Kombinat!
Lend your listening to Tutor's speakING
At
Wealth Bondage comments.
"The classical liberalism I am defending is right out of civics 101. We failed it, not the other way around. Sure, human rights in Greece, Rome, London, America were once restricted, and that was a failure of those who expounded the ideals of universal human rights, not a failure of the ideal of universal human rights. An attack of "universals," or the very concept of rights, or the Constitution as the product of dead white males and proprietors does strike me as unhelpful. Because once universals are demolished into societally constituted "differences," in the name of what do we object to ruthless power, that "socially constitutes" its own hegemonic ideology, WB personified? We have the high ground in the Constitution and its Englightenment ideals, why abandon that high ground for paltry positions, that have no real intellectual substance, like anarchism, which in the end is what? A gesture? A snubbing of the nose, an atitude, a posture? "You can't make me," as adolescents say when confronted with authority, or sometimes with reason.
Rather than my defending this as a theorist, let me just say that for me the tradition of Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill, Isaiah Berlin has fused with the parallel neoclassical literary tradition of Horace, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Gay, and say Wilde. To me as I live it, all that is one living breathig tradition, of which I am the product, proponent and idiot-evangelist. What I am saying and have said consistently is that the liberalism, diffidence, good manners, triagulation and compromise are a poor and debased version of the virile liberal tradition. Add back in the satirists mentioned and you have a tradition that is as well able to wound as it is to cure. That tradition is, as I have experienced it or absorbed it, more Anglo-American than Continental, though, you could add out of date humanists to it, like Santayana, Camus or Satre. And you could add Englightenment figures like Voltaire and Diderot, and I am sure many others. But the tradition by which I was formed, before my mind closed, and I found myself in a Dumpster is the tradition of my native language. I recognize the liability from a fashionable intellectual standpoint, but I must say that anyone leading from Zizek, say, Marx, French Freud, or Derrida, will never be elected Sheriff, much less President, whereas to lead from the founding fathers and their Enlightenment sources, and classical sources, is nothing more than to awaken America to her own muse or angel. I fully - believe me - recognize how limited I am, but I would ask that people give thought to the depth and consistency of my position, since it operates in two strands, moral/political/theoretical and also literary. I am claiming not to be "right," but to have rediscovered and laid bare the foundations of our ruined city, and am saying that here we might build again. That is my colossal arrogance. If I were still a teacher, I would sit you down with David Hume open before you and also Swift or Pope and would show you sentence by sentence that both are Augustans, writing the same English, often using the same tropes, and that both are virile writers, who use satire to drive home moral as well as intellectual points. If liberalism in the broadest sense is to thrive again, we need to reawken the language, as well as the logic, that the ideals might live, contested and victorious."
For a pack of lies, cheap gasoline and rice
Arundhati Roy speech was published by BaltimoreChronicle:
"we truly do live in the Age of Irony, in an age when satire has become meaningless because real life is more satirical than satire can ever be."
The speech is archived here at WTI site:In unrelated news please sign up for Air Watch to be notified of daily Smog Alerts in your area. - Thank you.
and in another unrelated news the US government has made village building obsolete. - most children were not available for comment on the sudden stoppage since they were too busy being raised in front of TV tubes. Who needs a village when you can raise your child in a 2 by 3 feet space.
and in yet another unrelated news there will be more killing in Iraq.
Good night.
Satire Theater Play - Singen für Deutschland
Last night I laughed my ass off to a
great Satirical Theater Play called "Singen für Deutschland" at the Bremer Theater. Set at a psychiatric clinic, a last resort to cure the symptoms of BeerAllergy, Footballphobia, Grilled-Bratwurst Paranoia, and other allergic reactions to the typical cliches of Being Germany, Not Being German Enough, Inferiority Feelings of German Identity and other psychosomatic reactions up to and including dealing with being labeled as Nazis. - The therapy method? Singing the Top Pop Charts German Songs, Germany National Hymn and forcing oneself to engage in typical German activities of Beer Drinking, Bratwurst Eating, Football playing and Mercedes driving. - Fantastic Satire. Superb play. Fun for the whole family.
The stage was set as a group therapy session, with two German flags, a German Eagle on the wall, and a piano. As each patient entered the stage we could observe their allergic reactions to seeing a German Flag and the Eagle. - One fell to the floor, unable to exist, paralyzed; one almost puked and was actively not trying to look at the German insignia yet she couldn't keep her eyes off it, which caused more nausea and stomach upset. One was calm and nothing seemed to bother him because he was dressed as a Native American Indian, a complete denial of being German in appearance and speech (yes, he mumbled something which was supposed to be language of American Indians displayed on popular American Western movies): yet his name was Rudiger. - a typical German name which does not occur in the Wild West. - Each actor displayed a stereotypical German character, in appearance and mannerism. And each in total panic of being German.
The play is an exploration of National Identity using the cliches of Being German, Beer Drinking, Bratwurst Grilling, Bundesliga Football playing. - Germans are in fact living a life of Germans without being German. - it's a stigma to be German, to care about your fatherland, to love your country and be proud because someone will always come along and point a finger at you and call you a nazi, - once a nazi, always a nazi. This is a tragedy of this country. The constant blame for the crimes of the fore fathers. a blame conveniently perpetuated by the outsiders. So the play explores this inability, this allergy, the paranoia within each German, how to be, who to be? At what level can I be a German? - it seems they are stuck, unable to create a National Identity that does not include the blame for fathering Nazism. - It's the courage therapy, courage to be who you can't escape being. Courage to live with the consequences and overcome the shame.
The play is superb. Nuanced, subtle undertones of humanity in a context of exaggerated cliched turn-up-the-volume distorted Top Pop Charts Songs the whole country vomits every year.
Imagine an American version, a hippie weed smoking San Franciscan forced to sing
"Let The Eagle Soar" at a therapy session with John Ashcr0ft as the Good Doctor whose gonna cure you and make you love your country and be a proud American. I would love to see an American Version of this. Somebody should write it. Have courage!
Tom's Useful Inquiry
IMproPRieTies: a useful inquiry:
is it possible to study the blogosphere and say with any degree of certainty that (a) the mythos of nationhood is undergoing serious critique leading to a new sense of human order and systems, (b) the activity of global interconnected environments is exaggerating and deepening traditional notions of national identity, or (c) the group intelligence of the blogosphere is having no impact on the matter whatsoever?
This is your kid ... on capitalism
Chief Blogging Officer latest brilliant shit:
Respect has to be demonstrated and thereby earned. Don't expect it to be forthcoming from intelligent children who are in the same boat you're in -- and know it -- and are honestly asking tougher questions than you're willing to confront yourself.
Numbers storytelling
InvestorsInsight : John Mauldin's Outside the Box > Archives:
"In the previous table, we show in greater detail the relationship between valuations and future long-term real returns based on estimates from our regression work. If, for example, the stock market was trading at a normalized P/E of 15, then a best guess for real returns would be 2.5% per annum over the next decade. In actual fact, the S&P 500 is trading at a normalized P/E ratio of 35. Based on this model, stocks are estimated to decline by 3.6% per annum in real terms. Grossing this result up by adding in some inflation (say 2%) and a dividend yield (say 2%), we arrive at 0.4% total returns per annum for the next decade... uninspiring prospects, to say the least."
In Unrelated news:
US trade deficit increases to record high in first quarter 2005 - Wikinews:
The US trade deficit has increased to its highest-ever level, $195.1bn in the first quarter of 2005,... The last quarter of 2004 saw a deficit of $188.4bn. The new record-breaking deficit represents 6.4% of the US's gross national product, again an increase on last-quarter 2004 - up 0.1%.
Children Soldiers: The Destruction of Humanity
Children at War
P.W. Singer speech at Carnegie Council about his book "
Children at War":
As Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, "It is immoral that adults should want children to fight their wars for them. There is simply no excuse, no acceptable argument, for arming children."
There may be no moral excuse, but the reality is that this dark practice continues today and is only growing. And so what this book seeks to do is explain why is this happening, what are the implications of it, and then what can we do about it.
(...) we are in the midst of the most prosperous generation in human history, but we are also leaving people behind, and in particular we are leaving a cohort of children behind. Another way to put it is we are seeing a lost generation right now. All the ills of globalization, wars, etc., are falling on children hardest. When you look at the numbers, they are staggering: more than 250 million children are homeless; more than 25 million children are refugees or internally displaced persons.
A particular at-risk group for child soldiers is orphans, and their numbers are higher not only because of conflicts that are spiraling out but also because of disease. By the year 2010 it is thought that as many as 43 million children will have lost either both or one of their parents to AIDS. What this has done is created a new pool of potential combatants.
Listen.
Wearing the wristband is not a solution. Wearing handcuffs might be.
Lt. Gen. Roméo A. Dallaire
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Sandhill mentions Rwanda and points to a speech by Dallaire, who was the commander of UN Peacekeeping mission during 1994 genocide. A must-read;
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in RwandaThe skill sets of this era are intellectual. They’re not tactical, they’re not doctrinal, they’re not process. They’re based on anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and on trying to understand the nuances that are in play -- and try not to simply witness, as we had to, to fall back, because we couldn’t use force -- but they’re built on the ability to proactively function in ambiguity.
Also more here at The Loundness of Silence post from Danny Miller: and the picture of Dallaire with effects of genocide, pointing to the Documentary
When Dallaire speaks in front of an enormous crowd at an event to mark the anniversary, he sadly admits to the assembled Rwandans that the superpowers simply had no interest in them. While tens of thousands of troops were dispatched to white European Yugoslavia, virtually none were sent to Rwanda. The small country offered no strategic interest, no oil, nothing to buy or sell—all it had was black Africans and, as he acknowledges hearing at the U.N., “perhaps too many of those anyway.”
(...)
So the real question is: is the Western world prepared to spill blood for advancing human rights in far-off lands that mean nothing, except for one small fact: they are exactly the same as us?
Rich Dad Poor Dad Archeology
John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad:
The most common favorable comment I get about Kiyosaki from those who generally agree with my analysis is that “He got me to think about my finances.” That’s pretty lame.
The IRS makes you think about your finances every April 15th. You have to think about your finances whenever you fill out a loan or credit-card application."
Still Digging...however archeological findings show that there never was a 'Rich Dad' person and Kiyosaki made up the whole thing. - well, good for him I say, good for him.
I think the S. Orman woman, a fabulous financial guru to the white trash dwellers of all ages has learned a lot from Kiyosaki but I would imagine he has a lot more style. She, on the other hand, makes me feel like an Idiot. (I think there is something to it though).
Overall Atmosphere of Safety Maintenance Mode
GE's Homeland Protection business... today announced its most recent delivery order with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA): the purchase of 43 CTX 9000 DSi explosives detection system (EDS) machines, valued at over $50 million.
Perhaps it would be useful to point that no explosives were used in September 11th. attacks.
Back to sleep. We are all safe for now. GE has solutions
white people have feelings too
RB at CBO digressions;snip snip:
"...is because, under the skin, Democrat or Republican, neocon or liberal, genius or moron, Americans are seething with homicidal race hatred. Sure, sure, we all pretend we're full of multicultural "understanding" and positively brimming with small-d democratic longings for "equality." Until some Latino swipes our favorite parking spot, or some black dude cops an attitude in the supermarket checkout lane. And it's dangerous to admit such things public or there might be a, you know, race war or something.
However, I want to be totally fair here. It's not a one-way street. Contrary to popular opinion, white people have feelings too. And let me ask you this: when was the last time you saw grown up white people dressing up like indians, or calling themselves silly names like Professor Longhair? (Forget Captain Beefheart for a minute.) I want to argue that white people -- that is to say, generally speaking -- have more important things to think about. Like thermonuclear war, for example. And other neat shit too cool to imagine, like what The Geeks of War, who you can bet are all 99.9% Aryo-Caucasian, think about..."
yes, there is more... at Chief Blogging Officer.
Happy Birthday Jeneane
It's Jeneane's Birthday. She is such a wonderful person. Simply wonderful.
All the best!
The Only Game in Town
Tom whose recent post "The World We Have" I keep rereading points to
informant38 saying:
Transactional parasitism. Getting in between the subject and the object of desire, and retailing the gain
So, how to Be? How much do you need to "Have" to "Be"? In pursuit of Having we give up our Being and become Human Havings, transactional creatures vomiting phrases dumped into our gaping mouths when staring into that Thing. - So, how to Be? How much 'Having' is enough to "Be" when you wake up in a world of manufactured scarcity every single day.
I told my friend whose responses of "I don't shit money" to her teenage daughter's incessant pleads to 'buy, buy, buy' - that she does not have a chance. She must 'shit money' - it's the only game in town - her daughter a transfixed participant in these bulimic games of compulsive swallowing large quantities of desire and vomiting contempt and disrespect on her mother for not shitting fast enough. As I said, it's the only game in town.
So, how to Be? Do you leave the Game? Do you stop participating? How much 'Having' is enough? What other Game can we Play?
Wealth Bondage: forever inside the frame
Instructions: Collect words and phrases presented here as clues to make a new frame outside of Wealth Bondage:
Clues are snipped from the post at
Wealth Bondage: Billboard Liberation Front: To serve Man: (Fun for the whole family)
Clue 1: "talk about ads in the language of ads is to admit the defeat"
Clue 2: "digestive system of the United Corporate Immensity is filled with bits and pieces of nice folks"
Clue 3: "creatures of market culture whose protest itself is framed"
Clue 4: "forever inside the frame"
Clue 5: " Those who control the frame are not big losers when you disagree with them"
Clue 6: "we plug subversion into the feeding tube. But we don't unhook"
And yes, I checked with Satan. He did chuckle.
Asking Lions to Eat Grass instead.
Joel Makower: Cashing In vs. Selling Out:
“We believe that corporations should not be required to maximize wealth for shareholders at the expense of employee, the community, and the environment,” says Leslie Christian, chair of Upstream 21 and president of Portfolio 21
via
thehappytutor
Fake Quotes: Long Tail
"The age of blockbuster movies is over. The age of Long Tail is upon us."
bada bing.
Fake Quotes: Latest
"She was listening to the latest song from the latest movie by the latest star on the latest channel from latest player"
bada bing testing testing
Fake quotes: You were fired!
"You can never fire somebody too soon. Anytime is a good time, yesterday was even better"
bada bing
Kombinat European Dumpster Tour
The time has come, time to move back and visit the dumpsters of Europe. Going there this weekend. Gonna be in Germany mainly (also Poland, Czech Republic, The Sin City of Amsterdam etc...)
It will be fun to blog again, write some bad shit, bird droppings on a sidwalk as
Fishrush used to say.
Been busy living life here, Costa Rica, Dallas, Seattle and Gabriola Island, - making myself an outstanding member of Ownership Society. Candidia Cruikshanks would have been proud, of course right after I had licked her boots and seen my smiling face in the reflection of black leather.
UPDATE: Got a word from Fishrush that the correct phrase is "nothing more than bird dirt
on the sidewalk" - The editorial staff apologizes for the mishandling of the reference to birds and sidewalks.
Dumpster Rent Due
Went to
thehappytutor website. it redirects me to
http://server28.com/suspended.page/ with a message "this account has been suspended".
Looks like the Dumpster Rent is Due, Happy Tutor.
