Wednesday, February 29, 2012
It's on purpose - today's edition
Energy comandante Steven Chu makes it plain that soaring gasoline prices are just fine with him, because they may push Americans into considering "green" fuels more seriously.
Two recent speeches . . .
. . . that reveal just how poisonously, radically socialist this regime is: The MEC's speech to the UAW, in which he ladled out hefty dollops of that "looking-out-for-each-other" dog vomit, and Tim Tax-Cheat Geithner's remarks asserting that being an American is a "privilege" and that high-income Americans got their status by being more "fortunate" than those without as much money.
Two more utterances of this menace with its fingers gripping America's throat that we need to be all over like a pack of hyenas on a wounded gazelle.
Two more utterances of this menace with its fingers gripping America's throat that we need to be all over like a pack of hyenas on a wounded gazelle.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
So bad and wrong it makes you weep for the fate of Western civilization
Some damn dietician on the Army payroll has devised a green-amber-yellow-red system for letting soldiers know what foods are too rich to pass muster with the Freedom-Haters. That would be fried foods and desserts. Jeez, these guys go through unimaginable rigor to prepare themselves to defend out liberty. Is is too much to ask the leviathan state to leave them alone while they eat their catfish or onion rings or pecan pie?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
California may be beautiful and natural resource-rich, but it's economically and morally rotten
You would think that this would be a privacy issue, but I guess identity politics trumps one's right to keep one's boudoir activity to oneself. The state is requiring all those up for judgeships in its court system to reveal their sexual orientation.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Mitt Romney must not be the Republican nominee - today's edition
Tells an Arizona audience that the tax code must retain its progressivity. Uses "fair share" rhetoric and sets the middle class apart as an economic demographic to be considered uniquely.
Hell, we can elect Freedom-Haters and hear this kind of crud.
Hell, we can elect Freedom-Haters and hear this kind of crud.
And we're apologizing to this regime? (For Korans that were burned, by the way, because we had intellignce indicating that they were being used to pass encoded messages from Parwan prison)
Just look at this photograph. Look at who Karzai is demonstrating solidarity with. Read the headline of the linked post. Taliban. Iran. And we still consider this guy a resonable working partner in south Asia?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Any government entity with the terms "consumer" and "protection" in its name depends for its existence on you being stupid
Richard Cordray, head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau really wants you to believe that bank overdraft fees are just a money-making scheme for banks. They want you to see yourself as so dense that you don't understand that your financial institution has to compensate for the loss it incurs when you spend money you don't have.
The message is, if you cause chaos in the world, you're not responsible. You were exploited into doing it.
The essential question this election season is: Are we human beings, or are we cattle?
The message is, if you cause chaos in the world, you're not responsible. You were exploited into doing it.
The essential question this election season is: Are we human beings, or are we cattle?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
"Arguably the most glaring double standard in American life today"
William McGurn at the WSJ says that Rick Santorum gets lampooned and worse in the lamestream media for really meaning what he says - as opposed to FHers, who ofetn are willing to mouth the same convictions, but for the purposes of avoiding a dust-up with the swath of Americans that still believes in God, decency, dignity and common sense.
The solution? Tie it all together, as we here at LITD have urged. Show that there is a synergy - a holistic unity, if you will - to the three pillars of conservatism. I think Santorum is well-positioned to do this. It will not lessen the catcalls and venom from the left, but it will put the finishing touches on a lot of voters' thought processes, getting them to see that there really are two main worldviews at work in the modern world, and that they're utterly incompatible.
The solution? Tie it all together, as we here at LITD have urged. Show that there is a synergy - a holistic unity, if you will - to the three pillars of conservatism. I think Santorum is well-positioned to do this. It will not lessen the catcalls and venom from the left, but it will put the finishing touches on a lot of voters' thought processes, getting them to see that there really are two main worldviews at work in the modern world, and that they're utterly incompatible.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Bunny nation
How's this for a hair-raising stat: most Americans born to moms under 30 are born out of wedlock.
And here's a factoid within the linked article with class and economic implications: women with college degrees are still likely to be married before spawning offspring, so the unmarried moms are more likely to have lower-paying jobs and a skimpier general knowlege base. This, of course, adds to the lopsidedness that plays itself out in the division of the country into producers and takers.
Another stat within the article: 73 percent of black infants are now born out of wedlock. It's a hip-hop world!
And here's a factoid within the linked article with class and economic implications: women with college degrees are still likely to be married before spawning offspring, so the unmarried moms are more likely to have lower-paying jobs and a skimpier general knowlege base. This, of course, adds to the lopsidedness that plays itself out in the division of the country into producers and takers.
Another stat within the article: 73 percent of black infants are now born out of wedlock. It's a hip-hop world!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Get your hands off that wheel, I'm driving this bus! Yes, yes, I see how fast we're going, and I see the edge of the cliff; now, hand me my flask!
Tim Geithner tells Paul Ryan point blank at a Capitol Hill hearing that the regime has no inkling of how to deal with the catastrophic trajectory it has set the nation on, but that it "doesn't like" his solution.
In just the past few weeks, things have taken a really chilling turn in this country. The regime's comandantes are no longer making the slightest pretense about their dark aims.
This is another one we must be all over like a pack of hyenas on a wounded gazelle.
In just the past few weeks, things have taken a really chilling turn in this country. The regime's comandantes are no longer making the slightest pretense about their dark aims.
This is another one we must be all over like a pack of hyenas on a wounded gazelle.
FHer-care squelches human inventiveness
Michelle Malkin on the cutting-edge medical-technology companies that are scaling back operations - or moving them overseas - due to the onerous taxes associated with FHer-care.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
We must be all over this like a pack of hyenas on a wounded gazelle
The Freedom-Hater regime admits to the House Budget Committee that the penalty for not getting with FHer-care is a fine and not a tax at the same time it is arguing before the Supreme Court that it is a tax.
This is golden. We must be relentless in repeating this and getting it out everywhere.
This is golden. We must be relentless in repeating this and getting it out everywhere.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
It's on purpose - today's edition
Per Gallup, 85 percent of America's small businesses have no plans to hire in the foreseeable future. About half of those polled cited regulations and FHer-care.
Like most problems anyone in the world is having today, there is no more road down which to kick this can
Bryan Preston at PJ Media puts the latest ratcheting-up of tensions between Iran and the West in stark perspective. The comment thread under his article is particularly edifying. It's a lot like threads that get going here under posts of a foreign policy / national security nature. There are certain types of observant citizens who really think that conservatives itch for war. Preston steps into the fray to basically ask what viable alternatives to the SWIFT sanction exist.
The lessons of history reinforce the indisputability of the maxim that appeasement of rogue powers is the surest way to invite horror onto the world stage.
The lessons of history reinforce the indisputability of the maxim that appeasement of rogue powers is the surest way to invite horror onto the world stage.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Leviathan in junior's lunch sack
This is a little bit funny, but mostly chilling. This is for real: a North Carolina pre-schooler has her home-bagged lunch, which consisted of a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice, seized by a federal agent right there in the school dining area because it didn't meet USDA guidelines.
The enemy now demands a look into the nation's lunch bags.
This is war.
The enemy now demands a look into the nation's lunch bags.
This is war.
It's all of a piece
And so the largest school district in Minnesota is changing from its old policy whereby teachers remain neutral in cases where homosexuality seems to be a factor in a student getting picked on ("bullying" in regime-speak) to a new "Respectful Learning Environment" policy. Just when we thought some progress was being made against asinine speeech codes and hate-crimes legislation zeal, we now have a case where a policy gets changed, not because the school district found any evidence that bullying caused six recent student suicides (it didn't), but because a student got up a petition and took in to the school board.
So now we're going to have touchy-feely group-therapy puke-fests when a simple grabbing of Johnny the Jerk by his shirt collar and saying "knock it off" would take care of such situations the way it did for centuries in America. What I'm not finding out from the linked article is whether young Timmy the Transgendered has to curb wearing of his oh-so-fixed-at-not-even-the-age-of-puberty "identity" as a badge that dares anyone to give him the wrong kind of arched eyebrow.
I really like Mitch Daniels, my governor here in Indiana, but I do concur with those who responded to his suggestion that conservatives call a truce in the culture wars that that is not possible. Every development on any level of cultural, economic or national security consideration is occurring along a continuum. (This, by the way, is the one thing that really sets my teeth on edge about talk-show host Neal Boortz. He is so spot-on about most things, but when he sneers at pro-life and pro-normalcy spokespeople, he shows that he's merely fooling himself into thinking he has a consistent core set of values.) Every type of encroachment on your freedom currently taking place is occurring with the same end in mind.
How did we get to the place where we have to use a term like "social issues" anyway? ("Well, I'm somewhat concerned about social issues, but they come down the line after such-and-such.") At what point did the acceleration of change in - make that deterioration of - the norms and conventions and institutions and basic assumptions about human nature we took for granted as the foundation of our culture reach a point where we had a critical mass of the public that was sanguine about it (if not downright enthusiastic), and therefore on the other side of the chasm from those who proceeded through life the, you know, old-school way? The way in which one didn't ever encounter arguments about what was natural or normal or dignified?
This regime and its fellow travellers and useful idiots wants inside your head and inside your soul.
It is so very, very late in the day.
So now we're going to have touchy-feely group-therapy puke-fests when a simple grabbing of Johnny the Jerk by his shirt collar and saying "knock it off" would take care of such situations the way it did for centuries in America. What I'm not finding out from the linked article is whether young Timmy the Transgendered has to curb wearing of his oh-so-fixed-at-not-even-the-age-of-puberty "identity" as a badge that dares anyone to give him the wrong kind of arched eyebrow.
I really like Mitch Daniels, my governor here in Indiana, but I do concur with those who responded to his suggestion that conservatives call a truce in the culture wars that that is not possible. Every development on any level of cultural, economic or national security consideration is occurring along a continuum. (This, by the way, is the one thing that really sets my teeth on edge about talk-show host Neal Boortz. He is so spot-on about most things, but when he sneers at pro-life and pro-normalcy spokespeople, he shows that he's merely fooling himself into thinking he has a consistent core set of values.) Every type of encroachment on your freedom currently taking place is occurring with the same end in mind.
How did we get to the place where we have to use a term like "social issues" anyway? ("Well, I'm somewhat concerned about social issues, but they come down the line after such-and-such.") At what point did the acceleration of change in - make that deterioration of - the norms and conventions and institutions and basic assumptions about human nature we took for granted as the foundation of our culture reach a point where we had a critical mass of the public that was sanguine about it (if not downright enthusiastic), and therefore on the other side of the chasm from those who proceeded through life the, you know, old-school way? The way in which one didn't ever encounter arguments about what was natural or normal or dignified?
This regime and its fellow travellers and useful idiots wants inside your head and inside your soul.
It is so very, very late in the day.
Monday, February 13, 2012
The dangerous regime gripping America's throat
Gene Sperling, the MEC's economic council director, said today at an official meeting that the world needed a "global minimum tax." To make sure nobody "escapes doing their fair share."
These people are making it plain what they intend for our country. They are the enemy and must be defeated.
These people are making it plain what they intend for our country. They are the enemy and must be defeated.
Do they really expect us to take this seriously?
It's budget time in Washington again, and I don't think this one has any more chance of passing than the previous three. The Most Equal Comrade has really doubled down. Class-envy-based tax increases. $11.5 trillion in debt held by the public this year. No serious attempt to commence entitlement reform.
Of course, the spin began over the weekend. In addition to being the spokesman for the regime's position that it is all done with any pretense of upholding Constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom, Chief of Staff Jack Lew did the Sunday shows to try to put one over on the American people about the Freedom-Haters needing to come up with 60 Senate votes in order to pass a budget. He has to know better, right? He was until recently head of the OMB. Either the MEC told him to go out there and act like he didn't know better, thereby opening himself up to charges of pathetic ignorance - fall on his sword, in essence - or the guy really didn't know better. I saw part of his appearance on Fox News Sunday. He's really pretty lame as a spin doctor. Lots of platitudes - he used the word "access" every chance he got - and appeals to "fairness." Not to mention he just looks and carries himself like the quintessential pasty-faced Beltway dweeb.
And so Western civilization steps on the gas and makes a beeline for the precipice.
Of course, the spin began over the weekend. In addition to being the spokesman for the regime's position that it is all done with any pretense of upholding Constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom, Chief of Staff Jack Lew did the Sunday shows to try to put one over on the American people about the Freedom-Haters needing to come up with 60 Senate votes in order to pass a budget. He has to know better, right? He was until recently head of the OMB. Either the MEC told him to go out there and act like he didn't know better, thereby opening himself up to charges of pathetic ignorance - fall on his sword, in essence - or the guy really didn't know better. I saw part of his appearance on Fox News Sunday. He's really pretty lame as a spin doctor. Lots of platitudes - he used the word "access" every chance he got - and appeals to "fairness." Not to mention he just looks and carries himself like the quintessential pasty-faced Beltway dweeb.
And so Western civilization steps on the gas and makes a beeline for the precipice.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
There's no more reconsidering one's view of just who and what these people are
The more I think about what happened last week - the bringing of the FHer-care provision that requires religious hopsitals and charites to offer contraception and abortion to the fore, and the MEC's "attempt to accomodate" them in reaction to the backlash by saying that their insurance providers can do the dirty work instead, free of charge to the policyholders - I cannot conclude anything other than that this regime is evil to its core.
The lie it is selling has many layers:
It posits that there is some kind of right to "reproductive health services."
It posits that extermination a fetal American is somehow some kind of "reproductive health."
It is a further attempt to normalize the notion that it is perfectly okay for government to tell a private organization to provide a particular product and do so at a loss.
It attempts to make the public think that divine law is a mere quirky abstraction that a few on the fringe cling to because they fear the glaring light of modernity.
It attempts to further normalize the notion that the Constitution's separation of powers is a quaint old concept that need not be heeded now that we all know what is "fair" and "just" to do as a matter of public policy.
A line has been crossed, a gauntlet thrown down. It is no longer possible for an American citizen to be ambivalent or "moderate." That's code for throwing one's lot in with a force of darkness and tossing one's honor to the wind.
This is no routine policy disagreement. This is war, and it has come to your street and your heart.
The lie it is selling has many layers:
It posits that there is some kind of right to "reproductive health services."
It posits that extermination a fetal American is somehow some kind of "reproductive health."
It is a further attempt to normalize the notion that it is perfectly okay for government to tell a private organization to provide a particular product and do so at a loss.
It attempts to make the public think that divine law is a mere quirky abstraction that a few on the fringe cling to because they fear the glaring light of modernity.
It attempts to further normalize the notion that the Constitution's separation of powers is a quaint old concept that need not be heeded now that we all know what is "fair" and "just" to do as a matter of public policy.
A line has been crossed, a gauntlet thrown down. It is no longer possible for an American citizen to be ambivalent or "moderate." That's code for throwing one's lot in with a force of darkness and tossing one's honor to the wind.
This is no routine policy disagreement. This is war, and it has come to your street and your heart.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A development worth noting
So Ahmadinejad uses the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the mullahs' regime in Iran to say that the regime will shortly be announcing major new advances in its nuclear program. Who was in town on a state visit and attanding the rally where he said this? Ismail Haniya, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza.
Friday, February 10, 2012
"It quite simply elevates government to the level of a religion"
Must-read post by Francis Cianfrocca at Red State on the real implications of the FHer-care mandate-and-extermination-of-fetal-Americans provisions.
Right on cue
Where have we seen this before?
This is getting downright cyclical. The EU and the IMF and Greek Prime Minister Papademos announce to the world, "We've reached a bailout deal! It's very precarious, and it depends on the legislature and the general public accepting further austerity measures, but we're confident we can do it!" Then Greek workers strike and riot and member of Papademos's coalition start to bail. THe EU and the IMF become doubtful and the cycle starts again.
This is getting downright cyclical. The EU and the IMF and Greek Prime Minister Papademos announce to the world, "We've reached a bailout deal! It's very precarious, and it depends on the legislature and the general public accepting further austerity measures, but we're confident we can do it!" Then Greek workers strike and riot and member of Papademos's coalition start to bail. THe EU and the IMF become doubtful and the cycle starts again.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
It's on purpose - today's edition
It's classic Cloward - Piven strategy: push the system to such a point of lopsidedness that it collapses, creating the final condition for revolution.
How else to explain the findings in the Heritage Foundation's report on government dependency?
How long can the government go on devoting 70 percent of its budget to individual assistance programs, doling out benefits per recipient greater than the average disposable personal income, while nearly half of Americans pay no income tax?
The essential question this election year is this: are we human beings, or are we cattle?
How else to explain the findings in the Heritage Foundation's report on government dependency?
How long can the government go on devoting 70 percent of its budget to individual assistance programs, doling out benefits per recipient greater than the average disposable personal income, while nearly half of Americans pay no income tax?
The essential question this election year is this: are we human beings, or are we cattle?
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
One of those occurences in our post-modern world that speak volumes about the FHer mindset and the prospects for the West's survival
Get your brain around this: A U.S. Supreme Court justice being interviewed on Egyptian television and saying that, if she were advising a newly formed country on a model to choose for fashioning its constitution, she would not suggest the U.S. Constitution - the one she is sworn to uphold.
The Freedom-Haters grip on America's throat is very tight. It will take quite a force to pry it loose.
The Freedom-Haters grip on America's throat is very tight. It will take quite a force to pry it loose.
This whole article is good, but the money line has legs - today's edition
Bridget Johnson at PJ Media on Eric Cantor's remarks at a jobs forum. Great stuff, but the takeaway line comes from Staples founder Tom Stemberg: "I used to be a Democrat, too, but then I started a business."
Game changer!
Rick Santorum sweeps Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota.
Take that, all you Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome-afllicted, minimum-wage-advocating, AGW-believing, wonky, platitude-mouthing, oblivious-to-the-urgency-of-the-hour establishment types who fear a Republican party that actually stands for what it says it stands for.
I'll tell you what; money's a little tight around here right now, but I'm damn sure gonna find a few bucks to send to the last conservative running for president of the United States of America.
UPDATE: It was indeed a sweep, but it was also a trouncing of the RGS types.
This is huge.
Take that, all you Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome-afllicted, minimum-wage-advocating, AGW-believing, wonky, platitude-mouthing, oblivious-to-the-urgency-of-the-hour establishment types who fear a Republican party that actually stands for what it says it stands for.
I'll tell you what; money's a little tight around here right now, but I'm damn sure gonna find a few bucks to send to the last conservative running for president of the United States of America.
UPDATE: It was indeed a sweep, but it was also a trouncing of the RGS types.
This is huge.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Bad options everywhere
I sure as hell don't want Mitt Romney for president, but I also don't want somebody who is his own worst enemy on a regular basis.
Not going in a desirable direction
Post-Mubarak Egypt is shaping up to be some kind of place. It has announced it will put those American NGO workers - including Transportation Secretary LaHood's son - on trial for receiving foreign funds.
Party central
I live in what could be considered the greater Indianapolis area (forty miles to the south), so the electricity is palpable. I didn't actually get to downtown - Super Bowl Village - but I know some folks who did the zip line, saw celebrities and such. (My last trip to Indy was a week ago Wednesday, but I went up to Broad Ripple to have lunch with my sister. Got off I-65 at 11th Street, at the north edge of downtown.)
It's very cool to see and be proximate to. I've been checking out some media coverage from around the nation and the consensus seems to be that the city is doing a world-class job of hosting a huge event.
I guess I'll be rooting for the Giants because of the Manning family connection.
That's another factor adding to the electricity. Peyton has been cleared by his doctors to get back to playing NFL football, but he is known to be dismayed by the way Colts owner Jim Irsay gutted the coaching staff and the management team. So he's pondering his options. Meanwhile, because the Colts had such a cruddy season, they get a first-round draft pick for quarterback and the guy they'll almost certainly go with, Andrew Luck, is in town for the big game. The press is inundating him with questions about how he'd feel being second string to Peyton, or, should Peyton move on, taking the reins of basically a whole new program.
I hope Peyton stays at least one more year. It would be supremely cool to see the Colts roar to glory under the leadership of his mighty arm and strategic eye one more time.
It's very cool to see and be proximate to. I've been checking out some media coverage from around the nation and the consensus seems to be that the city is doing a world-class job of hosting a huge event.
I guess I'll be rooting for the Giants because of the Manning family connection.
That's another factor adding to the electricity. Peyton has been cleared by his doctors to get back to playing NFL football, but he is known to be dismayed by the way Colts owner Jim Irsay gutted the coaching staff and the management team. So he's pondering his options. Meanwhile, because the Colts had such a cruddy season, they get a first-round draft pick for quarterback and the guy they'll almost certainly go with, Andrew Luck, is in town for the big game. The press is inundating him with questions about how he'd feel being second string to Peyton, or, should Peyton move on, taking the reins of basically a whole new program.
I hope Peyton stays at least one more year. It would be supremely cool to see the Colts roar to glory under the leadership of his mighty arm and strategic eye one more time.
The vain quest for some vague "something else"
Great Janet Daley at the UK Telegraph on the lessons the world should have learned from 1989 and the fall of communism, but didn't. People still harbor this notion that there is some "more fair" alternative to the free market.
She says that there's still the widespread assumption that some fancy "system" can do that which, in reality, can only be done by human beings acting repsonsibly.
She says that there's still the widespread assumption that some fancy "system" can do that which, in reality, can only be done by human beings acting repsonsibly.
The clock is ticking - today's edition
Greece has until tonight to come up with sufficient austerity measures to satisfy its creditors. Papademos is trying to balance their demands with the stance of some of his coalition partners in the Greek government, who are saying that more austerity is too much to ask of the country.
Friday, February 3, 2012
A culture that embraces death is itself dying
The Komen Foundation reverses course, apologizing and restoring Planned Parenthood funding. Apparently feminist venom is more influential than record 24-hour donations after the earlier move to cut off the funding.
They're doing what's sensible - that is, directing grant money to the places actually providing the service the former grant recipient would merely refer them to
Great NRO editorial on why the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to part ways with Planned Parenthood. The radical pro-death feminists may try to muddy the waters and portray it as a protest against the extermination of fetal Americans, but Komen's actual reason was that it was inefficient to provide money to one outfit to refer people wanting mammograms to another outfit that would actually perform them.
But there was political hay to be made, so the life-and-freedom-haters jumped right on it.
But there was political hay to be made, so the life-and-freedom-haters jumped right on it.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Eric Holder - the embodiment of pretty much everything that points to the demise of Western civilization
He can't seem to just deliver a straight story about Fast and Furious. That's because of the moral confusion at the heart of leftism.
The number of serious grown-ups in America can be counted on one's fingers and toes
Andrew McCarthy at NRO says that the reason the last two viable Pub prez candidates are so bad and disheartening is that the GOP has not been serious about upholding the principles for which it ostensibly stands for a long time.
A different country now
As longtime LITD readers know, when it comes to religion, I characterize myself as "leaning toward Christianity." At this point, it makes more sense to me than any other belief system, and I can clearly see its dominant role in the shaping of Western civilization. I always admire those who forthrightly profess their Christian faith and live it for all to see.
The current war in our culture against Christianity, as if it was some kind of force for ill, just may be the final push I need to embrace the faith myself. There's something really foul about the way it's maligned and silenced in our public life.
Two cases in point: retired Delta Force hero Jerry Boykin being banned from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast for saying the West's fight against jihad is a fight against Satan, and the controversy that former New York Giants Super Bowl hero David Tyree found homself in for defending the true definition of marriage.
UPDATE: While it's particularly alarming to see this trend in the West, which, after all, used to be known as Cristendom, hatred of Christianity is worldwide and growing.
The current war in our culture against Christianity, as if it was some kind of force for ill, just may be the final push I need to embrace the faith myself. There's something really foul about the way it's maligned and silenced in our public life.
Two cases in point: retired Delta Force hero Jerry Boykin being banned from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast for saying the West's fight against jihad is a fight against Satan, and the controversy that former New York Giants Super Bowl hero David Tyree found homself in for defending the true definition of marriage.
UPDATE: While it's particularly alarming to see this trend in the West, which, after all, used to be known as Cristendom, hatred of Christianity is worldwide and growing.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Mitt Romney suffers from RGS and is as much of a danger to this country as an outright FHer and he must be stopped
LITD has not made a Pub prez candidate endorsement yet, but one thing is for sure: this blog is on record as saying that Mitt Romney is a horrible candidate and must not become president. There was Romneycare, there was the distancing from Dutch, there was his belief in human-caused global warming, there was his "not-a-bad-guy" remark. Now the SOB says he is for automatic increases in the minimum wage.
Something has to happen, and quickly.
Something has to happen, and quickly.
It's a chilling thing . . .
. . . to see how many people in this country are not only still cool with the extermination of fetal Americans, but get viciously militant with an organization they had previously championed just because it goes public with a pro-life stance.
The guy's not helping himself at all
Interesting NRO Corner exchange between Jonah Goldberg and Mark Steyn about Mitt Romney's tin ear and focus on the "middle class."
We can shuffle the trappings around all we want, but it doesn't address the core question
I'm having one of those mornings on which an attempt to do research for a particular article is leading me into all manner of side alleys of information, observation and consideration. That's the charm of the Internet, abut also the reason for its reputation as a supreme time-waster.
Let me start at the beginning. I'm a musician, and I have worked a great deal as a professional musician. I have focused on jazz for the past few years. The central thrust of my career, however, is writing. That's mostly manifested itself in arts journalism and business journalism. (I also do some general-interest and lifestyle-type work.)
I've written for a particular music website since the late 1990s, contributing a variety of article types - reviews, interviews, essays - as the site's identity has evolved over that time. I'm currently working on a piece for it that will profile an international music company that's about a year old. This company, whose principals are scattered among several continents, brings together aspiring, unsigned musical acts and industry professionals of various types - agents, promoters, those qualified to gauge talent and quality, producers and label heads - in a very systematic and efficient way.
There's a bit of a nailing-jello-to-the-wall quality to the research. Since change is the digital world's most prominent characteristic, no sooner do I learn about some model for the production and distribution of music than I find it's been superceded or folded into some other model.
I'll confess to having been overwhelmed by the proliferation of possible new paradigms for the music business since - well, since it became clear the old model - labels making a physical product and musical acts hiring management agencies to get them live-performance work and radio and television exposure - was dying. The scramble to fill the vacuum has been dizzying to observe.
Apparently I'm not alone. At events such as MIDEM or those organized by the Future of Music Coalition, there are endless panel discussions about platforms and content and concepts with which I'm even less familiar than - well, platforms and content. Everybody's trying to harness the pace of change and find a fixed point of reference that can provide effective and lucrative music-business-conducting for some reasonable length of time. In short, the question, "How are musicians and those who get their music out to listeners going to make a living at what they do?" is still the foremost topic of discussion in the industry, as it has been for about seventeen or eighteen years now.
Of course, there are the intellectual property questions and privacy questions that have arisen as the music world has become more digital. That's not the most interesting area of the whole matter for me, though.
I was watching a video of one of this year's MIDEM panel discussions and the moderator mentioned a book title I found so intriguing I had to open a new browser window to investigate it on Amazon. The book is called Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet Is Killing Our Culture. It's not new; it was published in 2007.
Perusing the summary and a few reviews for that led to an inquiry into the author, one Andrew Keen, a thinker I should have been aware of before now, given his areas of preoccupation. He has a blog which I have now put on my blogroll here, because it's clearly a site that merits frequent checking-in.
He raises questions and makes observations that I think are of primary importance in the sorting out of everything that's converging at the culture-and-technology nexus. One of his most interesting points for me is how the notion of "community" has, as it has morphed from something physical with a geographical location into something "virtual," trivialized and even threatened our individuality.
But, to get back to the matter of music, I think a plain truth about our culture's collective maturity level needs to be stated, and it's a plain truth that encompasses trends going back considerably further than the digital revolution.
Let me put it this way: The ubiquitous use of the term "band" to describe musical acts vying for viability in today's marketplace, and "fan" to describe consumers of music, reveals a myopia about expression and appreciation that bodes ill for the chances of us having anything of consequence to listen to.
I'm not saying that these terms have no place in the lexicon of the music world. It's just that, for instance, the term "fan" motivates a musical act to cultivate its brand, right down to a logo and carefully tailored persona. It connotes an arena full of waving arms and screams and lighters held high. Sports teams have fans. Fans are raucous. Fans come to see the object of their fealty as a means to bolster their own identities.
Did Charlie Parker, Arturo Toscanini, Rosemary Clooney or Hank Williams need to hawk tee shirts and bumper stickers?
There were bands in the nineteenth century, of course. Marching bands, city-park bands. Swing orchestras, beginning in the second quarter of the twentieth century, were referred to as "big bands." In fact, there's some irony to the fact that rock and roll ensembles were originally referred to as "combos" and then "groups." The preference for the term "band" actually dates to about the late 1960s. But since that time, "band" has come to conjure the image of a small ensemble playing loudly, generally without much melodic or rhythmic subtlety, as concerned with crafting a particular appearance that, while it might vary from one act to the next (indeed, usually will, since an act is keen to hone its brand) is always characterized by a studied informality, as it is its music.
And that's what is being produced and consumed in the brave new world of post-label music, and was produced and consumed for a good twenty-five years beforehand.
If the digital age has had its own distinct effect on this, it is that, per the all-about-me-and-what-I-have-to-say ethos of social networking, it has reinforced the narcissism and shallowness of the whole aesthetic enterprise in our time. Granted, music has always been about the conveyance of feelings, going back to the era of Gregorian chants or even further back to the rituals of tribes in the world's disparate corners. But there was nobility in those feelings. Now, what everybody has to express is ephemeral, disposable. Pick your genre - electronica, hip-hop, folk, reggae, whatever - and plug in your earbuds. Reinforce your notion of how the world ought to see you by fueling yourself with the self-congratulatory cadences of the "bands" of which you are a "fan."
I see that while MIDEM was going on this past week in Cannes, my newfound interesting thinker Keen spent his time in nearly Davos, Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum. The parallels are worth noting. In Davos, the panel discussions and breakout sessions were about how to come up with some real money to alleviate the economic crisis centered in Europe, but with outlying manifestations in such places as the United States. They dispersed without figuring out how to come up with it.
We need some real money. We need some art that has some real nobility and dignity to it. In a world awash in mobile devices, digital clouds, pitch-and-tempo-altering software and networks of every conceivable kind, we are in extremely short supply of some basic necessities.
Let me start at the beginning. I'm a musician, and I have worked a great deal as a professional musician. I have focused on jazz for the past few years. The central thrust of my career, however, is writing. That's mostly manifested itself in arts journalism and business journalism. (I also do some general-interest and lifestyle-type work.)
I've written for a particular music website since the late 1990s, contributing a variety of article types - reviews, interviews, essays - as the site's identity has evolved over that time. I'm currently working on a piece for it that will profile an international music company that's about a year old. This company, whose principals are scattered among several continents, brings together aspiring, unsigned musical acts and industry professionals of various types - agents, promoters, those qualified to gauge talent and quality, producers and label heads - in a very systematic and efficient way.
There's a bit of a nailing-jello-to-the-wall quality to the research. Since change is the digital world's most prominent characteristic, no sooner do I learn about some model for the production and distribution of music than I find it's been superceded or folded into some other model.
I'll confess to having been overwhelmed by the proliferation of possible new paradigms for the music business since - well, since it became clear the old model - labels making a physical product and musical acts hiring management agencies to get them live-performance work and radio and television exposure - was dying. The scramble to fill the vacuum has been dizzying to observe.
Apparently I'm not alone. At events such as MIDEM or those organized by the Future of Music Coalition, there are endless panel discussions about platforms and content and concepts with which I'm even less familiar than - well, platforms and content. Everybody's trying to harness the pace of change and find a fixed point of reference that can provide effective and lucrative music-business-conducting for some reasonable length of time. In short, the question, "How are musicians and those who get their music out to listeners going to make a living at what they do?" is still the foremost topic of discussion in the industry, as it has been for about seventeen or eighteen years now.
Of course, there are the intellectual property questions and privacy questions that have arisen as the music world has become more digital. That's not the most interesting area of the whole matter for me, though.
I was watching a video of one of this year's MIDEM panel discussions and the moderator mentioned a book title I found so intriguing I had to open a new browser window to investigate it on Amazon. The book is called Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet Is Killing Our Culture. It's not new; it was published in 2007.
Perusing the summary and a few reviews for that led to an inquiry into the author, one Andrew Keen, a thinker I should have been aware of before now, given his areas of preoccupation. He has a blog which I have now put on my blogroll here, because it's clearly a site that merits frequent checking-in.
He raises questions and makes observations that I think are of primary importance in the sorting out of everything that's converging at the culture-and-technology nexus. One of his most interesting points for me is how the notion of "community" has, as it has morphed from something physical with a geographical location into something "virtual," trivialized and even threatened our individuality.
But, to get back to the matter of music, I think a plain truth about our culture's collective maturity level needs to be stated, and it's a plain truth that encompasses trends going back considerably further than the digital revolution.
Let me put it this way: The ubiquitous use of the term "band" to describe musical acts vying for viability in today's marketplace, and "fan" to describe consumers of music, reveals a myopia about expression and appreciation that bodes ill for the chances of us having anything of consequence to listen to.
I'm not saying that these terms have no place in the lexicon of the music world. It's just that, for instance, the term "fan" motivates a musical act to cultivate its brand, right down to a logo and carefully tailored persona. It connotes an arena full of waving arms and screams and lighters held high. Sports teams have fans. Fans are raucous. Fans come to see the object of their fealty as a means to bolster their own identities.
Did Charlie Parker, Arturo Toscanini, Rosemary Clooney or Hank Williams need to hawk tee shirts and bumper stickers?
There were bands in the nineteenth century, of course. Marching bands, city-park bands. Swing orchestras, beginning in the second quarter of the twentieth century, were referred to as "big bands." In fact, there's some irony to the fact that rock and roll ensembles were originally referred to as "combos" and then "groups." The preference for the term "band" actually dates to about the late 1960s. But since that time, "band" has come to conjure the image of a small ensemble playing loudly, generally without much melodic or rhythmic subtlety, as concerned with crafting a particular appearance that, while it might vary from one act to the next (indeed, usually will, since an act is keen to hone its brand) is always characterized by a studied informality, as it is its music.
And that's what is being produced and consumed in the brave new world of post-label music, and was produced and consumed for a good twenty-five years beforehand.
If the digital age has had its own distinct effect on this, it is that, per the all-about-me-and-what-I-have-to-say ethos of social networking, it has reinforced the narcissism and shallowness of the whole aesthetic enterprise in our time. Granted, music has always been about the conveyance of feelings, going back to the era of Gregorian chants or even further back to the rituals of tribes in the world's disparate corners. But there was nobility in those feelings. Now, what everybody has to express is ephemeral, disposable. Pick your genre - electronica, hip-hop, folk, reggae, whatever - and plug in your earbuds. Reinforce your notion of how the world ought to see you by fueling yourself with the self-congratulatory cadences of the "bands" of which you are a "fan."
I see that while MIDEM was going on this past week in Cannes, my newfound interesting thinker Keen spent his time in nearly Davos, Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum. The parallels are worth noting. In Davos, the panel discussions and breakout sessions were about how to come up with some real money to alleviate the economic crisis centered in Europe, but with outlying manifestations in such places as the United States. They dispersed without figuring out how to come up with it.
We need some real money. We need some art that has some real nobility and dignity to it. In a world awash in mobile devices, digital clouds, pitch-and-tempo-altering software and networks of every conceivable kind, we are in extremely short supply of some basic necessities.
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