Someone needs to volunteer to see this monstrosity and give a review to the Unfoggedtariat. Suffer pain for the greater good.
Be the change you want to see, PGD.
|| ON C-Span, just heard a former Bush assistant secretary of the Treasury say that "this prolonged recession may be a time for us to reconnect to what is real in life and become less oriented to consumption". It's a wild time when Bush Treasury officials are sounding like Megan. ||>
McCain also said that he measure wealth, not in material possessions, but in some other kind of shit. Love, happiness, self-worth, family, Jesus, that kind of thing. I don't think that he specified clearly.
For example, Patton shows him an alternate world where slavery is still in existence because Lincoln chose not to fight the Civil War.
Patton? Descendent of Confederate soldiers? Coming out in favor of Mr. Lincoln? Gee. Where's Bobby Lee when you need him?
He also shows the filmmaker how British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeased Adolf Hitler.
Um, Neville was PM when GB declared war on the Reich. No Chamberlain, no war - not for Poland, at any rate.
Washington tells him how the dust in the church is the dust from the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Well, at least it's magically ahistorical.
Watching movies under Stalin was like this, wasn't it?
max
['I know kraut agitprop was this bad.']
1: Ask not what Unfogged can do for you...
The Jesus interbank trade has frozen, since none of the banks are sure how much love anyone else has.
Don't worry, in 2009 it'll win some prize at the Liberty Film Festival and then in 2012 it'll get mailed to everyone with a newspaper subscription. By then it'll be called "Fat Jokes: The Michael Moore Story" and they'll sell it as a docudrama.
Watching movies under Stalin was like this, wasn't it?
In one of my Post-Soviet Studies classes or another we watched a Russian film from the '60s or '70s about a factory worker's lovelife interfering with her rise to management that was, apparently, a pretty popular drama. At one point she's worried about her pregnancy and her boyfriend says not to worry since everyone knows they have the best healthcare system in the world. The censors allowed it because, hey, propaganda, right? In the provinces everyone rolled their eyes; in Moscow, our professor told us, the audience would crack up at that line every time.
I suggest this American Carol be MST3K'ed at the earliest opportunity.
Awhile back someone suggested that instead of returning to the gold standard, we should back the dollar with energy. That made sense to me, but backing it with stocks of love might be even better. Fort Knox is empty at the moment, right?
No, we still have 9,000 metric tons of gold, though most of that is in NYC.
I don't know the conversion factor, gold to love units (utils = rat orgasms). This would switch our economy over to use value instead of exchange value, at least.
The US now holds a cube of gold 6 meters to a side. All the gold ever mined would be a cube 19.6 meters to a side.
A popular and recurring conspiracy theory, as alleged by Edward Durrell, Norman Dodd, Peter Beter and others, claims that the vault is mostly empty and that most of the gold in Fort Knox was removed to Jerusalem in the late 1960s by President Lyndon Johnson.[4] In response, on September 23, 1974, Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky, twelve congressmen, and about 100 members of the news media toured the vault and opened various cells and doors, each filled with gold. Radio reporter Bill Evans, when asked if it seemed like the gold might have been moved in just for the visit, replied that "all I can say is that I saw gold there" and that it seemed like it was always there
People don't seem to realize that I dislike experiencing pain for the greater good. Isn't there anyone who loves to sacrifice for others? That's supposed to be the new spirit of recessionary America, right?
a cube of gold 6 meters to a side.
I KNEW IT ALL ALONG! HOLY HOLY HOLY!
Our foreign aid to Israel is in the form of gold bars? Bad ass. What are we going to do now that Victor Bout is in jail?
I forget which review had this line, but:
"I laughed harder at Munich."
Ha! At IMDB there is an interesting distribution of voting for the film. 38% give it a 10 while 33% give it a 1.
But when filmmakers go unfunny there's always collateral damage:
Disney had a simply pawfect weekend at the box office as its Beverly Hills Chihuahua racked up $29.3 million in ticket sales, according to final figures released Monday by Media by Numbers. It marked the best October opening for any Disney film in history.
I thought that it hadn't previously been discussed here out of politeness. As though someone had farted.
I know it's not house style, but it seemed right in this case.
McCain also said that he measure wealth, not in material possessions, but in some other kind of shit.
At McCain's age, regular bowel movements are life's greatest treasure.
In the provinces everyone rolled their eyes; in Moscow, our professor told us, the audience would crack up at that line every time.
That sounds about like what I heard. They never put freaky Soviet propaganda on late night TV, damnit. I guess they prefer it homegrown!
That's supposed to be the new spirit of recessionary America, right?
You ain't rich, man! Suck it up!
max
['I'll bet their George Washington isn't fifty-foot tall and made of radiation. Bastards.']
Was trying to find a reviewer who liked it (it is running 14% at Rotten Tomatoes) and found this masterpiece of unintentional faint praise: it's easily more entertaining than either Scary Movie 3 or 4. Don't forget botulism! It's easily more entertaining than botulism.
I also wandered over to Michael Medved's place to see if he even liked it, instead I found this link prominently featured as "Watch Obama kids sing for change adapted to historical footage". (It's a YouTube of some kids singing a pro-Obama song set to footage of Hitler Youth if you don't want to click.) I did not realize how far down the slime hole Medved had descended.
It's a wild time when Bush Treasury officials are sounding like Megan.
I loved this shout-out.
re: soviet-era propaganda.
I watched Dr Strangelove in small art cinema in Prague 5 or 6 years ago. They played a bunch of Czech newsreels from the time Strangelove was released before the film.
No commentary or anything. The film started and there was 20 minutes of stuff exactly as if we were watching it at the time.
The audience were howling with laughter. Visiting water-polo teams, Czech scientists off to study Soviet tractor factory production methods, and the rest.
I would think water polo teams and tractor factories were among the most admirable parts of the Soviet bloc.
Megan also believes that true wealth is some other kind of shit.
we sort of know each other, Megan, but we've fallen out of touch -- I'm gonna email you. Hmmm, does that sound like a threat?
Why Michael Medved, of all the right-wing blowhards?
...Ah, I see he used to be a film critic!
23: I knew a Russian émigré in the late '70s who told the story of being a teenager in 1968 at a hokie "Make Bonds in Solidarity with other Warsaw Pact Youth" -type summer camp. When the tanks rolled, it turned out to be "maybe not so much". The acute embarrassment set her, at least, against the government.
I don't know the conversion factor, gold to love units (utils = rat orgasms).
No, that's the genius of McCain's proposal. Money can't buy you love. Thus, there can't be contagion from the tottering CDO market to the relatively stable love market.
Yay Kharkov Tractor Factory!
I lived in Kharkov for a year. Hook 'em KhTZ!
Get with the times, now that Ukraine is independent it's Kharkiv.
No, that's the genius of McCain's proposal. Money can't buy you love.
McCartney/Palin '08!
What's wrong with the Sergei Kirov Tank Factory?
max
['My love is government-backed, baby.']
The weird thing is that this movie is by David Zucker, who has written some of the funniest movies ever, including Airplane! Top Secret, and Police Squad.
the relatively stable love market.
I'm sorry, wha...?
Does this mean that my rat orgasm warehouse is not fungible?
Well, at least I've been storing up treasure in Heaven. Surely the God of Utility will recognize my works.
I'm sorry, wha...?
No plan is perfect.
What's wrong with the Sergei Kirov Tank Factory?
"St. Petersburg is for lovers and executed suspected counterrevolutionaries?" Shit, now I can't remember if he was executed. Ah well.
Money can't buy you love.
McCain knows too well, however, that love can buy a lot of money.
"this prolonged recession may be a time for us to reconnect to what is real in life..."
I'm happy to see this, because this morning I had to sit through a 401k representative going on about how I should put my money in big companies because they were the ones that were going to weather the storm in this market.
After the third or fourth time that I told him he didn't have any better of an idea what was going to happen in the market than I did, he finally gave up.
I guess I shouldn't be so surprised when people's worldviews color their advice so much, because it's certainly true for me as well. But why they keep drawing the wrong lesson is really puzzling. Look! Lots of companies told lies and misrepresented what they had! But now we are returning to "fundamentals" and "value"! Somehow magically this means big companies are going to...uh...be more likely to tell the truth! What?
Bah. I'll believe big companies are any more likely to tell the truth than small companies when you can give me one logical argument -- not proof, just an argument -- that explains why company size should be a relevant variable in that question.
McCain knows too well, however, that love can buy a lot of money.
Perhaps we can use this fact to inject capital into the banking system.
Di had investment in the love market that didn't work out well, but that rarely happens. Normal lve commitments hold their value, much like U.S. Treasury bonds.
The poor thing.
41: More people keeping tabs?
* Just offering a theoretical argument -- not endorsing it.
Shit, now I can't remember if he was executed.
Well, he was murdered. If'n I remember, it was the malevolent Emmanuel Goldstein Trotsky that was supposed to have done it. After the fact, of course, most fingers point at Uncle Joe.
max
['The demand curve for love never shifts downward.']
As I said before, I think that Brazil could leverage these love bonds into real financial power.
43: I can't tell you how many times I've lost my shirt in the market....
43: Normal love commitments rarely keep up with inflation.
It must feel terrible to be the only one in the world having love problems when everyone else is just so fucking happy all the goddamn time.
More people keeping tabs?
I dunno; that didn't seem to work too well with mortgages.
The one thing I actually buy into is the way the money folks talk about "skin in the game." I do sorta think that people pay slightly closer attention to certain things when they personally stand to lose money if it goes sour. (They also get stupid or in denial about other things, but that's a separate problem.)
Radio reporter Bill Evans, when asked if it seemed like the gold might have been moved in just for the visit, replied that "all I can say is that I saw gold there" and that it seemed like it was always there
One thing I learned in my bones working at the machine shop is that metal is effing HEAVY, and Gold is an effing heavy metal.
I'd suspect something being painted with gold paint a lot more than somebody schlepping that stuff around the world.
Seriously. Two hundred sixteen cubic meters of solid gold is heavy!!
Di,
43: I can't tell you how many times I've lost my shirt in the market....
Do you have pictures? I mean for sympathy purposes, of course.
36: The weird thing is that this movie is by David Zucker, who has written some of the funniest movies ever, including Airplane! Top Secret, and Police Squad.
Yeah sure, back in the day, but lately, not so much (even before this turkey). Twenty-five years can change a lot of things. Just ask William Ayers.
Yeah, a hunk of lead surprises you how heavy it is. I think that steel is our intuitive standard, and steel is heavy enough. I've never hefted gold, but it's something like 1.7 times as dense as lead and about 2.5 times as dense as steel.
a Russian film from the '60s or '70s about a factory worker's lovelife interfering with her rise to management that was, apparently, a pretty popular drama.
Got to be Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, which is absolutely as schlocky as it sounds, and, as I recall, ridiculously long, but totally worth seeing.
I'll believe big companies are any more likely to tell the truth than small companies when you can give me one logical argument -- not proof, just an argument -- that explains why company size should be a relevant variable in that question.
What does telling the truth have to do with weathering the market downturn? And does your 401(k) plan allow purchase of stocks in individual companies? Or is the guy just pushing a large cap mutual fund?
It's too bad they were able to plant that vice chip in Spitzer's brain. He'd be useful right about now. You could put him in a room with an errant CEO and vacuum up the remains later.
49: It's a volatile market, John, whatever they tell you. Indeed, there are well respected analysts who recommend staying out of that market entirely. Barring that, I'm told the best bet is to diversify. You really have to know when to get in and when to pull out.
There's a Chinese novel called "Bitter Sea" about a true-believing factory worker who becomes the lover of (or marries) a Party cadre and finds out how corrupt the system really is.
It's a wild time when Bush Treasury officials are sounding like Megan.
...and when liberals let their id run wild.
(This likely would have been a lot funnier if it had been produced by the unfogged hivemind instead of the staff of Slate, but it's still good.)
41: well, the bigger the company, the more likely it is to get a government bailout. This whole thing is exposing 401Ks as the con they *always were*. They grew up during the greatest bull market in history, the 1982-2000 market runup. But previously there had been many multi decade periods of slow market growth -- 1929-1950, and the great post-1966 bear market. The inflation-adjusted Dow didn't recover its 1966 level until 1995! Those are entire working careers during which the market shows no inflation-adjusted appreciation at all. The unpredictable timing of these giant market swings means they are a bad thing to base retirement planning on, although a great thing to get rich on if you get in at the beginning of a bull run.
Got to be Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, which is absolutely as schlocky as it sounds, and, as I recall, ridiculously long, but totally worth seeing.
On reviewing its Wikipedia entry, yep, that's it. Hazily remembered, obviously, but that's it.
This whole thread is fucking funny. Which is good, because everything else fucking sucks.
Normal love commitments rarely keep up with inflation.
I'll admit that as people inflate, I find them somewhat less lovable. At least in the romantic passion sense.
Oh, I don't know. Some targeted inflation seems entirely desirable.
Now I don't know but I been told that it's hard to run with the weight of gold
On the other hand, I've heard it said, it's just as hard with the weight of lead
Technically, Jerry Garcia was all wrong with that -- not for the first time. I haven't calculated exactly, but it seems that it would be 60% as hard with the same amount of lead.
Jerry kicked heroin, but the jely donuts killed him. Fact.
Why might bigger companies lie more?
1. They have to. Smaller companies have fewer government regulations so they need not lie about compliance.
2. They can afford the PR department to do the "pretty" lying.
3. They control more of their workers pay via either old-time pensions or their healthcare insurance premiums. They are not on a 'cash-upfront' basis with paying their employees.
we've fallen out of touch -- I'm gonna email you.
Good, I'm glad. But I won't get that email until I get home from work. Just so you know you won't get a quick response.
Jerry kicked heroin, but the jely donuts sucking ass killed him. Fact.
(This likely would have been a lot funnier if it had been produced by the unfogged hivemind instead of the staff of Slate, but it's still good.)
Agreed, completely.
One thing I learned in my bones working at the machine shop is that metal is effing HEAVY, and Gold is an effing heavy metal.
I learned this not from working in a machine shop, but rather from reading Encyclopedia Brown. If that brick were really gold, there's no way Wilford Wiggins (or was it Bugs Meany?) could have lifted it so easily!
59. I could be on board with most of that list, but some if it made me cringe.
Oh, I don't know. Some targeted inflation seems entirely desirable.
So you like my big belly?
59 - Oooh, that was good. May those days come soon.
This likely would have been a lot funnier if it had been produced by the unfogged hivemind
Eh, not really.
72: I think you missed the target by a few inches.
71: Yeah, I think he's imagining that all Democrats have the same reasons for being democrats, and it's because they're actually the seekrit atheist Communists we keep getting accused of being. "Let's teach evolution in Sunday Schools"? Actually, it would be really great to have separation of church and state. You know, actual freedom.
||
Dow down 180. How bad is it that my reaction was, "Ooh, not too bad." Jeebus.
I haven't done the math, but I suspect that each 100 point drop represents a 1% increase in the likelihood that my dad will have to move in with us.
Hmm. Maybe that should be on the other thread.
|>
Di had investment in the love market that didn't work out well, but that rarely happens. Normal love commitments hold their value, much like U.S. Treasury bonds.
It's a shame that the financial crisis has ruined the reputation of collateralized debt obligations, otherwise I could envision an innovative product that would package a whole bundle of love commitments and securitize the love flows in tranches: the sex tranche would have the highest potential returns, but with incredible volatility, while the marriage tranche would be a triple-A credit with returns just a few basis points over the risk-free rate.
For those of you worried about their investments in the love market, you must bear in mind that although it's known for the exceptional volatility of its individual issues, its desirable qualities are the lack of correlation with other markets and vast benefits from diversification ('cause that shit's just random).
Sure, a large investment in one issue may seem like a good idea, and it can produce amazing returns. But not enough people do the proper due diligence. What are the odds you really got a Berkshire Hathaway instead of an Enron (and all the toxic undisclosed "Special Interest Vehicles" that entails)?
Spread your love around in order to ride out the bumps in the market. Greater interconnections are the way to greater security. After all, when's the last time that swaps got anyone in trouble?
76 explains nicely why it would be funnier from us. Plus we'd be wittier, of course.
Sorry to be so self-congratulatory, but it's true. The day that Unfogged can't outwrite non-Lithwick Slate is the day I start reading diaries at Kos.
I'll admit that as people inflate, I find them somewhat less lovable.
I find them very pneumatic.
After as long as I've been reading blogs, I shouldn't be gobsmacked by a woman who believes that theaters are engaged in a conspiracy to under promote their own products, but I am.
I would love to go to a church or a class where the spiritual importance of evolution is taken seriously. Why would god choose evolution as a means of creation? What does it say about the narrative of the universe that the basic direction of history seems to move from simplicity to complexity? Is godhead in the future?
These would make great Sunday school questions. We could read Teilhard de Chardin.
I'm a short seller on the love market.
And we can't forget that every market crash, or even dip, presents opportunities for profiting on the rebound.
86. Di is the Jim Kramer of the love market.
Those are entire working careers during which the market shows no inflation-adjusted appreciation at all. The unpredictable timing of these giant market swings means they are a bad thing to base retirement planning on, although a great thing to get rich on if you get in at the beginning of a bull run.
Hmm... Good point. I should probably just run the numbers myself, but I'd be interested in two particular twists that are relevant for 401k planning:
1) How does dollar-cost-averaging with no removal of assets except automatic rebalancing (since individual investors have been more or less proven to suck at market timing) affect average returns? I suspect it would increase them, though I don't know if it would do so by enough to beat inflation.
2) How much better did bonds fare? I believe when I've seen the returns on stocks versus bonds over decade-long periods, it's almost always been a big win for stocks going back to the 1880s. It would make sense even during the bad stock market years in the 70s and early 80s, as the major inflationary period would've completely wiped out a long-term bond portfolio.
What does telling the truth have to do with weathering the market downturn?
As nearly as I can follow his argument, it was "The market is a mess right now because there is no confidence. Nobody trusts anybody else's [data]."
OK, fine, I basically trust that. It seems to me like a case of "lie down with dogs, get up with fleas," but whatever. We all have fleas now.
His argument continued: "So for the 'fundamentals' to be strong and have 'value' again, people have to be able to trust that companies are really truly telling the truth about what they own and how much it's worth and how much money they're making etc."
Riiiiighhhht.....
And somehow (now we're in Oz), large companies! Are more likely! To be able to weather the storms of uncertainty! Because they've been around a long time, and have gone up and down, and there are lots of different parts to them, and they can hang in while the market shakes itself out.
Which is where he lost me.
And does your 401(k) plan allow purchase of stocks in individual companies? Or is the guy just pushing a large cap mutual fund?
The latter.
Basically, after a few unsuccessful attempts at investing in free-range organic love units, I decided that the rat orgasm warehouse was just a more reliable income stream.
There are people you think can't get worse, and then they do. A lesson to us.
Gosh, John, I really thought I'd been growing.
Some targeted inflation seems entirely desirable.
I expect you're more interested in getting hammered on the exchange.
max
['With a view towards potential mergers.']
when liberals let their id run wild
The list is lame, but "I'm not a leftist, I'm a democratic socialist," elicited a mild chuckle. I remember hearing (and saying) that in college.
89: The dude who was trying to sell you stuff was probably an idiot, but I'd agree that some of the best values and safest companies out there right now are in the U.S. giant cap market. When a company like GE is yielding 6% (the dividend may fall a bit, but that's still somewhat unlikely) and is trading for a bit under 10 times its 5-year trailing free cash flows, shit is kinda crazy.
But it's true that no one really knows how much further the market could fall in the meantime, or how long it will take to recover.
And somehow (now we're in Oz), large companies! Are more likely! To be able to weather the storms of uncertainty! Because they've been around a long time, and have gone up and down, and there are lots of different parts to them, and they can hang in while the market shakes itself out.
My mother, being kind of stupid like that, up and decided she needed to invest the money she got from quitting her old job in the market. I begged her not to, with illustrations, but she didn't listen to me. She went to WaMu and the guy put her in aggressive growth funds, with a slant on tech stocks. That was March, 2000. She capitulated 'round 2002.
Brokers are not interested in helping you.
max
['So don't let them rook you.']
some of the best values and safest companies out there right now
Sure. Right now. I'm several decades from retirement.
But it's true that no one really knows how much further the market could fall in the meantime, or how long it will take to recover.
Exactly. Nobody knows, and therefore I resent people who have no particular record of good judgments patting me on the head and telling me to trust them.
Gosh, John, I really thought I'd been growing.
You might want to get that checked out.
97 is all true. Though actually being several decades from retirement is a pretty good reason why you should have some money in the stock market. Nothing wrong with keeping a decent chunk in cash given the current bounce n' roll, but it's probably worthwhile putting at least some in at the current prices.
Now, the broker almost certainly recommended some shitty fund. Max is totally right about them.
Witt, you are a person of rare perspicacity and insight. Now that we've proven my record of good judgment, I expect you to trust me completely. Put all of your 401k in cowrie shells. No matter how bad things get, that shit's like gold. Except cheaper.
cowrie shells
There is really a remarkably large market for jewelry made of cowrie shells. I don't know the history well enough to understand it, but it mostly seems like umpteenth-generation African-American women buying them.
Myself, I'm putting money into wampum. Also, cooking dinner for friends. I figure if you're going to live your life by a fairy tale, Stone Soup is as good as any.
I think that I'll survive this stupid election, but I'm gld it's only a month.
It's a wild time when Bush Treasury officials are sounding like Megan.
Wait till they start bragging about their pies.
We need to make the pie higher. By adding some ingredients from good old Humboldt County in the heartland of the USA.
You should see me lay out for a catch during our all-Treasury Ultimate games. I got skillz, bitches!
i love the song from that movie 'Moscow doesn't believe in tears'
all my favourite actors Muravieva, Batalov! great movie! thanks reminding
Holy crap. I'm a caricature. Those aren't inaccurate, though.
Consider "The Turning Point" - incredible ballet movie. Anne Bancroft! Shirley MacLaine! Mikhail Baryshnikov! Russia meets the U.S. 70s! And it opens with the Kingdom of the Shades scene from La Bayadere!
This is the way I like to think of our bailout plans at the moment. Investment banks and brokerages were having a giant awesome party, and throwing flaming couches off the roof, and the government needs to prevent the fire from spreading by running around trying to catch those couches.
To put things another way, when I arrived in Washington people were just standing around stiffly, not really enjoying themselves at all. Their idea of fun was totally bogus. Nothing like where I come from. We at Goldman Sachs spent our time thinking up great ideas for real Paulson fun -- what I like to call "P-fun". What I've done is ask Congress to give me all this money they had lying around in Washington and let me use it to throw a big GS-style party for the entire nation. It's P-fun time for everybody!
We're starting with infrastructure fun -- who wants to build their own chicken coop? Too small for you? OK, how about a dam?
See, you take one unit of Deadhead fun, and one unit of prosperity theology godliness, and one unit of cornucopian libertarian free-market utopianism, and one unity of singularity transhumanism, and one unit of the end of history, and one unit of self-help optimism, and mix them together and add state-of-the-art TV production values and data-minig, and what you have is , and everything is effing copacetic!
And then Tinker Bell dies because you didn't believe. Everything had been going wonderfully up until then. Busts are psychological, you know. Fucking psyches.
Jesus,
I learned this not from working in a machine shop, but rather from reading Encyclopedia Brown
Holy moley, me too, at least at first! Or was it Brains Benton? Seriously, I recall that little mystery. What did the brick weigh, wasn't it like 350 lbs?
This is too unbelievable.
"and what you have is emergent synergistic serindipity
Fuck.
Busts are psychological
"Is this some kind of bust?"
"Yes, very impressive."
115: See man was at one point a comic genius.
"The hospital! What is it?"
"it's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now..."
Oh, man, Police Squad was the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my whole life ever when I was a kid, and I'd still hurt myself laughing if I saw an episode -- I made Buck watch them when we started dating. The 'freeze frames' that ended the show? That sort of gag kills me.
"Nice beaver."
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."
76 explains nicely why it would be funnier from us
76 explains why that would actually be much, much lamer. What would such a list consist of? "We Democrats have an awesome God here in the Blue States! And we also enjoy the reasonable centrism of David Broder!"
The great thing about that list is that it gives voice to a lot of stuff that Dems used to believe but have been too scared to say out loud for the last thirty years, because they've been bludgeoned by an increasingly right-wing climate into becoming timid, reactionary moderates. To read stuff like "Karl Marx had a lot of valuable insights" or "lots of poor women god screwed by welfare reform" in Slate, no less, is incredibly cathartic.
118: Both The Zucker brothers and Mel Brooks had this way of taking really cheap gags and somehow getting you to laugh at them, not just once, but dozens of times.
Some of the link in 71 is pretty good, some is pretty awful. This one: Terrorism isn't that big a threat to America! I say about twice a week. In public. To strangers.
I think that's why I'll never be a Democrat.
119 is completely wrong, but this comment box is too small to explain why.
On the density of gold.
Archimedes' supposed "Eureka!"-in-a-bathtub moment came about as he was trying to determine a way to use the density of gold to determine if a Gold Crown was solid gold or had some silver in it as well. (And if it is true, he did not need to use the Archimedes Principle, but rather just the displacement of water as a method to measure the volume of an irregularly shaped object.)
I've finally figured out what creeps me out about Palin. The emotional tone and content of the upper half of her face only matches that of the lower half when she's either saying something mean or something flirty. The rest of the time her eyes just don't match her mouth, and often they just look dead.
I've finally figured out what creeps me out about Palin. The emotional tone and content of the upper half of her face only matches that of the lower half when she's either saying something mean or something flirty.
A friend of ours last night was commenting on this. The only time she doesn't stumble is when she's being vicious. It's the only time they let her be herself.
On the Daily Show, they showed a clip of McCain and then Palin hinting that Obama is a terrorist. When McCain saw the blood-lust it roused in the crowd, he grimaced a little. When Palin saw it, she thrilled to it.
65 -- Robert Hunter. Sheesh.
Busts are psychological
I've mentioned before my cousin who had a breast enlargement through hypnosis business.
When McCain saw the blood-lust it roused in the crowd, he grimaced a little.
Doesn't he look like that most of the time?
His war wounds have the same effect on his campaign as Bob Dole's did earlier. On the one hand, everyone has to instantly recognize courage. On the other hand, whenever the candidate drops their guard, you are reminded that they are in persistent physical pain.
For some voters, this might be a reminder of their heroism, but I think a lot of voters just wind up feeling uncomfortable and not realizing why. It is difficult to be around someone in pain, and without the explanation of the pain, it just makes for bad associations.
127,
Walt, yeah, I saw that too! I always say righteous wrath is da bomb, but I think inciting righteous wrath must be even better. Palin would looove her some smiting! She gets off on it big time.
Palin knows she's a very small time person who's reached the big time mostly by luck, but instead of feeling embarrassed or worried, she thinks that God has singled her out to be blessed.
At this point I far prefer the guilt-ridden forms of winger Christianity to the happy, positive-thinking forms, because the latter are equally irrational and hate-filled and much more self-serving.
I've mentioned before my cousin who had a breast enlargement through hypnosis business.
Was he in it for the money, or the excuse to see women take their shirts off and talk about their boobs a lot?
I'm putting money into wampum.
Currency trader.
"Nice beaver." "Thanks, I just had it stuffed."
"Hey. No sax before the fight."
The only time she doesn't stumble is when she's being vicious.
Absent any simple decency, it's in Palin's interest to be as vicious as she can get away with. She won't face (m)any consequences for her behavior if her ticket wins the election and if it loses she's in a position to blame the loss on McCain and take her place as a darling of the hard right.
Palin running in the GOP primary would be awesome. It has the potential to unleash an intraparty civil war so vicious that they'll be crippled for years.
135: Republicans only seem to nominate dour retreads and charismatic dimwits, so 2012 could be shaping up to be a fierce Romney-Palin battle.
And the Dow closes down 2%
I'm taking anything less than a 3% daily drop as good news, so I'll be celebrating tonight.
The actress Hedy LaMarr met the avant-garde composer George Antheil in Hollywood where he was promoting a breat-enlargement method. The two became friends, and combined her knowledge of munitions (learned from her first husband, an Austria war profiteer who knew Hitler well) and his knowledge of player pianos to devise a way of coding messages called frequency switching. They got a patent for it, but it ran out before their invention became useful.
This is my favorite trivia ever and people will be hearing about it until the day I die. Don't even think about complaining, kids.
Lamarr's NSFWs were nice but not super
Heh, I've told the same story. I usually mention that Lamarr was mind-bogglingly hot.
Palin running in the GOP primary would be awesome.
she might win and then we'd be faced with some scary shit. I really could see her as some kind of weird down-home American fascist figure.
People talk like the hard-right evangelicals are stunned to find a totally batshit believer in the race now that Palin's on the ticket but that leaves out Huckabee entirely. If Huckabee - a funny-looking Baptist preacher with a diet book - could manage at best a distant loss then Palin's days in national politics will be over on 5 November.
Yeah, I've been seeing Palin as a less smart, less funny, meaner, more physically appealing Huckabee. Maybe, like him, she'll get a gig as a political commentator on TV for a while.
Sadly I am too young to be familiar with Hedy LaMarr. I had to settle for the Madeline Kahn version in Blazing Saddles.
Awesome:
John McCain just referred to the country as "my fellow prisoners."
re: 44
I'm younger than you. I've still watched a lot of old movies.
Sarah Palin lays out the rationale for her '96 mayoral campaign.
"Neighborhoods - You come to City Hall andtell us wha saytell us what you want, what is right for your area ... not the other way around! City Hall shouldn't be coming down your throat ..."
The media likes certain looks, and it helps both Huckabee and Palin that they look like already recognized celebrities Kevin Spacey and Tina Fey.
Other than that I don't think they bring much to the table.
ttaM,
I'm younger than you.
Oh sure, stand there and rub it in. Well if you were here I'd rassle ya two out of three for a pint, ya little baby ya.
I've been seeing Palin as a less smart, less funny, meaner, more physically appealing Huckabee. Maybe, like him, she'll get a gig as a political commentator on TV for a while.
They will work hard to hone her image. She really doesnt need to understand much or to have too many issues.
Trot her out to smile and look pretty while attacking Democrats. Stick to 4 or 5 topics.
She will get trained on how to stay on message for those 4 or 5 topics.
Oh sure, stand there and rub it in. Well if you were here I'd rassle ya two out of three for a pint, ya little baby ya.
Heh. No! I don't wrestle. I go for the head-kick, every time.
145: Tee hee! Is that his daughter behind him on the right? She perceptibly frowns, but Palin is a pageant pro and doesn't react at all.
ttaM,
Heh. No! I don't wrestle. I go for the head-kick, every time.
So you think you've got a choice do ya? Well when we meet you better not turn your back, cause I'll be showin' ya who's your uncle whether ya want it or not.
re: 153
Heheh.
[Right at the moment I'm probably incapable of kicking anyone in the head ... ]
Short people, perhaps. Or those already lying down.
144: Should you want more familiarity with Hedy Lamarr, the entire film Ekstase seems to be on YouTube, albeit broken up into 10-minute pieces.
Heads which had been removed and teed up. But you need to wear the steel-toed boots!
144: Harvey Korman played "Hedley Lamarr" in "Blazing Saddles." Madeline Kahn's character was a parody of Marlene Dietrich.
John has recounted the Lamarr anecdote probably some transfinite number of times by now.
I think he means no one is currently within range, and he is incapable of kicking his own. He only kicks the heads of those who can't kick their own.
150: I've become convinced (while standing in line at the supermarket reading the National Enquirer headlines) that some kind of family scandal will end Palin's political career, but that she and her family will land on their feet when they sign up for a reality-TV show and become even bigger stars than the Lohans or Kardashians.
re: 154
[being humourlessly literal]
Yeah. It's more that I am completely knackered [burning the candle at both ends to get thesis revisions finished] and mildly ill at the same time.
But yeah, I can kick about as high as my own head. Anyone taller than my squat form is safe.
There are always new people who need to learn about this, Ben.
159: Every so often something will remind me of an anecdote, and I'll check the googleyahoohole to see if I've told it here before. More often than not, it shows up two or three times in almost exactly the same words. Kind of humbling.
No, no. A good story can't be told too many times.
Goffman's _Forms Of Talk_ ends with a description of the mechanisms by which people become human jukeboxes. Apparently it's most pronounced in radio announcers or people who spend a lot of time performing.
People will note that in 138 I requested people not to whine foolishly about my repeating th story. But did people honor my request? No, they did not. They whined foolishly.
John has recounted the Lamarr anecdote probably some transfinite number of times by now.
My adventure with shifting pseudonyms became unsustainable when I found myself being paranoid about whether an anecdote would be recognizable as one that had earlier been posted under a different name.
168: I dunno, "Hank Paulson" might've stuck anyway.
I didn't whine, foolishly or otherwise. I dispassionately reported the truth.
164 and 166 remind me that I was Old Bad GF's memory backup - I could retell her anecdotes (ones that predated my arrival on the scene) as well as she could. Of course now I've forgotten most of them.
As the Jew/Jewish thing yesterday demonstrated, I've forgotten a lot of my own anecdotes that used to be standards. Partly because of natural cycling (those events were half a life ago), but also partly because I don't tell them as often anymore - AB knows them, and new acquaintances are better ground for newer anecdotes (more related to current life). But it frustrates me to realize that not only the finely-honed phrasing but also the underlying facts are vanishing.
Funny, in the context of 171, that I would call Bad Old GF "Old Bad GF."
I retell the same stories and ideas over and over again. My blog contains basically all the same anecdotes it always did, for example, but at the moment I tell them, they always seem fresh and new, because I'm thinking about those things in the current context. I'm sure if I went back and re-read all my old tellings of things, I'd be humiliated by the fact that I come to the same stupid conclusions over and over. It just feels like I'm learning things as I get older, and I'd like to maintain that fiction.
You know, people. When I start talking about my theories here in the comments, you could just tell me that I am patching together Daly's Steady-State Economy from hints I read in the news, or coming up with Winner Take All from conversations I have with my friends. Then you wouldn't have to watch me ignorantly re-derive these things, and I could save myself the embarrassment of not having good evidence or knowing the existing jargon that applies perfectly. I could stop thinking, since smart people have already worked this ground and written it down and we would get the benefits of their efforts.
I think that sounds very nice. But y'all hold out on me, and months later I stumble across the clear synthesis and realize that was what I needed. What else are you keeping back?
also the underlying facts are vanishing.
This happens to me as soon as I've polished an anecdote. When an incident is in good story form, I forget the actual facts, and only remember the story. But I think I have an unusually bad memory in this regard.
171: but also the underlying facts are vanishing.
I have been a bit disturbed that my mother and I (who tend to be the story/anecdote tellers in my family) have diverged on the key facts, motivations and timelines of a number of what we consider to be "significant" family stories. Sometimes we can rectify the differences or prove one version or the other wrong (I believe I am right somewhat more than she is, but it ain't by a huge margin), but in more than a few cases we cannot. Worrisome that some of my "very clear" memories are most certainly fictitious (I just don't know which).
174: What this means is that you need to do book reviews. If there's better phrasing of the stuff you're talking about out there, and you've found it, you need to blog it.
i think i told like half of my life here
but the scary stories are yet to come..
i've read somewhere that 83 yo japanese writer of comic books iirc is very successful writing a book about a teenage girl in the text message format
very very popular they say
so who knows maybe people would start publishing blog comments books soon
blog comment books
"Is That A Toast Murder Story?: The Best of Ogged"
Megan, did you recommend "Disciplined Minds" to me? Thanks, if you did. If you didn't, I recommend it to you.
blog posts are not surprising if published as a book, every post is like a little essay
but comments becoming a book is totally novel idea of mine
i hope :)
It's malpractice to ruin a good story by sticking to the facts.
175 - you are normal in this regard. People think in stories.
180 - I recommend it to everyone. It is the most helpful interpretation of my horrible grad school experience that I've found. So that may be where you came across the mention of it.
But seriously - for major and informative theories with some decent explanatory power, I am now working with:
Disciplined Minds
The Authoritarians/Biblical Parenting
as of twenty minutes ago - Steady State Economy (thanks for NOTHING)
winner take all/lottery/reality show concepts
mediation/collaboration
Tragedy of the Commons type stuff
What am I missing that all of you already know? I konw I should know more soil science and demography, but besides that.
176: I have been a bit disturbed that my mother and I (who tend to be the story/anecdote tellers in my family) have diverged on the key facts, motivations and timelines of a number of what we consider to be "significant" family stories.
I think this is completely normal. I've even noticed it happening in an academic setting, which can be rather odd, e.g. many people know that so-and-so proved back in the 80s that such-and-such is true, but on inspection it turns out this is not what the publication said, exactly, but some weird ossified anecdotal and even incorrect form of what the publication said.
185: Haven't read the book, but based on this article, Nassim Taleb's THE BLACK SWAN looks like it might be of use.
I think this is completely normal. I've even noticed it happening in an academic setting, which can be rather odd, e.g. many people know that so-and-so proved back in the 80s that such-and-such is true, but on inspection it turns out this is not what the publication said, exactly, but some weird ossified anecdotal and even incorrect form of what the publication said.
Yeah, that's something I've noticed too. Another I've noticed is how nuanced the original publication can be as compared to the caricature of it that's gained currency.
Everyone 'knows' that so and so was a crude rhubarbologist commited to the crazy view that foo. Then you read them and find that 'foo' is just a tiny part of their view and totally hedged with qualifications and conditions.
My favourite example of this is Berkeley, who is nowhere near as crazy as the undergraduate portrait of him, which often descends to Samuel Johnson levels.
Thank you for that, ttaM. I'm writing a lot about Berkeley in my dissertation, and repeatedly have to convince myself that it's totally OK that I think he's really important.
You know, people. When I start talking about my theories here in the comments, you could just tell me that I am patching together Daly's Steady-State Economy from hints I read in the news, or coming up with Winner Take All from conversations I have with my friends. Then you wouldn't have to watch me ignorantly re-derive these things
Why do you want to take away our fun?
174:Robert D Feinman Great Neck Fine Art Photographer and frequent commenter on econblogs is not a Great Renowned Thinker, but has been working on some Daly-like ideas, and you might find his stuff sympatico. Of course, there is the vast vast oildrum
I just picked up Peter Marshall's History of Anarchism. I'm an old-fashioned kinda radical. Or just nostalgic for the eras when freedom remained a possibility.
Aw, but I like the Samuel Johnson anecdote. To be is to be kicked! Welcome to the Chuck Norris school of reification.
re: 191
Have you read A.C. Grayling's book on him? Sorry if that's a 'teach your granny to suck eggs' comment.
If not, it's really good as an account of his views in the Principles and in the Three Dialogues.
And yeah, I have a lot of admiration for Berkeley.
No, I haven't read much about Berkeley, outside of his contemporaries' views. I'll take a look at it. My dissertation is largely on the rhetorical structures particular to certain kinds of epistemological arguments, so it's not as much about ideas as it is about the forms of the argument, on the level of sentences and paragraphs, but it wouldn't hurt me to read up a bit more on the ideas.
diverged on the key facts, motivations and timelines of a number of what we consider to be "significant" family stories
Been there, done that, seen the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_(film)
re: 196
Grayling's book is great [in my opinion, anywway, I'm not a Berkeley scholar].
Berkeley can be quite opaque, I think, on first reading and it's tempting to interpret some of his rhetorical/argumentative moves in ways that don't do justice to the force of his argument. Grayling does a good job of breaking down the arguments and showing how they are often very persuasive when properly understood.
185: The Anatomy of Power by Galbraith was very helpful to me in understanding how the world works. Also can't neglect the classics - The Discourses by Machiavelli is a must read. I suspect that The Authoritarians covers a lot of the ground coered by John Dean's Conservatives Without Conscience, which I found profoundly illuminating.
Apart from 185 what else is on the Unfogged Reading List for Mundane Enlightenment?
re: 199
Apart from 185 what else is on the Unfogged Reading List for Mundane Enlightenment?
Another classic:
The first part of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum?
Why do you gotta put old books on the list?
The last bubble will be an infrastructure/energy bubble. Watch closely to see where the money comes from and goes. The ultimate question is not about what neat stuff gets built. The question is about who owns what gets built. Who controls the energy grid, who controls transportation.
Obama showed himself in the support of the Bush bailout bill, which included tax breaks & credits for energy companies. If the energy/trans buildup is paid for with tax cuts and deficit spending, Goldman Sachs & Enron and the SWF's will own & control it all, will own & control us all.
If the buildup were financed with tax increases and built by the gov'ts, like Hoover Dam and TVA & Interstate Highways, then we might have a chance. But I don't think that's Obama's plan.
139: Hedy Lamarr's NSFWs actually were super. That photo you linked to is just an old, poor quality still, probably from "Ecstasy," a 1933 movie with a DH Lawrence-style theme that's probably very deep but ends up involving a lot of Hedy Lamarr full nudity. But it's artistic! And hott. Strongly recommended. Don't settle for old stills!
Come on, Bob, join trollblog. I tried to email you.
204:I got your email. Sorry for not responding, haven't used email for a decade.
Nothing really original or entertaining to say.
Nothing really original or entertaining to say.
Now that's funny.
Ya know, Newberry used to have a partner, Oldman, who helped temper Stirling's natural optimism.
Franz Kafka invented the workman's hard hat, and Arthur Conan Doyle was behind the general use of the lifejacket.
New anecdotes for all!
Jpool,
144: Harvey Korman played "Hedley Lamarr" in "Blazing Saddles." Madeline Kahn's character was a parody of Marlene Dietrich.
Son of a gun, you are correct. I combined two items and got them wrong!
I blame Mel Brooks.
OMG Tripp, that was the whole point of one series of jokes. Harvey Korman was constantly correcting people that his name was "Hedley"
Gregor Samsa's father is the earliest attestation I can find for "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day".
