My list:
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Monday, December 30, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Christmas: Bob
Tinsel, snow, eggnog, stockings, ham and Newhart! "No Room at the Inn" from December '82.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
Monday, December 23, 2019
Christmas: AGS
Andy, Barney, Elinor Donahue, Aunt Bee, and the future world's worst movie director celebrate that magical moment, Christmas 1960.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Friday, December 20, 2019
Christmas: HGWT
The best western show of all time at its most Christian, directed by the man himself: "Be Not Forgetful of Strangers"
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Christmas: Staccato
Over the next few days I'll be putting up some of my favorite Christmas pieces, mostly TV episodes, and hopefully more rare than not. (How many times can you see Rudolph, Home Alone, or Frosty the Snowman?)
Leading off is everyone's favorite beatnik, Johnny Staccato. And a strange series it is. Not sure how much of Staccato is put-on by Cassavetes (since he was quitting the show every other week); or does it just seem like a put-on, because it's so plugged into such a specific atmosphere and moment? (See Kiss Me Deadly.)
This one, from Christmas Eve 1959 (Boog, Shrevie, and Fenwick must've watched it before the Colts / Giants championship game), is called "The Unwise Men" and stars the great Jack Weston. (Best part: JC's cheery closing.)
Leading off is everyone's favorite beatnik, Johnny Staccato. And a strange series it is. Not sure how much of Staccato is put-on by Cassavetes (since he was quitting the show every other week); or does it just seem like a put-on, because it's so plugged into such a specific atmosphere and moment? (See Kiss Me Deadly.)
This one, from Christmas Eve 1959 (Boog, Shrevie, and Fenwick must've watched it before the Colts / Giants championship game), is called "The Unwise Men" and stars the great Jack Weston. (Best part: JC's cheery closing.)
Friday, December 13, 2019
London Calling
Chris Floyd:
The UK election is over. Now many Britons will have to learn what so many of us Americans learned long ago: you don’t live in the country you thought you lived in. The country you live in is a much colder, meaner, nastier, more bitter, unfeeling and hard-hearted place than you ever imagined. You will also have to learn what many Americans have learned, over many decades: to follow the example of the Soviet dissidents of yore, and become an “internal exile,” fighting to hold on to and, as best you can, to transmit the richer, deeper, more humane values of our common humanity, even as you live in alienation from the unfeeling power structures that surround you. It is a sad lesson to learn, a sad way to live — but in the corrupted currents of this world, it is the only honourable and decent way to conduct your life and preserve your sanity. It’s a hard road, yes, but let us bear the journey together, in solidarity, revelling in every drop of joy and meaning we can find, while we continue to fight the good fight and, in the words of the American bard, “strengthen the things that remain.”
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Bootlicker
Originally posted on Amazon back in 2010, this review was recently deleted by the Bezos Gestapo. Reason given: anti-semitism.
Some Brit by the name of David Aaronovitch has served up his gimp string to the Masters of the Universe with a book called "Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History."
First, Aaronovitch. A well-known Bushist neocon, his past work includes some journalism for the Times of London, a book called "Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country" (gee David, I thought you lived in the UK), and three documentaries: "No Excuses for Terror" (unless it's inflicted by Israel), "Blaming the Jews" (wherein Aaronovitch posits a media conspiracy against Israel. . . hmmmm, I guess it's only conspiracies against goys he thinks are non-existent), and "God and the Politicians" (oh no -- Muslimism and extremist Christianisty will be the death yet of Jolly Ole England. Isn't that a conspiracy, David?) And how about that title? VOODOO history. Looks like David has some issues with African culture.
But since we're talking here about a mere court jester, and one whose writing style is akin to the boor at the next table who won't shut-up, focusing on Aaronovitch is sort of off the point. Meat. Filet Freddie. Peter Porterhouse. Viola Veal. David Aaronovitch. Oh, the lines are long for those wishing to make their bones by licking the boots of the powerful. . . (One should say it's no surprise in a book dealing with Grand Themes processed through a Politburo prism that there is actually nothing in "Voodoo History" examining the crimes discussed. The book is less than 400 pages long and yet tries its darndest to bluff through Dallas, RFK, MLK, Pearl Harbor, the bombing of the Reichstag, 9/11, Princess Diana, the moon landings, and whatever else Aaronovitch's secretary could come up with.)
The publication and mainstream media embrace (what a surprise!) of its ahistorical and shallow argument against conspiracy is, however, an important event. For it underlines just how full-court is the full-court press being played across the Western world by the forces of totalitarian corporatism. For awhile now I've been thinking about the connection between Establishment anti-conspiracy propaganda and the massive increase in both the police state and warfare state aspects of the US. The anti-conspiracy liars are more and more present because they are needed now more than ever, as the United States seethes with plots, devolving into little but dark conspiracies everywhere -- on Wall Street, the set-up of the Tea Party movement, stolen elections, Blackwater, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the "Christmas Bomber," and now the unprecedented Obama-ian attack on entitlements. There is now zero connection between what the national government says it's doing and what it is in fact doing, while all it is doing in every aspect is seeking to strengthen the vampire/warrior class. Conspiracy belief is on the rise because the world is becoming less democratic, less open, a world far less based on action and consequence, and much more on insider knowledge, fixing, and the talent for secrets and intrigue. (And murder.) Privatizing everything automatically necessitates conspiracies.
So this precious Zionist fop is nothing but one more hall monitor, an Elite butt-kisser whose sole function is to spread the belief that all power, and all the people (yes, everyone) who hold it, are LEGITIMATE. Only losers like conspiracy theories, those who have not "made it," those not brilliant and beautiful and witty enough to play by the rules and win by the rules. The world is a level playing field, says the fop, and conspiracy writers exist, basically, as history's version of the Lonely Hearts Club. It lets the Unbeautiful feel better about themselves.
Stop laughing. We all know that the Western world has never been further away than it now is from talent/brains/ability to love/ability to feel compassion/moral sense/love of the earth/a sense of history leading to "achievement" and "power" as defined by the Elites. (The Elite: what an inappropriate word for the subhuman scum which thinks of itself as our Overlords; an Elite which has obviously decided to treat the United States, its own country, as something to be occupied: raped, destroyed, vanquished, stealing everything in sight, burning down the place and then leaving. But to where?)
David Aaronovitch is just an old-fashioned court jester telling the King how great he is and not to worry about all that screaming and smoke from beyond the moat. Aaronovitch's purpose is to widen the moat and build high the walls. And his silly analysis of the actual crimes he writes about -- crimes of which he knows nothing -- is mere bootlicking.
*
Some Brit by the name of David Aaronovitch has served up his gimp string to the Masters of the Universe with a book called "Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History."
First, Aaronovitch. A well-known Bushist neocon, his past work includes some journalism for the Times of London, a book called "Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country" (gee David, I thought you lived in the UK), and three documentaries: "No Excuses for Terror" (unless it's inflicted by Israel), "Blaming the Jews" (wherein Aaronovitch posits a media conspiracy against Israel. . . hmmmm, I guess it's only conspiracies against goys he thinks are non-existent), and "God and the Politicians" (oh no -- Muslimism and extremist Christianisty will be the death yet of Jolly Ole England. Isn't that a conspiracy, David?) And how about that title? VOODOO history. Looks like David has some issues with African culture.But since we're talking here about a mere court jester, and one whose writing style is akin to the boor at the next table who won't shut-up, focusing on Aaronovitch is sort of off the point. Meat. Filet Freddie. Peter Porterhouse. Viola Veal. David Aaronovitch. Oh, the lines are long for those wishing to make their bones by licking the boots of the powerful. . . (One should say it's no surprise in a book dealing with Grand Themes processed through a Politburo prism that there is actually nothing in "Voodoo History" examining the crimes discussed. The book is less than 400 pages long and yet tries its darndest to bluff through Dallas, RFK, MLK, Pearl Harbor, the bombing of the Reichstag, 9/11, Princess Diana, the moon landings, and whatever else Aaronovitch's secretary could come up with.)
The publication and mainstream media embrace (what a surprise!) of its ahistorical and shallow argument against conspiracy is, however, an important event. For it underlines just how full-court is the full-court press being played across the Western world by the forces of totalitarian corporatism. For awhile now I've been thinking about the connection between Establishment anti-conspiracy propaganda and the massive increase in both the police state and warfare state aspects of the US. The anti-conspiracy liars are more and more present because they are needed now more than ever, as the United States seethes with plots, devolving into little but dark conspiracies everywhere -- on Wall Street, the set-up of the Tea Party movement, stolen elections, Blackwater, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the "Christmas Bomber," and now the unprecedented Obama-ian attack on entitlements. There is now zero connection between what the national government says it's doing and what it is in fact doing, while all it is doing in every aspect is seeking to strengthen the vampire/warrior class. Conspiracy belief is on the rise because the world is becoming less democratic, less open, a world far less based on action and consequence, and much more on insider knowledge, fixing, and the talent for secrets and intrigue. (And murder.) Privatizing everything automatically necessitates conspiracies.
So this precious Zionist fop is nothing but one more hall monitor, an Elite butt-kisser whose sole function is to spread the belief that all power, and all the people (yes, everyone) who hold it, are LEGITIMATE. Only losers like conspiracy theories, those who have not "made it," those not brilliant and beautiful and witty enough to play by the rules and win by the rules. The world is a level playing field, says the fop, and conspiracy writers exist, basically, as history's version of the Lonely Hearts Club. It lets the Unbeautiful feel better about themselves.
Stop laughing. We all know that the Western world has never been further away than it now is from talent/brains/ability to love/ability to feel compassion/moral sense/love of the earth/a sense of history leading to "achievement" and "power" as defined by the Elites. (The Elite: what an inappropriate word for the subhuman scum which thinks of itself as our Overlords; an Elite which has obviously decided to treat the United States, its own country, as something to be occupied: raped, destroyed, vanquished, stealing everything in sight, burning down the place and then leaving. But to where?)
David Aaronovitch is just an old-fashioned court jester telling the King how great he is and not to worry about all that screaming and smoke from beyond the moat. Aaronovitch's purpose is to widen the moat and build high the walls. And his silly analysis of the actual crimes he writes about -- crimes of which he knows nothing -- is mere bootlicking.
