Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, August 31, 2006
When Orwell met Chomsky...and more
Good morning Mickey.
Chomsky’s quote is right on. I also believe that paramount among individual efforts must be the understanding of the mechanisms used for control. Without it, all efforts are lost as they’ll only result in a change of tactics at best - a different load of bullshit to shovel.
I missed all the discussion yesterday, but it provided me with more to think about than talk about for me.
Posted by Amelopsis on from canada 08/31 at 07:34 AMGood morning Amelopsis and Mickey...Thank you for the Fisk photos today. I hope if there are visitors here they will click on the link and take a good long look. Especially any one who supports the military, needs to see those photos. They are banned in the usa and can be seen only at sites like this one. The usa government calls them collateral damage; I call them children.
The only way to make the world safe would be to disarm the only nation that has ever used nuclear weapons. Past behavior is a predictor of future behavior. Everyone needs to fear the terrorists in Washington with the planes and nuclear bombs. The usa lost its right to nuclear weapons when it used them on civilian population centers. Calling it collateral damage does not change the facts. There is no such thing as collateral damage. There is only the slaughter of civilians. Calling it collateral damage is like calling a train wreck, the rearrangement of hardware.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 08/31 at 07:57 AMOK, OK, now I’ve seen it all. MSNBC is reporting a news story about “flat daddies”. Life size cardboard cutouts of soldiers in camouflage uniforms are given to their children. The children take their “flat daddies” shopping etc. The “flat daddies” go on rides in the car with the children. The “flat daddies” are served beer in the back yard by their children.............
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 08/31 at 09:40 AM..."flat daddies” will watch them play there first sport, “flat daddies” will see them off to pre-school, “flat daddies” will be there when they learn to drive, go to college, graduate, get married, have kids.... seems so much less satisfying somehow. Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick. :(
Let’s not forget to mention that the US has been fighting nuclear wars since Gulf War 1. Depleted Uranium weaponry is incredibly toxic and microaerosolizes when it hit’s it’s target. Thus spreading microscopic radioactive particles into the air not just in the warzone but everywhere around the planet.
Rense has a great archive of articles on the subject.
http://www.rense.com/general70/du.htm
P&L
LCPosted by Luna_C on from The Delta 08/31 at 10:28 AMHey everyone.
Just a quick one.
The Spike Lee doc on Katrina is now available on youtube thanks to Leninology
I’m going back to it....
Posted by Uncle Joe on from England 08/31 at 01:33 PMHello Empress, RMJ, and Luna. It’s finally nice here. Cool, dry, a little sunny. Feels more like early October than late August.
I’m in agreement with Chomsky, also. Unless people can see past the propaganda, social change will not arise as a result of human action. It may result for other reasons, but that will not be pretty.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/31 at 01:34 PMSorry, Uncle Joe...simultyping. Thanks for the link.
If there was ever an event with the potential to awaken the average American, it was the Katrina aftermath. Sadly, it was another opportunity lost.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/31 at 01:36 PMHello,
This is my first post here after being directed to this site by RMJ (hello, btw...thanks for your reply). I agree that it is time to disarm this psychotic and exploitive empire. It certianly isn’t going to happen of its own accord especially in light of the fact that so few are willing to look beyond the shadows on the wall. In the past I have always believed that people should be left to their own ignorance, if that is what they have chosen to do. I mean, who am I to force them into a better understanding or for that matter who am I to presume that I possess such a thing in the first place? Even if I did have some kernal of wisdom does it stack up to their reward of bliss, as is oft reported to come from the cultivation of unknowing? But what if that ignorance gives carte blanche and a seeming legitimacy ( we are THE Democracy are we not?)to the rape of the world, what then? Does even standing with placards held high suffice when the endless repetition of such has done little but arose the scorn of sheep? Meanwhile we hurtle, lemming like, towards the abyss not only of our country, our civil liberties, our “way of life”, our planet but to the doom of all the world where “famine, sword and fire crouch for employment”. A change in tactics is neccesary. I cannot say I know now what, or how, but I do know that we need, this planet needs, our efforts to produce tangible and profound results. And we need, I need, to figure out what that is. I have come too late to this understanding, so pardon me for being abit melodramatic and “verbose”. I feel the need to rouse myself to whatever may need doing.Posted by MayDay on from Waiting for Ernesto..... 08/31 at 02:17 PMBravo, MayDay...you’ve said a mouthful. I’m currently writing an article that taps right into your excellent question: But what if that ignorance gives carte blanche and a seeming legitimacy (we are THE Democracy are we not?) to the rape of the world, what then?
Thanks, RMJ, for sending MayDay our way.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/31 at 02:24 PMHi Luna and Uncle Joe. MayDay, Great to see you here. I’ve been waiting for you to show up.
Today it is easy for me to stay centered and focused. First, with the link to the Fisk photos here, and now I just arrived home from the funeral of a friend. Nothing like a friend’s funeral (he was only in his 40’s) to put things in perspective. And then, as I was driving home, I saw a man on the side of the road. He had an old beaten up bicycle beside him. He was holding a sign that said, “Hungry---Will work for food.”
MayDay sez A CHANGE IN TACTICS IS NECESSARY. I want a t-shirt that says that with along with MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY. BTW, “Mayday” is one of my favorite words.
On the brighter side...don’t you just wish that you were a writer for the Colbert Report on the day that the news announces “Flat Daddies”. Maybe I’ll try to send some comments on to Steve. Those who think kids are screwed up now, better wait till the generation with “Flat Daddies” and “Flat Mommies” grows up. What I want to know is why we can’t have “Flat Presidents” and “Flat Congressmen” and “Flat Troops”. The film footage that went along with the news story, which was supposed to be serious, was very funny. I wonder, if you serve a “Flat Daddie” a beer, if it is flat.....
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 08/31 at 03:07 PMAfternoon Expendables, and a warm welcome to you Mayday…
I had a comment all typed out earlier and managed to lose it before posting (I really hate it when that happens!) I was touching on the Flat Daddy Syndrome that you prophecy above, RMJ....just think of the intellectual and emotional damage that might be causing and how it’ll manifest in about a decade or so. (We think we’ve seen it all, but just wait to see what those kids might come up with?!)
Sorry for the loss of your friend, RMJ.Posted by Amelopsis on from canada 08/31 at 03:35 PMDo any of you appreciate how hard I’m working to not make a “flat Mommy” joke?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 08/31 at 03:41 PMYou’re a card, MZ! (ahem)
I suppose Flat Daddy would’ve come in handy back in the Men’s Shoppe photo-shoot days ;)Posted by Amelopsis on from canada 08/31 at 04:00 PMYeah, that Julia was one smart fox, wasn’t she… um, Julia? You know. You gotta rent the ‘85 film, 1984. So they screwed up the timing, so what? Sir Richard Burton’s last film.
What an odd mix of the dreadfully dreary and light-hearted Cool Observer and the comments here are. Kind of like my latest job. I have a really cool co-worker that I make all kinds of proofreader jokes with, but must proof such awful stuff. In law firms, at least I couldn’t comprehend the corporate evil-speak outside of checking for consistency and grammar, etc., but here, it’s clear what it’s about: Let this so and so investment bank (okay, MS) show you what funds to invest in for maximum profitable return… and here they are, in a list of the most obviously evil companies the USA has to offer.
Plus, MS owns the credit card I owe so much on. Couldn’t they both just work something out?
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 08/31 at 05:13 PMabout lemmings: http://tinyurl.com/y5mi
Posted by TM on from 08/31 at 08:44 PMOne thought on the link with page after page of dead people. I haven’t heard yet why Muslims kill fellow Muslims as a way of fighting the Americans. We have around 140,000 troops over there right now. Why not go after them?
The insurgents kill women & children on a daily basis yet you make them out to be heros. Yet, When an American soldier does it you want justice for the deceased.
I also want justice for them . I also want justice for the many more victims of the insurgents.
Posted by David on from Louisville KY 08/31 at 10:29 PMdavid you say “ why are muslims killing muslims to get at americans “ that is plain wrong. Even by US military admission over 80% of the attacks are aimed at them.
“In Iraq, in contrast to the embedded lie that the killings are now almost entirely sectarian, 70 per cent of the 1,666 bombs exploded by the resistance in July were directed against the American occupiers and 20 per cent against the puppet police force. Civilian casualties amounted to 10 per cent. In other words, unlike the collective punishment meted out by the US, such as the killing of several thousand people in Fallujah, the resistance is fighting basically a military war and it is winning. That truth is suppressed, as it was in Vietnam.”
(http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-08300685847.htm)by the way do you think the “10% of CASUALTIES are civilian” that appears to being claimed is correct? JP seems to go from talking about targets (90% non civillian) to actual casualties. Anyone check this? I’ve gotta dash to work.
Posted by Uncle Joe on from england 09/01 at 01:45 AMMickey, I believe the Katrina issue was a nonstarter for a reason.
In the Land of the Free, we live by the myth of Horatio Alger, and that myth’s flipside. In other words, everyone can be financially secure (at least), and those who aren’t, well, it’s their own damn fault. While the corporate media did spend five minutes in the flood zone bitching about where the federal response was, they were at the same time propagating vicious lies and myths of black savagery and loss of civility during that time of crisis.My point is that the poorest and most vulnerable of NOLA were more or less intentionally abandoned, because those in power knew there’d be no consequences for abandoning them. Sure, there was a lot of media handwringing and fingerpointing at the respective gov’ts while the waters were high, but there was also the reflexive regurgitation of myths of black savagery and cannabalistic, predatory behavior. As the waters receded, so did the official castigation of the Bush administration. A year later you see flashy stories of black people scamming FEMA, and you have CNN helping Bush with a photo op.
I don’t think this is a corporate media conspiracy, it’s just the media giving the majority of U.S. citizens what they want and expect to see.
Posted by Church Secretary on from Chicago, USA 09/01 at 04:22 AMDavid: You have a knack for creating straw men. No one here is saying the insurgents are heroes.
Church Secretary: Good points...except I never said is was a conspiracy.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/01 at 05:52 AMSorry, Mickey, I wasn’t directing that conspiracy line at you. I was just sort of musing to myself with that. Heading off talking points is a bad habit I’ve formed from conversing with too many right-wingers.
Posted by Church Secretary on from Chicago 09/01 at 08:29 AMNo offense taken, CS. I was just clarifying. Hope you’ll join in here more often.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/01 at 09:10 AM
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