Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
When Chomsky and Greenspan ruled the world?
Ah yes, that is my favorite Blum quote. It always comes in handy during discussions when someone asks, “What would you do to solve the world’s problems?”.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 10/05 at 06:18 AMexcuse me if i am in and out with the topics - not been well.
love the blum quote. i also like the one chomsky said when asked how the west should deal with the threat of terrorism and he replies that the firs tthing they sould do is to stop participating in it and that would cut it by about 90%
Posted by michael on from scotland 10/05 at 06:51 AMmore cowbell.
Posted by JOS on from PR 10/05 at 07:15 AM“An interview with Condoleezza Rice turned bizarre last week, when Fox News correspondent James Rosen appeared to try to fix her up with “Fox & Friends” anchor Lauren Green.
The former Miss Minnesota is “single” and “beautiful,” Rosen said, encouraging the secretary of state to get in touch. The Sept. 27 interview from Port au Prince, Haiti, started out seriously enough, with Rice expounding on Haitian elections and security, and on Iran as well. But at the end, Rosen popped a wheelie, and the discussion, posted on Radaronline.com, ended thusly:
ROSEN: “All right. I close with a gift for you. You met this person once, I believe, but you really, I think, ought to know each other because this woman is, I think you’ll have an interest in knowing her. She is one of our Fox News anchors in New York. Her name is Lauren Green. She is brilliant, she’s beautiful, she’s African-American, she’s single and she’s a concert pianist in her spare time.
RICE: My goodness.
ROSEN: And she asked me to give you her CD, and I promised her that I would.
RICE: That’s perfect.
ROSEN: And here’s her doing a number of different classical pieces.
RICE: Well, that’s special.
ROSEN: So there you have it.
RICE: Thank her very much, and I look forward to seeing her sometime.
ROSEN: All right. She’s going to want to hear from you.
RICE: And maybe even play dual piano sometime.”
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 09:03 AMThere’s not much chance people are looking for more than an opening for their talking points when they ask you how you’d solve the world’s problems. It’s more they like they want to know how to solve the problems without actually changing what they’re doing. Kind of like saying, “there’s room for compromise as long as we keeping doing things my way”.
Posted by Harry on from 10/05 at 09:24 AM“...they want to know how to solve the problems without actually changing what they’re doing.”
Right on, Harry. I find that a lot of people do a lot of complaining, but when you start talking about changing things they get turned off.
If the education system doesn’t work, don’t change it, just throw more money into it for more of the same result.
The “War on Drugs?” Build more prisons, poison more land in Columbia, etc...don’t change your entire way of looking at the “drug problem.”
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I bet Mudge would understand what I’m saying here, right Mudge? Where are you, brother?
Anyway, if the collective “we” are doing the same thing for the next 100 years or so, we won’t be around 200 years from now.
There I go using those damn quotation marks way too often...sorry.
I have to do this, even though I have been told by my wife that I consistently overuse jokes until they have lost all their humor for those around me (talk about the definition of insanity)...just seeing Will on this post clanking away, makes me want to make like Christopher Walken and say:
I’ve got a fever.
And the only cure.
Is more cowbell.
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 09:49 AMHello all…
That’s the downside of trying to organize in a privileged society. We all have the luxury of waiting until we “get our shit together” before we “try to save the world.” (Uh-oh, quotation marks.) I ran into a couple I know that just had a baby. They had always been somewhat aware but now explaied to me: “We have no idea what’s going on. This baby is our whole world now.”
In another society, say Guatemala, having a child would not impact one’s role in the struggle (read Harbury’s book on Guatemala for mor eon that). We (myself very much included) in America live in a denial-fueled bubble.
J-MOS: I just e-mailed Mudge to see if he’s okay.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 10:10 AMcool
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 10:24 AMJ-Mos, for you: http://tinyurl.com/7ydrj
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 01:14 PMI love it.
I am currently on my 3rd viewing of SNL’s Best of Will Ferrell 2, the first one was a little disappointing. The second has a few skits that just kill me...the one where he plays a doctor letting a couple know that he lost there baby is just too much. It also has Will playing cowbell with the musical guest Queens of the Stoneage.
You and I have similar tastes, Mick.
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 01:22 PMDid you see “Anchorman”? We laughed our asses off.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 01:24 PMyou know it...my brothers were in town visiting and we laughed so hard my wife missed most of the movie. I’ll have to get her to watch again with me sometime.
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 01:31 PMby the way, if you haven’t seen Wedding Crashers, you should for Will’s cameo...it’s sick and hilarious at the same time...a Will speciality.
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 01:33 PMIs the rest of the movie any good?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 01:37 PMI’d say it’s more watchable than a lot of the other crap out there, but it’s no classic.
Perhaps his performance is islolated out there on the Internet somewhere...I’d like to see that, and his cameo in Starsky & Hutch on a best of Will F.’s movie cameos dvd.
Posted by JOS on from Isla Grande Airport 10/05 at 01:44 PMMickey,
that is such a great Blum quote! You know - I actually met Mr Blum in DC in March 2003. I have emailed this quote to quite a few people and, at one stage, posted it on a comment thread at atrios’ site.
Can’t recommend Blum’s books enough: ‘West-Bloc Dissident’, ‘Rogue State’ and ‘Killing Hope’.
And I love your other quotes as well - indeed I love the whole post. Thanks!Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 10/05 at 03:49 PMI’m with you, Helga. “Killing Hope” is required reading. Period.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 03:54 PMHere’s a interesting and sad bit of New York City history:
I am glad there will be a reminder of those times now.
Go Yanks.
Posted by JOS on from PR 10/05 at 07:31 PMThanks, JOS.
P.S. If the Yanks win tonight, they can sweep with Randy Johnson going on Friday.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 07:37 PMHi Mickey & JOS & Helga -
Sorry I’ve been absent so much. I’ve been trying to write an essay worthy of submission to somewhere or other. Man, I can blab and blog and babble, but can I write? I just don’t know…JOS, those wire sculptures are really powerful and haunting and strangely, terribly appropriate images of Black people in America. They are “there,” obviously, yet they’re also almost invisible; they’re empty outlines, without substance or real identity… That’s the way they’re officially seen here in the land of freedom and democracy. How dreadful to see an entire race from such a perspective.
Hey, I’m with you guyz about the Yanks. Didn’t Rivera look pissed last night? But, he pulled it off. See ya soon. Wish me luck...please, wish me luck.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/05 at 09:05 PMI’m bummed that the Yanks are starting so damn late tonight. I gotta hit the sack now...very early morning for me tomorrow.
Joe: Keep writing. I cannot wait to see the result. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
Night all…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/05 at 09:08 PMG`night, Mickey, and thanks…
I hope you wake up to the numbers 2 - 0.
G`night to you, too, JOS.
And to you too, Mudge, wherever you are…Posted by joe on from Oregon 10/05 at 10:30 PMI’m late getting to this, but a propos Mickey Z’s tale of acquaintances with a newborn…
I never cease to marvel at the irony that those among us with the greatest investment in our collective future (people with babies or those planning to breed; are those who I see making the least effort to ensure the future is better than today. They are those who take the greatest advantage of our priviledges and use them to fortify their own bubble of reality.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 10/06 at 11:56 AMRight on, Amelopsis.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/06 at 12:10 PM
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