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Rak, Thanks
Quark,
I probably caused the power outage with my long complicated answer to your simple question. I take full responsibility but can't promise not to do it again.
@AZAFVET: Taibbi's RS article is available in full at Alternet:
"The Big Takeover: How Wall Street Insiders are Using the Bailout to Stage a Revolution"
RS has a brief sample - the sense of which is discussed here:
Bizarre web strategy of the day, Rolling Stone edition.
btw, we on the blog say "Hi, Thom!"
B Roll,
If you're there, I just wanted to let you know that I had a reply ready to send you via the blog on Friday and the power went out. I thought, "oh nuts!" That was the end of that...
'Sorry for the abrupt end to the conversation.
Could someone please cite Thom's source in Rolling Stone again?
Funny how that doctor who disappeared was the only person who saw Jackson go into cardiac arrest. Anyways I thought I’d comment offer this comment on Jackson. One thing the media has not talked about, but was the most disturbing later feature in his life to me, was his efforts to “recreate” himself physically, like some Frankenstein monster. I’m not talking about what passed for a nose or his Kirk Douglas chin, which frankly looked much better on Douglas than Jackson. I’m talking about his pathological effort (through various medical quackery) to turn himself literally into a white man. In his song “Black and White” Jackson informed us that it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, but it quite obviously very much mattered to him. More than his “friendship” with Bubbles and his predilection for boys (Jackson obviously had a Peter Pan complex), I found his lack of comfort with who he was and where he came from hard to take. It is astonishing that he couldn’t accept himself as a black man in a white man’s world. He had wealth and fame—what did turning himself into a grotesque caricature of a white man bring him?
Speaking of flights from reality, I must confess that I never heard of the Jon and Kate “reality” show until a few weeks ago. Apparently they are getting divorced. It seems to me just because a camera crew is filming a couple “acting” normal doesn’t mean that normal life is going on. People tend to be self-conscious when their lives are being scrutinized, especially in front of millions of viewers. Instead of behaving naturally, they are constantly aware that their actions or words define how they are perceived. It would seem clear that the stress of “faking” normalcy would put a relationship under duress that it might not otherwise be under. Take this Kate, for instance. “Before” she was a mildy frumpy brunette, perfectly comfortable with herself. In the glare of public scrutiny, she turned herself into a dolled-up, mildly frumpy phony blond. Did it make her happy? It doesn’t seem so.
Obama Opposes Trade Sanctions in Climate Bill
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: June 28, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Sunday praised the energy bill passed by the House late last week as an “extraordinary first step,” but he spoke out against a provision that would impose trade penalties on countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/politics/29climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
What is so wrong with requiring imports to meet the same standards required of domestic products? Can someone please explain why requiring a level playing field is bad?
WE LOVE...all people all time solar, wind, kit's...................one with the world, ok with sharing the pie. true blood one blood...
Quark,
Murray Gell-Mann was one of the kindest looking men you could ever see, and seemed very nice.
Richard Feyman was a character. I guess you know that. I think I heard him speak once, but I didn't really appreciate who he was. I have very little memory of him.
For the record, I also had the opportunity to meet Carl Sagan a couple of times and have brief conversations with him. OK, one of the conversations required me to run down the street and pull him out of a group colleagues he was going to dinner with. But but he was nice enough to speak with me for a minute or two before I had to give him back to his friends. (I'm not usually that pushy, but he was Carl Sagan!)
I once participated in a comedy writing workshop led by Robert (Bob) Dwan who had been Groucho's director on both radio and TV. Bob was a nice guy, but not funny at all, as I recall.
But Bob did get great guests for the workshop. They included George Carlin and Steve Allen. I saw Carlin standing alone before the workshop, so I went over to talk to him. He seemed wrapped up in his own thoughts, so I just told him I was looking forward to his talk. I could tell he really loved his craft because he was sitting back in his chair when he started talking but soon was leaning toward us as he spoke. One thing I remember is Carlin describing how a joke would evolve over time. It might start with a brief thought, and as he would retell it, he would add elements to it.
I don't remember all the guest, but Lotus Weinstock was one. She was a comedienne in her own right, but some people might know her as Lenny Bruce's girlfriend toward the end of his life. Another guest was Pete Barbutti, a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He was the most amazing in one way. He spoke for about 45 minutes, and it seemed to me that he never had to search for a word or say "ah" or "um".
Another guest I remember was Kip Adotta, who I think plays Las Vegas and similar venues. He told us that he never uses a joke unless it's logical. He gave as an example of a joke he didn't use for a year-and-a-half because it didn't make sense. It went something like this:
You know.. I don't believe in astrology or numberology or palm reading, so you may think it's strange, but I believe in wishing wells. The thing is, you have to know how to understand how a wishing well works. If you throw a penny into the wishing well, you should only wish for something worth a penny. If you want to wish for a car, you have to throw 7 or 8 thousand dollars into the wishing well.
He said he didn't use the joke for a yea-and-a-half, because it didn't make sense. Why throw thousands of dollars into the wishing well and hope for a car when you could go to the dealer and give them the money and drive off with the car.
You can tell how long ago this was by the prices. How long has it been since you could get a decent car for under $10,000 or anything for a penny.
I think the reason I remember the story might be because I came up with the answer in maybe 10 to 15 seconds. While he was explaining it to us, I leaned over to the person sitting next to me and whispered, "The wishing well has a better service department."
Quark,
When I considered a screen name it was so I could participate on the message board, which I actually have done very little of. The discussions there get so complicated, and convoluted.
From reading the message board, it seemed that there were some very smart people there; the kind who have deep and detailed knowledge of subjects they discuss. You know, like the way Thom can tell you what Thomas Jefferson's favorite flavor of ice cream is and go into detail about it.
I figured I'm not in that league, but I think I have some interesting insights (insights may be too glorious a word), and tend to see things from a different angle based on my experiences and whatever has made my mind work the way it does.
So, I felt that I might not be able to tell a whole deep detailed story, but I might be able to add some facts, thoughts, analysis and interpretations to discussions.
When you're watching the news, there's the main shot and the cutaways. The main shot is usually the reporter or anchor, if there is an on screen reporter, and then there are the cutaway shots that are supposed to give more flavor and help fill out the story. The main shot is called the A Roll and the cutaway shots are called the B Roll.
That's me. I might not have the main storyline, but I can add some cutaway shots.
I assume that the terminology comes from an organizing principle of shooting and editing. To make it easier, you'd want your main footage on one roll of film or tape and your cutaways on another. That way, when you're editing and you want to add a detail, or maybe you just need to make a transition, you can easily go to your B Roll (of tape/footage) and pick a shot to insert.
And, of course, 98% perspiration!
B Roll,
I have been having similar thoughts about Michael Jackson. I've been thinking about the extent to which pain in one's life affects his success. (So many of Jackson's lyrics talk about his painful childhood.) How do talent, access and luck fit into the equation (compaired with pain)?
B Roll,
Yes, let's hope there's no short-term gamma-ray burst in the "neighborhood" before then! LOL!
B Roll,
Please tell me (at your leisure) what your screen name means. I've been curious about that, too.
I'm going to refresh my knowlege about Gell-Mann in the meantime. (I would have liked to meet Richard Feynman, too. I've thought that both he and Groucho Marx wouldn't belong to any club which would want them as members!)
I want to tell a quick health insurance story that happened to a friend last month.
My friend had bone spurs in her foot. She went to her foot doctor who recommended a non invasive ultrasound procedure to break up the spurs. She made arrangements with her employer to take time off for the procedure. The day before it was to happen, her doctor received a call from her insurance company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield denying the procedure. BCBS has a program named peer to peer where the patients doctor can talk directly to the insurance companies doctor. My friend doctor called the program but instead of being connected to a doctor he was connected to medical assistant who told him bluntly that that was the best he could get. The doctor asked why they were wasting his time? Well he said that that in his 27 years of practice, he has never been treated as poorly by an insurance company. My friend apologized to him be he told her it was not her fault.
Eventually, my friend had a outpatient procedure that involved two incisions and considerably more pain and healing time as well as being more expensive.
There it is another example of the government, uh excuse me , the insurance company coming between the patient and his doctor.
Want to know more about what's happening in health care?
http://democratichealthcareturncoats.webs.com/
Boy, could I use that "edit" button now.
I would have added to my post about Michael Jackson that I wasn't implying that he eccentricities were an expression of his homosexuality (if in fact he was) but might have been a channeling of his feelings and inner conflicts over it in other directions. The repeated plastic surgery he underwent may have been the result of inner conflicts he felt over his identity.
anyone having problems with website - email- webmaster@thomhartmann.com
I wonder if some of Michael Jackson's eccentricities weren't connect to his possible homosexuality; and if he was homosexual, his feeling that he didn't dare reveal it.
Not a theory, just a possibly unanswerable question.
Quark,
I'll read the article and get back to you next week, if the world or my world doesn't end in the meantime.
I want to tell a little story about health care that a friend of mine told me. She developed a heel spur and needed to have it removed so she could walk without pain. She went to a foot doctor who recommended a non-invasive procedure that would use ultrasound to remove the spur. The date was made for the surgery and she made plans to take off time with her employer. The day before surgery her insurance company Blue Cross/ Blue Shield called and said the surgery was denied. Her doctor was furious, her wanted answers. BCBS has a program they call peer to peer where the her doctor can talk to the insurance company doctor. The call was set up and when the BCBS representative picked up it was a medical assistant not a doctor. When her doctor asked to speak to a doctor her was told the the BCBS med asst was as all he would get. Her doctor wanted to know why they wasted his valuable time? He also said that in 27 years of practice, he had never been treated so rudely. When my friend apologized the doctor said it wasn't her fault it was BCBS's fault. Well my friend finally had surgery but it required incisions and more healing time and was more expensive.
Another case of the (government) insurance company coming between you and your doctor?
http://democratichealthcareturncoats.webs.com/
mstaggerlee
I support your request for an edit button. And I'd like the return of the features the previous blog had, which were buttons below the text window that allowed us to do things like bold text, insert graphics and pictures and more.
NO! Don't tell me that my last post, abouit the avatar, WON as post of the day - that one's BORING.
I thought my FIRST post today - about "Dreams from My Father" and the fly - had a chance to win, but the avatar post ... how dissappointing!
For the caller Sylvia, who can only use the Internet at the library: Ron Wyden can be e-mailed directly through his senate page. You do not have to have an e-mail account to contact him, at least, if e-mail is the way you want to do it.
Quark,
I asked those questions about your name because I ran across the following the other day and thought you’d be interested.
"For some time, physicist Murry Gell-Mann was uncertain about assigning the name quark to the fundamental constituents of the nucleus. Then he came across a line in James Joyce’s book Finnegan’s Wake. “Three quarks for Muster Mark.” End of quest. “The number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature,” Gell-Mann wrote. (And by the way, he prefers to rhyme it with pork.)"
P.S.: I had the pleasure of meeting Murry Gell-Mann some years ago at an event. Didn’t really get to speak to him much. He won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969 for his work on elementary particles.
What is this record industry sponsored "Performance Tax" versus saveyourradio.org "Free Radio" thingy that KTLK keeps pimping about?