For millenia, a key measure of a nation's greatness has been appreciation for culture-- music, art, dance, theater. Ax NEA, NEH,we lose that
No we don't. In fact, I pretty much guarantee that won't happen.
For starters, the NEA has been around since the 1960s. So just on a basic logical level one can reasonably conclude art existed (and its appreciation for it) well before then and will continue to be so with or without the NEA.
What is it with these departments (as recently witnessed with DeVos's appointment to the DofE which was created in the late 1970s. Listening to the hyper reaction one would think there was no education before its creation. It's absurd) that have been given such a status among the left that if they didn't exist civilization would fall apart? Just who is being irrational?
Then comes the question of why do they get to choose who gets the money and how do they arrive at such a conclusion?
For example, Piss Christ was the epitome of arrogant petulance that actually showed the displayed what some would not consider sophisticated art. Note, I'm not saying the artist doesn't have a right to his or her expression but what I am saying is people shouldn't be forced to pay for it through a grant.
I'm surprised no one has offered to make a David-esque sculpture of Obama to be placed in front of (okay, they're not that crazy, next to) Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials.
In some instances and respect, what we will lose is politicized art.
The idea that the NEA was the line that separates American's barbarity and civility is ludicrous and preposterous. Not for $300 million (it's budget) it ain't.
It's a scare-tactic on Ornstein's part.
Remember folks, the greatest period in human history where the proliferation of the arts exploded happened without fricken government grants.
The Renaissance was mostly driven by, well, private funding.
I'm reminded of the great Montreal author Mordecai Richler who opposed public funding for the arts. When asked (stupidly) 'how will writers' fund traveling to expose their art?' he responded, 'write better books'.
Aaaaand the director asks Richler to drop the mic.
People who claim and scream like a pack of unthinking dead harpies we're victims of 'fake news' are a threat TO YOUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND SPEECH.
They're on the wrong side of intellectualism; of history.
Believe me. I've been at this for too long. Have read my share of historical pieces, journals and books.
This is the typical flow of history. Whenever an invention takes place that brings knowledge to people (be it intellectual (critical thinking) or technological (printing press)), the sloths at the top of the political pyramid seek to throttle it.
We're seeing it unfold right before our eyes. We've never had so much information at our disposal at any point in human history. Ever.
This should be celebrated. That there are people - mostly, of course, supported by progressives. It's in their blood to do so - who actually call for the suspension, censor or silencing of voices astounds and worries me.
Freedom naturally scares the living hell out of the established political and media class.
It's only natural. They want to keep the control. They want the power to manage the narrative.
Platforms like youtube and blogs form a resistance to this. It never made sense that all information created by humanity gets to be funnelled through a select group of people, newspapers and broadcasters deciding what you should here according to their conclusions of what they constitute as 'truth'. It never was objective.
The irony is, we've never witnessed more objectivity (and thus arriving close to truth) than with new media and the alternative media.
Their reaction to it? Predictably, as the ascot gently but surely strangles their necks, they turn to attacking. 'Alt-right', 'fake news' and all that fucken nonsense. It's to demean, chastise and beat the drum of arrogance. And if you take your marching orders from them, you're a useful idiot.
This development apparently threatens our civilization. But in reality it threatens YOU. You're right to information and different points of views that allows proper perspective and healthy skepticism to flourish in an advanced stage of our intellectual evolution.
Take the refugee story. If media controlled the message, all we'd hear is the official Angela Merkel line or what the Democrat or Liberal party position. But with live leak, and youtube and other platforms, we get to see behind their message. We get a better picture.
And this is problematic for them.
My advice to you. One in which I plead. Don't believe it. Ignore it.
They're lying to your face to protect their interests.
Ted Koppel doesn't give a rat's ass about your personal quest for knowledge; for your liberty.
Whenever you see such an occurrence, always ask 'cut bono'?
As I continue to observe media personalities lash out against fake news (which really is to protect their monopoly on fake news it feels like), a couple of things popped into my head where the media failed people. One, as I like to point out every once in a while when sports journalists (of all people) start to go off on anti-blogger rants that they failed (or at the very least turned a blind eye) to do their jobs and report honestly about steroids in baseball. They were too wrapped up and worried in needing to protect access rather than do the principled thing and tell the truth. It took bloggers and investigative journalists outside the ESPN mothership to do it. Of course, once it was out, they had no choice but to delve into it; and even then they were too tepid. Fine. They didn't report on it. What really irritated me was their attitude about it after the fact. It was a strange mixture of non-chalant defiance and smug anger towards bloggers. As if they were showed up or something. Anyway. This is the impression I got.
The other, albeit much more serious and egregious, story was the compete silence of the media on the unconscionable and unspeakable acts perpetuated by the Muslim community at Rotherham. Everyone who are supposed to be all that is good and decent ignored Rotherham; the media, law enforcement, politicians. So we're clear. Any police chief, officers, politicians, journalists who may have knew or just couldn't be bothered to investigate and or prosecute all have this stain on their conscience. Same with organizations like CBC, BBC, 60 Minutes, Washington Post, New York Times,Ted Koppel - you know. All those professional journalists who scream 'fake news' at the moment. And just to make sure if you think they felt shame think again. Check the BBC out: "The BBC should be protected by new laws that promote its shows over those of rivals, according to one of the corporation’s most senior executives. James Purnell, director of radio and education, says that the shows the BBC makes must be given more prominence in television guides than those of commercial services Sky, Amazon and Netflix." I may have to do a post just on this rubbish the hutzpah is so remarkable. Why mention this? Because I don't appreciate people like Koppel and others like him coming out to scold those people who are out to find out what they failed to do; particularly when it comes to keeping a watchful eye on leaders. Personally, I think there was a complete abdication of duty to cover the Democrats under Obama and there was a further sickening display of partisanship during the election. And the more we remind our 'intellectual' masters we're informed and not willing to accept what they command us to think, the more they will either be forced to change or recede into irrelevance.
People, from Motion 103 to the silencing of debate over refugees to the attacks on free speech, it's a war out there. Be oblivious. Be my guest. But there will come a day where we will all realize, 'Holy shit, what have we done?'
“You must understand. The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the “Russian Revolution.” It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated. Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is in the hands of the perpetrators.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Nobel-Prize-winning novelist You need to understand. 'Hate speech' is immoral and is just a step towards totalitarianism. You support it you do your bit in what this will lead to.
At this point, I don't know how anyone can support the behaviour of the mainstream press and the Democrat party of the United States. Void of any substantial principles the two lay arm in arm in a vortex of schemes armed with stupidity and smugness largely of their own doing.
I wonder. Had the crooked witch of deep low earth won the election, would 'fake news' even be a thing?
Of course, we know the answer to that. No. No it would not.
What's fascinating to watch unfold - and the untold useful idiots who fall prey to it - is the fake news machine of the mainstream press complain and warn of, fake news.
Can it be they see their monopoly of lies threatened? I invited you to go watch Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes interview Cernovich. Pay close attention to his line of questioning. His reactions and non-answers.
There you will see once and for all the decadence of modern journalism wallowing in abject ignorance and arrogance; without one single second of cognitive dissonance. There seems to be a sense of entitlement on their part into thinking they somehow have the matrix of truth all figured out.
It's bizarre as it is disturbing. I sat watching and wondering (marvelling not so much) at the fact this is a news organization that reports and investigates on our behalf? I wouldn't wipe my ass with the film at this point.
The interview left me questioning what the fuck is going on at 60 Minutes more than it did about 'fake news'.
Then I realized while snapping my fingers.
Like anything else with progressives (spade a spade - most journalists and news organizations are liberal and progressive who vote Democrat so let's stop with the coy 'who me?" bull), they're masters of projection. And so it was with the interview.
All I kept seeing was truth revealed as to how Pelley reports the news. Which is to say, quite frankly, not impressive.
It's mind boggling how anyone could take at face value and with a straight face the manufactured rubbish about Russia (one in which is still not rooted in any facts but rumours pimped by the so-called professional and truth seeking media) and fake news. Somehow, when it comes to the left and the Democrats, it all comes down to 'because of Rush Limbaugh'.
It's astounding really.
They just went through eight years of supposed enlightened government where the President treated the press like shit, was at war every single day of his Presidency, left a foreign policy with no real coherent direction, an anemic economy with the usual high deficit, showed no wisdom of any kind during trying racial issues and events....yet, people still wish for his return?
He essentially lied and laughed to people's faces and they suck it up like a bunch of emasculated cucks.
Now. Indeed, all politicians do this but none have been so praised!
Astonishing how much people tolerate when it's 'their guy' who does it.
And who are most likely to buy it? Probably the educated who can be a bunch of dimwitted numbskulls. I know, I fall into that category. Listening to my educated friends, family, acquaintances across North America about all this has left be disappointed and somewhat unnerved at how easy it is to manipulated smart people.
Lord, you have the coach of the San Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich declare - snap! - 'we are Rome' because Trump was elected. Just like that. One election of one guy you don't like = Rome. Never mind Rome evolved over time.
The thing is, Popovich equates the election of a person who had yet to take power as a symbol of Roman decadence. Either he didn't read Roman history close enough or he's just letting his personal, liberal bias interfere with reality and the facts of history. I'm guessing the latter.
No one who understands history draws such a vapid conclusion of a single election. It demeans Roman history as if it was a simplistic moment. Had he said, 'well, the last 16 years have led this country onto a path reminiscent of Rome in its later stages of its Western empire and Trump seems to signal a cap to it' then I'd digest it better.
But, again, I'd guess a liberal would like to pick and choose and absolve Obama of his role in hastening the fall of the United States as it compares to Rome.
It was such a startling and bizarre statement to make especially for those of us who studied the Classics.
How about we just cut it out with the Roman analogies if you're going to be simplistic about it?
They've completely lost their minds. All logic has temporarily been suspended. Must. Smash.
I don't know where things will go from here. All I know is it's not the 'alt-right' or fake news making trouble.
It's the irresponsible mainstream press and the Democrat party with their axes to grind and their snivelling poison pills.
It's worth recalling this is nothing new in the progressive media. After all, they once supported communism, Hitler and even called Stalin 'Uncle Joe' despite the utter horrific crimes against humanity those ideologies and figures committed against humanity.
You know, I keep hearing idiot progressives claim 'right side of history'.
Here's the thing. Just like Time and The New York Times (Walter Durante who won a Pulitzer for his lies and bull shit) were consistently treasonous against American ideals and ended up being on the wrong side of history, modern identity politics, SJWs and other progressive movements like BLM and OWS will inevitably follow in the same direction.
The only question is how much damage will they cause?
*****
The sad thing is you can't forward a video like this to progressives to show democracy in action. It's not their kind of democracy after all. These are icky, uneducated street people. They simply would scoff it off given the contempt they hold for such folk; the very segment of the population they purport to want to help.
Koppel (to Sean Hannity): "You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.
Oh, you mean like....progressivism, Ted?
Yeah. Suuuure. Brian Williams and Dan Rather were model journalists, right Ted? Or the edited fake 911 call by NBC in the Zimmerman case. Or the UVA rape hoax by Rolling Stone mag. Or how the media clearly and arrogantly picked a side during the election, right Ted?
Is this the professional journalism you refer to, Ted? What about you Scott over at 60 Minutes? Is this your ilk seeking 'truth'?
Imagine if a Trump supporter did this at Hillary event.
IMAGINE.
Faux righteous journalists like you guys would be all over it I reckon.
Quite disingenuous on your parts, no?
The facts do mean a lot to those of us who have had it with the lying and manipulation.
To the point, the lid was blown wide open, Ted. Move on.
Alas, according to progressives, America is doomed because of Russia, Limbaugh and Hannity. Or so goes the narrative.
In this idiotic world view, who is taking the 'people' for fools exactly?
Who is insulting people to their faces, Ted? Are Americans not intelligent enough to decide for themselves what to listen to or watch without being insulted for being 'duped'?
Do you not see the arrogance of your thought process?
No one is forcing anyone to listen to those guys, Ted. Maybe, just maybe, there's a reason this is happening?
Just like progressive idiots refuse to acknowledge the results of the election while committing to an introspective reason why they lost, right Ted? It's all the fault of someone else, right Ted?
In this case, liberals have insanely gone after Russia without a god damn shred of evidence and Rush fucking Limbaugh, eh Ted?
Just who are the simplistic minded trouble makers I ask?
At this point, who even listens to or gets their news from mainstream organizations - or even 60 Minutes - anymore?
With me, not a single minute is wasted on them.
Just take the issue on Russia to understand the gunk and junk they feed people. Without a shred of fucking evidence they beat the anti-Russia drum all to bust Trump's balls. It's not rooted in principles or prove; just to get the Republican in power. That's all it is. And there they are. All the lackeys and minions on comment threads linking to all these bull shit articles about Russia because - wipe a poor tear for these sore losers - the left-wing, unprincipled, crooked witch Hillary lost.
Got that, Ted?
That's why no one is listening to the legacy media anymore. They abandoned their duty and now are reacting because people dare have the temerity to turn their backs on them?
Know what's amazing? The left goes on about how wealth is concentrated in the few as if this has a direct impact on our lives (which it doesn't). Yet, not a mention that media is owned by six corporations that own something like 90% of all media. Think of that.
All information is funnelled and controlled into those organizations. Ever wonder why how they all seem to lead off with the same stories? Have similar headlines? Use the same buzz words?
And before you go off on Fox, their just a small piece of that game; albeit a successful conservative one which absolutely pisses off the left; hence all the 'Faux News' stuff (from the same people who say stupid things like 'Teabaggers' and 'Drumpf'.
They're just a bunch of starving hyenas waiting to get their marching orders and talking points is all they are.
Never mind that the vast majority of reporters vote Democrat and it clearly shows in the coverage. They don't even bother to hide this fact anymore. Shit, the election we just witness pretty much exploded the myth of 'objective' journalism. And what did they do when exposed? They doubled down.
Now. It seems to me this is a teenie-weenie problem, no?
But here's the thing. The market is filled with principled people. Curious minds. Professional journalists. Honest pundits. And the internet has permitted them to express their ideas or reports and take it straight to the people. They call this 'alternative' media (as if it has a hint of lies to it) but in my world, it's come to mean real news and media.
It's the mainstream stuff that has been pushed off to the side as a carnival act. There's only so much of your agenda you can cram down people's throats and as Koppel showed, by insulting them to their faces in the process. It's calling them 'deplorable' by other means.
What are they angling for? The centralization of information?
Thank God we have access to information outside the gates of the mainstream press.
You've seen them. You click on an article and out comes a pop up asking you to subscribe to a newspaper because you 'obviously love good journalism'.
And if you're like me, you just click the little 'x' somewhere in the pop up and move on.
Here's the thing.
I don't trust the media enough to pay for the service. I just don't know if they have truth at heart anymore. And judging the way they handled Trump before, during and after the election, I'm going to stick to my hunch.
While not law - and to be honest I'm not sure if it can be put into law given its vague content and the fact Canadians don't support it with any real majority - it's worth nipping this abhorrent attack on free speech in the bud. This can't ever end well if it were to become binding.
Spare the 'mature discussion' garbage.
I'm not interested in making Muslims and undeserved victim group. Nor am I interested in seeing a fellow Canadian be fined, thrown in prison or be subjected to an onerous and embarrassing interrogating process by the unelected bull shit Human Rights Commission.
There are more documented acts of discrimination against Jews than Muslims in North America and we don't have anti-Jew law. Nor did we have an anti-Irish, anti-Chinese, anti-Japanese, anti-Italian, anti-Polish etc. law. And we all made it out alive and with OUR FREE SPEECH RIGHTS IN PLACE. Meanwhile, Imams in Toronto recently called the for the elimination of Jews.
To the silence of Justin Trudeau. Had a Christian or Jew said that of a Muslim, how do you think the Affirmative Action Pop Tart would have reacted?
I don't think I need to tell you.
It's grotesque because it's a pre-emptive attempt at criminalizing speech against a group that doesn't face nearly the amount of "hate" crimes to justify protections. Muslims in the Arab Middle-East kill each other at a frightening pace but somehow we in the West have to curb our freedoms for them on our soil?
This is outrageous.
And yet, Canadians remain oblivious - la, la, la - to the creeping erosion of their own rights.
They're too busy babbling about the 'dangers' of Trump to realize their rights are being usurped right from under their noses. Before you know it, comedians are threatened with jail time like they do in fricken Europe.
If you take a moment and THINK of where this can lead regarding your liberties you would be concerned as well. Some of you can arrive, as I did, at the conclusion of never considering voting for the Liberals again.
Anti-Islamophobia bill.
What a bunch of stupid idiots. I can't say that I'm surprised given what infests the affirmative action party in power at the moment.
Well, I guess I'm in their cross hairs now because I don't exactly share their views on this issue.
See this line here, Justin?
Yeah, Motion-103 is where I draw the line for protecting speech.
".....The 1965 Soviet economic reform, sometimes called the Kosygin reform or Liberman reform, were a set of planned changes in the economy of the Soviet Union (USSR). A centerpiece of these changes was the introduction of profitability and sales as the two key indicators of enterprise success. Some of an enterprise's profits would go to three funds, used to reward workers and expand operations; most would go to the central budget." Gee I wonder why communism failed and needed force to survive. God, what a bunch of idiots. The Soviet Union and communism. Not dead enough. It continues, along with Marxism, to poison minds.
Just saw a Samantha Bee commercial where she mocked Trump for pronouncing ‘euphemism’ as ‘euphenism’. The ad closed with Obama saying ‘good luck’.
Hm.
I don’t seem to recall these smart ass dope headed progs making fun of Obama for all this slip ups. You know, like when he said corpsmen, and 57 states and, 'speaking Austrian', and Maldives (when trying to call the Falkland by its other name 'Malvinas'). I seem to recall when this was pointed out Obama cultists would rush to his defense with the usual 'he's tired' and 'we all make mistakes' and all that. I'd be more willing to accept this excuse if they'd apply it equally but, of course, they don't.
Seriously. If you're going to be a partisan hack incapable of lampooning every political figure equally, at least try and be witty and funny in the process. Lame. Fail. Bee and that guy who took over from the other guy on that show are just not funny. Just smug virtue signalling. I think Hitch got it about right:
Remember kids.
You're not that smart.
Even Solazzo admitted 'I'm not that clever' just before Michael Corleone shot him in the restaurant.
Back in my university days - sigh - I was walking along Park Ave. with a girl I was dating at the time and stumbled upon the ‘G-Sharpe’ (I think it was that. Time has eroded my memory) blues club which at the time was on its dying days. Hard to fathom today but Montreal had its fair share of jazz/blues bars (my mother’s side of the family had a couple of degenerate (well, to the extent my mother recounts the stories anyway) musicians who worked along St. Catherine’s street playing alongside many a great American jazz musicians) and this club was one of them. The place was perfect. Long and narrow, seedy and furnished with torn couches and endowed with poor ventilation it was capped off with a packed house of 60 or so of society’s forgotten. On the stage stood Hubert Sumlin. Among the best live performances I’ve seen. We had a blast.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is ready to do to the local liquor store what it did to the local book store. It is rolling out free beer and wine 2-hour delivery and $7.99 1-hour delivery for Prime Now members, starting in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. It is reasonable to expect this experiment to be wildly successful and for the company to roll it out more broadly in the near future.
The beauty of new enterprises like Uber, Lyft and Amazon?
They're going to destroy the regulatory monstrosity that has hampered competition and growth. Anyone fighting this is engaging in futility.
Never mind about bypassing stupid inter-provincial and inter-state barriers and restrictions.
No doubt they'll have to put up with the usual statist nonsense but here's to the next stage in Amazon's evolution. As a Prime member all I can say is, 'Cheers!'
Basically, all told, about 55% of the population voted for centre/right parties converting into 101 seats while the hard left garnered almost 30% with just 45 seats.
Mark Rutte of the VVD party won with 21% (33 seats) while Geert Wilders came in second with 20 seats and 13% of the vote.
Isn't this sort of intrigue the raison d'etre of Jones (never mind about Orwell's 1984 which has seen a spike in sales, did the same) who has been talking about this for a couple of decades now? Up until Wikileaks, it was easy to bat and shoo Jones away but not so much these days.
Heck, it makes Trump's allegations of Obama wiretapping him less implausible, no?
