Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) edition of SDA Late Nite Radio.
In the present western world, considerations of human suffering and hardship are political, to the largest extent. A public proclamation of empathy is frequently a weapon in mindful disguise, and the difficulties of others are often pruriently appropriated and then channeled into rage at government and at those with different political views. It wasn’t so very long ago, though, that there wasn’t a safety net except for that provided by family and friends and local community. While it was understood, then as now, that any individual’s life trajectory was determined in part by effort and diligence as well as by station of birth, back then there was more of a realistic understanding that the relentless corporeal fates — war, illness, economic collapse, drought, death, abandonment of the slow by the swift — that will take us out of this world are out of our hands, and that these fates, often unkind, are part of a shared condition that no one can rise above or escape.
Tonight’s song, recorded in 1929, is a lullaby of sorts, a flickering far-away light through the darkness of time that makes tangible a condition wherein elemental, matter-of-fact human empathy is natural, casual, and normal — small and familiar and human — as opposed to, say, just a force for political agitation. At the time, of course, it was just a good song. Here it is then, without further ado: the great Jimmie Rogers sings Hobo Bill’s Last Ride.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
EBD, nice song. Either that’s looking back 80 years, or looking forward 10 years!
http://tinyurl.com/mg63eg
It’s interesting – not so much for the cake design, but the fact that it has “44” (POTUS count) and not “48” (his age)
in the news . . .
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Psychological barriers like uncertainty, mistrust and denial keep most Americans from acting to fight climate change, a task force of the American Psychological Association said on Wednesday.”
In other news, 95% of Americans think Psychology is as stupid as Astrology.
EBD
I believe you meant to say “that there wasn’t a safety net except for family and friends and local community”. Otherwise, well said.
Petit mal!
Thanks for that, Woodporter — corrected now.
I’ve just watched this on the samizdata blog from Britain. It’s George Carlin at his finest. You may have seen it before but with all the AGW garbage it’s worth another look.
This is superb.
http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/george-carlin-earth-is-not-endangered-we-are/
Cash for Clunkers shows off it’s true intent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqfuZ7hiap0
This just appeals to my sense of humour. Dems agitate to phone RNC about healthcare. Reps put on menu press 1, call gets routed to DNC.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/05/pranktastic-rnc-redirects-angry-liberal-phone-calls-to-dnc-headquarters/
Tranio: Great clip. Was not a big fan of Carlin, but I do say that I appreciated his message here, and his talent is definitely obvious.
This article predicts almost half of US mortgages will be underwater by 2011
http://tinyurl.com/ltur4u
The US is stuck, because raising interest rates will increase the defaults, putting more and more pressure on banks as well as previous homeowners, and borrowing money is the only way they can continue to support government spending. (Let alone the transition costs of changing health care)
Heaven help us all
With all the BS envirowackos barking about the damage done at the oil sands I wonder why they are not saying anything about the huge festering sores that the diamond mines in the north are leaving???
Good point Rob, perhaps it’s because diamonds and emeralds are bling bling and the bling bling thing does’t have any of that nasty oil stigma about it – so it’s still cool with the GW/MSM political crowd.
I know, not logical but neither are they.
Rob and ldd:
It’s cuz they laser little polar bears on them.
(the diamonds anyways)
Actually its because the mines are too far out in the wilderness and the bears and the bugs keep eating the wackos before they can walk to the mines.
EBD, very well said. I was wondering which well known pundit had written your intro—but it was you! Many thanks,
I’ll listen to the song later and am sure I’ll like it very much.
more Obamajoker captions
http://rightwingnews.com/mt331/2009/08/6_new_slogans_for_the_obama_jo.php
A great pic ‘EBD’. Very astute comment. Thanks.
Rob says “great festering sores”. Elucidate, por favor, because I have a sneaky feeling you have no idea what you are talking about. That sort of crap might get you more mileage if you stuck to a bona fide tree hugger site.
“barriers like uncertainty, mistrust and denial keep most Americans from acting to fight climate change”
Is that also what keeps people from fighting against the sun rising in the morning?
Mother Earth put oil in the sand and man is just cleaning it up – making plant food as a bonus !!
(PDF warning) The Sacrifice Medal
Cdn. Army Journal, Spring 2009, pp. 5-8
NOTE: Following the reaction to the announcement of the creation of the Medal in some circles, the Minister of National Defence has asked the Chief of the Defence Staff to conduct a review of the existing criteria and make recommendations to the appropriate government committee. The review is currently underway and the inaugural presentation of the Medal, and therefore general distribution, has been postponed until a final decision with regards to the criteria is made and announced…
The Sacrifice Medal was created in the context of increased casualties in overseas operations to fulfill the desire of Canadians and the Government to provide formal recognition, through the award of an official medal emanating from the Crown, to those who are killed or wounded by hostile action…
Another silly question in the CTV poll:
Are you surprised (those silly) Americans don’t believe that Canadian Health care is perfecto?(my interpretation)
Or are you surprised that someone could possibly consider that Canadian Health Care is imperfect??
(Again my interpretation)
Obviouly the question has many meanings.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate?&tf=ctv/generic/hubs/ctvNewsSub.html&cf=ctv/generic/hubs/ctvNews.cfg&id=150535&pollid=150535&save=_save&show_vote_always=no&poll=CTVNewsTopStories&hub=TopStories&subhub=VoteResult
WoW!! Perhaps someone knows a better way to C&P the link!
I really hate spiders. I’ve never seen a bigger one than this one which ate a bird who was caught in its web.
Icky.
http://tools.cairns.com.au/photo_gallery/photo_gallery_popup.php?category_id=3825&offset=4
bluetech – check out tinyurl – great site for making links smaller 🙂
Vin Suprynowicz calls attention to Global Cooling Deniers in his plea, “Won’t You Do Your Part to Save the Hummingbird?”
(Tongue-in-cheek, naturally.)
I’m from the government, and you are required by law to accept my help.
Daniel Henninger at the WSJ Opinion Journal:
“Here is the biggest confusion, and for many Obama voters it’s reality check No. 2: For years, Democratic politicians said the health-care problem was about ’47 million uninsured Americans.’ Whatever the merits, many people were willing to do something for those with no health insurance. Suddenly, these voters discovered that ObamaCare is about them. When did that happen?
“Every policy wonk in America may have known this was always an everybody-into-the-pool proposal, and Mr. Obama has talked himself blue saying people could stay with the insurance they’ve got or the doctor they’ve got, ‘if you’re happy with that’ and don’t like the public option.
“A lot of people simply don’t believe this. How come? White House adviser David Axelrod said this week, ‘Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.’ It could be they’ve already thought about that. For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government ‘help’ they never knew existed.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204908604574330950122077732.html
Last fall a Huffington Post writer named Carol Anne Burger stabbed her former partner 222 times with a screwdriver.
What do you expect, though, when a callous society doesn’t recognize same-sex divorce? Michael Mooney of the Miami New Times:
“After the sad incident, some observers suggested that the story of Jess and Carol highlighted the need for across-the-board recognition of civil unions and same-sex marriages. ‘It’s very messy for us to get disentangled,’ says Elizabeth F. Schwartz, a Miami-based family attorney specializing in same-sex issues. ‘This is one example of many of a couple that entered into a marriage and then couldn’t get themselves out of it. When the kind people of Massachusetts grant you the right to marry but Florida won’t recognize those marriages, it can make getting a divorce very difficult. Certainly the answer is not to kill your ex, but it does remind us that the consequences can be grave when we don’t have a legal and appropriate way out.'”
Commentary and links at
http://edwardmichaelgeorge.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-sense-of-it-all.html
“White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the health-care protesters a form of ‘manufactured’ anger. Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse went further and called them ‘angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists.’
“Administration supporters on cable TV shows were a little more subtle. Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’ dismissed the protesters as ‘well-dressed middle-class people in pinks and limes . . . Brooks Brothers Brigade.’ He dismissed them as stooges for the health-care industry. His guest, California Senator Barbara Boxer, agreed with him and urged ‘you in the media to take a look at what’s going on here. This is all planned. It’s to hurt our president and it’s to change the Congress.'”
A misterious case of rogue vet?
Obama’s agenda of a Legacy of Socialized Health Care in the US has hit a snag. People are becoming aware of the costs.
Therefore, he and his administration have refocused their attack and instead of selling the Health Care on its own merits – which is impossible because it has none – they are attacking the insurance companies which now sell health care insurance.
National Review has an article on ‘Phase II for Obama Care’ which outlines a memo to Democrats on how to deal with constituents who question; that is, who DARE to question the Obama Plan. The tactic is to Blame the Insurance Companies.
The tactic is “attacks on the “villains” who run the nation’s insurance industry. The strategy memo continues:
Hold the insurance companies accountable. Remove them from between you and your doctor. No discrimination for pre-existing conditions. No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover.”
BUT – a talking point against the insurance companies, claiming that they are ‘between you and your doctor’; that these policies include out-of-pocket expenses, etc…and suggesting that a government plan would not have any of these ‘events’ is totally wrong.
Instead of the insurance company, which you choose, ‘between you and your doctor’..there’d be, as there is in Canada – the GOVERNMENT. And the government will put you on a waiting list for tests; it will most certainly not cover all expenses; it may tell you that you cannot have an eye exam every year..and so on.
So, yet again, the Obama strategy is to insert divisions between the people. He’s ready to use the race division at any time. His use of class divisions, based on setting up anger against the wealthy and entitlement of the poor is well-established. His political class division is equally entrenched, by his setting up his administration as a Superior Guardian (and unaccountable to the laws of the land) to the unwashed populace. Now, he’s got a division between private business versus The Government.
Incredible.
Oh goody, the “war on terror” and “jihad” are not allowed in the White House under Barry Owe.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/white-house-war-terrorism-over/?feat=home_headlines
“Canada ruling conservatives retake lead in New Poll”
Reuters Aug.06/2009
*Ekos survey for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. put Conservatives at 34.9 With the liberals at 31.9 down from 34.1 ……..
Go to CBC news see if you can find the poll?
Correct me if iam wrong I did not see it, Imagine that.
Hey, you are going to have to change your waiting for the asteroid to waiting for climate change
BBC
http://thathustle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137
The Discovery channel mentions “global warming” as the real cause of the exinction, and the asteroid was just a mercy coup de grace.
Joke science
One of the great attractions of popular Darwinism, as a financial investment, is its appeal to what we in the media refer to, in our jaded way, as the “tabloid audience.” That is to say people who, through no fault of their own (lack of education, native dullness, mental injury, etc.) are extremely credulous. You can sell stuff to them that you just couldn’t sell to — you know, “people like us.”
http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/
EBD; I posted a link to a music composition last evening PST and it was held for review (error message). Never made it to posting. I do not believe I have ever attempted to post anything that would be troubling or liable. What gives?
Gunney, I have no idea. In the last two or three days I’ve also had numerous (six? seven?) comments getting the “held” (or so) message, and only a couple of them (eventually) got through.
Sorry, not sure what’s going on — just a temporary problem, I assume.