I am sure we have all heard by now Gore Vidal died this past week. So how about a few quotes on a lazy Sunday morning.
Quotes, a tune, plus bonus reading material down there.
Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.
Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.
Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.
Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.
Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.
The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.
Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.
“Too High to Fail” is a good rebuttal to those who say stoners never accomplish anything — Doug Fine did
Comments
Morning Vots what say ye
Good Morning
Morning priceman
Still no Uppers I hope Chris is enjoying the vaca as much as we're hating it ;^)
Oh, and I love Radiohead
Indeed.
I need my #Uppers.
I remember when Creep came out when I was 14 and they got better and better since then.
At least someone is talking about it
6 Ways California Is Planning to Adapt to Climate Change
Even the Dept. of "Defense" is taking climate change seriously
http://climateandsecurity.org/2012/01/25/defense-science-board-report-on...
Even the War Department, er, uh, I mean the Dept of Defense is taking climate change seriously. Take a few minutes and read the study I linked. There are some questionable recommendations but there are actually some that make sense. It is just shamefull and embarrassing that the media indulges the flat earthers and lets them participate in discussions about climate change. Hey, here's an idea, next time the media does a story on NASA they should talk to some of the people who think the moon landing took place in a Hollywood studio. I mean we want all sides to be presented, right?????? Oh, Happy Sunday morning.........
LOL Happy Sunday Morning sartoris7
I actually knew a man that was convinced we never landed on the moon. To this day I enjoy aggravating my S.O. who is a space junkie with the talking points. I'll check out that study thanks for the link.
Colbert
With the theme
Kevin Gosztola at FDL writes about Gore Vidal's commentary on the "National Security State".
Good mornin'! :D we will miss Gore Vidal!
the quotes you chose were awesome.... i may have found a new GOS sigline, lol...
Morning poli
He was a giant while being a smartass how could I not love him ;^)
Today would have been Adam Yauch's b'day
He would have been 48 Rolling Stone has a tribute titled The Many Lives of Adam Yauch.
another great loss this year... sigh...
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morning!
is it still morning? jeeze, I could not get to sleep last night! I had several ideas kicking around in my head and I couldn't turn it off.
Yeah sorry about that
I get antsy, maybe this will make you feel better. A new baby Panda ;^)
my brain does that too... if i don't take anything...
to get to sleep, my brain automatically does that. hell, even when i do take something, occasionally it still does that... but the melatonin, nighttime tyl, and benedryl usually do the trick now... though i miss my scrips... they always worked.... sigh... damn fibro...
oh!
shee-it! I don't EVEN want to tell you what I took and still I was not sleeping....but it does explain why I got up so late this morning~
el oh el.... ;>
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Fran Liebowitz--Public Speaking
My daughter is here this weekend with friends; that's why my participation has been limited.
Letting Vidal's death remind us of the era when writers and thinkers enjoyed celebrity, I bring a clip from the immensely enjoyable HBO documentary--I think Scorcese directed--about Liebowitz. A quick glance through youtube fails to uncover the segment which referred briefly to Vidal, including a clip of him being cogent. Anyway, I highly recommend this film, although it can make you sad for a more clear-headed time. It seems that much of the film is available on youtube through isolated clips. Here's one that I particularly love (have I mentioned post-emotion?):
A pertinent and prophetic Vidal quote:
and
What year did he write that? It turns out, the form is all television needs to maintain its grip. The media is the message.
Good afternoon geomoo
That Liebowitz clip is amazing. I remember "back in the day" when I stated those same things, "I don't have a cell phone". I was a late bloomer on the tracking device, "the computer is nothing but a screen", never thought I would climb in but without either now I feel naked. I was raised on the boob tube and I guess it was just a progression that was inevitable. Makes one wonder what exactly were they doing in those labs subjecting people to all those "tests", what was the objective. We read now, years later about things that "our" government did decades ago and are shocked that no one spoke up but what is disturbing is to realize that at the time no one knew. Maybe that is why now when more information is available and people question actions the immediately become targets of "lists".
Just a thought ;^)
I love Fran...
brilliant talk show guest. What a shame they only seem to want to book people who have movies or teevee shows to promote anymore.
"I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit."
~Fran Lebowitz
Not sure I get that one.
"Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent."
He hoped those that don't vote are the same people that don't read the newspapers. It would appear he was talking about being an informed citizen. Some of his other quotes indicate he thinks the democratic process in the US is bullshit.
Let's see. Newspapers are propaganda outlets. If only those who read the newspapers vote, that doesn't sound good to me. And then there's the idea of voting at all. If the democratic system is broken, bought and paid for, why vote?
I don't know, he was much smarter than me. Maybe he was talking about newspapers fifty years ago. .
Hey Al
That was my thought.
He was a writer and many other of his quotes disparaged the quality of writers and media in general and the decline and loss of both informed and dissenting opinion. Like many others and even ourselves in our lifetime I would like to think that watching the decline is as heartbreaking as it is disgusting.
I think that is why TPTB hate us having the power to say what we want and spread it around, I say good for them.