Obama Budget Resolution Success Must Be Striking Fear Into Republican Hearts | Capital Gains and Games
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Friday, April 3, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Everyone Loves Barack
This is funny! Like the character Sebastian Venerable in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, Obama seems to attract all: Including Gordon Brown ( link below). One of my favorite lines from the play is: . . . men, women, children; animal, mineral, vegetable; everybody loved Sebastian. . . and this would appear to apply to Barack Obama as well!
Gawker - Gordon Brown's Man-Crush on Obama - Gordon Brown
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Gawker - Gordon Brown's Man-Crush on Obama - Gordon Brown
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Narcissism and the culture war
Published in 2004, this essay is still timely and relevant:
Narcissism and the culture war
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Narcissism and the culture war
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Amanda Knox: A Question of Culture?
How much, one wonders, has this culture produced an Amanda Knox? It is worth exploring, as too often psychology individualises pathology, rather than looking to culture as the nexus from whence the individual arises, and by which he is formed. Lasch believed that narcissim was a compensatory stance: The individual, lost in a world of trendiness and lacking any truly biniding ties or civic spirit, becomes narcissistic by default, and this defensive strategy is not true self respect, but its opposite. How clearly Amanda herself would appear to have become defensive and predatory. Lasch linked these states; again, how telling! Can Amanda, after all, be judged wholly apart from the culture which formed her, and of which in Perugia, she has become a reluctant and hostile representative?
Whispered to those Who Care: "Secession": Obama Birth Certificate Meme Losing its Hold
I have always agreed with those who feel that the will of the people would over ride this, even in the worst case scenario. Better to amend the constitution to accommodate said "usurper" than to over- ride majority rule. This is the wrong place to drive the wedge in : The wrong place. Global world order and Europeanizing of our nation may indeed be the signal to raise the alarm, for the republic is threatened with relative death. But surely, surely one can see that if anything, these trends in and of themselves would make them inclined to amend on this score. There is a better way. ( Whispered to those who have ears to hear: Secession. . . )
I have always held the opinion that Lincoln and his "union" was the darkness of the federal government and its powers rising up, and that power of which the new America may someday perish. "The United States" as a monstrous entity under the control of the federal government and presidential powers : Is this not precisely the opposite of the Jeffersonian ideal of free states comprised of free and equal men? Is secession possible? Did not the South desire to leave the Union? To govern as they saw fit? And Lincoln would stand for no such thing?
About the futile birth certificate meme: Below, a piece from Huffington Post:
Major Conservative Site Decries Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory
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I have always held the opinion that Lincoln and his "union" was the darkness of the federal government and its powers rising up, and that power of which the new America may someday perish. "The United States" as a monstrous entity under the control of the federal government and presidential powers : Is this not precisely the opposite of the Jeffersonian ideal of free states comprised of free and equal men? Is secession possible? Did not the South desire to leave the Union? To govern as they saw fit? And Lincoln would stand for no such thing?
About the futile birth certificate meme: Below, a piece from Huffington Post:
Major Conservative Site Decries Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory
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Obama Adored in UK: London Protests Aimed at Arrogant Banks
A British reporter has told MSNBC that Obama is almost "universally adored" in Great Britain, and not since the likes of "Clinton at his height. . . or JFK" has a US president been so loved by the British. He was stressing that the London protests occurring this hour were aimed at the arrogant banks and their mismanagement. Indeed, windows were smashed at the Bank of Scotland as the reporter spoke to our correspondent.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Where to Now, Amanda? Perugian Trial Continues On. . .
One hardly knows what to make of some witness testimony: I for one become almost irate at the woman who says she heard a chilling scream, a woman's scream, which "made her flesh creep". Then, she says, she heard two sets of footsteps running over gravel. Ok, would this be a good time to call the police? Perhaps attempt to save the woman who screamed and is now bleeding to death? Nah, let it go, let the life drain out of her. If the scream was so chilling, why was it ignored?
Then there are the old faithful friends and family of Ms. Knox. Perception begins to make reality. Lines are blurred. Where does reality leave off, and wishful thinking take over? There is always a margin of error: All life is on probation. But certain evidence and facts paint a grim picture for Amanda. Time will tell, and the Italian court will speak definitively at some future point. Facts impose themselves upon illusory phantasms which come rising up from the psyche in defensive and desperate manouvering. Foul deeds will rise, tho' all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes. . . Addendum: Oh, I do not like this! Pull one thread, and the whole fabric, the entire cloth, begins to unravel! Just was trawling some old news posts on this story. Seems that the club owner, Patrick, was not fingered by Amanda, but by the police themselves. They lied, claiming his cell phone traced him to that area. He would never have been released had this been factual. So Amanda was NOT vindictive against him! If this is all fantasy, then perhaps the rest is as well. And all the psychological analysis of Amanda in vain. . . If she is innocent, if she is innocent. . . But I do not really think so. Not at all. I think it is that I do not like holes in a story. This is very worrisome to me now. It reveals the police to be liars, and perhaps bullies as well. . .
Obama Takeover of Auto Industry Rankles Some
In what some are calling an unprecedented government takeover, President Obama's move to control the two big wounded auto giants - Chrysler and GM - certainly is making some on the right cry 'socialism'. Rejecting CEO plans to turn things around, Obama has taken the reins. His ideology is in accord with the times; or rather, the times have given him an opening, and he has taken it. Ride out boy, and send it home solid. Fear of socialism is odd, given that most who fear it could benefit from a democratic, Americanized, quasi-socialism. Hard core socialist ideology had its heyday, and is not in danger of making a comeback. To demonize Obama, is to see him through the lens of paranoia. What distortions there are about him, and with what manner of probing do some on the right see all his darkness coming to light: Is this over reaction? Counterbalance and compensatory aid? I myself suffer from a bifurcated view of Obama, as these pictures illustrate. He is riding a historical moment which is pulsating with possibilities in all directions. "The handwhich writes the future as though it were the past": these words of an I Ching scholar depicts the writing on the wall, which is visible to those with historical sense.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
New York City to Welcome Martin Huxter
As his privileged American associate, I am pleased to announce that our London blogger, Martin Huxter, aka Hurlyburly , will be arriving in Times Square on April 12. He will be staying at the Hilton Hotel on 42nd Street. We who know this lovely and illustrious Londoner, film critic, and social satirist, are looking forward to his arrival immensely. Bravo to Martin!
Alarmists Are Preaching to the Choir over GIVE Act
There is so much alarm, on the right, over President Obama's GIVE Act: That it will be forcing volunteer work on the young ( but has not school attendance always been compulsary, and a violation of the right to free association? ) and that it is a seditious piece of legislation which aims to prohibit protest ( what about the '90s massive expansion of police powers, forcing people to take breathalizer tests and go into rehab "treatment" centers at the first sign of intoxication, even if the driving was superb, and one was stopped routinely?). . .
This is so much preaching to the choir: The Alarmists leading those with a proclivity - nay a deep desire - to be Alarmed. I am behing the Act, because the times call for it. We have a sinking economy, 2 foreign wars, and are clearly going down. If this will help to unify and rebuild, and is what the times call for, why whine about it? Support Our Volunteer Troops!
GIVE ACT Has Passed in House, Now Goes to Senate
President Obama's GIVE Act has now passed in the House and moves on to the Senate. Many on the right are highly suspicious of this expansive bill which advocates and even mandates volunteerism. I think it is simply the season of history which has come upon us. It was predicted, and predicatble. I think everyone ought to research and read the bill, and decide whether it is innocuous, pernicious, or somewhere in between.
Conservative Fear of Obama GIVE Act: Irrational?
Just reading "Wake Up America" on Obama's GIVE Act. Yes, references to Ayers, and that he yet believes in "bombing the Pentagon". Must be irrational, or sublime. I do not believe Ayers to be the same man he was when he believed himself to be a radical terrorist in the cause of justice. On the other hand, "one changes and remains the same man; nay, three times over" is a Nietzschean insight. Time will tell. Indoctrination of children has been with us throughout all decades of our history; it is a matter of the degree of good or ill. I grow weary of it all: Somehow things have managed to feel stale early on with this Administration.
And does the GIVE Act really prohibit the right to protest proposed legislation? That does not sound right, and I will have to research. . .
And does the GIVE Act really prohibit the right to protest proposed legislation? That does not sound right, and I will have to research. . .
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