It’s hard to tell what the end goal of HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher’s is with his constant barrage of elitist shots at the American public. Does he think demeaning the average citizens is the best way to win people over on whatever issue he is carping about on that given day? On the Oct. 26 broadcast of TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,” Maher took a couple of cynical and contemptible jabs at the America people. After expressing his disappointment in the Obama administration for not agreeing to abide by the will of California voters should Proposition 19 pass and decriminalize marijuana, he explained it was the role of President Barack Obama’s party to steer the country in a particular direction, albeit in some very unflattering terms. Video Below Fold read more
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By Dan Becker and James Gerstenzang The tea partyers issue dire warnings of the threat posed by government, but their movement ignores the threat from corporate America: pollution, dangerous products and banking practices that brought us the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. Related Entries October 26, 2010 BP and Other Polluters Pay for Senate Campaigns October 24, 2010 Two-Thirds of Benin Is Underwater
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Today on the list: How did outside groups manage to spend $3.6 million on one Colorado race in one day? And what the hell happened to Randy Quaid? Plus: The future of books, music and your democracy. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. Do writers need paper? As the sales of e-books finally start to soar, what effect will this digital revolution have on publishers, readers and writers? Will the novel as we know it survive? The art of selling There’s not much to say about body wash really. It smells nice, it cleans you, and unlike soap, hairs won’t stick to it. End of story, you might think. But throw in a handsome guy in a towel, a kitsch ’80s action hero aesthetic, some priceless lines and the giddy reach of the internet and the narrative possibilities are legion. The web is the new art-house cinema “You used to be big,” says William Holden’s Joe Gillis to Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. “I am big,” she replies. “It’s the pictures that got small.” The Secret War Between Wikileaks And The Pentagon, (And Some Media Outlets) Analysing the media coverage of the latest WikiLeaks release reveals some interesting insights. Jamming neoclassical economics Students at the University of California-Berkeley have launched the first salvo in an international movement to challenge neoclassical economics. They printed the Kick It Over Manifesto on bright pink paper and pinned it to the door of Daniel McFadden, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, and to bulletin boards throughout the department. The World Liberal Opportunists Made The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party. The legitimate rage being expressed by disenfranchised workers toward the college-educated liberal elite, who abetted or did nothing to halt the corporate assault on the poor and the working class of the last 30 years, is not misplaced. The liberal class is guilty. The liberal class, which continues to speak in the prim and obsolete language of policies and issues, refused to act. It failed to defend traditional liberal values during the long night of corporate assault in exchange for its position of privilege and comfort in the corporate state. The virulent right-wing backlash we now experience is an expression of the liberal class’ flagrant betrayal of the citizenry. Warrior Nation “Endless War” is how The New York Times headlined its review of the Boston University historian Andrew J. Bacevich’s new book, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. It’s a headline that will work just as well if the Times decides to review Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War by Richard E. Rubenstein, a professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University. In fact, either Bacevich or Rubenstein could accurately have chosen “Endless War” as his own book’s title. Biggest campaign spending day yet Outside groups spent $3.6 million to influence the Colorado Senate race—and that was just last Tuesday alone. “What the Hell Happened to Randy Quaid?” It’s been a harrowing, downward spiral—and now actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, have hit rock bottom. Related Entries October 25, 2010 Good Head October 25, 2010 The Scandal of 2010
Continue reading …It’s pretty hard to argue with George Will on this one : There are hundreds of plausible nominees for the title of America’s Second-Smarmiest Politician, but surely the top spot is un-contested. Americans of all political persuasions can come together in affirming one proposition: Public life would be improved by scrubbing Rep. Alan Grayson from it. This act of civic hygiene probably will be performed Nov. 2 by voters of Florida’s Eighth Congressional District. Polls indicate that a majority of them plan to deny Grayson, 52, a second term by electing his resonantly named opponent, Daniel Webster. Grayson, never missing an opportunity to live down to his reputation, ridicules Webster’s “18th-century name.” Given Grayson’s relentless advertising of his intellectual shortcomings, it is surprising that he recognizes the name. Grayson’s preferred name for Webster—he used it in an ad—is “Taliban Dan.” Grayson’s idea that whatever rhymes is witty is sophomoric. His innuendo is worse. Consider: Webster, 61, the third-generation manager of his family’s air-conditioning business, served in Florida’s legislature for 28 years, becoming the first Republican speaker of the state House in 122 years—since Reconstruction—then serving in the state Senate until retired by term limits two years ago. A devout Christian who home-schooled his six children, in 2009 he addressed a religious conference of men in Nashville on the subject of how to be a good husband. Concerning relations with their wives, he urged the men not to focus on biblical verses that enjoin wives to be submissive: “Don’t pick the ones that say, ‘She should submit to me.’ That’s in the Bible, but pick the ones that you’re supposed to do. So instead, ‘Love your wife, even as Christ loved the church he gave himself for it’ as opposed to, ‘Wives, submit yourself to your own husband.’ ” Grayson sliced and spliced a videotape of Webster’s words to depict Webster as saying, “She should submit to me. That’s in the Bible.” When asked about his lie-by-editing, Grayson blithely said, “These were his words.” Grayson’s ad says: “Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom in Afghanistan, in Iran, and right here in central Florida…Daniel Webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us.” Hence “Taliban Dan.” Will goes on to explain how Gov. Charlie Crist could certainly deserve consideration for this award, and Will’s column was written before yesterday’s embarrassing Crist performance on CNN during which he refused to let Marco Rubio speak and heckled him during a debate . Crist deserves honorable mention for America’s Worst Politician. Back to Grayson, Will sticks the knife in and twists it with this closing paragraph. The vulgarity of Grayson’s brief congressional career validates the axiom that there is unseemly exposure of mind as well as of body. Concerning his nonstop anger, whether real or feigned, remember: “Anger is not an argument.” So said Sen. Daniel Webster (1782–1852). Grayson will probably end up with his own show on MSNBC.
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Welcome to Peerdrum from TG Studios on Vimeo . There is a lot to love about having people work from home. Notwithstanding some recent naysaying, it saves a lot of energy and time, and other studies show that it increases productivity. But about half of the managers in America hate the idea, because their idea of mana… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Just a day after getting Juan Williams fired and then propelling him to a new $2 million contract with Fox News, Media Matters, the lefty George Soros-funded dyspeptic media organization is going after another NPR reporter who appears on Fox News: Now that Fox News contributor Juan Williams has been dropped from National Public Radio, the liberal website Media Matters for America is now targeting Mara Liasson, the last remaining NPR correspondent who works with Fox News. “NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue,” wrote Media Matters columnist Eric Boehlert Thursday in a post entitled “What about Mara Liasson?” “[I]f you look at NPR’s code of ethics, there’s simply no way Liasson should be making appearances on Fox.” Media Matters and NPR both announced this week they were receiving million-dollar grants from left-wing billionaire George Soros. Both NPR and Media Matters are puppets dancing to George Soros’ tune.
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Photo: Brian Merchant It’s a design contest. It’s a way to rethink the way we live, especially our habit of relying so much on stuff. It’s a closer look at our demand for big spaces. It’s a way to learn to live with less. It’s shameless self-promotion. Yesterday at Poptech 2010, TreeHugger founder Graham Hill announced the launch of LifeEdited — a project that turns his own New York apartment into the guinea pig in a crow-sourced experiment that seeks to explore ways we can maximize our enjoyment of small spaces and reduce our all-around impact. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Today on the list: PBS is as white as TV gets, the three myths that keep flummoxing America, and the Middle Easterners who conquered Europe with their magic potion—milk. PBS Just as Corporate, White, Male and Republican as Commercial TV According to a multi-part report in the latest issue of Extra! magazine, published by media watchdog group FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), PBS is not the indie alternative to corporate-owned television it once was. In fact, in many ways, PBS now is corporate-owned television. At the same time, many PBS shows’ guest lists are woefully non-diverse. Basic-cable shows are multiplying-and changing the way TV is made As a longtime producer on CBS’s popular crime series “CSI,” Josh Berman got used to submitting scripts to network executives and changing them according to their dictates. But when he pitched his own series to cable, Lifetime “just said go for it,” and its executives have mostly left him alone ever since, he says. Block That Adjective! I am not at all sure—convinced, certain, persuaded—that creative-writing courses are a good idea unless they prevent people from writing sentences like this one, where adjectives—useful, helpful, intensely descriptive words—are stacked upon one another as Pelion used to be piled upon Ossa. The Buzz on Buzz In recent years, the subject of buzz has generated a burst of scientific attention, as researchers try to understand why having lots of people talk about a brand of jeans, or a new smart-phone, makes the products so much more likely to succeed in the marketplace. The new buzz research demonstrates that we’re much less autonomous than we imagine. Everything we do is shaped by everyone else. The passion behind the populist insurgency is less about liberty than a particularly American idea of karma. What do the tea partiers really want? The title of a recent book by two of the movement’s leaders offers an answer: “Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto.” The authors, Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, write that “We just want to be free. Free to lead our lives as we please, so long as we do not infringe on the same freedom of others.” The insiders’ guide to the arts How long should you look at a painting for? Where are the best seats for ballet? Big names from the arts world, including Charlotte Rampling and Richard Eyre, share their tips. Hyper-libertarian billionaire’s plan to pay students to quit college To describe Peter Thiel as simply a libertarian wildly understates the case. His belief system is based on unapologetic selfishness and economic Darwinism. His most famous quote—borrowed from Vince Lombardi—is, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” In a personal statement produced last year for the Cato Institute*, Thiel announced: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” £30m forgeries send shock waves through the art world German police hold three suspects after works sold through leading auction houses are exposed as fakes. How Middle Eastern Milk Drinkers Conquered Europe New research has revealed that agriculture came to Europe amid a wave of immigration from the Middle East during the Neolithic period. The newcomers won out over the locals because of their sophisticated culture, mastery of agriculture—and their miracle food, milk. Three historical myths have been leading American presidents into folly for nearly a century Three enduring illusions—a misguided faith in universalism, or America’s power to transform the world from a community of hostile, lawless nations into enlightened states devoted to peaceful cooperation; a need to shun appeasement of all adversaries or to condemn suggestions of conciliatory talks with them as misguided weakness; and a belief in the surefire effectiveness of military strength in containing opponents, whatever their ability to threaten the United States—have made it nearly impossible for Americans to think afresh about more productive ways to address their foreign problems. Related Entries October 20, 2010 From ‘Sons of Confederate Veterans’ to Children’s Ears October 20, 2010 The Thomas Clown Affair
Continue reading …People wanted change and change is what they got : A majority of voters in key battleground races say President Obama has either brought no change to Washington or has brought change for the worse. In 10 competitive House districts, 41 percent of likely voters say Obama has brought change for the worse, and 30 percent say he has made no difference. Almost two years after Obama declared on election night that “change has come to America,” only 26 percent believe he’s delivered on his promise to end business-as-usual in the capital. Strikingly, 63 percent of voters under the age of 34 said the president either has not changed Washington or has made it worse. In 2008, voters under the age of 30 voted 2-to-1 for Obama against his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). But in The Hill 2010 Midterm Election Poll, only 34 percent of young people say the president has effected change for the better. Ah, the youth vote. I guess they won’t be swooning this year as they did in 2008.
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