Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
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Tax the Rich
Website Wednesday
Last night, PBS had a show on about the Navajo and the cruelty shown them by the US government and basically most of the US citizenry they came in contact with. I have trouble watching this type of show because I always get so angry to the point of physical revulsion.
Peter Coyote did a good job as narrator. Without editorializing there was no doubt he was telling you about another horror imposed human on human. Unfortunately, the true metal, or lack of it, on the part of PBS (as they try to appease the US constituency and influence which embraces racism and violence) shone through in the form of one of their talking "experts" who after we heard about the horrendous deeds of Kit Carson from both the narrator and Navajo descendants, said (in paraphrase): Well he (Carson) was only using violence to advance his cause as was customary in the 1800s.
Jesus H. Christ! And we still wonder why the rest of the world hates us? To pull out the old worn chestnut, I wonder if this expert would have been allowed to say re: the Nazis: Well, they were only using violence to advance their causes as was customary in the 1900s. Never, if he were saying it about the Jews. Unfortunately, the Nazi victims of gays, disabled, socialists, etc. would probably still be fair game for, we have, as a country, a bizarrely schizophrenic system of morality.
Which in a small way shows up in my website pick this week, GQ:
http://www.gq.com/
Wikipedia says of the magazine:
GQ (originally Gentlemen's Quarterly) is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books. It is the male equivalent of Vogue.
No, it's better than Vogue. I'm sure GQ is aiming for the same financially demographic audience as Vogue but it, fortunately, lacks Vogue's elitist tone and articles. For example, I don't think I would find The Carnivore's Guide to Cooking Vegetarian at Vogue nor The 25 Least Influential People Alive (more on this later), nor Oscar Bait and Switch: A GQ Guide to 40 Must-See Movies This Fall.
OK, the G does stand for Gentlemen and you get the dose of sports and woman but while I would hesitate to recommend some of my "women's" pick to men, I do think GQ has a lot of stuff for all sexes and interests. I'm not going to cruise you around this site since the fun is to wander on your own and come across such gems as America's 25 Douchiest Colleges. They're big on lists (something I love) and the lists are interrupted with a few very quick ads: it's worth this annoyance.
Now, to get back to the 25 least influential people article which does tie into the PBS Navajo show tangentially. Obama comes in as #25 and the blurb reports that he wasted the capital he gained from ordering the raid to wipe bin Laden "off the face of the earth." Well, that raid which ended in the point blank assassination of bin Laden was only capital for a tyrant. I guess we forgot trial by jury like they had at Nuremberg. And now with the "Obama doctrine" of killing our enemies (even US citizens) where ever we find them, we're just sinking deeper into our schizophrenic morality. Just like in centuries past with native Americans, blacks, immigrants, the poor, the new hate meme for the US today seems to be just about any damn person(s) we choose.
But as Sam says in LOTR: Even with all the darkness, there is some light in the sky. We all have to believe that.
Peter Coyote did a good job as narrator. Without editorializing there was no doubt he was telling you about another horror imposed human on human. Unfortunately, the true metal, or lack of it, on the part of PBS (as they try to appease the US constituency and influence which embraces racism and violence) shone through in the form of one of their talking "experts" who after we heard about the horrendous deeds of Kit Carson from both the narrator and Navajo descendants, said (in paraphrase): Well he (Carson) was only using violence to advance his cause as was customary in the 1800s.
Jesus H. Christ! And we still wonder why the rest of the world hates us? To pull out the old worn chestnut, I wonder if this expert would have been allowed to say re: the Nazis: Well, they were only using violence to advance their causes as was customary in the 1900s. Never, if he were saying it about the Jews. Unfortunately, the Nazi victims of gays, disabled, socialists, etc. would probably still be fair game for, we have, as a country, a bizarrely schizophrenic system of morality.
Which in a small way shows up in my website pick this week, GQ:
http://www.gq.com/
Wikipedia says of the magazine:
GQ (originally Gentlemen's Quarterly) is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books. It is the male equivalent of Vogue.
No, it's better than Vogue. I'm sure GQ is aiming for the same financially demographic audience as Vogue but it, fortunately, lacks Vogue's elitist tone and articles. For example, I don't think I would find The Carnivore's Guide to Cooking Vegetarian at Vogue nor The 25 Least Influential People Alive (more on this later), nor Oscar Bait and Switch: A GQ Guide to 40 Must-See Movies This Fall.
OK, the G does stand for Gentlemen and you get the dose of sports and woman but while I would hesitate to recommend some of my "women's" pick to men, I do think GQ has a lot of stuff for all sexes and interests. I'm not going to cruise you around this site since the fun is to wander on your own and come across such gems as America's 25 Douchiest Colleges. They're big on lists (something I love) and the lists are interrupted with a few very quick ads: it's worth this annoyance.
Now, to get back to the 25 least influential people article which does tie into the PBS Navajo show tangentially. Obama comes in as #25 and the blurb reports that he wasted the capital he gained from ordering the raid to wipe bin Laden "off the face of the earth." Well, that raid which ended in the point blank assassination of bin Laden was only capital for a tyrant. I guess we forgot trial by jury like they had at Nuremberg. And now with the "Obama doctrine" of killing our enemies (even US citizens) where ever we find them, we're just sinking deeper into our schizophrenic morality. Just like in centuries past with native Americans, blacks, immigrants, the poor, the new hate meme for the US today seems to be just about any damn person(s) we choose.
But as Sam says in LOTR: Even with all the darkness, there is some light in the sky. We all have to believe that.
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