i cannot reconcile the fact 'herb' was a Nazi party member from 1933 onwards til he fled germany in the closing days of the war...with his soi-disant exculpatory masterly conducting....

btw i with furtwangler believe the first violin could stand and act as working understudy for conductor in any reasonably competent orchestra and no one would notice any difference....

so much for the cried up sensitivity and morality of the 'artiste'...

Hey, Karajan! What's your game now? Can anybody play?

I remember that tune from Bugs Bunny.

Still, the music is fantastic, almost jumped to my feet and waltzed around the room, solo; but didn't.
Must say that Nancy Pelosi looks good in red, well let's just say it suits her. One good point was that the medical plan will not cover abortions. I hope that's what I heard.

Oh come on, John, where does it end? Should we excoriate the US constitution now because some the founding fathers were racist?

I'm guessing that there's at least a few Jews in Herbert's orchestra. If they're okay with it, if they've moved on, we probably should too.

Here's a nice little short clip of Larry David - a Jew - whistling a lovely and haunting Wagner melody to his wife in a public place.

I'm entirely on his side in the resulting fracas.

the tune always sends me into space around the moon circa 1968 via 2001 A Space Odyssey

unbelievable at the time . absolutely overwhelming effects.

"i cannot reconcile the fact 'herb' was a Nazi party member from 1933 onwards til he fled germany"

It would be tough not to be a Nazi member and work at anything in those times. No doubt you had to be a Nazi to be in the union. If you weren't in the union you didn't work.

After the war was over a friend of mines father refused to join the Communist Party in Poland. They sent him to the gulags for 3 years. Sometimes you have to just go with the flow if you want to survive.

It's always dangerous when the government controls the unions. Whether it be the Nazi's, the Soviets, the NDP or the Dem's. Way too many things can go wrong for the average man.

And to quote Ezra Pound (again). "It's not the ideas that a man holds, but the depth at which he holds them".

sorry lads...

next you'll be telling me abortionists and euthanasiasts are just regular guys trapped in a dilemma not of their own devise....as though they had no choice or even more embarrassingly that they could not recognize the evil with which they were associated.

'nice guys' like you two birds are the main reason it is becoming more and more difficult to call a spade a spade any more.....it's your attitude that has given the MSM general license to purvey their misguided tripe...

he was a Nazi...end of story...shun him and his works...

what are you two birds anyway...Salvation Army workers or sumpin...?

Possibly one of my most favourite musical selection of any genre. There is just nothing else that can match classical Viennese orchestral music for harmony and melody.

Have heard it performed live by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra probably more than once.

And about four years ago was fortunate enough to visit Hungary and went on an evening boat cruise on the Danube in Budapest. Of course they played this piece over the sound system.

(and oh yes, it is not blue)

Ezra Pound was a bit of a fascist himself, US courts found him "mentally ill" and he did his time in St. Margaret's hospital.
Cal2, remember Hal; he was a sweetheart compared to the monster I'm using to talk with you.

"He was a nazi...end of story...shun him and his works..."

John, some of the American founding fathers were racist. Ergo...

Ah well. When I was visiting Munich 25 years ago, I guess I should have refused any schnitzel served by anyone over sixty...

You might, Foobert, like our September 21, 2009 Late Nite Radio show, where we featured the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Johann Strauss's Freikugeln Polka, op. 326, Claudio Abbado conducting. Unfortunately it features no ballerinas, but I think the ending makes up for that ;-)

"next you'll be telling me abortionists and euthanasiasts are just regular guys trapped in a dilemma not of their own devise....as though they had no choice.."

That's a bit of a stretch there Johnny. Spoken like someone who has had choices all his life. You have no idea what it was like back then.

For the record my father spent most of the war in a German prison camp and he was a musician after the war. He understood that most of the people caught up in the crap of war were just working guys with no choice.

Of course had you been there you'd have told the SS where to go and just carried on with life.

[Famed Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said Friday she and another blogger were punched and thrown violently into a car by presumed state security agents as they walked to participate in a peaceful march in downtown Havana.] Carpe Diem

Ron in Kelowna - Could it be the beginning of the end for Fidel's island prison? The fact that they weren't taken away and shot, is an improvement. The old man must answer to his (or our) God. No cigar Fidel!

larben. Ezra was only a bit of a fascist. Plus he was a bit nuts. He gets to plead insanity.

There are more odious people out there who weren't insane and jumped into that cesspool with both feet and enjoyed it.

I can understand if you'd want to hold Ezra's feet to the flames for things he's said and done. I just think there should be a long line ahead of him.

There is something he cannot do.

[President Obama squeezed in a trip to Copenhagen last month to lobby, unsuccessfully, for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. He plans to travel to Oslo next month to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that even Obama has said he does not deserve. And this coming week, he sets out on a weeklong tour of Asia.

But the president does not plan to travel to Germany to attend the 20th anniversary celebration Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall, drawing heated criticism from those who say he's ignoring a shining triumph of American-inspired democracy. ] Fox

Fort Hood
By David Warren

For a person with old-fashioned values, and an old-fashioned sense of English word meanings, the reports of the Fort Hood massacre were almost as provoking as what happened there. In the larger view of things, they may be more consequential.

http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/

Oh agreed, Gord - Mussolini was a fascist, not a Nazi, Franco never forced Jews back to Occupied Europe if they made it over the Pyrenees. Besides it is said that Mussolini made the trains run on time, he'd get my vote today if he could do the same for the trains here in Vancouver

That's sad to hear, Ron, and thanks for bringing that to our attention, because it's not the sort of thing you tend to hear anywhere else; the usual suspects in the Canadian media - CBC most pointedly, as a taxpayer-funded "progressive" outlet - seem to pointedly avoid ever concerning themselves with any victims of communist rule, including that of Chavez or Castro.

I'm familiar with Yoani Sanchez because of Canadian blogger Terry Glavin - a bookmark-worthy Canadian left-blogger with heart who knows what time it is, and who keeps the flame burning. In this post from three and a half weeks ago - "Enhorabuena, Compañera Sanchez. Venceremos. Freedom Will Come", he writes "There are thousands of Omidrezas in Iran. There are thousands more in Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and all over this virtual world that they cannot understand nor fence in." (emph. Glavin's)

He quotes Yoani Sanchez:

"In practice, I’m a civic ghost, a non-being, someone unable to show the sharp eye of the doorkeeper even the slightest proof of being in the official mechanisms."

In getting her message and those of others like her out there's an additional doorkeeper in the form of our own media, who will cover at endless sympathetic length the umbrage of an upper-class black Yale professor who berates a working class cop who happens to be white, for example, but who never seem to find the time to pause to cover the victims of the socialist "experiment" in Cuba or Venezuela.

And, of course, we all remember the famous remark made by one of our own. (From history.cbc.ca)

Desperate Jews turned to Canada for help as they struggled to escape the horrors of Nazi Germany. Instead they came face-to-face with Canada’s own powerful anti-Semitic forces embodied in Frederick Blair, the country’s top immigration bureaucrat. And as director of immigration, he wielded huge power in setting the policy of who got into Canada.

"I often think that instead of persecution it would be far better if we more often told them frankly why many of them are unpopular," said Blair. "If they would divest themselves of certain of their habits I am sure they could be just as popular in Canada as our Scandinavians."

That's our shame gellen, but we're more interested in apologizing for the Komogata Maru a 100 years ago,
and that doesn't mean we must treat this latest ship-load of illegal immigrants with overweening concern either. the Jews were escaping a real horror, there is no reason to believe these aren't terrorists or just economic immigrants.

mussolini was a socialist before he became a fascist. Fascists - including the national socialist of germany were socialists first who then lost their patience and became fascists - a short-circuited way to power and ultimately total power aka totalitarian.

Thank-you for linking us to the beautiful, exuberant music of Johann Strauss II. The Blue Danube is one of his most joyful compositions - it is music that awakens the soul, it is the first crocus in spring, it is falling in love, it is flying on skis in powder snow, it is the first day of summer holidays. This music echos pure unadulterated delight and to waltz with a man who knows how to waltz to this music takes one to dimensions of perfection. This music is what 'sweeps women off their feet'. It is magic and just hearing it made me remember those moments of joy in the present. Music like this follows the rhythms of the human heart - we feel in tune with it - most modern music does not beat with the human heart and thus evokes panic, orneriness, depression, anger...the disjointed sounds make a human soul angry for upsetting the heart.

Thank-you Vit, for making my heart happy.

john begley - I had a very interesting conversation with a former German soldier who fought at the Battle of Stalingrad. He was 14 at the time, and managed to survive to the end of the war. He was just a young kid doing the patriotic thing for his country.

Am I supposed to shun him?

BTW, I'm never giving up my Furtwangler recordings.

You've made many insightful posts in the past - IMHO tonight you've missed the target entirely.

"Native tribe will petition Ottawa to remove its Indian status

A delegation of the Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia is set to meet with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl next month with a groundbreaking proposal: That the 13,000 members of their tribe be allowed to abandon their status as "Indians."

The group is willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources. Unlike most contemporary efforts at treaty-making, it would also abandon the ambition of a separate level of government."

"The first nation's treaty team, led by hereditary chiefs, proposes the Gitxsan would become regular, enfranchised Canadian citizens, governed by municipal, provincial and federal governments."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/native-tribe-will-petition-ottawa-to-remove-its-indian-status/article1356107/

Hi, I am writing this after many hours of not sleeping. My beloved Casper a Miniature American Eskimo of 13 years passed away in my arms, peacefully, early this morning. He was the most amazing, loyal friend and animal. I am just so glad that I was able to hold him in my arms as he passed.
Sleep well my baby.

“Scientists in awe”.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.*”

“Recently fur seals have begun to re-establish their populations on the island after almost becoming extinct in the early 19th century.”

...-

“Scientists in awe at sight of giant iceberg off Macquarie Island”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6908357.ece

*Psalm 24:1 Of David.

Vit, I forgot to say Thank you for the lovely song. That just sums up my dog Casper's spirit. The girls danced like my dogs spirit......

An episode you won't be seeing on Law & Order.    Man Admits Killing Abortion Protester

Takuan Seiyo has another installment up.

This headline frightened me:
Remembrance Day silence should be mandatory: poll

Fortunately they also spoke to Don Leonardo, who (also bothered by the poll) gets it right:

"We need to remember our soldiers have fought for freedoms -- freedom of the press, freedom to enjoy the Olympics or the freedom to protest them, and the freedom to observe two minutes of silence."

What is so infuriating for the Canadians in a simple greeting 'Good morning'? I noticed that several the folks are mad at me, and it took quite some effort and resourcefulness to determine the root cause.

It was caused by me saying 'good morning' to them on a daily basis.

Is that some kind of taboo greeting? Would you be able to educate a newcomer to Canada, who figured it only after 10 years and thankfully it only cost me one job.

Mr. Begley can say what ever he feels he must say, it is the measure of the man. However, we are not asked to forgive, we are warned to, but there is some truth that those who forget the past will be made to live it.

Aaron, try "Shitty weather, eh?"

Good morning, Aaron. I'm baffled. I don't think "good morning" can have possibly been the problem.

try pulling up your fly first.

Black Mamba:

Could neither guess nor believe it either, until I overheard that guy belching about me saying 'good morning' to him. Several unpleasant epithets were mentioned in connection with that.

It seems that things may be heating up in Honduras as they approach their scheduled election.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5haofvDpaLkFMIgpj-zNWyRL6RWjAD9BRMU3G0

Funny how a country following their constitution is under the new leader as a result of a military coup. Is it still a military coup when the military is following the laws of the land?

I just can't help but think if Hgo Chavez is on the side of the ousted president, I should be on the other side.

Barbara Yaffe "Because, let's face it, as Hoberg notes on his blog, "Efforts thus far to use science-based arguments to motivate adults and the politicians responsible to them have generally not been successful in producing strong climate policies."

Aawwh, Barb, perhaps there is a reason the "science" route didn't work - it is all BS.

Takuan Seiyo has another installment up.
Posted by: glasnost at November 9, 2009 9:25 AM

Thanks 'glasnost'. All I can say "that is one hell of a read". I will be going back to read the other 12 [previous articles in series].

ron in kelowna

Barbara Yaffe in beyond hope...she keeps drinking the Kool-Aid. I have written to her many times with links to correct her BS with no avail. Same as Suzuki...in a recent column in our local paper he was going on about the impacts of climate change are happening much more quickly than expected, polar ice caps melting,and ocean levels rising more rapidly than predicted. I sent a letter in with links showing item by item what he stated was all BS and fear mongering. I was surprised they printed it! (Nanaimo News Bulletin)
They titled my letter "People see through climate change hoax",LOL.

So far i have`nt had a visit from the climate police!

“Lanark Landowners to run Slate of Candidates in 2010 Ontario Municipal Elections

The Lanark Landowners Association will field a Slate of Candidates in the 2010 Ontario Municipal Elections in Lanark County. During the next 12 months, the Lanark Landowners will recruit local residents to run in the 55 elected positions in the 8 Municipalities of Lanark County.

Smiths Falls, Ontario October 23, 2009 – The Lanark Landowners are setting the stage to make the 2010 Ontario Municipal Elections the most exciting in recent memory. The Lanark Landowners, famous for their “STOP – Back Off Government” cry for property rights, are wading into local municipal politics.

Not content with electing Randy Hillier, one of the original founding members of the Lanark Landowners and the Ontario Landowners as M.P.P. for Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington, the LLA are going to repeat this success story at the municipal government level.

The Lanark Landowners will be recruiting local residents from each of the 8 municipalities of Lanark County to run in 55 elected positions. During the next 12 months, open door work shops and town hall meetings will be held. Residents, potential candidates and currently elected council representatives are encouraged to come to these meetings.

The work shops will determine the priorities needed to run municipal government. There will be no deficits. Sewers, roads, bridges and potholes will be fixed first. Schools, hospitals and retirement facilities will be built first. Farm land will be brought back into food production and not paved over for massive and out dated sub-divisions. Farmers markets will be top priority for food distribution. Wetlands, critical to the environment for pollution control will not be drained and paved over for shopping malls.

Lanark County was built on a history of sawmills, dairies and cheese factories, beef, pork and sheep, butchers and abattoirs, water power, woollen mills and quarries. Recreation in the wilderness consisted of hunting, fishing, boating, canoeing and camping. All of these farm products, manufacturing and recreation activities are sustainable and renewable for generations.

Lanark County is not a suburb of Ottawa and we will not tolerate municipal politics that has dragged Carleton County into a black hole of massive deficits, huge property taxes and billions of litres of pollution. Ottawa City politics have destroyed the rural life of Carleton County. The un-elected, bureaucracy is running the city and political infighting has paralysed the democratic process, leaving the people to fend for themselves.

Unfair and excessive property taxes, land use, land restriction and re-zoning will not be tolerated if the landowner is not compensated accordingly. Provincial or Federal acts that violate property rights , restrict private land use or where private land is “deemed to be an environmentally sensitive or species at risk area” will be fought at every level. MPAC (municipal property assessment corporation) will be required to assess every property prior to raising property taxes and the practice of “reverse billing” will end.

The McGuinty government is on notice. If anyone of the 500,000 provincial acts, regulations, minister directives or provincial boards contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms then that act or regulation will be deemed to be without authority.

“corruptissima re publica plurimae leges”
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”

http://ruralrevolution.com/website/

Moonbat Prince of AGW hawks/sells his royal green-b-ess.

Go home, Chuck.
...-

"Prince Charles shares his views at seminar on sustainability

City's green qualities come under heir-apparent's gaze
Vancouver's green qualities were showcased under grey skies as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall made a stop in the city Saturday on their cross-Canada tour.

The visit showcased initiatives in sustainability, ecological urban planning and alternative health care approaches -- all personal interests of the prince.

"It seems as though we could do with rediscovering our intimate connection with nature at a time when the world is facing so many enormous challenges over climate change and environmental crises of one kind or another," Prince Charles said at a seminar on urban sustainability hosted by Simon Fraser University."
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Prince+Charles+shares+views+seminar+sustainability/2201185/story.html

U.S. Policy in Afghanistan: Basic Questions -- Strategic Choices

On October 29, 2009, the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy convened a half-day symposium of experts — including Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Ambassador James Dobbins, Senator Carl Levin, and others — and journalists to address assumptions and alternatives for U.S. policy in Afghanistan. In the first session, panelists spoke about counterinsurgency strategy. Among the topics they addressed were military troop levels needed to support a counterinsurgency strategy, the role of Afghan security forces, and potential costs of increased military operations. The second session covered counterterrorism, including the degree to which the U.S. should consider Afghanistan a national security interest, the nature of military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaida, regional political stability, and military troop levels in the region. The final panel was on containment. Foreign policy experts spoke about strategic options and U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Among the issues they addressed were military disengagement, regional security and political stability, as well as pitfalls and challenges in any sustained military presence in the region. Each panel also answered questions from the audience.

Funny how the runt is happy to start a carbon tax next year, actually raised payroll deduction taxes in January 09, and steeply raise EI taxes for a minimum of 5 years in 2010 (with no end to that one apparently - its open ended, like the deficit).

Yet - when it comes to the bay street blowboys, everything is just fine....

Flaherty says no to global financial tax

Money collected could fund bank bailouts

Last Updated: Saturday, November 7, 2009 | 9:49 PM ET

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has poured cold water over a proposal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for a global tax on financial transactions to fund future bank bailouts.

"That’s not something that we would want to do. We’re not in the business of raising taxes," Flaherty said after a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland...."

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/11/07/g20-meeting-scotland.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a16:g4:r5:c0:b28777681

""The atmosphere is ripe.*"

"Vandals damage Fredericton cenotaph

Jean-Guy Perrault, the president of Branch 4 of the Royal Canadian Legion, arrived at the cenotaph on Monday morning to decide where to place the crosses for Wednesday's Remembrance Day ceremony. That's when he noticed that the cenotaph had been heavily damaged in places.

"I almost fell on my knees. It hurt. Like I said … how can people sleep at night who did that — for the poor soldiers who fought for our country, for what we have that is so beautiful," Perrault said.

The cenotaph is the site of the main Remembrance Day event in the provincial capital. A three-metre-high granite cross atop the monument was toppled to the ground and smashed into pieces."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/11/09/nb-cenotaph-vandalism-207.html
...-

"*Stopping the Next McVeigh

Neo-Nazis took to the streets in Arizona and Minnesota this weekend, a new boldness that officials say echoes the homegrown terrorism of the 1990s. James Verini talks to the extremists leading the charge.

A year after President Obama's election, hate groups are feeling bolder than they have in over a decade, and their usually insular anger is beginning to spill into the public realm. This weekend, the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, held rallies in Arizona and Minnesota. Those demonstrations came on the heels of similar actions in Southern California, where epithet-spewing white supremacists were forced to disband by rock-throwing counter-protesters. The upsurge in visibility is more than anecdotal—law-enforcement officials are monitoring levels of agitation among extremist groups that they say are the highest since Timothy McVeigh's deadly attack in Oklahoma City nearly 15 years ago.

"It's sort of a beehive now," says James Cavanaugh, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Cavanaugh was one of the agents at the standoff at David Koresh's Waco, Texas, compound in 1993 (which McVeigh timed his terrorist act to commemorate, two years later, on April 19, 1995). Last October in Tennessee, Cavanaugh aided in the arrest of two white supremacists charged with plotting to assassinate Obama, and in 2007 he helped bring down members of the Alabama Free Militia, who were found with hundreds of hand- and rifle grenades and other explosives. The arrests had an unsettling familiarity. "We haven't had that kind of activity since the 1990s," Cavanaugh says.

"We believe there is a real resurgence," adds Lieutenant David Hall, director of the Missouri Information Analysis Center, which tracks antigovernment extremist groups around the Midwest. "The atmosphere is ripe.""

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382420/posts

the lost army in Egypt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science?GT1=43001#storyContinued

Al and Ron - If you think Jaffe is bad, try reading this guy Ethan Baron (yup, that's his name). He would have us all send pictures of our little children in order that some group may present video's of them pleading with the PM in Copenhagen for their eco-future, or whatever.

maz2 -- Wish the Lanark Landowners would run come candidates in Ottawa. Municipal government in Ottawa is desperately in need of counselors with some common sense.

larben

I notice in the comments to Ethan`s column that somebody by the name of Jason with all the facts is giving Ethan more than he can handle. Thats what we have to do...call out these guys when they start spouting their global warming/climate change BS. As i stated i gave it to Suzuki about his BS column and so far no come back. I think the tide is starting to turn.