Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Suggestion for potential military enlistees: Just say no
Petition signed. I greatly enjoy Finkelsteinn.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 04/24 at 08:10 AMNorman’s great debate with James Petras is posted at:
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/1242/1/A must listen/read!
Posted by bismark on from 04/24 at 09:47 AMJust a thought after reading http://tinyurl.com/3d446e,
Who needs “heros at all?”Better (and partly what I think Mickey is driving to), how do we ourselves become heros… or heroines?
pdf - The banality of Heroism” http://tinyurl.com/ypwa26
The folk singer Pete Seeger once brilliantly described the crux of our shared human interest to end hatred and violence altogether:
“You see, you and I, we’re all descended from killers, good killers. The ones who were not good killers didn’t have descendants. But we’re descended from good killers. For millions of years our ancestors were good killers. They say if they hadn’t been, we wouldn’t be here today.
Now is a new period....Einstein was the first person who said it; everything has changed now, except our way of thinking. And we’ve got to find ways to change our way of thinking.”
http://tinyurl.com/2javdyPosted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 04/24 at 10:28 AMMick - thanks for the book! I received it yesterday and already had a chance to go through a good bit of it...it’s excellent. Thanks again!
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/24 at 10:45 AMHello Expendables. Another gorgeous spring day in NYC. I was just wondering if you got the book, JOS. Glad you like it.
Robert: I’m not one for hero worship either. I’m more in line with Vonnegut’s belief that a “saint” is one who behaves decently in an indecent world.
Bismark: What happened to “phil-o-sofa”?
Hello Jeremy…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/24 at 11:18 AMEspecially for Jeremy:
http://woogus.com/?p=27Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/24 at 11:35 AMHello...hello, hello....
Is there anybody out there?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/24 at 04:38 PMMaybe all thats required to be a hero is that we sacrifice our boredom/selfishness long enough to do the right/decent thing. Whatever that might look like. Seems fairly straight forward to me.
We just got our first roll of thunder here...doesnt happen too often, not like back east. I love the sound and feel of thunder.
Hi Jeremy, Bismark, Robert, JOS, and Mickey.
And Hi to Helga if you pop in later.Posted by frances on from bc 04/24 at 04:44 PMslow day in the comments section, huh, Mick? It happens I guess…
By the way, I really enjoyed reading your personal introduction in Murdering. As to the overall subject of the book I am feeling particularly murdered lately by my way of making a living lately. I’ve always hated it, but right now it takes as much as 60 or more hours of my life a week. Maybe I’ll get some ideas from your book...back later.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/24 at 04:47 PMthat’s too many “lately"s…
Hi Frances.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 04/24 at 04:48 PMThose Canadian army career recruiting ads on tv must have some special appeal. My son (15)will watch one and say ‘maybe I should join the army’. when I ask what about the ad makes him want to join the army he says it looks like a video game. I use these oportunities as a crash course in unloading everything I know about why NOT to join.
Maybe some kids dont get the ‘full picture’ and joining the army looks like an exciting way to ‘see the world’ or get an advanced education.
It must be a combination of tv/schooling indoctrination with a skewed world history. And the desensitization to killing and death. That has to be first way to raise a killer, make them numb to killing . first you start with weeds and bugs and work up the chain...fucking diabolical.
Was there ever a “good” war? I remember growing up thinking the ww2 was a noble war...wow.
It boggles the mind just thinking about why anybody would willing choose to return for a second and third ‘tour’. They must rank high on the authoritarian scale is all i can think of.
There has to be a way to get to these kids before there is ever the question of yes or no…Posted by frances on from bc, canada 04/24 at 05:37 PMThat’s a good word for it, Frances: diabolical. Good luck with your son. He’s lucky to have such an open-minded and aware mom.
JOS: If you find any good ideas in my book, please share them with me. I’m in a bad “earning” groove myself.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/24 at 05:52 PMnot that anyone cares but i have posted extensively about just say no from a scottish perspective. i am not american so thats your own battle but i couldnt agree more woth the principle.
if anyone wants to check…
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/24 at 06:07 PMand please watch this, and please tell me lies.
tell me lies, please tell me lies no 1
1. http://tinyurl.com/22ydwq
2. http://tinyurl.com/2chu69#captcha is “both”
who is being funny here?
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/24 at 06:17 PMI agree...hero’s are not needed...reinforces hierarchies, reinforces leaders and followers...walk side by side hand in hand, Michael you live in Scotland, planet earth is very small, global community, you’re my neighbor and if you adopt me...my father or brother...recently a Vietnam veteran said to another Vietnam veteran...America is catatonic...we adapt very well to worst and more oppressive conditions...help your friend deal with his/her unresolved fears...then help me with mine...this we can do without a lot of organizing and confusion and still help each other transcend the shit we have allowed in our minds…
Posted by joe of maine on from 04/24 at 06:20 PMjoe - slainge va
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/24 at 06:32 PMHi All....I was in the middle of a mess of work here at home and just dropped by to check and see what’s happening at Mickey’s. Did not plan to drop a comment because I am in a rush but the captcha word is “alone”. That word got to me because maybe we, we here at Mick’s, are really alone with very few others. That is depressing but sometimes that’s the way it seems. If there were more of “us” and fewer of “them” there would be no war, no war games, no killing anywhere, no Capitalism that requires the massive war machine to sustain itself. Some say that it is not good to think in terms of “us” and “them”. I disagree. Better to be a realist than to be in denial. Opposition to all parts of the war machine is required if there is to be any change.
frances # 11 says it all… tv, schooling, skewed history, desensitization. We have become masters at producing killers.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 04/24 at 06:39 PMmichael#14 I love that ‘tell me lies’ video. Unfortunately the kid messed with my headphones so I cant hear it this time...but I have before and its great.
You know Mickey you are right I am lucky to have my kids and they are lucky to have me and we are all lucky to have survived each other...lol
I am going to add that to the hero thing...surviving parenting and being parented!
Hi Joe, HI RMJ.
captcha says ideas...RMJ I think there are many of us who have the similar thoughts and ideas just different ways of expressing them. I dont believe we are alone.Posted by frances on from bc 04/24 at 06:59 PMhello frances
scotland, if it were left alone would be a consistently leftwing country. the only reason the americans dont bomb it is that unfortunatley they have a few bases here.
then again, the possibility of shooting their own soldiers never seems to have stopped them before.
Posted by michael on from scotland 04/24 at 07:17 PMHello everyone. Just found another from Einstein: "This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism on command, senseless violence and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism.”
Michael: I’ll check those links now.
Hello Frances and Joe.Thanks for all your comments today.
RMJ: How are you?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/24 at 07:56 PMBismark: What happened to “phil-o-sofa”?
Hi Mickey: Good point! He needed some time off.
Posted by bismark on from 04/24 at 10:46 PMThanks for the post on Finkelstein, Mickey.
Posted by Ehtesham on from Canada 04/24 at 11:07 PMToday was a wierd day.
Everything was quiet here in San Francisco. Work was quiet, downtown was quiet. The grocery line was empty.
The bus was empty.
People must be waiting to get paid. It isn’t a holiday here.
Maybe people are doing hero stuff.
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 04/24 at 11:30 PMMickey:
I hadn’t quiet finished about phil-o-sofa; I was interrupted …
phil-o-sofa is trying to figure out what Norm Finkelstein next move might be, and how he would reinvent himself.
Norm is a smart guy, but ‘Phil’ didn’t quite buy the good cop, bad cop thing with Alan Dershowitz.
There is no problem, Phil says, with imagining the two, Finkelstein and Dershowitz, as if they are the opposites of the socio-political spectrum.
Cognitive dissonance arises, however, when the two are viewed in relation to a third party like James Petras: Both Dershowitz and Finkelstein suddenly merge into one and the same.
Pretty elementary stuff, really!
Posted by bismark on from 04/25 at 12:14 AM
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