Monday, September 29, 2008

History

A bumper sticker:

"History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between."  Sarah Vowell, Assassination Vacation.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Home mortgages or commercial paper?

On Coast to Coast AM, hour 1, monetary historian, Andrew Guase stated that it would only take $100 billion dollars to completely pay off every mortgage in default in the United States.  He emphasized that this would not just pay off the back payments, this would zero the balance.  How much is the Fed asking for because of all of these poor decision making home owners:  $700 billion.  Who's being bailed out?

From his website:  Who owns the Federal Reserve? 

The Federal Reserve Banks are a privately owned consortium controlled by the eight major stock-holding families: The Rothschilds of England and Germany, Moses Seif of Italy, Lazard Freres of France, the Warburgs of Germany, Kuhn-Loeb of Germany, Goldman-Sachs of the United States, Lehman Brothers of the United States, and the Rockefellers of the United States. Only three of these families are American.This small group decides the fates of hundreds of millions of people by their financial policies and maneuvers. It was Baron Meyer Amschel Bauer Rothschild, (born in 1744 and died in 1812), who said, "Give me control over a nation's currency and I care not who makes it's laws."

My comics partner

My friend, Barbara, told me that she and her dad were eating partners.  Apparently, that's a term used around the weight loss industry to talk about family eating dynamics.

My dad was my comic strip reading partner.  After he died, reading the strips just wasn't fun any more, so I've quit.

Monday I realized I hadn't read any of the blogs captured in my Google Reader for two weeks.  Made myself catch up because there are many interesting people out there.  I especially enjoy reading food blogs from around the world.  Makes me feel like I have an old-fashioned pen pal.

 There's one woman in Oregon that is as "red" as they come.  I want to like what she writes, but, my my,  her diatribes against anything "blue" tire me out.  She'll never change my mind, and I'd never change hers.  I do think I'd enjoy having coffee or working in the garden with her.

Need to make sure that I keep the reading of those blogs fun!  Check out The New Birth Order Book:  those of us that are babies are all about having fun.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

. . .if necessary, use words

Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.
William Shakespeare

We love a good orator.   If you can spin a pretty word, stand up on a soap box, pulpit, or bandstand, and we will judge your abilities by your words.

I have avoided listening to any of the speeches given at both political conventions, but this morning I heard a report from the Mugshot in Wisilla, Alaska.   Over by the pool table , a patron said that Palin's speech, just her speech, puts to rest any doubts about her abilities.  Listen to the news clip.

The same thing makes me suspect of Barak Obama:  he orates too well.   Too often, communities are swayed by smooth words and revival emotion.  There's not much that could ever change my mind about voting for that candidate, but I wish he'd skip a few beats.

Sorting out the truth about St. Francis of Assisi

Monday, September 1, 2008

Rock me baby

Maybe this will cure my church ennui:
 

The Shack

No thanks, I"ll watch Touched by an Angel reruns instead.

WWII, Westerns, Epics, and Musicals

My daughter works in the ad agency industry and is encouraged to see movies so that she can keep up with popular culture.  Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of a New Hollywood,  (as reported on NPR), " . . .says, that something happened in the late 1960s to a Hollywood that was always a bit behind the times.  It was a moment, Harris says, when "movies finally started to catch up with what was going on in the culture at large.'"  (If you view some really early film, before the censors took over, you might have a different view of Hollywood.)

Harris posits that these five Oscar nominees for  best film in 1968  represent a shift in movies:  The Graduate shifted the audience of movies to the new, younger generation,  Bonnie & Clyde reflected realistic foreign films, Dr. Doolittle of the old school completely flopped.  The movies began to reflect popular culture.

I wonder if another shift has occurred and that movies are creating popular culture rather than simply reflecting it. Do we go to movies and watch TV to see what popular culture is or what it will be.   The Media does change culture in the sense of giving us new language, new ways to talk about the same old things.  I'm just saying....