Barack Obama Sr., recall, was in the U.S. to study economics to help with the development of his dirt poor, resource rich country, Kenya. (A country the U.S. hoped to save from the clutches of the Soviets and the devastation of communism.) God only knows what he learned at Harvard, but, as the IBD piece mentions, he went home to Kenya where, among his other activities, he wrote an article for the East Africa Journal offering a vivid critique of such capitalist entrerprise as existed in Kenya at the time.

The article, called "Problems Facing Our Socialism," makes the economic case that high taxes are morally and practically good, if the government then uses them to provide for the people. How high should the tax rates be? "Theoretically," he wrote, "there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed." Yes, you read it: a 100% tax rate is fine. Obama Sr. continued, " It is a fallacy to say there is a limit (to tax rates), and it is a fallacy to rely mainly on individual free enterprise to get the savings." Free enterprise — bad.

Source: Confiscatory Tax Rate Dreams from my Father

Labels: democrats, liberals, obama

Having fought his (Patton) way through the outer belt of the Siegfried, he embarked on a punishing drive towards Trier, one of the oldest cities in northern Europe, now flattened by months of Allied bombing when the Americas stormed the town. The only construction still in place was Porta Niegra, a huge stone remnant of a wall built by the Romans.

- Barry Turner, Countdown To Victory

Putin Bares His Soul

John McCain’s assessment stands up much better: When he looked at Putin, “he saw three letters: a K, a G, and a B.” Putin’s neo-Soviet state has launched a nakedly illegal invasion of neighboring Georgia that is reminiscent of the Winter War against Finland at the outset of World War II. The Russian press is pumping out absurd lies about Georgian acts of genocide, even as the Russian military indiscriminately bombs and shells Georgian cities. Edward Gibbon’s description of the Inquisition comes to mind — nonsense defended by cruelty.

The Bush and Obama statements in the immediate wake of the crisis could have been issued by a joint campaign. Bush’s spokeswoman urged “all parties,” both Georgians and Russians, “to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict.” Obama declared that “now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint.” In their implied moral equivalence, these reactions were a little like urging the Kuwaitis to de-escalate with Saddam’s Iraq in August 1990.

McCain warned of Russian designs on its “near-abroad” when Boris Yeltsin was still in power, and advocated the enlargement of NATO into Eastern Europe — as a way to cement those countries into the West and check Russian adventurism — years before the Clinton administration adopted it as policy.

McCain’s judgment benefits from years of marinating in national-security issues and traveling and getting to know the key players; from a hatred of tinpot dictators and bloody thugs that guides his moral compass; and from a flinty realism (verging at times on fatalism) that is resistant to illusions about personalities, or the inevitable direction of History, or the nature of the world.

More Leadership

If you do believe it, as our President does (or else what were all those efforts to get Georgia and Ukraine into NATO about?) then you ought honestly to admit the nonzero probability that Putin, or some future Putin, will call our bluff. Then we shall be at war with Russia. On behalf of Georgia.

At this moment, Putin & his pals are rolling around the Kremlin floor laughing helplessly at our stupidity and gullibility. As a patriotic American, I don't like to contemplate that. What could we do to wipe the smiles off their faces, though? Bomb Moscow? They know we're not going to do that. That's why they're still laughing. Game, set, and match to Putin.

Related
Russia Announces War Halt; Fighting Continues
Civilians were only targets left as Russia kept bombing

He just needs your assistance printing pamphlets with the mimeograph machine. The money quote:

He supports Independence for the Island, arguing that the UK should give Bermudians and those in its other territories British citizenship as a "form of reparation".

"It's the least they could do for the crimes that were committed during the empire," he states.

He's also fond of Russians (and the not free market types).

Source: Blogger Jonathan Starling has no plans to end website

Labels: bermuda

(1) Taking on the Left’s speech-chillers

(2) Editorial: Wine-and-cheese thuggery

(3) Imagine the MSM Reaction...

(4) THE LEFT TAKES THE HIGH ROAD

Labels: democrats, liberals, obama

Russian aggression meets "anticipatory capitulation"

The greatest terror of postmodern Westerners is "confrontation": to be compelled into situations in which they must actually face down a bully. And, of course, taking a moral stand may sometimes lead to such "confrontations."

So, in anticipation of any course of action that could possibly lead to a "confrontation," postmoderns never take a moral stand. They look into the future, at where such a stand might lead them -- and, terrified by the prospect, they back down pre-emptively. Often, they seek some sort of "compromise" with thugs that takes the "confrontation" option off the table. "Compromise" here means: anticipatory capitulation.

This is the policy that Border's Books, Comedy Central, and the entire MSM adopted when contemplating even a hypothetical "confrontation" with Islamists who might become angry about their circulation of those Muhammad cartoons: They capitulated and refused to publish the cartoons, in mere anticipation of a possible showdown.

When Frozen Wars Heat Up

But international umbrage is wasted on Russia. They really don’t care what anyone thinks, and their veto power in the Security Council nullifies the possibility of meaningful U.N. action. Russia used force because they knew they could.

Georgia: Just the Beginning?

Putin surely understood the diplomatic fallout that likely would follow his invasion. This is a man who defies his own constitution, denies the systematic murder of inquisitive journalists and critical ex-pats, claims to seize the North Pole for his country, and assists Iran in its pursuit of nuclear status. We are limited in how we can help our Georgian ally, but Putin's brazen attack on Georgia should be a warning to the United States and our allies on Russia's border and elsewhere in the area that they need to be prepared for more of this.

Obama
25 Hints You're Not Voting for Obama

14. Thought about Hillary's 3:00 a.m. phone call ad when you first heard about Russian tanks in Georgia.

Not Ready for Prime Time (Obama on Georgia)

Maybe he should consult Clooney on the situation?

Russia's Message

Putin and Medvedev know the U.N. will do nothing in response to Russia's aggression in Georgia. They are confident that NATO members also will take no serious measures — in part because Europe depends on Russia for its energy needs, in part because Europe appears to have lost the will to fight effectively anywhere for almost anything.

Labels: obama

I took Burgoyne to see Mary Poppins at Broadway's magnificent New Amsterdam Theatre and it was incredible! Our seats were amazing. We sat in the seventh row, orchestra center (I know a guy who knows a guy). Burgoyne loved the show and his normally BIG eyes were swollen like Flapjack's (not those kind). The sets were incredible and the amount of wizardry they use (pyrotechnics and optical illusions ) is balanced brilliantly.

I read the SHOWBILL® program cover to cover because it was full of information about the original score by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman. The Sherman brothers were Disney stalwarts who wrote "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" for the Carousel of Progress.

My favorite act was "Feed the Birds".

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can't see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares

Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag"

I also liked "Brimstone and Treacle".

The SHOWBILL® program also included an article on P.L. Travers who wrote the original book. She was a unique woman and Disney recognized, just like he did with Mary Blair, how the product of her imagination and creativity could benefit the studio.

Some funny notes...

This was on the last page of the SHOWBILL® program.

Concert Etiquette
Writer Paul Volpe takes a satirical look at audience conduct

I shall spare you the lengthy rant about the obvious blight of ringing cell phones or the agony of later arrivals stepping on our toes or that awkward moment when you find your orchestra seats being warmed by sheepish looking third balcony hopefuls. That said, let's review the more obscure yet heinous crimes that might send us fleeing back to our home surround-sound and plasma-screen systems, and far from live performances that require us to be part of a civilized communal experience.

Fanny packs are never acceptable "Performing Arts" accoutrement, save it for the mall.

Never leave a performance before intermission, unless you are injured and bleeding profusely. While you may be "bloody bored," those around you are not.

Labels: disney, weekend

This article doesn't even mention Disney's relationship with Kingdom Hearts creator Square Enix. The writer mentions Spectrobes but Burgoyne didn't seem very enthusiastic about it (and he's my litmus test).

Source: Disney Leading Hollywood to the Videogame Grail (Wired)

Labels: disney

Revs Capture SuperLiga 2008 Crown
The New England Revolution took revenge on the Houston Dynamo and won SuperLiga 2008 after a penalty kick shootout that finished 6-5.

Revs finally get revenge on Dynamo
After losing back-to-back MLS Cup Finals, New England emerges on top

Related
Revolution edge Dynamo in penalty kicks
Crew acquire Noonan from New England

Labels: soccer

Jonah Goldberg, author of Liberal Fascism, opines:

But it occurred to me that the whole campaign has a literary quality to it. Obviously, every campaign wants to tell a story, provide a "narrative." But with Obama there seems to be an added layer to it. That Berlin spectacle, for example, seemed like an awfully silly thing for him to do, particularly if he had his way as originally planned and spoke at Brandeburg Gate a la Kennedy and Reagan. But it's less silly if you understand the theory behind it. That spectacle was intended to offer a coming attractions of his presidency, like a movie trailer. The Obama campaign is not much interested in focusing on issues — it's no doubt copious position papers notwithstanding. It is about aesthetics, emotions, impressions, the sense of being swept up in something. It's the perfect product for YouTube culture. "Have you seen the latest Obama video?" Of course you have, the whole campaign is a YouTube video. The Berlin speech wasn't an attempt to make himself look like a plausible Commander in Chief so much as it was a way to tease Americans that even more excitement is coming. This is what the movie will look like, and you can see it if you just buy a ticket in November.

The Oppressors!!!

An explosive fad in the 1980s, postmodernism was and is an enormous intellectual hustle in which left-wing intellectuals take crowbars and pick axes to anything having to do with the civilizational Mount Rushmore of Dead White European Males.

"PoMos" hold that there is no such thing as capital-T "Truth." There are only lower-case "truths." Our traditional understandings of right and wrong, true and false, are really just ways for those Pernicious Pale Patriarchs to keep the Coalition of the Oppressed in their place. In the PoMo's telling, reality is "socially constructed." And so the PoMos seek to tear down everything that "privileges" the powerful over the powerless and to replace it with new truths more to their liking.

Hence the deep dishonesty of postmodernism. It claims to liberate society from fixed meanings and rigid categories, but it is invariably used to impose new ones, usually in the form of political correctness. We've all seen how adept the PC brigades are celebrating free speech, when it's for speech they like.

Related
What about Google, Senator Obama?

Labels: obama

"But public sentiment might just as easily have switched the other way is press criticism of Soviet objectives, not to mention Soviet atrocities in Eastern Europe, had been as free as it was over Churchill's intervention in Greece. When he sent in British troops to frustrate a Communist takeover, the American newspapers were quick to accuse him of imperialist ambitions."

Countdown to Victory by Barry Turner

The good news now is that a majority of Americans believe the media is biased and in the employ of liberals.

Labels: left-wing media, liberals

"The whole ad is about the idea of fame without portfolio. Paris Hilton is famous for being famous. She draws a crowd for no apparent reason. Well, I think he has, you know — in Senator Obama's case, is the effort to be commander in chief and the leader of the free world about portfolio?

He is a celebrity, no question about it. Somebody asked me about Germany. I said, "There goes Germany. We're going to have to get to 270 without Germany."

But this is a hysteria around a personality that's attractive, but when you look under the hood, there's not a whole lot there. So fame without portfolio is, sort of, fashionable. But leadership without experience is dangerous."

- U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)

Related
Awesome: Andrea Mitchell Screams "Leave Barack Alone!"

Labels: obama

"I have always loved longitude, I love latitude; it’s in the stars. But longitude, it’s about time...Time and clocks and all the rest of that have always been a fascination for me."

Nancy Pelosi speaking about a painting in her office, Jan Vermeer's "The Geographer."

[NRO]

Labels: democrats, liberals

"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." - Obama™

Perception

(1) But "citizen of the world" is a utopian, unreal, angelic, inhuman term, an abstraction of the sort that leads to immense bloodshed as human irregularities are hacked off and angularity is loudly planed away...The Berlin speech also explains why Obama is more likely to praise an "ideal" America than the real America. He is bewitched by abstractions and lofty ideals. That is how he touches the secret chords of the heart of so many millions, the teenage romanticism of a world without different real interests, without the clashes of culture, the force of political arguments about who gets what, when, and how. (Source)

(2) It's America's most powerful drug. Once on hopium, you won't care if Iran has nukes or if taxes are raised during a recession or whether Obama keeps flipping and flopping on everything from foreign wiretaps to withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Who cares? Relax. Hopium is your friend. (Source)

Reality

(1) "His [Churchill] good friend, as he liked to call Franklin D. Roosevelt, was of another school of diplomacy. Having served his political apprenticeship in the first German war, he was imbued with the idealism of Woodrow Wilson. The failure of the League of Nations, Wilson's brainchild, only made him more determined to bring his own skills to bear on creating a new world order based on mutual trust."

"But even Roosevelt must have taken a deep breath when he signed up for the Declaration on Liberated Europe which, in theory, committed the Big Three to helping the freed nations 'to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism and to create democratic conditions of their own choice'. The President lived just long enough to recognize the depth of cynicism measured by these words. In late March, sixteen Polish resistance leaders were lured to Moscow on the pretense of discussing the agreed broadening of the Lublin administration. Instead they ended up in the Lubianka prison where they were tortured into confessing to fabricated charges..."

Source: Countdown to Victory by Barry Turner

It's a bit "apples to oranges" because Roosevelt actually had experience (unlike Obama™) and Fascists are liberals.

Labels: liberals, obama

(1) Toc Loc as Chestnut on Chowder is worth the watching.

(2) No more 'Hefty Lefty' .

(3) A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars (Wired). I don't know about Sheedy as a geek goddess though.

(4) The T Train: NYC Will Get Its First New Subway Line in 70 Years (Also in Wired and with cool graphics).

He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow...

Labels: obama

There's enough marketing savvy/sizzle in Obama™ the brand to make AdvertisingAge® - The Need for Partnership at a Time of Fragmentation. Obama™ the brand, with it's shiny doubleplusgood newspeak and iPod aesthetics, has many intelligent people fooled.

Related
The Brand Called Obama

Old Glory in Berlin
The television feed of Obama's internationalist speech in Berlin frequently cut to Germans waving American flags. Perhaps it's just the cynic in me, but I noticed that they all appeared to be the exact same size and make. It was almost as if some outside entity (a presidential campaign, perhaps?) handed them out in order to deliver the best possible visual images during the speech. Video of anti-American Europeans once again embracing the stars and stripes in an organic display of hope and unity would certainly be powerful stuff. The question is whether the Obama campaign manufactured this image for political gain. If they did, the press bought it hook, line and sinker.

The digital divide
The gap between technologists supporting Republicans and Democrats continues to widen. In addition to financial support, influential technologists like Chris Hughes are now providing strategic support to Obama.

"In a great collaborative effort, Barack Obama partnered with Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, to develop a web presence and better employ the social networking that helped engage younger voters and clinch the Democratic nomination. The campaign also had a very well-organized grassroots effort with first-hand knowledge of the political climate and voting protocol in each state and the expertise to resonate with local communities. The collective skills of these local partners helped the "Obama brand" connect with its audience and raise capital in record proportions."

The left was quick to embrace the tools built by the technologists. A quick survey of reddit on Friday showed mostly anti-conservative, anti-Semitic or general BDS articles. The "what's hot" of reddit included; Send Rove to jail petition passes 100,000, John McCain Covered Up $4 Billion Theft For Friend, and Lev Leviev, Israel's richest man, buying blood diamonds, funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, undermining the prospects for Middle East peace.

I'm not sure the technologists are enough to be the margin of victory for Obama in 2008. What is evident is the technologists represent yet another lever in the arsenal of mind-molding establishments that Democrats can depend on in the general election. And what's most frightening about Al Gore's relationship with Steve Jobs (and Sergey Brin's with Obama) is the technology available today assuages the liberal need for a sense of order (more aptly defined as Fascism).

Labels: democrats, end times, left-wing media, liberals, obama

Haircuts. We also do...haircuts

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is such a bizarre show. It's a macabre affair a couple of notches below Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Captain K'nuckles and Flapjack live inside a whale named Bubbie. In Knot Funny (Episode 9) Flapjack is practicing for the knot festival by using Bubbie's entrails as rope/string. Burgoyne introduced me to the show.

Speaking of General Burgoyne...

I'm looking at him now all wrapped up in a Wall•E fleece blanket and these lyrics just wafted into my head.

Now I told you my reasons for the whole revival
Now I'm going outside to have an ice cold beer in the shade
Oh, I'm going to listen to my 45's
Ain't it wonderful to be alive
When the rock 'n' roll plays, yeah
When the memory stays, yeah
I'm keeping the faith

I quote this song every every summer.

Part 2
Burgoyne spent the day brooding because his MapleStory character got a bad haircut. The bad dew occurred after he completed a quest and was given a coupon for a free hairstyle. He wasn't given a choice of hairstyles and ended up with the Rock Lee special.

I spent the afternoon trying to find a remedy for this hairy disaster. I eventually found some product to remediate the situation. I also learned during my research that this tragedy has cut others.

In order to sweep up the clippings of this hair-themed weekend post I conclude with some more lines from the song I quoted earlier...

We wore matador boots
Only Flagg Brothers had them with the Cuban heel
Iridescent socks with the same color shirt
And a tight pair of chinos
Oh, I put on my shark skin jacket
You know the kind with the velvet collar
And ditty-bop shades, oh yeah
I took a fresh pack of Luckies and a mint called Sen-Sen
My old man's Trojans and his Old Spice after shave
Oh, I combed my hair in a pompadour
Like the rest of the Romeos wore a permanent wave, yeah
We were keeping the faith
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, keeping the faith

Labels: weekend

The Coffee Fix: Can the $11,000 Clover Machine Save Starbucks?

The Clover coffeemaker debuted in a handful of cafés in 2006 and was promptly hailed as the best thing to happen to coffee lovers since the car cup holder. With an $11,000 asking price, the Clover has become a fetish object among the coffee-obsessed...

David Gergen, a man whose shallow thoughts have reached the ears of too many presidents, made the point that Obama is a great story, and his campaign knows how to make things newsworthy, while McCain is boring, and his campaign is boring and therefore not newsworthy. That, not bias, according to Gergen, explains the majority of the additional coverage he gets. What constitutes newsworthy? Gergen cited the fact that McCain is going to give his convention acceptance speech in the normal convention venue, while Obama is going to do his at a stadium packed with 70,000 people. To me, this is evocative of something Leni Riefenstahl might have documented. But the word Gergen used, over and over was "sizzle."

Source

Labels: left-wing media, obama

...in a cycle of non-stop, the-world-is-ending bad news.

The Rapid Decline of the New York Times



The money quote...

"The future looks grim indeed for Pinch Sulzberger and the company he leads. Slowly accelerating decline is the best case scenario at the moment. For a man born to wealth unto the generations, prominence, prestige, and a legacy to uphold, it must be humbling to see the future of the family patrimony crumbling before him."

Since the government is bailing out everyone these days the blogger with many visions™ predicts that Congress will float a bill to subsidize these old dinosaurs in 2009.

Related
Vanity Fair Asks Why People Hate the NY Times

Then there's the question of the paper's attitude. "Almost in inverse proportion to its own survivability, The New York Times becomes more and more holier-than-thou," says Michael Wolff. "You’ve lost your way journalistically, you've lost your way from a business standpoint, you've lost your way from an authoritative standpoint, and yet you are still so holier-than-thou."

Update
This puff piece in Advertising Age on Pinch Sulzberger is oxymoronic.

Despite this expansion into the Journal's core competency, Mr. Sulzberger avoids talk of direct confrontation. As a London correspondent for the AP from 1976 to 1978, when he joined the Times, he saw British papers react when Mr. Murdoch took over the Times of London. "It didn't help them, because they stopped remembering who they were," he said. "We're not going to."

I'm not sure it's working Pinch. The cranks who buy your rag aren't enough to offset your complete lack of business acumen.

Update 2
Belief Growing That Reporters are Trying to Help Obama Win

The New York Times’ refusal today (Monday) to run an op-ed piece by John McCain challenging an article in the paper less than a week ago by Barack Obama is sure to further fuel the belief that much of the major media is biased in favor of the Democratic candidate.

The public is validating (via Rasmussen) what many conservatives have long believed.

The money quote...

A Rasmussen Reports survey earlier this year found that just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times. The paper’s ratings divided sharply along partisan and ideological lines, with liberals far more supportive of the paper than conservatives.

Update 3
Genuine Shock: New York Times Runs Obama Editorial, Refuses to Run McCain's

The Gray Lady Rejects McCain
The story of the senator's discarded op-ed explains why the New York Times is dying.

Labels: left-wing media

Proof that books from my personal library, once read, are often revisited.

The recurring theme is that men must be awakened from the comfortable nightmare we call life, or what Hillary Clinton in her youth described as "the sleeping sickness of our soul." We are all "slaves" to the "IKEA nesting instinct," according to the protagonist of Fight Club, a film whose fascist pretensions have been so well discussed there's no need to revisit them here. The idea that the slumbering masses must be roused from their doldrums is central to Fascism. Marinetti's first Futurist manifesto begins, "Up to now, literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggressive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer's stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap." The pamphlet that first attracted a young Adolf Hitler to National Socialism was titled "My Political Awakening." Pro-Nazi and pre-fascist films and novels often shared a common premise of somnolent young men roused from their passive acceptance of the machine of Western bourgeois democracy.

When Jonah revises Liberal Fascism he may need to re-write that passage to include Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama: Barack is the only man who can "heal" this nation and "fix our souls"

Limestone Commentary
I have a theory that Hollywood (writer(s) specifically) play a little game where they exchange carbon credits with each other every time they sneak in some overplayed anti-Bush dig. I saw Get Smart this weekend and the stereotypes were so utterly tired. Do you fellas out there in Hollywood have an ounce of creativity left?

Labels: hollywood

Victor Davis Hanson offers four reasons why McCain will incrementally continue to close the lead on Obama.

(4) Obama has a poor grasp of history, geography, American culture, and common sense — whether the number or location of states in the Union, basic facts about WWII or where Arabic is spoken, or his sociological take on Pennsylvania, etc. His advisors realize this, and are playing 4th-quarter defense by keeping him out of ex tempore, non tele-prompted hope and change venues, where his shallowness can manifest itself in astonishing ways.

Source

Obama's poor grasp of history isn't very unique. It's an inherently liberal trait that will endear him to his vacuous followers. Obama is all sizzle and no steak.

Update
Obama flunks history, again

Obama is Jimmy Carter II with some shiny new packaging and sloganeering emboldened by a rapturous [full of, feeling, or manifesting ecstatic joy or delight] press. Obama, like Jimmy, is going to be pro-Palestine and anti-Israel.

And as far as "Nazis" are concerned...I suppose they're also pure fiction like "Israel" on this map of Palestine.

Labels: obama

Fashionable headwear for conservatives from Commie Obama.

"We've always associated the soviet-style Ushanka fur hat and the ideas of the US Democratic Party with Communism. So we combined the two!"

Labels: obama

I went to Belmont today with Dad, Burgoyne and Pervy Sage. None of us had any BIG winners but Burgoyne did get on the board early with a $2 bet on a horse named Golden Weekend. The season at Belmont ends tomorrow before the horses (and many of the track employees) head to Saratoga.

I love the infrastructure in and around New York. The LIRR operates a spur line with a terminus at Belmont. I tried to find a photograph on Flickr but only found this. Next time I will remember to bring my camera.

On the way home Dad pointed to the property where the Freedomland U.S.A. amusement park used to be. The park opened in 1960 but filed for bankruptcy just a couple of years later. The park is connected to Walt Disney. According to Wikipedia:

Freedomland was conceived by Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood (1922-1992), a young Texan, who had previously worked in the planning, construction and management of Disneyland. Hired by Walt Disney in 1953, Wood was the person who selected the orange grove site in Anaheim, California where Disneyland was eventually built.

Wood became very close to Disney during the next two years, but eventually the two men had a falling out. Reasons for this are unclear, but three theories exist: Wood was embezzling money from the park; Wood was taking too much public credit for Disneyland or Wood betrayed Disney by planning his own amusement parks, effectively stealing Disney's original concept.

By January 1956, Wood had been fired from Disneyland. To this day, The Walt Disney Company refuses to acknowledge any role played by him in the creation of the Magic Kingdom.

I remember Wood's name from the Gabler book and checked it this evening to see if there was anything specific about Freedomland. Sure enough on page 539 there is an asterisk with the following note:

This was not the last confrontation between Walt and C.V. Wood. Not long after leaving, Wood began luring away Disneyland employees for a new amusement park project called Magic Mountain in Golden, Colorado. When that failed to materialize, Wood, calling himself the "Designer-Builder of Disneyland," resurfaced at the head of another amusement park venture, this one in New York called Freedomland. Walt, furious at the presumptuousness, decided to sue him.

Labels: disney, weekend

We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

- Barack Hussein Obama

The left assured me that Bush would license these brown-shirted, truncheon-carrying shock troops. I feel cheated.

Related
Are the media airbrushing Obama’s speeches?
What is Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'?
Obama's 'Big Brother' vanishes from speech

Labels: obama

Part I

"An air of complete and unbalancing unreality envelops a nation which is disintegrating before our very eyes...a sort of Alice and Wonderland air."

Every once in awhile I take a break from the Disney books and read something else (usually something historical). I stumbled on Endgame, 1945 by David Stafford while Burgoyne was perusing the bookshelves at Borders. The subject matter of this book is a topic I've been anxious to read about for many years but there have been very few books about the end of WWII. I have a copy of The Death and Life of Germany by Eugene Davidson but the content of his book is more statistical. His book also spans years (1950s) not covered by Endgame, 1945 and thus it's more complementary to Stafford's work.

Stafford writes brilliantly and the prose, while grim and gritty, makes for some riveting reading. In his book, the last days of World War II are told through the eyes of 1/2 dozen witnesses from all different backgrounds. I really felt like I was with BBC correspondent Robert Reid when he uncovered the ghastly horrors of Buchenwald and UNRRA relief worker Francesca Wilson as she encountered Europe's only Buddhists displaced by the Russians and the Nazis. I was a witness to the Bassovizza massacres (post war retribution murders, "summary justice", and purges) and the deplorable horrors of marauding Russians in Germany's conquered cities. There is so much degradation in this book that YOU WILL NEVER DOUBT that evil really exists.

It is immensely detailed and Stafford provides deep context by peppering the book with historical facts about the characters who once occupied the locations ravaged by war. Here is one example:

Miramare Castle was an idyllic place to the end the war. Built by the Archduke Maximilian of Austria as personal retreat for himself and his wife, Charlotte, it was a typical nineteenth-century turreted confection of the Gothic, the medieval and the Renaissance, and rich in historical poignancy. Shortly after moving in, the Archduke reluctantly accepted the position of Emperor of Mexico and sailed with his wife to Vera Cruz, only to perish in front of a republican firing squad four years later. (Page 346)

Part 2
This is the Cologne Cathedral. It was undamaged during allied bombing. The train station is hidden by the spires and the bridge approaching the city has been disabled. I was in Cologne in 1995 and took these photos of the cathedral and train station.

Here's what David Stafford writes about the Cologne Cathedral: "Most of the buildings of architectural interest had been destroyed, including at least two of its magnificent Romanesque churches. By some miracle, however, the great Gothic cathedral, with its twin towers reaching over five hundred feet into the sky, was still standing. It's smoke-blackened stone was pitted with shrapnel, and a burned-out Tiger tank still guarded its entrance."

You can see a photograph of the Tiger tank in the Wikipedia listing.

In lieu of my own review (it's still in the works) I'm posting a bevy of links. Don't be surprised if Eve makes it into my Animated Hottie Series™.

Video: Is "Wall-E" green propaganda?
The Reality of Wall-E
LILEKS (James) the Bleat
The Hypocrisy of WALL-E
Adorably WALL-E
SDCC 07 - Pixar’s WALL•E Promo Postcards

More Wall•E
Wall-E doesn't say anything - Los Angeles Times
The Environmentalism of Wall-E - Wired

Labels: disney

I took Burgoyne to the beach this afternoon and after he found a bouncy ball in the surf he told me it was a rare drop. The word rare drop is part of his lexicon in large part because of World of Warcraft.

He doesn't play WOW. He plays MapleStory which is the PG version of World of Warcraft. MapleStory is a "FREE" MMORPG. I put free in quotations because one of the ways you can outfit your character with exotic items is to purchase NEXON Cash. You purchase NEXON Cash at CVS and TARGET and 1 USD is equal to 1,000 NEXON Cash. You add the NEXON Cash to your account and shop for items from virtual merchants. Burgoyne paid $25 USD for 25,000 NEXON Cash which he used to purchase items that he will never actually take physical possession of.

The in-game currency is called MESOS and those are earned, quite painfully in my opinion, by running around the island whacking snails and tree stumps. Thankfully you don't whack the tree stumps Charles Bronson style with a sock full of coins.

Speaking of tree stumps (er, logs)...

This is one of Burgoyne's favorite YouTube videos. In Naruto the humble log is usually involved in substitution jutsu...I just didn't realize how many videos it would inspire! Here is the original log song from Ren and Stimpy.

I just don't understand Charlie the Unicorn so I won't even try to write about it. His other favorite videos are those inspired by HALO. Freaking hackers! I like this HALO video which draws it's inspiration from a bee.

Labels: weekend

Here are some links to photographs from our adventures in downtown Fairfield.

(1) A stack of chairs at the Firehouse Deli
(2) Planes, trains and taxis
(3) Take notice!
(4) PLAN B boarder
(5) Around the world in eighty days
(6) "Attention at Fairfield. The 8:45 AM train to Grand Central is running approximately 15 minutes late."

Labels: weekend

Happy July 4th. I'm a little late with the graphic and the well-wishing but I was watching Burgoyne skate illegally in the downtown area(er) this afternoon. This is a brief respite before we trudge to the beach for fireworks and SLURPEES from 7-Eleven.

I love the 4th. Mickey Mouse, 7-Eleven and baseball soccer‬‬†‬‬!

†The New England Revolution are in Los Angeles this evening to take on the Galaxy!

UPDATE 1
New England Revolution 2 - Los Angeles Galaxy 0 (Halftime)

Update 2
Revs rejoice, hold off Beckham, Galaxy

Labels: disney, soccer

This is Gwen from Total Drama Island. I'm digging the goth look. According to her biography her favorite hobby is going downtown on the weekends to people watch. I like that.

John Derbyshire explains the dilemma many of us will face in the voting booth this November:

Obama is a yuppie internationalist whose preferred choice of companionship, at least until about a year ago, was people who don't much like the U.S.A. McCain served his country very admirably in his youth, but seems to have settled firmly into an extreme open-borders philosophy, which is a globalization too far for most Americans. Strength of character is of course admirable, but strength of character in an unpopular cause won't get you any votes. It's interesting and instructive to know what a candidate has done in the past; but it's natural to be much more concerned about what he might do in the future.

Source

(1) Thefts of manhole covers increase as metals prices soar
Three weeks ago 12-year-old Shamira Fingers from South Philadelphia was walking down a city street near her home when she suddenly fell into an open sewer hole.

Source

(2) Obama on Patriotism
Well, here's what Obama should have said, given his world view: "The true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is embarrassment about the Nation much of the time, and loyalty to Big Government all of the time."

Source

Limestone Commentary
Obama giving a speech on patriotism would be like Ted Kennedy mounting a vigorous defense of capitalism and free markets.

(3) Paterson Is Cheered At NYC's Gay Pride Parade
NEW YORK — Gay residents cheered Gov. David Paterson on Sunday as he joined the city's annual gay pride march a month after he directed state agencies to provide full marriage benefits to same-sex couples who were legally married elsewhere.

Source

Limestone Commentary
Super!

Labels: end times, obama

In case you haven't noticed I'm on my summer posting schedule. Today I'm off on a short road trip with General Burgoyne and Pervy Sage to watch Twellman take the pitch for the first time since May 11.

We're also going to see WALL•E on Sunday and so far the reviews have been stellar. The story is post-apocalyptic (maybe even dystopic) and includes a bevy of robots with a forlorn WALL•E as the main character.

Labels: robots, soccer, weekend

These are all related...

(1) Yeah. And there's one at Heathrow now.

Sleep, refresh, work or relax...

Everything you would expect from a luxury hotel in a small space. Located uniquely inside the airport terminal buildings at London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 and London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Just moments walk from check in, arrivals and minutes from the other terminals. YOTEL opens at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam in Summer 2008.

Related
(2) I just purchased 3,000 shares of BnL Macro on E*TRADE. I'm very bullish on Buy n Large.



(3) I gave General Burgoyne some Automoblox Mini's for his birthday. Every car has a VIN number printed on the chassis and you can us it to register the car online. What a clever marketing idea.

Labels: airports

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control
By ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - Is everything spinning out of control?

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

Source

Limestone Commentary
The blogger with many visions™ implores you to head for the hills.

Related
Obama Debuts (for Real) His Own Very Special Pre-Presidential Seal - I like the unicorn.

"Now I could stand up here and say, let’s get everybody together, let’s get unified the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing,” she said, to a smattering of giggles. “And everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect."

- HRC

*Unless we vote for Obama the Messiah!

AP Confirms: We're all gonna die (the visual)

Labels: end times

Big match a sell out
Hordes of fans lined up yesterday to get tickets for Bermuda's football match against Trinidad on Sunday, which is being anticipated as one of the biggest sporting events on the Island in years.

Source


Related
Bermuda's goal-den chance
More tickets for sale!
Moment of truth in New World

Update
Trinidad & Tobago 2 (3) - Bermuda 0 (2) (FINAL)
Trinidad advances on aggregate.

Labels: bermuda, soccer

In Part I of my book review of The Pixar Touch by David A. Price I promised their would be dirty hippies and now dirty hippies you shall have.

"CalArts was Walt Disney's brainchild; he had started the planning of the school in the late 1950s and provided generously for it in his will. Walt and his brother Roy formed it in 1961 through a merger of two struggling Los Angeles institutions, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute. The doors opened at the school's consolidated campus in Valencia in 1971, five years after Walt's death.

The school had nearly been finished off before Lasseter got there. The Valencia campus opened at a time when hippiedom was near its peak. The Disney family, although forward thinking in many ways, was uncomfortable with the protest movements and flower-child culture that inevitably seeped into the school. The final straw came during a meeting if the school's campus affairs committee, when a member of the photography faculty showed up in the nude to protest an edict against skinny-dipping in the swimming pool."

Radda radda radda!

Labels: disney

"His company was now run at its top levels by men who understood themselves to be following his example, without understanding that his example consisted of bold strokes. Thirteen years after Walt Disney's death, the most favored expression of executives seemed to be, "As Walt Used to say..."

- David A. Price, The Pixar Touch


Part 1

The Pixar Touch by David A. Price is something akin to middleware. It is somewhere between Levy's Hackers and Gabler's Walt Disney. Price begins his epic tale looking through the eyes of Lasseter (and to a lesser degree Banks and Bluth) to describe the threadbare and rudderless conditions of the Walt Disney Studios in the years after Walt's death. He also introduces a motley cast of hardcore technologists like Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith who would move PIXAR from a garage at the New York Institute of Technology to Lucasfilm Ltd. and eventually to Pixar, Inc. c/o Steve Jobs. The story of Lasseter (and Banks) ultimately intersects with Catmull and Smith and the evolution of the company becomes a fascinating tale (and case study).


And while the evolution of PIXAR from a hardware company to a full-fledged animation studio is an interesting story, all the fireworks and drama in this book involve Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. Following the tragic death of Frank Wells and the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Eisner's leadership is no better than the caretakers who followed Disney. I had forgotten how pathetic the studio(s) releases were post Katzenberg and Wells. What were Chicken Little and the Emperor's New Groove?

It's Roy Disney, Walt's nephew, who starts the first coup to remove then chief executive Ron Miller. Miller is eventually replaced with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Ironically, it's a second coup led by Roy a decade or so later to extract Eisner from the company after his [Eisner's] lackluster performance and histrionics. Roy succeeds and Bob Iger is named CEO. Iger has the humility to recognize the "edge of his competency" and reaches out to PIXAR (almost immediately) to repair relations with a jilted Steve Jobs. Hollywood (and the MSM) has done a great job of portraying CEO(s) as soulless bastards but Hollywood is an egalitarian cohort without the open- mindedness to contemplate the skill required to become a CEO. And while some CEO(s) have lent credibility to the characterization/stereotype, the truth/fact remains that it's a pretty lonely job. I love Bob Iger in this book though. His interview with Eisner on CNBC is befitting of a CEO:

"And I felt - one of the things that I learned from you and [Capital Cities/ABC chairman and CEO] Tom Murphy and others is to know the edge of your own competency. And I felt that we had talent in animation. But we also needed great leadership. I didn't think I could provide that leadership in animation. And I believed strongly that the people at Pixar could. Plus they also had tremendous talent."

The history of PIXAR, like any great Disney animated feature, also involves a great cast of heroes and villains. It also has an angel or two in the form of Hayao Miyazaki and Frank Thomas AND some filthy hippies. In the second part of this post I will look at some of the heroes and villains and the elements that make this book such a great case study.

Labels: disney

It's a BIG football weekend. It started yesterday when Croatia defeated Germany 2 - 1 in Euro2008™ to take sole possession of first place in Group B. Play resumes in the group of death [Group C] this afternoon when the Netherlands play former WC champions France. Italy, still licking their wounds from that humiliating defeat against the Netherlands, will try to climb out of the bottom of the table when they play Romania.

Meanwhile, the New England Revolution shut out the Houston Dynamo 2 - 0 on the road to solidify their place on top of the Eastern Conference Standings. Both teams were missing key players due to national duty in World Cup qualifying. New England was without Khano Smith who will play for Bermuda this weekend in a WC qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago. The Dynamo were missing Brian Ching who is with the US MNT in California as they prepare for the 1st leg of their WC qualifying campaign against Barbados on Sunday.

Weekend Updates

Netherlands 4-1 France: Dutch master class
Trinidad game 'biggest of my career' – Khano
Beware the dangers of complacency
Breaking News: Bermuda defeats Trinidad

**UPDATE**
Bermuda WINS 2 - 1!

Trinidad and Tobago suffered the biggest shock of the round, losing to rank outsiders Bermuda in their own capital, Port of Spain. The team that qualified for Germany 2006 were one down after only eight minutes when journeyman striker John Berry Nusom hit home. Stern John drew level in the 22nd minute, but Nusom grabbed the winner, and his second on the night, five minutes before the break in a 2-1 win for Keith Tucker's Bermudans.

Source

Labels: soccer