Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Tuesday night vintage media show and to all those who hope that the President of the United States of America, whomever he or she may be (or in this case, Mr. Obama), won't be lead in a diabolical direction, here is the silent film version of Faust as directed by F. W. Murnau (1926, 1¾ hours, and there is an English "closed caption" button to the lower right of the viewing window).
| 21:53 | Satan | You have summoned me! |
| 22:43 | Faust | Be gone from me, Satan! |
| 23:22 | Satan | One day! Try it! Just one trial day! |
| 24:28 | Faust | Can you help the hungry and the sick? |
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Very interesting. I just tried the link and it said "video not available,
try later", so I tried it right again, and it worked. Ahh, the Internet ;-)
Oh, forgot to mention...
Did anyone catch the CCCBC this morning?
Somehow there was NO reporting of the Omar Khadr/Maher Arar by the CBC on their national newscasts, not even on their CBC News web site. A small mention buried in the boring section of the news page appeared around 11am.
Of course, the CBC was quite responsible for getting Maher Arar out of the big house and for us giving him $10,000,000.00 for his trouble, so it only follows that they wouldn't want to advertise that news while they could stall and hope there were some reports upcoming that could dispute or downplay the situation.
Another reason I hope that Harper can eviscerate the top floor of the Front St. headquarter before he is inevitably replaced by the next Liberal Prime Minister.
My sole exposure to CBC today consisted of seeing the listings. For the CBC todays prime time programing consisted of something called Dreams of Obama.
WARNING TO PURCHASERS OF 52 RACE-CARD DECKS
If, after 4 days of continuing O'basm, your satisfaction via aggravated stimulation does not rebate, you need to see your shrink -- and fast.
Hey, Ulianov, you might know about this kind of stuff, what do you think about the analogy between Obama and Faust v. Satan and the never-ending stream of fradulent charlatan shysters peddling ponzi schemes, protection rackets, and embezzlement that we mere citizens are constantly swatting away like so many mosquitoes? Do you think that President Obama is clean, in the sense that he scammed the democratic political machine, or do you think that he is dirty, in the sense that the machine scammed him?
Me? I don't know. We'll see.
he will certainly live up to mine.
I dont expect him to be able to accomplish anything at all.
Change is the Same.
four legs good, two legs better.
Well, Ulianov, nobody ever meets everyone's expectations unless one knows only a very small number of people, and that on a good day. Yet I remain curious to see the degree to which President Obama will be able to control the levers of government. If you can abstract yourself away from the past and into the future, Richard Perle recently said that, "For eight years George W. Bush pulled the levers of government ~ sometimes frantically ~ never realizing that they were disconnected from the machinery and the exertion was largely futile".
My question thus is: To what degree will President Obama, for better or worse,
be able to overcome this phenomenon? Me? I'm betting on bureausclerosis.
You wondered why - male or female - it wasn't working? Well, you might wish to know:
http://businesssheet.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/study-rich-men-give-women-more-orgasms
Great news, prairieans, I know how much you've missed the -40 chill ... it's on the way back, Friday be the end of this false spring.
At least it's fun to mock Al Gore, right?
But hey, mission accomplished, let's get this one over with in less than six weeks.
Vitruvius: "My question thus is: To what degree will President Obama, for better or worse,
be able to overcome this phenomenon?"
Well, I think that the machinery has already connected the levers again ... they are just waiting to guide President Obama's hands.
Death Wish, Continued In Real Life: Mexicans Form Vigilante Groups To Combat Drug Gangs
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2009/01/death-wish-continued-in-real-life.html
The drug gangsters of Mexico better watch their asses, for a whole bunch of fed-up Paul Kerseys are gunning for them now!
Sarah's Got a Gun!!!
For your eyes only... Sarah Palin looking awesome in an American-flag bikini, with a gun!
And more... with a cool link...
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2009/01/sarahs-got-gun.html
"Speech was no barn-burner, but it had shades of JFK and FDR" (nnw)
...-
"Profile: Barack Obama's speechwriter Jon Favreau"
"His boyish good looks have not hurt, nor has the emergence of an unfortunate Facebook photograph showing him drunkenly groping a cardboard cut-out of the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, at a Thanksgiving party."
http://tinyurl.com/9cemr4 (times)
CBC will be talking about a new poll out, done for no reason, just to get a good result for the Liberals and Iggypuff. It will tempt them to vote down the budget and attempt to grab power supported by Commie Jack and Separatist Gilles.
Iggypuff has had an easy ride to the top, why would they want him to get his hands dirty on a campaign trail? Especially since he has no clue what the hell he's doing aside.
"Obama good for us
Brodbeck: Anti-American sentiment comes to a grinding halt" (nnw)
...-
Aunty-American has poofed, gonzoed, kaputed. It's OK and it's now officially approved to speak properly, approvingly of Uncle Sam.
The left liberals now love the USA.
Political correctness now let's Canucks follow the lead of:
Ex--Liberal MP: "Parrish was overheard on a boom mike saying "Damn Americans, I hate the bastards.""
"The Grand Inquisitors"
Up to a hundred Palestinians in Gaza who have defied house arrest orders have been tortured in children’s hospitals and schools converted into interrogation centers. People have been shot in the legs or had their hands broken. The campaign has been described as a “new massacre”. One victim had his eyes put out. No one was safe from the torturers, not even those attending funerals. When is will the UN act to put a stop to this horror? Won’t President Obama intervene to stop these barbaric acts? Aren’t international human rights monitors going to put a stop to this? When will War Crimes charges be preferred against the perpetrators?
Never.
Why? Because Hamas is in charge of the torture and their victims are simply Fatah members. If it were Israel who had done these things, well then
… But since it’s Hamas, the same Hamas for whom thousands have been marching in ’solidarity’, it’s a non-story. The Jersualem Post cites reports from Fatah members describing the events."
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/01/21/the-grand-inquisitors/
..-
It must have been extremely painful for the Leftards like Layton and the Liberals to hear God being spoken of so freely in Obama's inauguration celebrations.
Wasn't it under Chretien's regime God Save the Queen was not allowed at a ceremony on the Hill because "God" might be offensive to some?
What a pack of hypocrites.
"Ottawa to test energy-saving bulbs for harmful UV rays
WINNIPEG - The federal government is reviewing the safety of energy-saving light bulbs, responding to concerns the low-cost green alternative may emit potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Health Canada launched a study in December to test compact fluorescent bulbs to see if they emit ultraviolet rays - less than two months after British health officials issued a public warning that, in proximity, the bulbs emit UV rays similar to outdoor exposure levels on a sunny summer day."
http://tinyurl.com/6stxl4 (winfreepress))
Spengler, President Oxybarama
United States President Barack Obama "signaled a commitment to pragmatism not just as a governing strategy but as a basic value", according to unintentionally hilarious inauguration dispatch by the New York Times' Washington bureau chief David Sanger. Pragmatism, of course, is not a value, but rather the triumph of expediency over values. To call pragmatism a "basic value" is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, like "studied ignorance", or "impassioned apathy". Obama had plenty of that today, too...
The CBC website announces in bold letters that
"US Judge Halts Proceedings Against Khadr"
No mention in the article that this action involves ALL Gitmo detainees awaiting trial.
Quite disingenuous, I'd say.
Yeah, the CBC and their fellow Leftards, NDP, Liberals and the rest of the MSM are all going to bat for their little Khadr spawn. They simply must get him home to the soft arms of Canadian justice and his proud Mamma.
They'd never go to bat for Conrad Black who has contributed a great deal to Canada and poses no danger to society but they do so a member of a terrorist supporting family.
Wonder how Iggy feels about bringing him home?
charles macdonald - I'll disagree with Spengler, and his definition of pragmatism as well as his mean-spirited account of Obama.
With regards to Obama, my concern about him, as I've said, is his narcissistic focus on himself, which moves him, in a way, to live as if he were in an heroic film with himself as both director and star. That 'gap' between having one's feet firmly on the ground of reality versus floating in the light air of the fictional world, disturbs me. But, I respect the people, and their vote, and will adopt a 'wait and see' attitude to Obama.
With regard to pragmatism, in contradiction to Spengler's contemptuous dismissal of it as a 'basic value', it most certainly IS a value, understanding 'value' as a universal principle of existence as a real being.
A non-pragmatic value is one where the content is unchanged in interaction with the world. That sets up an idealism, a kind of pure mathematics so to speak, created solely in the mind of man that is immune to the realities outside that man. Experience and learning cannot affect such values. We might call such values 'dogma' or 'fiction' for they are untouched and indeed, unable to be experienced in reality.
Pragmatics, or rather, according to Peirce, pragmaticism, states that the external world's reaction to an action is actually part of the reasoning for that action. It's an 'inductive' theory of reality, where mind and matter are interactive. So, if we have a value of 'loving one's neighbour', this value has emerged within a real life pragmatic interaction, where such action has productive results. However, as a value, it must remain open to and in touch with the realities of the world.
Pragmatics doesn't mean what some seem to think it means, i.e., doing the expedient or the 'quick fix'. It means that one's actions are rooted in an acknowledgement of actual reality. Pragmatism 'opens the mind to evidence' and insists that one's actions 'work' with reality.
"China's state media nervous on Obama, praises Bush"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090121/wl_asia_afp/uspoliticsobamachinamedia_20090121031912
Seth Cropsey, We Should Build a Bigger Navy
China is.
On the last day of 2008, the Asahi Shimbun reported that China is planning to begin construction of two medium-sized aircraft carriers--a contemporary navy's most flexible instrument of power projection--in its Shanghai yards this year. They are scheduled for launch in 2015. The article also repeated widely circulated information that the shipyards in the Yellow Sea port of Dalian are putting the finishing touches on a refurbishment of the 55,000 ton Soviet-built Kuznetsov-class carrier, the Varyag, a vessel that a Chinese company with connections to the People's Liberation Army purchased in 1998 and then towed to China from the Black Sea in 2002...
Looks like Kathy, Phantom and I were not alone in our intentional Obama-free day:
Cnews has a poll indicting so far that 36% tuned out.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/
ET,
Your non pragmatic rant about what is pragmatism, could better and more appropriately be summed by simply stating ...
Most people are too pragmatic to work for government.
Then we will all understand that what it means is there is a way to get things done, then there is the government way. To be fair, this can apply to a heck of a lot of private sector quagmires as well.
ET,
Your non pragmatic rant about what is pragmatism, could better and more appropriately be summed by simply stating ...
Most people are too pragmatic to work for government.
Then we will all understand that what it means is there is a way to get things done, then there is the government way. To be fair, this can apply to a heck of a lot of private sector quagmires as well.
More .... re pragmatism as a value.
I have always valued pragmatism and it has served me well ... therefore pragmatism is a value.
Pragmatism, of course, is not a value, but rather the triumph of expediency over values~Spengler
charles macdonald - I'll disagree with Spengler, and his definition of pragmatism…
Pragmatics doesn't mean what some seem to think it means, i.e., doing the expedient or the 'quick fix'. It means that one's actions are rooted in an acknowledgement of actual reality. Pragmatism 'opens the mind to evidence' and insists that one's actions 'work' with reality. ~ET
Could it be that Spengler is commenting within a political context while ET is reverting to an ethical analysis that assumes a universal “acknowledgement of actual reality” which is not normally achievable in politics?
Political decisions often do involve an idealism-pragmatism spectrum, with neither tendency having an intrinsic “value”.
By the way ET your Yogiism about Obama’s narcissistic focus on himself was great, I’m going to plagiarize it.
Kate ...glad to see the return to the small dead animal, without hints of nouveau art, hope style.
"Human rights worker with United Nations ties, Clarence Dias, caught with child pornography "
http://tinyurl.com/8p47ko
Fire.Them.All
john, heh, so my description of Peirce's pragmaticism was, according to you, a 'rant'? Please explain.
And a definition can't be pragmatic or non-pragmatic; it's an intellectual exercise not an action.
And no, your definition of 'pragmatism has served me well, therefore it's a value' is not a definition of pragmatism or pragmaticism. Indeed, it isn't a definition of anything, for you haven't defined its nature/actions.
However, you HAVE defined your idea of 'value' as pertaining strictly and only to what's good for yourself. That's a form of egocentrism which is quite far from the type of values we are discussing.
glasnost- Spengler was discrediting pragmatism, using an incorrect understanding of it as 'the quick fix' without reference to any principles or values. That's not pragmatism; that's why I was objecting to it..as well as to the rest of his sneers of contempt for Obama. I may be suspicious and concerned about Obama's narcissism and his immersion in a world of his own fictional authorship, but I don't think that Spengler's outline was fair.
I think all decisions must be pragmatic, understanding pragmaticism as an 'ideal value' that operates within real links to actual reality. That is, it exists as connected with reality. So, if my values about interactions with others are that one must love all others, when I am faced with a suicide bomber, I acknowledge that value in its actual interaction with reality - and I shoot him.
"The end of the culture of the book."
Att. Bookworms, aka bibliophiles. Listen up, real good. The End Is Nigh.
Stash your books.
...-
"Author Larry McMurtry sees the end of book culture (Interview)
Novelist, essayist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry makes a rare Houston speaking appearance Wednesday night when he delivers the 2009 Friends of Fondren Library Distinguished Guest Lecture.
Best-known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novelLonesome Dove, the 72-year-old McMurtry remains extraordinarily prolific. He contributes frequently to the New York Review of Books. His screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, co-written with Diana Ossana, won an Academy Award in 2006.
And while he has turned in the last decade to memoir, chronicling his evolution as a writer and antiquarian-book dealer, he’s not done with fiction. His 29th novel hits bookstores later this year.
McMurtry also continues to operate Booked Up, his massive used- and rare-book shop in his hometown of Archer City.
He talked by phone with Chronicle books editor Fritz Lanham.
Q: What will you talk about at Rice?
A: The end of the culture of the book. I’m pessimistic. Mainly it’s the flow of people into my bookshop in Archer City. They’re almost always people over 40.
I don’t see kids, and I don’t see kids reading. I think little kids love to have stories read to them, but when they get to 10 or 11 or 12, they run into this tsunami of technology: iPod, iPhone, Blackberries.
They don’t resist it, and it’s normal that they wouldn’t; it’s their culture. I’m not so sure they ever come back to reading. Some will, but most won’t.
Q: Does that portend disaster for our culture?
A: It portends difficulty. I don’t know about disaster."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2168837/posts
This is funny...
A sculpture of a shivering Gore, in Fairbanks, in time for a 'skeptics' discussion on AGW.
http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/jan/19/al-gore-ice-sculpture-unveiled-fairbanks-invitatio/
Iggy didn't announce the funeral arrangements for the defunct Separatist Coalition.
Suggestion: There is a small plot awaiting in the PET Cemetery in the Tommy Douglas/Hazen Argue Promenade.
An alternative plot is in Iggy's "last chance" saloon.
...-
"Election over budget unlikely, Ignatieff says
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Wednesday that the country needs an election over next week's budget "like a hole in the head" – the latest sign that he will keep the minority Conservative government in power."
But, Iggy waffles and Dithers:
""Will he (Harper) give us a budget which corresponds to the economic situation? He failed the first time. He has a last chance," Ignatieff.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/574764
…and I shoot him… Posted by: ET at January 21, 2009 12:22 PM
ET, now you’re just trying to titillate me.
ET, do you still teach? I would love to sit in on your classes. Always enjoy your posts and many of your gems I save and refer to. It will be a sad day when you no longer provide us with your pragmatic analysis. You certainly make people think though you do make Irwin Daisy's head explode from time to time with your patient explanation of your viewpoint.
Knowledge truly sets us free.
Angry says Iggy is a cheapo. No tombstone for the infamous: "the coalition is already dead."
Angry, check out/dig the PET Cemetery. Hire Will S's gravediggers; they were funny.
"Like the coalition is already dead. Not just dead. Buried too, and no tombstone to mark the grave."
...-
"The coalition? What coalition? Michael Ignatieff is not talking about the coalition"
http://stevejanke.com/archives/281522.php
Eye Catching Title of the Week goes to Bourque, photo incl.
"Trudeau positively gushes over Obama speech"
sub article from the T.O Star
Read the comments also re: this article, there may not be many but they hit the nail.
Ironic via gateway pundit.
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/01/un-human-rights-honcho-busted-with.html
dave - thanks for your support. No, I've retired from teaching, though I do still write and publish papers and, sometimes, go to conferences (but mostly in Europe)and give the occasional local talk (eg, one in the Bayview-York Mills area recently)...
Yes, as Aristotle said 'all men by nature desire to know'. It's when an individual rejects this curiousity and moves into a state of dogmatic adherence to themes which cannot be supported by either empirical evidence or logical analysis that this curiosity dies, and so, knowledge must dies as well.
One must be careful about dogma, which is really an insistence on purity, which is understood as an infinite source of a singular intentionality. Purity is always about power. Gods and men have fought for centuries, in every society on earth; they have fought, not over the idea of the existence of purity which none of them doubted but whether it could be accessed, could be touched by human hands, could be transformed into something within the sensual and conceptual experience of 'hapless mortal men'. But this merging of the Potential and the Actual is dangerous. As Teiresais said: "You've confused the upper and lower worlds...all gods will even you with their victims".
Pragmaticism moves out of this notion of purity and insists on 'doubt'. What one cannot doubt, one cannot argue about.
And to continue with Peirce, he described four methods for arriving/maintaining one's beliefs. There is the method of authority where you just accept a more powerful voice as providing truth; such a method, by peer pressure or dictatorship is common. However, it is welcomed by most for it requires no effort to arrive at the 'correct belief'.
There is the method of tenacity which is where one holds to a belief 'without wavering' and rejects any hint of doubt - is difficult to deal with for the individual who operates this way is equally immune to debate.
And, the 'a priori' method, which is where one arrives at one's beliefs merely because that belief 'feels good'.
Only the scientific method, the use of reason and experience, however, have any hope at helping us arrive at the truth.
Now Suddenly, Staying in Afghanistan is Fine
I almost threw up my breakfast when I heard John Geddes of Maclean's Magazine now saying (start @ 7:20) that it's perfectly fine for Canada to stay longer in Afghanistan if The Messiah asks us to.
In fairness, I don't know what Geddes has said about our presence there in times past but I do expect that many liberals will suddenly be changing their tune on the subject.
ET, Spengler used "pragmatic" in its ordinary denotation, not referring to a specific philosophy. Just as, when I say one of my dogs is stoic, I mean it bears pain without complaint, not that it adheres to the teachings of Marcus Aurelius and his fellows.
Do you see this, Hussein?
Ronald Bailey, Coal Will Still Be King
Why the opposition to coal? After all, the U.S. is energy independent with respect to this resource, with 275 billion tons in proven reserves, which is more than enough to meet our energy needs for hundreds of years. The chief problem is that burning coal produces carbon dioxide emissions which are warming the planet. Burning coal emits 10 percent more carbon dioxide than oil and 60 percent more than natural gas...
So how can power producers burn coal without emitting greenhouse gases? Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is supposed to be the answer. With CCS the idea is that carbon dioxide is kept out of the atmosphere by capturing it and then injecting it underground. However, CCS is still a speculative technology. Can carbon dioxide be captured? Can it be injected underground safely? And how much would CCS boost the price of electricity to consumers?
3 Steps Backwards
One must be careful about dogma, which is really an insistence on purity, which is understood as an infinite source of a singular intentionality.~ET
ET, try to remember that you're in the Eastern Time Zone and those of us in the west have not yet had our cocktail hour, and hence might not have a full appreciation of such philisophical input.
I thought Mephistopheles was in charge of recruitment and damnation? What's the Big Boss doing picking up one measly soul?
charles macdonald - maybe you're right, but I felt that Spengler's insertion of 'values' within his definition of 'pragmatics' moved it out of the kitchen and into the theoretical.
glasnost, alright, alright...wait..are you saying that one has to be drunk to understand what I'm saying?? What the **# heck? Yes, I admit that particular sentence was/is a bit much.
All I was trying to say is that we assume that purity is, well, it's pure. It's complete, total, untainted(infinite). As such, it can either have no intentionality (A total overview is total and thus, looks everywhere)..or if it is dogma, then, it is completely focused on only ONE issue.
Hmm, getting close to the Hour of Understanding.
Comments at Jack's are not complimentary to these four (4) losers: JoeWho, JohnFemBumPincher, KimElle, and Ad$Cam DithersJr.
Jema 54 says:
"IMO, the msm is trotting out this pathetic crowd of old Bolshevik rag tags to flog some greenie line coming down their hash pipes. They hallucinate $$ for themselves.."
...-
"Former PMs press for green stimulus
Four former prime ministers are urging the Harper government to follow Barack Obama’s lead and use “green stimulus” to help jump-start the economy."
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2009/01/21/former-pms-press-for-green-stimulus-1/#comments