easier.
Get Killed in a Coup or have Hetrosex... that was an easy problem in Alexanders day.
If you exist on a more subservient level... you need kids to run the family farm... you may have a "beloved friend"... but hey you gotta do what you gotta do back in ancient times
Women having affairs with men back int he olden days were frowned upon cause children=property issues.
Sex had to do with power and social position
today sex is different sociologically
Saying Alexander the great or any ancient was gay, bisexual, or lesbian is stupid
So stop being so dumb
More warm Fuzzies from Jake "Legs" Froggy
COLONIAL LEGACY: The French leader emphasized the cooperation between his country and the UK, but warned against imposing Western democracy on the world
mmmm fuzzy
In the speech, Chirac reiterated his view that Europe should form a bloc as a counterbalance to the US. He called for the revival of multilateralism, mainly through the UN, rather than a world based on the "logic of power," namely the US.
hmmm really
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast and French forces traded gunfire at Ivory Coast's international airport in Abidjan on Saturday in mayhem that erupted following a deadly earlier clash between their two militaries that killed eight French soldiers and an American civilian.
A French spokesman, Jacques Combarieu, said one French soldier was lightly injured in the fighting near the Abidjan airport. ``There has been fighting at the airport ... at the tarmac,'' Combarieu said.
As loyalist mobs tried to overrun a French military base near the airport, Ivory Coast soldiers tried to destroy French aircraft at the airport itself, Combarieu said.
Combarieu said the clash between the two militaries at the airport ended after an hour, with one airport lightly damaged.
Thousands of loyalist young people, some armed with machetes, axes or chunks of wood, took to the streets Saturday looking for French targets. Smoke rose from a French school set on fire by the mobs.
From the Guardian UK
ABIDJAN, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's government said on Thursday that soldiers from former colonial power France had shot dead 63 people and injured more than 1,300 during several days of unrest in the world's top cocoa grower.
France destroyed most of Ivory Coast's air force this month after a bombing raid killed nine French peacekeepers in the rebel-held north, and French troops deployed in the main city Abidjan to protect French nationals from days of rioting.
"This retaliation ... killed 63 soldiers and civilians and injured more than 1,300 with bullets fired by the French army as they brought their troops back to Abidjan and during the demonstrations ... " the Ivorian government said in a statement after its first cabinet meeting since the crisis began.
A spokesman for the roughly 5,000 French soldiers deployed in Ivory Coast declined to comment.
Almost 7,000 expatriates fled the West African country after the mob violence broke out.
The Ivorian army's assault on the north, held by rebels since September 2002, shattered an 18-month ceasefire. The unrest raised fears of a full-blown civil war that could drag in neighbouring states in a volatile region.
Al-Reuters
Thus, onward go Chirac and Bush with the bludgeoning of Cote D’Ivoire and Fallujah. Four thousand French troops are currently stationed in the tiny West African country, largely leftover from the three centuries of colonial rule. When nine of these military officers were killed in an attempt by President Gbagbo to quell rebel uprising on November 6th (perhaps accidentally), Chirac responded by destroying the entire Ivorian air force in Yamoussoukro the following day. The result of this action has been widespread anti-French rioting, looting, and violence, adding further turmoil to a country that has been plagued by civil war and northern resistance for much of the last decade.
Some Peacenicks
Chirac reiterated his view that Europe should form a bloc as a counterbalance to the US. He called for the revival of multilateralism, mainly through the UN, rather than a world based on the "logic of power," namely the US.
Logic... a word i would not use for that
Groovy
EVIL DEAD Remake!!!
By Charley, (DT)
November 18, 2004 2:41 PM PT
Director Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man") and Bruce Campbell ("Evil Dead" films) are teaming to produce a remake of "Evil Dead," the film that launched both of their careers, reports Variety. The new "Dead" will be produced through Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, the company that brought us the U.S. version of "The Grudge."
Raimi will not direct the remake, according to the article, but he and Campbell will be integral in bringing the 1981 cult hit back to the big screen. The production team will begin working on a script as soon as they find the right director.
There is no word on whether Campbell will reprise his role as Ash, the cult anti-hero he went on to play in two sequels--"Evil Dead 2" and "Army of Darkness." "Evil Dead 2" was more like a remake/sequel of the original, which added to and changed enough to make both films individually relevant. This new film would be yet another remake of "Evil Dead" and maybe without the director and actor whose unique abilities made both films work to begin with.
At this point it looks like Campbell and Raimi will be strictly producing this reinvention of the film that started it all for them, an unfortunate conclusion for those of us who grew up with "The Evil Dead."
By Charley, (DT)
November 18, 2004 2:41 PM PT
Director Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man") and Bruce Campbell ("Evil Dead" films) are teaming to produce a remake of "Evil Dead," the film that launched both of their careers, reports Variety. The new "Dead" will be produced through Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, the company that brought us the U.S. version of "The Grudge."
Raimi will not direct the remake, according to the article, but he and Campbell will be integral in bringing the 1981 cult hit back to the big screen. The production team will begin working on a script as soon as they find the right director.
There is no word on whether Campbell will reprise his role as Ash, the cult anti-hero he went on to play in two sequels--"Evil Dead 2" and "Army of Darkness." "Evil Dead 2" was more like a remake/sequel of the original, which added to and changed enough to make both films individually relevant. This new film would be yet another remake of "Evil Dead" and maybe without the director and actor whose unique abilities made both films work to begin with.
At this point it looks like Campbell and Raimi will be strictly producing this reinvention of the film that started it all for them, an unfortunate conclusion for those of us who grew up with "The Evil Dead."
People who didn't pay attention in school
till, it’s an unlikely word. When most people hear the word "fascism" they may think of the racism and anti-Semitism of Mussolini and Hitler. It is true that the use of force and the scapegoating of fringe groups are part of every fascism. But there was also an economic dimension of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and '30s as "corporatism," which was an essential ingredient of Mussolini’s and Hitler’s tyrannies. So-called corporatism was adopted in Italy and Germany during the 1930s and was held up as a model by quite a few intellectuals and policy makers in the United States and Europe.
yeah funny how a party lead by a former communist ( Mussolini) and a Socialist ( Hitler) with Laws that say the Individual has no right to private property, but can use it so long as the state is cool with it is called a "Corporatist"
Oh you mean because rich buisnessmen financed them its all about big buisness
well that explains everything
As I mentioned a few weeks ago (in “The Corporation Will Eat Your Soul”), Fortune magazine ran a cover story on Mussolini in 1934, praising his fascism for its ability to break worker unions, disempower workers and transfer huge sums of money to those who controlled the money rather than those who earned it.
yeah i guess all those members of the Politburo during stalin's time earned their money....
Oh wait, they didn't
darn.
Well they had labor unions... oh wait, no they didn't either
In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here," a conservative southern politician is helped to the presidency by a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The politician - Buzz Windrip - runs his campaign on family values, the flag, and patriotism. Windrip and the talk show host portray advocates of traditional American democracy — those concerned with individual rights and freedoms — as anti-American. That was 69 years ago.
you mean Like Huey Long who wanted to force everyone to an income of 100,000 dollars a year had alies in the radio buisness
oh wait.. haha thats different.. cause Lewis was another socialist to
Mussolini, who helped create modern fascism, viewed liberal ideas as the enemy. "The Fascist conception of life," he wrote, "stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with the State. It is opposed to classical liberalism [which] denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual." (In 1932 Mussolini wrote, with the help of Giovanni Gentile, an entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism. You can read the whole entry at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html)
yeah like all those civil rights laws.. errr
Like those laws on censorship... errr
Oh wait you mean that every government restricts the individuals rights
democrats and republicans and any san non anarchist believes the individual has to sublimate to the state.
and the whole social contract theory
oh well... more proof that people who want to make bush out to be hitler aren't you know... thinking
this could be the death of ARNOLDS presidential hopes
The policy idea is a response to the growing popularity of gas-electric hybrid cars and concern that as more fuel-efficient vehicles clog the California’s highways, a tax on gasoline consumption will no longer be the best way to finance road maintenance.
that must suck, try to socially engineer people.. and you can't fund nessecary public services
I take it he has never heard of Onstar
But seriously
what a great idea
Hey i know, in one of the largest geographic states with one of the highest tax rates ... lets tax people for every mile they drive
The law probably won't happen... but it sets new standards for the dumb
Thanks for the tip Poliblogger
that must suck, try to socially engineer people.. and you can't fund nessecary public services
“Under no circumstances would I ever support the idea of having a tracking device on your car,” said Kevin Murray, chair of the state Senate’s Transportation Committee.
I take it he has never heard of Onstar
But seriously
what a great idea
Hey i know, in one of the largest geographic states with one of the highest tax rates ... lets tax people for every mile they drive
The law probably won't happen... but it sets new standards for the dumb
Thanks for the tip Poliblogger
Hypocritical you say?
IWF Denounces Racist Depictions of Dr. Condoleezza Rice in Popular Editorial Cartoons
11/17/2004
Contact: Louise Filkins
Phone: 202-419-1820
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Independent Women’s Forum today denounced as blatantly racist several editorial cartoons featuring Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor and President Bush’s nominee for Secretary of State. These cartoons clearly draw upon centuries of deep-rooted, wicked and indefensible portrayals of black women.
"The depiction of Dr. Condoleezza Rice by Jeff Danziger, Pat Oliphant and Garry Trudeau as an ebonics speaking, big-lipped, black mammy who just loves her 'massa' is a disturbing trend in editorial cartoons," said Michelle D. Bernard, senior vice president of the Independent Women's Forum. "These cartoons take the racism of the liberals who profess respect and adoration for black Americans to a new level. It is revolting."
Sadly folks this is from a CONSERVATIVE Feminist group
the surprise for this will be filed next to the surprise at the lack of outrage over clinton and his intern grazing
Friday, November 19, 2004
GOP in Congress-you are morons-
The Delay rule
EVEN IF this is politically motivated as you say, you ruined your entire reformest argument of the 90s. The girl may not be the hot girl you got to the dance with but don't abandon her just cause the cheerleader wants to show you how she treated Bill Clinton when he came to visit
Liddy Dole-Senate campaign chairman
Yes, appointing some one who once lead the American Red Cross- an organization hated by many veterans- is a wonderful idea to help get people elected.
And oh yeah she has the charisma of a grape
EVEN IF this is politically motivated as you say, you ruined your entire reformest argument of the 90s. The girl may not be the hot girl you got to the dance with but don't abandon her just cause the cheerleader wants to show you how she treated Bill Clinton when he came to visit
Liddy Dole-Senate campaign chairman
Yes, appointing some one who once lead the American Red Cross- an organization hated by many veterans- is a wonderful idea to help get people elected.
And oh yeah she has the charisma of a grape
The Stench from the Besnch is making me clench
udge Criticized For Giving Custody Of Girl To Convicted Sex Offender
Nov 19, 2004 11:29 am US/Central
Hastings, Minn. (AP) A court-appointed evaluator who recommended that a convicted sex offender get custody of his girlfriend's daughter said he now wishes a judge had appointed an advocate to speak on the child's behalf.
Attorney David Jaehne said Thursday he spoke with the girl and visited the home before recommending she permanently live with Justin Farnsworth, 31, of Hastings.
"I always talk to the kids. I always go to the home. I interview neighbors," Jaehne told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for a Friday story.
Jaehne filed his report with Dakota County District Judge Joseph T. Carter, who last month awarded custody to Farnsworth without appointing an advocate for the child, known as a guardian ad litem.
On Wednesday, Farnsworth was charged with three counts of felony sexual misconduct involving the girl. He was jailed on $300,000 bond.
A number of people expressed outrage at the situation Thursday, and some attorneys who represent children questioned why Carter did not appoint an advocate for the girl.
But the Minnesota State Bar Association defended the judge, who has said judicial ethics preclude him from commenting.
"Given Farnsworth's reported admission of guilt, it is easy to see that he should not have been given custody of the young girl he is charged with sexually molesting," Bar Association President David Stowman said in a statement.
"Ideally, Farnsworth wouldn't have had any contact with the girl," he continued. "However, Judge Carter wasn't dealing with the ideal; he was dealing with the reality of a little girl who didn't have a responsible parent to care for her."
Farnsworth received custody of three girls under age 10 -- two of his own daughters in addition to his girlfriend's daughter. He had been registered as a sex offender after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1994.
The girlfriend, who is the mother of all three children, repeatedly "abandoned" the children in Farnsworth's care, according to court files.
All three girls are now staying with their mother, police said.
Jaehne, who essentially investigated the custody request for the judge, said he knew about Farnsworth's previous felony sexual offense. Farnsworth spent six months in jail and 10 years on probation.
"You get two choices in a custody evaluation. In this case, only one parent was asking for the kids to live with him," Jaehne said.
Gail Chang Bohr, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Minnesota, said a guardian ad litem likely would have done his or her own independent investigation.
"You need to get the kids' voices in there somehow," she said.
Bohr said it's easy to criticize the judge, but that this case is just one example of a system plagued with troubled families, neglected and abused children and tough decisions.
"Over and over, in child protection, these things happen. As a community, we should always be concerned," Bohr said. "I am pretty sure in hindsight (the judge) would have done it differently if he had all the information. I am not sure he did."
It's not clear what other options the judge might have had, but according to Jaehne's report, Farnsworth's girlfriend had an older child living with her parents.
Minnesota law requires judges to appoint guardians ad litem for children involved in protection cases where there is alleged domestic violence, child abuse or neglect. Judges can also choose to appoint them in difficult custody cases. Guardians ad litem represented 12,500 children in Minnesota last year.
"We really are the eyes and ears for the court to investigate child welfare matters and to report back what we've found, and sometimes recommend in the child's best interest in terms of custody and contact," said Mark Toogood, state program manager for guardians ad litem.
"We are careful not to second-guess the judicial determination of cases because we don't have all the facts," he added.
Dakota County prosecutor Scott Hersey put the blame on Farnsworth.
"In my view, the situation in this case is unconscionable -- the fact that he is sexually abusing the victim and going into court to get custody to enable his ongoing sexual abuse of that child," Hersey said.
Nov 19, 2004 11:29 am US/Central
Hastings, Minn. (AP) A court-appointed evaluator who recommended that a convicted sex offender get custody of his girlfriend's daughter said he now wishes a judge had appointed an advocate to speak on the child's behalf.
Attorney David Jaehne said Thursday he spoke with the girl and visited the home before recommending she permanently live with Justin Farnsworth, 31, of Hastings.
"I always talk to the kids. I always go to the home. I interview neighbors," Jaehne told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for a Friday story.
Jaehne filed his report with Dakota County District Judge Joseph T. Carter, who last month awarded custody to Farnsworth without appointing an advocate for the child, known as a guardian ad litem.
On Wednesday, Farnsworth was charged with three counts of felony sexual misconduct involving the girl. He was jailed on $300,000 bond.
A number of people expressed outrage at the situation Thursday, and some attorneys who represent children questioned why Carter did not appoint an advocate for the girl.
But the Minnesota State Bar Association defended the judge, who has said judicial ethics preclude him from commenting.
"Given Farnsworth's reported admission of guilt, it is easy to see that he should not have been given custody of the young girl he is charged with sexually molesting," Bar Association President David Stowman said in a statement.
"Ideally, Farnsworth wouldn't have had any contact with the girl," he continued. "However, Judge Carter wasn't dealing with the ideal; he was dealing with the reality of a little girl who didn't have a responsible parent to care for her."
Farnsworth received custody of three girls under age 10 -- two of his own daughters in addition to his girlfriend's daughter. He had been registered as a sex offender after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1994.
The girlfriend, who is the mother of all three children, repeatedly "abandoned" the children in Farnsworth's care, according to court files.
All three girls are now staying with their mother, police said.
Jaehne, who essentially investigated the custody request for the judge, said he knew about Farnsworth's previous felony sexual offense. Farnsworth spent six months in jail and 10 years on probation.
"You get two choices in a custody evaluation. In this case, only one parent was asking for the kids to live with him," Jaehne said.
Gail Chang Bohr, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Minnesota, said a guardian ad litem likely would have done his or her own independent investigation.
"You need to get the kids' voices in there somehow," she said.
Bohr said it's easy to criticize the judge, but that this case is just one example of a system plagued with troubled families, neglected and abused children and tough decisions.
"Over and over, in child protection, these things happen. As a community, we should always be concerned," Bohr said. "I am pretty sure in hindsight (the judge) would have done it differently if he had all the information. I am not sure he did."
It's not clear what other options the judge might have had, but according to Jaehne's report, Farnsworth's girlfriend had an older child living with her parents.
Minnesota law requires judges to appoint guardians ad litem for children involved in protection cases where there is alleged domestic violence, child abuse or neglect. Judges can also choose to appoint them in difficult custody cases. Guardians ad litem represented 12,500 children in Minnesota last year.
"We really are the eyes and ears for the court to investigate child welfare matters and to report back what we've found, and sometimes recommend in the child's best interest in terms of custody and contact," said Mark Toogood, state program manager for guardians ad litem.
"We are careful not to second-guess the judicial determination of cases because we don't have all the facts," he added.
Dakota County prosecutor Scott Hersey put the blame on Farnsworth.
"In my view, the situation in this case is unconscionable -- the fact that he is sexually abusing the victim and going into court to get custody to enable his ongoing sexual abuse of that child," Hersey said.
Bad Coffee
| Saturday November 20, 2:16 AM |  | |||
UN staff to vote on no-confidence motion against Annan
UN staff are expected to make an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after a series of scandals tainted his term in charge of the world body. The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its kind in the almost 60-year history of the United Nations, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing support for Annan and senior UN management. Annan has been in the line of fire over a series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid program that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars. Staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment. The union had requested a formal probe into the official, Dileep Nair, after employees accused him of harassing staff and violating UN rules on the hiring and promotion of workers. Top UN spokesman Fred Eckhard announced on Tuesday that Nair had been exonerated by Annan "after a thorough review" by the UN's senior official in charge of management, Catherine Bertini. Annan underlined that he "had every confidence" in Nair, Eckhard said, but UN employees ridiculed the decision and claimed that investigators had not questioned the staff union, which first raised the complaints in April. "This was a whitewash, pure and simple," Guy Candusso, a senior member of the staff union, told AFP. Candusso noted that Eckhard's declaration to the press had said that "no further action was necessary in the matter." But in a letter sent to the union, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Annan's chief of staff Iqbal Riza said Nair had been "advised that he should exercise caution" in future to "minimize the risk of negative perception." In a resolution set to be adopted on Friday, the union said Riza's statement "substantiates the contention of the staff that there was impropriety" and that there exists "a lack of integrity, particularly at the higher levels of the organisation." The draft resolution, also obtained by AFP, calls on the union president to "convey this vote of no confidence to the secretary general." Staffers who asked not to be named, afraid that speaking out could damage their future in the United Nations, said the Nair decision was an example of corruption by Annan and his senior staff. They noted that Riza, UN undersecretary general for information Shashi Tharoor and other top officials had served directly under Annan at least since 1994, when he was head of UN peacekeeping operations. At the time, the United Nations was widely criticized for failing to stop the Rwanda genocide that left 800,000 people dead, even though UN peacekeepers were on the ground -- a catastrophe for which Annan has publicly apologized. Annan could not be reached for immediate comment. He is currently in Africa on a mission aimed at ending the long-running civil war in Sudan. But he faces unprecedented calls to resign over the burgeoning scandal about "oil-for-food," a UN aid scheme that US investigators say allowed Saddam to siphon off billions of dollars. The program has tainted UN officials like Benon Sevan, who oversaw the operation and is now accused of pocketing Saddam's money in exchange for turning a blind eye to the Iraqi dictator's abuses. Annan stands accused of obstructing US investigators, especially since his hand-picked official Paul Volcker this week rejected calls from the US Senate to turn over documents from the program and waive UN staff immunity. Eckhard, his spokesman, on Thursday said that Annan is expected to serve out his term, which ends in 2006. Veteran UN staff said this was the first time that employees had risen up to make a vote of no confidence in a sitting secretary general. "Kofi Annan is surrounded by corruption, a gang of criminals responsible for some of the worst things that happened to mankind in the 20th century," said one angry staffer, referring to the Rwanda massacres. "It's possible that he doesn't know directly what has gone on," said the employee, who has worked for the United Nations for two decades. "But that's no excuse." | ||||
sorry for this moment of being contrary
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.
Ya know. I'd love to be all for this and stuff but you see i have a huge problem with this.. ya ready?
Murder is bad
Murderers should be in jail
Murderers should die ( and preferably soon)
You don't need to be ( Transgender, black, gay, albino, episcopalian, ..etc) for any of those thre statements to apply. Yet we live in a world that in trying to be "tolerant" has become orwelian ( a sentiment i think Orwell would agree with)
All animals are equal, just some are more equal then others
Nope cause you see kids.. if a transgender, gay, black, whatnot crime is ignored.. then there is a good chance the murdering bastard will keep moving along and expaning his palate of being sick and killing.
now, you also see black on white hate crimes ( not getting any attention) gay on straight hate crimes ( ditto)
you see the logic flows both ways if you accept that hate crimes are more bad in some way of special baditude
Murder sucks, people who murder for some reason of descrimination deserve that needle (or Olde Sparky) more so then the rest but they all gots to die
its good to remember the people who got killed by hating sicko's... but lets hold the law accountable and put murderers in jail.. and then later the ground
So you want to create your own political party
Myself, I am a recovering Libertarian republicany kinda guy. My buddy Mark is a DINO/Dixecrat kinda guy.
we were discussing the options for a "Real third party". Mark was talking about "Moderates" a word that's a really meaningless word in the grand scheme of things.
Right and Left, those labels are due to be broken. While the Libertarian party has opened the door a crack I saw we kick the door open.
the four tier or even the Left/Right system are pointless because politics isn't something that is grid based. Politics is more like theology, its more like the fire-breathing preacher out in the big tent revival who is trying to save your soul. Its like the professor sharing with you the secrets of the Universe.
its about a good story.
the green party has some kinda general socialistic-enviromentalistic theme but they don't have a story
the libertarians are down right minamlistic but likewise have no story.
the story should be this
the government that governs best governs least, but sometimes the system does break down. So government needs to smoothe out the rough spots and when the road becomes smooth again lets the car ride it out.
a small l Libertarian party, a Libertarian party that recognizes Constitutional Purism will never work because its not a vision that Americans will embrace.
a Libertarian party that says "actually some things are more efficently done by government."
a Libertarian party that supports innovative and transformative powers of government, like some recent legislation of Representative Ford of Tennessee.
a Libertarian party that understands International Activism is a nessecary byproduct of American political strength.
a party that accepts that freedom around the world is good for everyone.
this vision if advocated forcefully, effectively, and passionately could compete with the big two parties.
or, this vision could outright be co-opted by them
So, what's the republican party's story?
Lets get our culture back, get the government off your back, and let you do whatever you want to do in this great country of ours ( note at a smaller level this doesn't work)
and the other guys riding on the donkeys?
The system isn't perfect.. So lets have the government give people a hand up so they can get the best this system has to offer
we were discussing the options for a "Real third party". Mark was talking about "Moderates" a word that's a really meaningless word in the grand scheme of things.
Right and Left, those labels are due to be broken. While the Libertarian party has opened the door a crack I saw we kick the door open.
the four tier or even the Left/Right system are pointless because politics isn't something that is grid based. Politics is more like theology, its more like the fire-breathing preacher out in the big tent revival who is trying to save your soul. Its like the professor sharing with you the secrets of the Universe.
its about a good story.
the green party has some kinda general socialistic-enviromentalistic theme but they don't have a story
the libertarians are down right minamlistic but likewise have no story.
the story should be this
the government that governs best governs least, but sometimes the system does break down. So government needs to smoothe out the rough spots and when the road becomes smooth again lets the car ride it out.
a small l Libertarian party, a Libertarian party that recognizes Constitutional Purism will never work because its not a vision that Americans will embrace.
a Libertarian party that says "actually some things are more efficently done by government."
a Libertarian party that supports innovative and transformative powers of government, like some recent legislation of Representative Ford of Tennessee.
a Libertarian party that understands International Activism is a nessecary byproduct of American political strength.
a party that accepts that freedom around the world is good for everyone.
this vision if advocated forcefully, effectively, and passionately could compete with the big two parties.
or, this vision could outright be co-opted by them
So, what's the republican party's story?
Lets get our culture back, get the government off your back, and let you do whatever you want to do in this great country of ours ( note at a smaller level this doesn't work)
and the other guys riding on the donkeys?
The system isn't perfect.. So lets have the government give people a hand up so they can get the best this system has to offer
Live from Outside Space
Gettel the car dealer, which charged me 500 dollars for the privilege of buying a car from them, tried to screw me over when I brought the car in cause it wasn’t right. During my whole car accident experience my rental car experience was the best
I liked the Ford Focus
I liked the Semi New Car Smell
The only thing I didn’t like was Sirius Satellite radio.
The littlest thing (tree leaves) could make me lose signal, like digital cable I had over 100 channels and not a darned thing on. This lead in was some “transitional material”
Opie and Anthony: From what I heard of them the few times I was in their turf, they were funny
BTLS: The 800-pound Gorilla of the Tampa Bay area. He was often crude, often rude, and often funny.
Howard Stern: the originator, who proves you don’t have to be good to get the best market share, just be first.
I listed them in order of how raw their deal was
O&A didn’t broadcast the sex act; they had people who were trying to keep the stunt clean and away from children and families. Was it risky? Sure it was. But they exercised a fair attempt to keep it in bounds.
BTLS was going to have to pay the piper with the FCC. Having women masturbate on the call in lines, and ensure we heard their “rabbit” purr was going to cause a problem. Bubba should have owned up and came correct. He should have had Cheap Channel on his side. But that was his trouble. Clear Channel didn’t like him but he was their best product in the Tampa Bay market. Bubba got cocky; he beat down a variety of local legal efforts but got slammed by people who-irony of ironies- he would get into bed with in a few years to try to unseat the president who he blamed.
Then we come to Fartman. He has a larger audience, he had been fined before, and he was the big fish in this round up. But Fartman saw the handwriting on the wall. He saw the rise of satellite radio and decided to move his game. He created controversy to make him “The King of all Relaunches.”
O&A…. they didn’t want things to go down as they did
Bubba Clemm, he should have known better.
But Stern, Stern decided to ride the mob coming after him to make him become even bigger, and thus bring down the walls of the free radio he claimed to love. For this reason Stern is a demagogue of the first order.
Had Stern and Bubba ( Opie and Anthony were already sidelined by the time the moral change happened) really wanted to fight, it would have been real easy.
As the professional musicians before them going up against tipper gore, Stern and Bubba could have strode in like the German Templars demanding trial by combat, and they would not have been alone.
Rush Limbaugh would have marched with them, Sean Hannity, Al Franken, Don Imus, Michael Savage, Neil Boortz, and many others in the world of political talk, who knew very well what happens when you do not stand up for the communists because you are not a communist. The Political will would have changed, Industry and government would have sat down with Talent and came up with fair rules people could have lived with
But Stern was a whore. Stern wanted to use the Lynch mob to get ahead.
Bubba who was set up by pro-Al Arian people from Salon.Com using a Christian fundamentalist wanted to get that George Bush and his religious right (who were, the dupes in his story).
Of these three high profile shock jocks, at least Opie and Anthony owned up that it was in part their fault. They do still say the FCC was wrong, but they to had some role to blame.
Would I pay any of these four an extra dollar? No.
Would I buy a sh** satellite radio? No
But, if any of those 4 do well, I hope its not the whore stern or the used man bubba… but the only two who actually accept that they went wrong.
I liked the Ford Focus
I liked the Semi New Car Smell
The only thing I didn’t like was Sirius Satellite radio.
The littlest thing (tree leaves) could make me lose signal, like digital cable I had over 100 channels and not a darned thing on. This lead in was some “transitional material”
Opie and Anthony: From what I heard of them the few times I was in their turf, they were funny
BTLS: The 800-pound Gorilla of the Tampa Bay area. He was often crude, often rude, and often funny.
Howard Stern: the originator, who proves you don’t have to be good to get the best market share, just be first.
I listed them in order of how raw their deal was
O&A didn’t broadcast the sex act; they had people who were trying to keep the stunt clean and away from children and families. Was it risky? Sure it was. But they exercised a fair attempt to keep it in bounds.
BTLS was going to have to pay the piper with the FCC. Having women masturbate on the call in lines, and ensure we heard their “rabbit” purr was going to cause a problem. Bubba should have owned up and came correct. He should have had Cheap Channel on his side. But that was his trouble. Clear Channel didn’t like him but he was their best product in the Tampa Bay market. Bubba got cocky; he beat down a variety of local legal efforts but got slammed by people who-irony of ironies- he would get into bed with in a few years to try to unseat the president who he blamed.
Then we come to Fartman. He has a larger audience, he had been fined before, and he was the big fish in this round up. But Fartman saw the handwriting on the wall. He saw the rise of satellite radio and decided to move his game. He created controversy to make him “The King of all Relaunches.”
O&A…. they didn’t want things to go down as they did
Bubba Clemm, he should have known better.
But Stern, Stern decided to ride the mob coming after him to make him become even bigger, and thus bring down the walls of the free radio he claimed to love. For this reason Stern is a demagogue of the first order.
Had Stern and Bubba ( Opie and Anthony were already sidelined by the time the moral change happened) really wanted to fight, it would have been real easy.
As the professional musicians before them going up against tipper gore, Stern and Bubba could have strode in like the German Templars demanding trial by combat, and they would not have been alone.
Rush Limbaugh would have marched with them, Sean Hannity, Al Franken, Don Imus, Michael Savage, Neil Boortz, and many others in the world of political talk, who knew very well what happens when you do not stand up for the communists because you are not a communist. The Political will would have changed, Industry and government would have sat down with Talent and came up with fair rules people could have lived with
But Stern was a whore. Stern wanted to use the Lynch mob to get ahead.
Bubba who was set up by pro-Al Arian people from Salon.Com using a Christian fundamentalist wanted to get that George Bush and his religious right (who were, the dupes in his story).
Of these three high profile shock jocks, at least Opie and Anthony owned up that it was in part their fault. They do still say the FCC was wrong, but they to had some role to blame.
Would I pay any of these four an extra dollar? No.
Would I buy a sh** satellite radio? No
But, if any of those 4 do well, I hope its not the whore stern or the used man bubba… but the only two who actually accept that they went wrong.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
and remember folks.. Charles is all socialistic and touchy feely to
Key quote"People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability. This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history." - Prince Charles Story in full PRINCE Charles's latest pronouncement on British society - that its schools are imbued with a culture of "social utopianism" responsible for people getting ideas above their station - was laid bare at an employment tribunal yesterday.
Haptanghaiti: Song 1.2 = Yasna 35-2
We belong to Good Thoughts, Good Words,
Good Deeds -- done and to be done,
Now and henceforth.
We are, accordingly, the praisers
And invokers of all that is good.
(Haptanghaiti: Song 1.2 = Yasna 35-2)
Good Deeds -- done and to be done,
Now and henceforth.
We are, accordingly, the praisers
And invokers of all that is good.
(Haptanghaiti: Song 1.2 = Yasna 35-2)
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Haptanghaiti: Song 1.1
We venerate the Lord Wise,
(The Righteous, Master of Righteousness).
We venerate the immortal progressives,
(The good governing, the beneficent).
We venerate the entire righteous existence,
The mental as well as the corporeal.
Glory to what belongs to good righteousness!
Glory to the [religion of] Good Conscience
(of the worshippers of the Wise One).
(Haptanghaiti: Song 1.1)
(The Righteous, Master of Righteousness).
We venerate the immortal progressives,
(The good governing, the beneficent).
We venerate the entire righteous existence,
The mental as well as the corporeal.
Glory to what belongs to good righteousness!
Glory to the [religion of] Good Conscience
(of the worshippers of the Wise One).
(Haptanghaiti: Song 1.1)
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