IANAH, but there was a sizzling documentary on the local non-commercial TV last month about the relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt. Basically it described Lend Lease as a massive confidence trick played on both Churchill and the US public to keep the US out of the war in reality, but in the war in sentimentality. Apparently Lend Lease only contributed 1% of Britain's consumed requirements during that period of the war, while the US sold itself profusely in newsreels as "the Armoury of the free world" as if it was supplying so much more of Britain's need. Apparently prior to Pearl, Roosevelt was simlilar to current GW&co with regards to political tap-dancery and media salesmanship. Churchill initially believed in his rhetoric, then as the year of lost promises and German bombardments wore on Churchill realised thst Roosevelt was taking him for a ride (source was Churchill's diary notes). Only Pearl brought the US in to Asia and I expect there was more to why they bothered entering EU in reality than some vague concept of "dear old England". Roosevelt might have been more worried about the USSR taking EU as a final outcome of WW2. I don't think he was worried about Germany taking EU. Germany would be a good trade partner. Plenty of good capitalists there. Remember Communism had a manadate to extinuish all other cultures and social formations. Germany only had a mandate to extinguish one, and that was apalling enough. It appears that most US citizens still believe that they saved the Brits via Lend Lease. If so, and if the preceeding analysis was accurate, then Roosevelt's confidence trick is still working today. A most enduring political success. Remember, what is a narcissist's principle objective? And are they capable of doing anything but responding to that urge?
Forgetting the RIAA for a moment, step back a few light years and think about the long history of music. In terms of centuries, this desparate troughing that the RI (recording industry) has managed over the last half century is like a burst of activity in the gold fields, then something fundamental changes and for some reason the Gold Rush ends. If the RI wants to stand in the middle of the deserted gold fields screaming "poor me", then so be it, but if a fundamental aspect of "gold production" has changed, then, sorry, but it's *over*. You (RI, RIAA et al) have to look for something else to do "after the Gold Rush", rather than try to sue the consumers for not buying *your* Gold anymore. So what about claims that the MI (music industry) is dead by association? This seems to be another illogical grab for air in a bid by the RI to survive. The MI has existed since the first huddle of cavemen got together, beat drums in time, and feasted with a dancing tribe. Music and the MI preceeded the RI gold rush and did quite well about it thank you very much. Musicians are artists and art is most often a matter of the heart searching for and finding expression. Cash is all well and good, but at the end of the day if payment for music is extinguished altogether, music will prevail irrespective. Art is not extinguished by poverty, so neither is music. Only greedy troughing is extinguished by poverty. Here's a tip: I play in a band. We're not too bad at what we do. We put smiles on faces every show and most of the time we cover our up front costs. We never cover our "hours" put in, and we don't care, because it's Art, and we all have day jobs anyway. And guess what? There's no greedy corporation troughing from *our* Art.
Just rebadge this entire story: "Big mega-corp directors, disconnected from any social reality beyond their golf club, just want to stuff their pockets with our cash for minimal service in return. Regulators who attend the same golf club will legislate it and enforce it." Oh what a surprise. I give you the precedent: "let them eat cake".
... but have you have noticed that Mormons tend to be really nice people? ... unless you try to leave, then they treat you like you are the greatest evil on earth. Another hallmark of the *commonly* defined "cult".
I'll toss a second thought into this mix. Maybe this is good in a very subtle way. Perhaps if the good US cictizens taste the medicine that their government has comfortably dispensed to the third world for the last half-century, then they might extend their outrage beyond merely "this hurts us" to "so, this is why we are thought of so poorly".
(Citing Talking Heads, melodramatically) perhaps one day we might hear the US cry: "And you may ask yourself well, how did I get here?... (Letting the days go by)... And you may tell yourself: This is not my beautiful house!... My God! What have I done?"
It's not supposed to be easy for the government to carry out espionage on its own soil. It's mildly disturbing, as one from outside the US, that you guys are so comfortable saying that. The corollary (sic?), which seems to so elude US commentators and be so obvious to the rest of us, is that it's just ticketty-boo for "the government to carry out espionage on someone else's soil."
Thanks heaps, oh defenders of the free world.
A Non Cow
Isn't the galaxy *lens*-shaped...;) Humour Disclaimer - yes, no medium change, therefore a refractive index ratio of 1... unless you count stars as being "like atoms" in that they are *relatively* small "solid" object with large spaces in between them, suspended in a "space". Then therefore we *do* have a medium change and a ratio of refractive indices: light passes from an area of space populated by N stars / lightyear^3 to an area of space with M stars / lightyear^3 where N << M, and the N populated area is lens shaped, therefore visual distortion! [cough]ull$hit!:) ANonCow --- Sir Bedevere:...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped. King Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
If you give the enemy a chance, he'll go for it. He'll take risks for his country or his ideology or his faith or his friends; he'll accept the likelihood of death for the chance of bringing down a Yankee imperialist. The faceless, dehumanised enemy, hey?
What about for his dead toddler daughter? What about for his dead mother? What about for his raped and murdered sister?
War itself breeds plenty of valid reasons to fight, for those who are in it - not so much for those who are watching through CNN or Al Jazeera. Your shortlist of examples are charicatures of an enemy that selected western countries have convinced themselves exist simply because knowledge of the deeper truth would be enbearable. It belittles those people who have taken up arms in every country in history (including our/your own, I expect) to fight not for the things you cited, but simply because they have suffered all that any human can bear, and personal death no longer presents any obstacle to choice.
Hopefully not being too melodramatic. Just thought it was worth reminding you (pl) that we're not fighting images on a playstation here. They are as us - no different.
Should the tide turn one day, I expect the same mercies and considerations that were afforded to them to be returned in kind. I have children and it is a brutal thought to ponder.
Thankyou, excellent observation, and I agree. Yes, I do tend to get a bit 'sparky' now and again. Your (polite) bucket of cold water is appreciated. ANonCow
Further thought - if these things are ever deployed, the intensity of the frequency that they produce would be valuable as a recording in every plane's flight recorder (black box). As advised by history, the device will not only remain in the hands of law enforcment agencies, they *will* migrate to even *less* desireable hands. ANonCow
Slashdot Mirror
gorgeous quote. :)
I even had a blister on my little finger last time we played and that was worth many jibes. (A sporting injury, not from playing!)
IANAH, but there was a sizzling documentary on the local non-commercial TV last month about the relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt. Basically it described Lend Lease as a massive confidence trick played on both Churchill and the US public to keep the US out of the war in reality, but in the war in sentimentality. Apparently Lend Lease only contributed 1% of Britain's consumed requirements during that period of the war, while the US sold itself profusely in newsreels as "the Armoury of the free world" as if it was supplying so much more of Britain's need.
Apparently prior to Pearl, Roosevelt was simlilar to current GW&co with regards to political tap-dancery and media salesmanship. Churchill initially believed in his rhetoric, then as the year of lost promises and German bombardments wore on Churchill realised thst Roosevelt was taking him for a ride (source was Churchill's diary notes). Only Pearl brought the US in to Asia and I expect there was more to why they bothered entering EU in reality than some vague concept of "dear old England". Roosevelt might have been more worried about the USSR taking EU as a final outcome of WW2. I don't think he was worried about Germany taking EU. Germany would be a good trade partner. Plenty of good capitalists there. Remember Communism had a manadate to extinuish all other cultures and social formations. Germany only had a mandate to extinguish one, and that was apalling enough.
It appears that most US citizens still believe that they saved the Brits via Lend Lease. If so, and if the preceeding analysis was accurate, then Roosevelt's confidence trick is still working today. A most enduring political success.
Remember, what is a narcissist's principle objective? And are they capable of doing anything but responding to that urge?
Forgetting the RIAA for a moment, step back a few light years and think about the long history of music. In terms of centuries, this desparate troughing that the RI (recording industry) has managed over the last half century is like a burst of activity in the gold fields, then something fundamental changes and for some reason the Gold Rush ends. If the RI wants to stand in the middle of the deserted gold fields screaming "poor me", then so be it, but if a fundamental aspect of "gold production" has changed, then, sorry, but it's *over*. You (RI, RIAA et al) have to look for something else to do "after the Gold Rush", rather than try to sue the consumers for not buying *your* Gold anymore.
So what about claims that the MI (music industry) is dead by association? This seems to be another illogical grab for air in a bid by the RI to survive. The MI has existed since the first huddle of cavemen got together, beat drums in time, and feasted with a dancing tribe. Music and the MI preceeded the RI gold rush and did quite well about it thank you very much. Musicians are artists and art is most often a matter of the heart searching for and finding expression. Cash is all well and good, but at the end of the day if payment for music is extinguished altogether, music will prevail irrespective. Art is not extinguished by poverty, so neither is music. Only greedy troughing is extinguished by poverty.
Here's a tip: I play in a band. We're not too bad at what we do. We put smiles on faces every show and most of the time we cover our up front costs. We never cover our "hours" put in, and we don't care, because it's Art, and we all have day jobs anyway. And guess what? There's no greedy corporation troughing from *our* Art.
Just rebadge this entire story: "Big mega-corp directors, disconnected from any social reality beyond their golf club, just want to stuff their pockets with our cash for minimal service in return. Regulators who attend the same golf club will legislate it and enforce it." Oh what a surprise.
I give you the precedent: "let them eat cake".
... but have you have noticed that Mormons tend to be really nice people? ... unless you try to leave, then they treat you like you are the greatest evil on earth. Another hallmark of the *commonly* defined "cult".I'll toss a second thought into this mix.
... ... ...
Maybe this is good in a very subtle way. Perhaps if the good US cictizens taste the medicine that their government has comfortably dispensed to the third world for the last half-century, then they might extend their outrage beyond merely "this hurts us" to "so, this is why we are thought of so poorly".
(Citing Talking Heads, melodramatically) perhaps one day we might hear the US cry:
"And you may ask yourself
well, how did I get here?
(Letting the days go by)
And you may tell yourself:
This is not my beautiful house!
My God! What have I done?"
Thanks heaps, oh defenders of the free world.
A Non Cow
... could be come a viable security model again at some stage in the future. From whom do we need to be secured?
Isn't the galaxy *lens*-shaped ... ;) ... unless you count stars as being "like atoms" in that they are *relatively* small "solid" object with large spaces in between them, suspended in a "space". Then therefore we *do* have a medium change and a ratio of refractive indices: light passes from an area of space populated by N stars / lightyear^3 to an area of space with M stars / lightyear^3 where N << M, and the N populated area is lens shaped, therefore visual distortion! :) ...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped.
Humour Disclaimer - yes, no medium change, therefore a refractive index ratio of 1
[cough]ull$hit!
ANonCow
---
Sir Bedevere:
King Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
What about for his dead toddler daughter? What about for his dead mother? What about for his raped and murdered sister?
War itself breeds plenty of valid reasons to fight, for those who are in it - not so much for those who are watching through CNN or Al Jazeera. Your shortlist of examples are charicatures of an enemy that selected western countries have convinced themselves exist simply because knowledge of the deeper truth would be enbearable. It belittles those people who have taken up arms in every country in history (including our/your own, I expect) to fight not for the things you cited, but simply because they have suffered all that any human can bear, and personal death no longer presents any obstacle to choice.
Hopefully not being too melodramatic. Just thought it was worth reminding you (pl) that we're not fighting images on a playstation here. They are as us - no different.
Should the tide turn one day, I expect the same mercies and considerations that were afforded to them to be returned in kind. I have children and it is a brutal thought to ponder.
parent is worth noting I think
Thankyou, excellent observation, and I agree. Yes, I do tend to get a bit 'sparky' now and again. Your (polite) bucket of cold water is appreciated.
ANonCow
"very witty, Wilde, very witty"
ANonCow
Further thought - if these things are ever deployed, the intensity of the frequency that they produce would be valuable as a recording in every plane's flight recorder (black box). As advised by history, the device will not only remain in the hands of law enforcment agencies, they *will* migrate to even *less* desireable hands.
ANonCow