tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post2818355693361401850..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Merchants of DeathKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-40511542445110372013-05-06T07:10:09.992-04:002013-05-06T07:10:09.992-04:00As Karen says, “the deliberate ignorance of our le...As Karen says, “the deliberate ignorance of our leaders borders upon the criminal.”<br /><br />They have no sense of their true duty, which is to be great men and women and preserve humanity. They imitate being great and wise so badly and thieves so well.<br /><br />Listen, little men and women:<br /><br />“You differ from a great man in only one respect: the great man was once a very little man, but he developed one important quality: he recognized the smallness and narrowness of his thoughts and actions. Under the pressure of some task that meant a great deal to him, he learned to see how his smallness, his pettiness endangered his happiness. In other words, a great man knows when and in what way he is a little man. A little man does not know he is little and is afraid to know. He hides his pettiness and narrowness behind illusions of strength and greatness, someone else's strength and greatness. He's proud of his great generals but not of himself. He admires an idea he has not had, not one he has had. The less he understands something, the more firmly he believes in it. And the better he understands an idea, the less he believes in it.” - Wilhelm Reich, Listen, Little Man!<br /><br />Great ends cannot be attained by base means. The meanness and inhumanity of your means make great ends unattainable. Witness our current social upheavals.<br /><br />“You'll have a good, secure life when being alive means more to you than security, love more than money, your freedom more than public or partisan opinion; when the mood of Beethoven's or Bach's music becomes the mood of your whole life; when your thinking is in harmony, and no longer in conflict, with your feelings; when you let yourself be guided by the thoughts of great sages and no longer by the crimes of great warriors; when you pay the men and women who teach your children better than the politicians; when truths inspire you and empty formulas repel you; when you communicate with your fellow workers in foreign countries directly, and no longer through diplomats.” - Wilhelm Reich, Listen, Little Man!<br /><br />Those periodic pullings of the voting lever, feel-good futility for the masses…<br /><br />“For twenty-five years I've been speaking and writing in defense of your right to happiness in this world, condemning your inability to take what is your due, to secure what you won in bloody battles on the barricades of Paris and Vienna, in the American Civil War, in the Russian Revolution. Your Paris ended with Petain and Laval, your Vienna with Hitler, your Russia with Stalin, and your America may well end in the rule of the Ku Klux Klan! You've been more successful in winning your freedom than in securing it for yourself and others. This I knew long ago. What I did not understand was why time and again, after fighting your way out of a swamp, you sank into a worse one. Then groping and cautiously looking about me, I gradually found out what has enslaved you: YOUR SLAVE DRIVER IS YOU YOURSELF. No one is to blame for your slavery but you yourself. No one else, I say!” - Wilhelm Reich, Listen, Little Man!<br /><br />We have met the enemy and he is us. Bread and circuses keep us at home instead of protesting in the streets.<br /><br />The howling has already begun, "But nobody could ever have foreseen...."Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-90010087636528443202013-05-05T23:23:27.034-04:002013-05-05T23:23:27.034-04:00Thanks, Pearl. Here's my reply to Krugman:
Mo...Thanks, Pearl. Here's my reply to Krugman:<br /><br />More than tragic, more than silly: the deliberate ignorance of our leaders borders upon the criminal.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the only court for gross dereliction of political duty is the voting booth. And since an oligarchy has pretty much replaced representative democracy, those periodic pullings of the lever are mere exercises is feel-good futility for the masses, a great big group yanking of the national chain. Gerrymandering and the declaration that money is speech are the toxins that are killing us.<br /><br />Politicians spend a lot of time complaining about the Sequester, but it's been awhile since I've heard any of them suggest that we just repeal the stupid thing. This is despite the fact that it's forecast to eventually destroy 750,000 jobs. But rest assured -- both parties will stealthily conspire to restore the Pentagon cuts, forgetting all about the Medicare patients locked out of chemo, the little kids kicked out of Head Start and the longterm unemployed facing catastrophic cuts in benefits.<br /><br />These sadistic policies are actually increasing the deficit. Trillions of dollars in lost output. No jobs= no spending=no jobs in an endless, obsessive-compulsive and very vicious cycle. <br /><br />It's all being sucked up, going straight to those at the very top. It's only a matter of time before the whole edifice comes crashing down, like one great, big, shoddily constructed Bangladeshi slave factory built upon a fetid swamp.<br /><br />And they'll all howl: "But nobody could ever have foreseen...."Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-69037361203611531132013-05-05T23:21:00.719-04:002013-05-05T23:21:00.719-04:00Karen: Great comment to Krugman's latest and p...Karen: Great comment to Krugman's latest and please enter it into our comments section. But don't despair dear friends. A friend sent me the final solution.<br /><br /><br />Subj: Medicare OUR way...<br /><br />Medicare Part G<br /><br />You're a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home care available for you. So what do you do?<br />Our plan gives anyone 65 years, or older, a gun (G) and 4 bullets.<br />You are allowed to shoot four Politicians.<br />Of course, this means you'll be sent to prison, where you will receive three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating and air conditioning and all the health care<br />you need.<br />Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That's great.<br />Need a new hip, knees, kidney, lungs or heart? They're all covered.<br />As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you at least as often as they do now. And who will be paying for all of this? The same<br />government that just told you they can't afford for you to<br />go into a home.<br />And, you can get rid of 4 useless politicians while you're at it.<br />Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore.<br />Is this a great country or what?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-68823537029890930812013-05-05T18:16:29.265-04:002013-05-05T18:16:29.265-04:00Are we dark tourists? Dark tourism is going to a ...Are we dark tourists? Dark tourism is going to a place where something terrible happened, usually mass death. http://www.grief-tourism.com/ <br /><br />The 9/11 Museum will be a top destination of dark tourism. <br /><br />A 9/11 survivor describes his visit to the 9/11 Memorial:<br /><br />“The line was too reminiscent of being at an airport or waiting to get on a popular ride at an amusement park and that bothered me. I knew we were all there to see the Memorial but I wasn’t there out of curiosity or with a sincere desire to see where the tragedy had taken place. I had been there the morning of that tragedy so, for me, this was as if I was waiting to see a loved one laid to rest. It didn’t feel right; standing there among people in casual conversations; waiting for the line to move. Just as it wouldn’t if I was forced to stand in a long line of strangers outside of a funeral home to view a member of my family. That’s the degree to which I feel connected to those who died on 9/11. The ones whose deaths I witnessed and those I didn’t.<br /><br />“I don’t mean to give the impression that I presume that my grief is deeper than anyone else's or that my experience of 9/11 makes me special in any way. We all were affected by what happened on 9/11. We each have a story of that day; whether we were there or across the country; whether we lost someone or just wept for all those we didn’t know. There are those, though, who were affected personally; be it losing a loved one; having a physical or mental affliction now; dealing with guilt for surviving; or living with images that can’t be erased. What we who were there experienced that day is unique to each of us. We may have witnessed the same things; smelled the same smells; heard the same sounds, but what the day did to us, individually, is our own. The imprint of the trauma on our lives or the repercussions or the loss can’t be compared or measured. It is unique for every person.<br /><br />“I want to believe that the majority of people who will visit the 9/11 Memorial will do so with the sincerest of motives; to remember that day in September and those who died. But I fear that for some it will primarily be a tourist attraction; something to add to the list of "what to see while in New York City"; along with the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.<br /><br />“I know that I am in the minority in my reaction to the Memorial; particularly among other 9/11 survivors and I am thankful for that. I truly am glad that the Memorial can be a place of consolation and comfort for others. I’m glad the 9/11 families have the Memorial as a physical tribute to memorialize their loved ones.<br /><br />“But, for me, I will hold onto my memory of kneeling before Ground Zero; overcome by the holiness of that spot. Sadly, that ground I considered so sacred is now covered with cement slabs and throngs of tourists.<br /><br />“Perhaps nothing built to commemorate that day could be a place of comfort for me.<br /><br />“I am grateful that I’m here today to tell my story; knowing there are so many stories of that day that we will never know. So I will do what I can to assure that people never forget. <br /><br />“Perhaps that can be my own personal memorial to 9/11.”<br /><br />- Artie Van Why, http://visittomemorial.blogspot.com/Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-85107410255680266222013-05-05T17:52:10.581-04:002013-05-05T17:52:10.581-04:00Very good analysis, Jim from Florida. Why not use ...Very good analysis, Jim from Florida. Why not use some of the profits from <br />the current exhibition to help cover the medical expenses for the many first responders and subsequent helpers who sustained lethal illnesses as a result. Many have not been helped who have incurred later cancers, etc. and are being kept in limbo financially as well as their families when they die as they continue to.<br /><br />To make money for the privileged from such tragedies is truly the lowest of <br />the low. And then, there are still many questions about some of the strange occurrences during 9/11 that even the survivors have not received any answers to.<br /><br />When people keep asking what compelled the Boston marathon bombers to destroy people's lives or what compelled a terrorist organization to create a 9/11 there is only one answer. Violence breeds violence and it keeps escalating the stakes unless it is stopped. It seems that we cannot visualize this since no one is stopping the violence. Therefore we can expect more of the same and no one can really feel safe anywhere anymore. <br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-89699646413760290102013-05-05T17:30:09.034-04:002013-05-05T17:30:09.034-04:00Speaking of Graham Greene. Couldn't resist. We...Speaking of Graham Greene. Couldn't resist. We're simply such a sad bunch of shits to let them get away with it.James F Traynornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-24238642136333418102013-05-05T17:26:17.647-04:002013-05-05T17:26:17.647-04:00Not a place I care to visit to needlessly stir up ...Not a place I care to visit to needlessly stir up bad memories that regularly recur anyway.<br /><br />And certainly, I don't care to pay <i> an entrance fee </i> to refresh the horror in my mind.<br /><br />I don't need Bloomie's "museum" to remind me exactly where I was and what I watched on big-screen television as the enormity of the terrorist attack unfolded, nor the memory of the huge fear that gripped Mrs. Zee and I for several days before we were able to determine that dear friends of ours--the husband of which was on a two-year Pentagon assignment from our institution--had survived the attack.<br /><br /><br />New York City has sunk to a new low, if that is possible.<br /><br />Sally Regenhard's quote from the <i> New York Daily News </i> says it all:<br /><br /><i> "How dare they charge visitors to pay respects to those lost on 9/11, including my son, a firefighter and recon Marine sergeant?" </i> <br /><br />Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-85580680044087283082013-05-05T12:51:59.879-04:002013-05-05T12:51:59.879-04:00"In societies dominated by modern conditions ..."In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of <i>spectacles</i>. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation." -- Guy Debord<br /><br />9/11 was a defeat for the U.S., as far as the ruling elite was concerned. Never saw it coming. Well, they did, but let's not talk about that. We didn't feel defeated after WW2 for example. There are museums and monuments, but I think even the U.S.S. Arizona memorial presents a sense of triumph in its architectural design. <br /><br />I think a culture that starts to focus on its defeats is in serious trouble. I think the rise in mass shootings is a sign this culture is in serious trouble. That Wall Street is so close to this museum is the ultimate irony, that will be lost on the people shelling out to see it. Otherwise they'd be spending their bread on a more appropriate circus.Jim - South Floridanoreply@blogger.com