Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Threats: real and imagined
I’m embarassed for that Bob Dylan fella. MZ I’m guessing you threw it up there as a curiosity. The kid is so full of shit. Wow.
As for real threats, I’m gonna repeat the link I dropped yesterday: The NewStandard. It’s not just about another good news source going down the tubes, but it’s also about the working method, a good model, in danger of never getting a real chance (like so many revolutions...). Check it out.
Posted by Keir on from The Hague (Jackowski election hdqts) 09/20 at 04:55 AMGood morning Mickey, Keir, and all...I am off topic but the AP broke the news about my candidacy in the Boston Globe. Here is the link to the Party site.
http://tinyurl.com/mqs29I apologize to Mickey and all of the other “real” writers. I know that it is not MY book. That’s the way that the webmaster did it after he went to the PSP site. I often have been getting more credit than I should. For a while, a few people were referring to the PressAction site, as my site. I always told them that it was not MY site but.........BTW, I still think that the kid sitting on my lap looks a lot like Mickey. If you don’t believe me, look at Mick’s photo on the PSP site. It is really my grandson, David.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 07:01 AMMoody loners!? Nice touch, MZ. Depends upon the demeanor, of course, but I have a tendency to be better disposed to a ‘moody loner’ than a shrieking giggling overly hip looking stranger.
I was only able to watch the first 1/4 of the Dylan clip and I thought he made at least one good point, even if incomplete, that the major news magazines wouldn’t publish the clear truth because of the likely ramifications. What I heard sounded a lot less full of shit than he does today - can’t recall the last time I heard him say something poignant.
RMJ - Very glad that the paper’s covering your candidacy; David does look like a mini-MZ - get him in photos playing peek-a-boo around a wooden bench and you’d have a matching pair ;)
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 09/20 at 08:08 AMGood luck on your candidacy, RMJ.
This might be relevant to the “Threats: Real and Imagined” topic:
A Few (Irrelevant) Observations on Bush’s Speech to the UN
During President Bush’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, he referred to the recent conflict in Lebanon, saying, a “group of extremists deliberately provoked a terrible conflict in Lebanon.” He was referring to the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and then again by Hezbollah. Irrelevant is the fact that one day prior to the Hamas abduction of an Israeli soldier, Israel kidnapped two civilians, a doctor and his brother, who were then joined with the thousands of other Palestinian prisoners held without charge in Israel.
More: http://tinyurl.com/oxbb9
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 09/20 at 08:28 AMHello Expendables...from sunny Astoria. Let me quickly clarify that I have never met RMJ’s daughter. Besides, that kid has a lot more hair than I...and none of it gray, as far as I can tell.
Congrats on the PR, RMJ. How’s mom?
Keir: I remember the first time I saw the brilliant Dylan doc, Don’t Look Back. The Time interview stood out to me because of the way Dylan made the reporter squirm.
Empress: When I think “moody loner,” I think of the boilerplate description for guys like Lee Harvey.
Jeremy: You are dead on with your “imagined threat” post. However, the topic you chose will once again put you in direct opposition of a certain Mr. Mudge. Seat belts, everyone. We’re in for another bumpy ride.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 09:28 AMKeir, take it easy on my boy Bob! I can’t listen to the video at work (no speakers), but I am pretty sure I know the interview. Sure he talked all over the place, but that was just because these moron magazine writers wanted to clearly idenitfy, box-in and label him in a nice neat little box. Read his autobiography, great stuff. He was a poet, there are no rules for art.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 09:36 AMIs it me or are you publishing a crapload of articles lately, Mick.
RMJ, you are the first person I would ever want to vote for (if I lived in VT):
http://wdthu.blogspot.com/2006/09/vote-rosemarie-jackowski-for-vt.html
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 09:39 AMAll right, JOS...another Dylan fan/RMJ fan in the house.
As for my articles, yeah...crapload is a good word. Lately, they’ve been flowing out like...well, you know.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 09:41 AMIt’s better than being constipated…
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 09:48 AMThat reminds me of something I wrote in a vegan-related article: Since our digestive tract is too long to efficiently digest meat, a pork chop can sit there putrefying for weeks. Accordingly, Americans consume more laxatives than anyone else. Think about it, almost all our legislative, judicial, health-related, and military decisions are made by constipated old white guys.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 09:53 AM[George Kennan] wrote that “rationality belongs to the cool observers” while the common person follows not reason but faith. The cool observers, he explained, must recognize “the stupidity of the average man,” and must provide the “necessary illusion” and the “emotionally potent oversimplifications” that will keep the naive simpletons on course.—Noam Chomsky, “Deterring Democracy”
Why, MZ, you couldn’t possibly be a “cool observer”!
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 09/20 at 10:20 AMHI Every Expendable, Old and New!
RMJ that is so awesome your running for State Attorney General in Vermont! I know a few folks there and will push for you.
Mickey your Target reference is ringing bells for me. I swear I’ve read that Danny Peary take on it before even though I’ve never read his book. An excellent point you make. It’s all about there manipulations of our perceptions of reality isn’t it? I think “SOAP” goes to show how a vocal minority can make even a small film sound big.
Wow, I’ve never been much of a Dylan fan but if I was in my twenties back in the sixties and saw that interview! I would of been in love!
Speaking of colons. Wish me luck all you healthy/sporty types I’m taking the big plunge over the next 7 days and starting a cleansing. It’s not all willy nilly either it’s a whole body detox cleanse. I won’t be drinking, smoking, or eating meat. It’s pretty much a light vegetarian diet supplemented with detoxifiers. Heck I might even go really crazy and throw in a 30 minute walk each day. Let’s hear it for the quest towards higher vibrations. Hooray!
Peace and Love
LunaPosted by Luna_C on from the Delta 09/20 at 10:29 AMJeremy: It was Reinhold Niebuhr who spoke of the “cool observer” and Chomsky’s mention of this did inspire my ironic moniker. It was between that and “Urban Caveman” and I often wish I chose “Urban Caveman.” Too late to switch now since this place is slowly building a readership.
Good luck, Luna. If you only go halfway, would that be a semi-colon cleanse?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 10:52 AMHa! There’s a lot of toilet humor swirling around today.
Hey there, Luna.
Personally, I like Cool Observer more than Urban Caveman, but that’s just me.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 11:04 AMLink to the pic of the day:
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 11:07 AMI think Dylan was pissed off and frustrated. Pissed off because he understood that everything he had read about or been taught in school was bullshit, and frustrated because he was trying to explain this to the last person in the world who would care (or understand).
Posted by rob on from Toronto 09/20 at 11:57 AMYes, “Cool Observer” is very cool. So is that photo of Chavez with “Hegemony or Survival”.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei 09/20 at 12:15 PMI agree, Rob.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 12:38 PMI think you’re right, Rob. Makes me wonder how the “bigger ideas” always seem to get ignored.
Posted by dw on from ohio 09/20 at 12:59 PMJOS...Thank you very much. I have already forwarded your site to the leader of the Socialist Party in Vermont. Also, that is a great photo of Chavez. I just heard that part of his speech on the radio.
Luna...Tanks. I need all of the help I can get even though I have no chance of winning. The greater the number of votes the greater the impact it will have to expose the corruption and bring about change.
Mickey...thanks for asking. Mom is doing OK considering the hospital nearly killed her. How’s your Mom doing?
Jeremy...Bush’s speech at the UN was pretty bad compared to the Chavez speech. Also, I know that Armanadenajed is not universally accepted here but I think that he said some very good things.
Amelopsis...Yep, every time I look at my David, I think about Mickey.
rob #16 and dw...Schools are a very harmful place for children. No one should go to school until they have learned everything they want to know, otherwise they will have to spend the rest of their lives unlearning what the school taught. That’s what happened to me.
Keir...You should see the expressions on the faces when I say that my campaign manager is at The Hague. I haven’t had this much fun since I was arrested.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 01:45 PMIt was a typo. THANKS, LUNA
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 01:46 PMI dunno, sorry to be a party pooper for all you Dylan fans---hey, I like the music he was making back then---but he really comes off as an idiot if you listen to what he’s saying, and what he fails to say, how he fails to answer questions effectively. Again, it’s embarassing. He seems like the kind of guy who would call a police officer a fascist pig for giving him a warning if he sped through a stop sign.
Rosemarie: I appreciated your thoughtfully-worded statement on that campaign page, but I would recommend one more step in opening the AG’s office to the democratic pursuit of justice. While we all have benefitted from online discussion (I think), some of the most inspiring stuff you have brought here is stories of how your local VFW adopted statements of Ward Churchill (for example). So: more person-to-person contact, is my advice.
Anyway, the Jackowski for Attorney General campaign is looking good from over here in The Hague. Today, for example, all of us at campaign HQ went down to de haagse bosje (The Hague woods) for a nice long late afternoon walk. And just yesterday we baked cookies, and ate them. Our competition is quaking in fear!
Posted by Keir on from The Hague (Jackowski election hdqts) 09/20 at 02:40 PMHi everyone.
Hugo Chavez’s Address to the United Nations: http://tinyurl.com/fazby
3rd Indy Preemie Dies, 3 Critical (they were mistakenly given adult doses of heparin):
http://tinyurl.com/hhyg4Posted by TM on from 09/20 at 03:07 PMKeir, my buddy...you never fail to make me smile. One correction. It is NOT the VFW, it is VFP (Veterans for Peace). The VFW won’t even allow us to have our meetings in their establishments. I will follow your advice immediately, but can I please have a cookie first?
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 03:09 PMI hear they make special cookies over there at The Hague.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 09/20 at 03:12 PMTM...thanks for the great links. The story about yet another medical error should frighten all of us. The medical system run by Wall Street can be deadly to your health! We need to get some doctors from Cuba.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 03:13 PMHello again everyone…
Royal cookies:
http://tinyurl.com/frobaYes, TM, thanks for the important links.
Rob: First time here? Your e-mail address seems familiar?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 03:22 PMBtw, in case anyone is interested, I am listening to “Since I’ve Been Loving You” from Led Zeppelin III right now.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 03:25 PMwhat does Dylan say? this computer isn´t keen on teevee.
and if anyone is interested I´m listening to Lateralus by Tool and some Prokofiev for piano I got yesterday.Posted by owen on from barcelona 09/20 at 04:00 PMRMJ sorry about the mixup, but my point stands. JOS, you must be referring to how we decided to substitute bananas for eggs to do vegan baking. Owen, Dylan is just generally grouchy, evasive, and full of blanket statements which could be generally true but lack any substance. Like the one I just made.
I’ve been listening to these guys today. Crazy stuff.
Posted by Keir on from The Hague (Jackowski election hdqts) 09/20 at 04:22 PMMickey...your recipe contains butter. Is that OK with you? It sounds good, ginger, brown sugar, and a lot of cinnamon...yum....
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 05:37 PMSoy butter:
http://www.earthbalance.net/product.htmlPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/20 at 05:41 PMOK, Mick...I should have known that you would have an answer to that.
Just heard on the news that the border between Canada and Highgate, Vermont was closed for 3 hours today. They thought that they saw something suspicious. It turned out to be some broken pottery. Paranoia runs deep…
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/20 at 05:46 PMRMJ #33: “Just heard on the news that the border between Canada and Highgate, Vermont was closed for 3 hours today. They thought that they saw something suspicious. It turned out to be some broken pottery.”
>snort< Idiots.
Suerte in your quest to become Vermont’s AG. Heaven knows you’re at least as familiar with the legal system there as most lawyers are, and from a salutarily skewed viewpoint!
MZ, from last night: Nope, nope, nope...not shoppin’ for a “way out.” I would simply never have come back. I’m examining the crap in my life, good crap and bad crap, with an eye to making my chest pains less frequent. If I’m in the minority here, that’s not good or bad...though I confess to a sneaking fondness for being a contrarian.... Certainly I don’t expect anyone to make a fuss over me and my hobbyhorses. I’m really just not a lurk-y kinda guy. I got too big a mouth. So I can’t avail myself of the “come read, go think” behavior that works so well for most.
Anyway. Long, tiring day. I’ll be glad to get sleep tonight, I can tell you!
I greet one and all, hail and farewell as I toddle off to bed.
Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 09/20 at 09:53 PM
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