Interesting article on the merits of the Twilight series here. Excerpt:
It’s the commonsense observation that, for a book to resonate with readers, it must reflect and confirm their core beliefs about the world and what it means to be human. When a book sells really well, I think it is reasonable to assume that it has provided an experience that says the way we think is the correct way. The funny thing about this idea—funny to me at least—is that it’s really not possible to entirely step outside the concerns and beliefs of your age. That is to say, everyone, highbrow and lowbrow alike, is advancing the core myth of society.
Our current postmodern core myth is (ironically and with no little contradiction) that all societal myths are bad because they both make it impossible for us to see things as they really are and create a necessary division of the world into good guys with power and “others” who are marginalized. Our core evil is thus prejudice resulting from unexamined belief; our core struggle is our inability to know anything for certain, blinded as we are by our beliefs; and our core good is the freedom resulting from a self-actualized choice that transcends our prejudices. I think you will find that all of the novels on the bestseller list reflect these themes and sell well as a result.
Yeah, Kit. Barbara Stanwyck was one of the greats. I have a lot of admiration for her because Ruby Stevens didn’t have it easy. She was a great actress: tough yet vulnerable, great at comedy and more than capable at handling the dramatic parts. Have you seen “Night Nurse”? That was THE movie that turned me into a classic movie fan.
I have a theory that when all the crap subsides over climate control, Al Gore will take up the banner of taxing any and all things that weigh too much! This runs the gamut from the weight of your dog, to your car, all the way up to his inflated ego. Watch and wait, gravity control will be next.
Barbara Stanwyck was considered by most in Hollywood to be a very class act. I’ve read that all who worked with her loved her professionalism and humility as an actress. She was reported to be very helpful to those new to the profession and never a typical pain in the rear as were a lot of the seasoned actors were to the newer ones on the set.
I’m not sure whom I should talk to about this, so I’ll put it up here in hopes that some kindly Thredonian will take pity on me and point me at the right person:
I was wondering if I might be allowed to occasionally, fairly rarely, start my own threads here on Thredonia. Occasionally I come up with things that are better suited for here than my own site, but it’s hard to shoehorn ‘em in to conversation, and I hate to hijack threads already in progress for my own purposes (Such as I’m doing here). It’s not something I’d intend to do regularly, but I think it would be kind of fun and interesting for all of us.
Pros: I’ve been running a fairly high-profile mid-sized conservative website for a year, I’ve been a regular here on Thredonia for seven or eight months, and I’ve been contributing to Modcon (on average) three times a week for five or six months (As far as I can remember. I might be off on any or all of those numbers), I comment all the hell over the place online, and I frequently get attacked on other websites for my presumed “Homophobia,” so I’ve got some minor web credentials, added to which I’m kind of funny, unpredictable, and chicks (Aside from Stephanie) like me. I’m good to have at a party.
Cons: I’m annoying as hell, I tend to obsess over religious issues because they fascinate me far more than they fascinate other people, I’m kind of a rabblerouser, I’m somewhat disrespectful of authority (Which I choose to see as ‘charming’ but others apparently disagree), I have an tendency to come at questions from really oblique angles, some of my views are unpopular, I tend to question the basic assumptions of others, I refuse to sugarcoat history, I’m unrepentantly geeky, and of course Stephanie doesn’t like me. Also, basically, it’s just a matter of time until supplies start disappearing from the office…
I won’t lie: There’s a lot of low cards in that hand, and I’d totally understand if everyone here on the site bitterly opposed it – to be honest, it’s probably the wiser choice – but I just thought I’d put it out there for your consideration, anyway.
Open Threads are always here for the nabbing. You can’t hijack something that has no stated destination. Every day we leave the G- V gassed up, on the tarmac with the keys in the ignition.
Because the word “Fascism” is over-used to the point it has lost all meaning, can someone here give me a good working definition of “Fascism”. What are its core tenets, its roots, and its beliefs?
For the quickie, I’d go with total control by the state of as many (if not all) aspects of private life. For much more fun, speed-read Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.
Went into my local Wal-Mart to do some early morning Christmas shopping, and there was a Marine there in full dress uniform, collecting for Toys For Tots. Of course, I had to get some toys to add to his bin because, well, HOW do you refuse both needy children AND the Marines? It’s like an adorable girl scout who wants to sell you delicious cookies; it’s just a deadly combination that you can’t say no to.
In ancient Rome the symbol of power during the time of the republic was the Fasces, which was a bundle of sticks bundled around an axe. In times of extreme crisis, the Fasces was given to one individual who was given absolute power for the duration of the crisis (or so is the popular impression), who was expected to give power back once the crisis was over, though in actual fact the only person who ever actually did voluntarily give absolute power back was Cincinattus. The US has frequently used the Fasces as a symbol of the republic in an unofficial capacity, for instance, on the arms of Lincoln’s throne in his memorial.
In the 1930s, Mussolini appropriated some old Roman symbolism during his rise to power, including the fasces, which he used in more-or-less the correct historical context as he did take asolute power during a time of great national crisis. He named his movement “Fascism,” which had only positive connotations at the time, though he gave some lipservice to the concept of an elected dictatorship, basically, it boiled down to just a dictatorship, and eventually the name was applied to all the dictatorial regimes of the day, whether it applied (As in Nazi Germany) or didn’t (As in Imperial Japan).
In general, Fascists saw the Country and The People as being one unified thing (“Ein Volk, Ein Reich”), exalting the nation and/or race above everything else and giving it almost religious connotations (actually religious in some cases), talking about how they’re better than everyone else, and how their way is best for everyone, even the mongrel peoples who don’t really deserve better. In this regard, it’s kind of a reaction to a profound national crisis of faith, wherein the society overcompensates for thier problems.
Fascist governments were generally imperialistic, or at least wanted to be, though in the case of Italy, they were never very good at it. They usually maintained the pretence of democracy, but were in fact one-party democracies headed by an absolute dictator (Who was, in fact, generally popularly elected), and was usually pretty charismatic, an inspiring speaker, and a kind of ‘national messiah’ who could deliver the country from its crisis into it’s rightful place in the world. Again, this doesn’t quite fit Japan, but that’s guilt by association with them.
They tended toward command economies rather than free markets or communism, they viciously opposed communism, but usually tended towards socialism, either overtly, or de facto. They tended to be racist as a natural outgrowth of the “Cult of Nationalism” they were trying to develop, and this was usually backed up with some hokey interpretation of darwin.
“Fascism” is generally depicted as extremely right wing by the modern-day left, but in fact it was all over the map politically, conservative on some issues, liberal onthers, pragmatic in some areas, and so whacked out that you’d think they beamed in from the planet saturn on others. One interesting aspect of all the fascist powers during that era was their obsession with and development of very impressive, if stark, art as a tool for propaganda and for national identity. Also, they tended to be damn snappy dressers. As an insult, in America, it generally has nothing to do with the fascism movements of the 1930s, and is just a name to call people who are right wing, or who tend to be a bit authoritarian (Like cops, the military, unpopular high school coaches, etc.) When I get called a fasicst – which doesn’t happen much, but has happened – I generally say, “Why thank you, I do try to dress nice, and it’s always nice to know my efforts are appreciated.”
Talk about hijacking. Where is the talk from the main-street media that our lord and savior, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, has won a Nobel Peace Prize?! Now Republibot, that’s rabblerousing.
By the way I just coined that “main-street” media thing. I thought that was borderline clever, although you folks may not quite appreciate it. Floyd, can I copyright that?
Yes, Mike, but a real man would have turned it down. We discussed this here quite a bit when it first happened, and I may post later about his “acceptance” speech, which wasn’t bad on the surface but oh, so very interesting below the surface.
If some group honors you for something you haven’t done a real man would not accept the honor. A venal man would. Or, as Groucho Marx loved to say, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”
Hate to shatter your moment, BO, but Young Gun Conservative show’s been using “Main Street Media” for several weeks. I’m sure they didn’t coin it, but bravo on your try.
Yeah, I really couldn’t make any sense of that either. To quote The Tick, “Barry, you’re gonna’ have to start making sense!”
(That was from the episode “The Tick vs. The Tick,” which is the popular favorite episode of the entire series, though I think the one with the evil furniature is my favorite. “This isn’t some kind of superhero thing, is it?” “No, no, no, we just want you to help us pick out a new couch.” “Oh, ok, I’ll be right there!” The one where The Tick goes up against the “Chatty and officious” alien nihilists was pretty good, too. I go back and forth on the “Blowhole” episode.)
Good post on Rome and Fascism R3. Have you ever noticed Obummer’s “symbol”..its reminsicient of the bound wheat or whatever isn’t it? Beck pointed that out once and that image is very telling. They it seems to me either have no idea what the symbols of fascism are or they are aware of fascism and want to perpetuate it. Right Barry O.
Teddy had his faults and strong points like many great presidents. I admire many things about TR, most of all his sheer fortitude. He had more than his share of chutzpah. I do like Beck but I think he’s too harsh on TR. I’m kinda tired of the ‘hey, look at me! I wrote another book this weekend’ phase he’s in.
And hey, what about my BROWNS?? They defeated the struggling Steelers! Sacked Rottenberger 8 times! Sure, this is only the second game they’ve won this season but give it up for my Brownies!
TR was not a strict constitutionalist. He didn’t necessarily hold Constitution and limits of law in contempt, but pragmatist that he was, he was happy to use its letter to bend it past its spirit
It was more the statutory law than the Constitution, but it should be remembered that the name for FDR’s New Deal came from Teddy’s Square Deal. I don’t think he imagined what his part in the growth of government would bring about, but he should’ve known better.
This is exactly what I meant in my earlier reply. It’s easy for us to sit here, in our easy chairs, skimming a book while sipping some sherry, and castigating a leader for a decision made a century ago, but sometimes, when a leader is leading, he has to act on behalf of the people actually living in that time, and not for the benefit of some author who is going to write about him 100 years hence.
I’m going to make a lot of enemies here, but even FDR gets trashed by Conservatives far more than what is reasonable. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Plenty! But the guy was looking out of his window at 20+% unemployment. Literally looking out his window at them because half the nation was sleeping in tents on his front lawn. And remember kids, back then “unemployment” meant Dad didn’t have a job. Mom wasn’t even counted in the equation.
Almost everyone I’ve talked to who was old enough to be paying attention at the time speaks well of FDR as a President. That means something. The actual people who were alive and living under his Executive management loved the man. Even Republicans I know who lived under Roosevelt speak well of him. He would be an awful President today (assuming he’d act the same way), but he led the country through a very difficult time and a great majority of the electorate appreciated his stewardship.
It is very, very hard for us to understand just how raw, independent and wild our country was prior to the ’30′s. Your dad could go to work at a factory, get injured in an industrial accident and lose a limb and that was that. His employer owed him nothing. He’d probably even get docked for the time he was lying unconscious on the factory floor. Social Security was a widow’s and survivor’s pension fund. We did need that. It has gone way, way too far, but prior to FDR widows and survivors had nothing. Perspective. Judge the man by the times he lived in, and how he reacted to those times.
Now, I know that a lot of what FDR was doing wasn’t really doing what folks thought it was doing, even at that time. A lot of his actions didn’t really improve unemployment, might have even made things worse, BUT it made people feel better. He improved the mood of the country, gave people hope and helped the nation pull together. Similar to Reagan after Carter had us all in a funk. No matter what policies and statistics say, the mood of the country is very, very important. That is our biggest problem right now. President Obama is so erratically focused, and tends to be focused on the wrong things, that we Americans don’t have any confidence in our future. When people don’t feel confident they coccoon. They don’t start new businesses. They don’t borrow money and build rumpus rooms. FDR got people moving. He inspired Americans.
Eric, the spouse and I are in shock. It’s our Super Bowl. Really, the rest of the season doesn’t matter now. It was a great boost for the team and the fans. Josh Cribbs is amazing and I hope we can keep him.
The College Widow, the Browns deserve credit for the win, but let’s not forget these are the same Steelers recently beat by the Oakland Raiders, so keep it in perspective.
I too admire Teddy. One of the tricky things with history is it’s very hard for us to avoid looking at it through the lens of our current times. I don’t think Teddy would have done half the things he did if he were alive today. I think he’d the huge, Federal bureaucracy would infuriate him and he’d be working very actively to dismantle it. Teddy was no slouch when it came to understanding the Constitution. Lincoln also gets a bum rap in this area. I believe both men were big fans of the founders’ principles, and the Constitution, but both men lived in times when the nation needed their “extra-Constitutional” forays.
It’s one thing to sit in a chair, in 2009, after FDR, LBJ, Nixon and Carter have expanded the Federal government into a monstrosity, and tsk, tsk at the writings of Teddy, but it’s another thing to put yourself back into the turn of the 19th century and examine what the country really needed at that time. Just as some of what FDR did would have been fine if it had been temporary, solely to deal with the crisis of the depression. Lincoln did intend his extra-Constitutional measures as temporary, and he did undo them as best he could, but less well-intentioned folks who followed him took advantage of his methods to bastardize the Fed.
@David — not for nuttin’, but ya may wanna get back to the boring academic stuff that impresses the stacks chicks, ’cause your trash talking needs some work. Observe…
Being the dual citizenship PA/OH guy (I only play the OH card when the Cleveland area’s involved — F Toledo), call it the Browns Super Bowl all yunz want. Can’t explain their mid-season funk to save my life, but Stillers have been to 7 big dances and lost only 1, plus still NFL Champs till next February at minimum. By the way, Ernest Byner and good night. (drops mic and walks off, stage-virtual)
I do indeed give the Steelers their due. Can’t deny they have those championships and I have my moments when I admire them despite being a Browns fan. I can’t help but respect Big Ben, Hines and Polamalu (or however he spells his name). They have built a great dynasty but even dynasties have their down moments.
Ernest Byner…OUCH!
Let’s just say anything can happen in the NFL and last night proved it.
As I think I mentioned, CW, being an ex-Bills guy, I have complete sympathy for the Browns, and I apologize for the Byner reference. Merely had to show David how to talk smack without resorting to the infantile (a shock from me, I know).
Wins like last night don’t mean a whole lot other than jockeying for position away from the likely bust of taking Tim Tebow first in the draft, but for that rivalry it means everything. Can’t remember which Browns player said it post-game (Cribbs?), but that 2.5 hour bus ride back to da ‘Burgh’s gonna feel a whole lot longer for the team that hasn’t had to endure one like it in a long time.
No offense taken over the Byner reference. It’s all part of the fun of rivalry! I can take it!
You’re right about last night’s win meaning nothing. It was merely a bright spot in an otherwise dismal season. I don’t really care much about having first draft picks…it’s not as though the Browns have done much with those anyway! The best players don’t seem to come from #1 picks.
I’ve not seen what you’re refering to, but the bundle in the fasces was usually made out of 12 elm sticks, generally white elm. It seems to have been a fairly common mediterranean symbol for group unity – a similar thing shows up in the Bible in one place – but the Romans thought up the whole “Axe” thing.
I generally describe myself as a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican,” in that he was conservative, but not adverse to experimentation, and he was a populist who didn’t allow himself to be dictated to by the rabble. He tried an awful lot of things, not all of which worked, but he ditched the ones that didn’t and kept the ones that did. He basically gave us the 5 day/40 hour work week, was honest to a fault, hurt the mobs, and was very pro-middle class. Basically the greatest president of the 20th Century, and the guy who sent the whole 20th Century on its way.
It’s easy to forget what a tumultuous time his presidency took place in, because it was so long ago, and we don’t have endless documentaries about it like we do the FDR presidency, but there was an economic panic going on, a rising tide of organized communist and anarchist violence, international tension, an ongoing Vietnam-styled war in the Philipines (That no one ever talks about, but which basically went on until the geurillas allied themselves with the Japanese and forced us out in WWII FORTY YEARS LATER), massive graft and corruption, racial tension beyond believing – the country was in a serious mess at the time. And, yes, he basically did put us on the world stage, as was mentioned above.
Is it wrong that I like him primarily because he had a lot of kids and played with them, running through the White House at times? I also like his big stick attitude. He really understood that what kept us safe was having a kick ass military that will kill you in your sleep at Christmas if we need to.
Think the band I used to manage said it best about Teddy: “I’m an American, no hyphenation!” You wanna be a Irish/African/Italian/Chinese-American, congratulations but your prefix-of-choice has a better need for you if you if you choose not to assimilate to the greatest land of opportunity in existence. Progressive faults aside, damn I love that Teddy bastard for that sentiment!
Ditto on TR, Eric. Tracy, you can like Teddy all you want. There’s no shame in it. It’s easy to look back on someone like him from our place in time and be critical. I can’t say I know enough about his progressive views BUT perhaps he’d take a different view if he saw where those policies and philosophies took his country.
Yeah, that appeals to me, too. Also that he boxed. I’m pretty sure he was the only president who boxed while in office. Also that one time he accidentally threw Alice out a third-storey Whitehouse window while playing football indoors. (She landed in a tree, and was basically unharmed) There’s a pretty funny story around that one, actually.
Ok, well, here’s the Alice story: TR and the kids were playing football on the third floor, and Teddy tackled Alice a bit too hard and sent her out the window, where she landed in a tree. Scared hell out of him and her, but none of them wanted to stop playing football, so he had bars installed around all the third-floor windows. No one noticed at the time, and of course he didn’t give a press conference about it or anything, unlike today.
Time passes, and Woodrow Wilson is president. After his stroke, the administration obviously tried to keep it quiet, so all the public knew was that Wilson wasn’t seen in public anymore. A rumor was spreading that he’d gone insane and was being kept on the third floor, and people pointed to the never-before-noticed bars on the windows. On one occasion, reporters cornered Alice and asked her about the insanity rumor, which she hadn’t heard about, and of course they cited the bars. She busted out laughing and told the whole story of the football mishap to the increasingly chagrined reporters, and that was the end of the rumor then and there.
VP Thomas Marshall said when Roosevelt died in his sleep: Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”
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Interesting article on the merits of the Twilight series here. Excerpt:
Tiger Woods has a new product endorsement:an orange condom with black stripes…
Sex Tiger… It’s 100% effective 60% of the time.
Is that gasoline?
Wouldn’t you love to be the guy at Consumer Reports who does the condom burst test?
I don’t know, Scott. Whenever I think of testing out condoms (which is often, of course), I think of
this, and that’s just not right.
LOL! I am hoping I don’t have to go on a road trip today. I have stuff I need to get done. GRRRRRRRRRRRR I blame Buford.
Derek!
Barbara Stanwyck, the woman of my dreams . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2KdXBJG-A
Those lucky bastards.
Yeah, Kit. Barbara Stanwyck was one of the greats. I have a lot of admiration for her because Ruby Stevens didn’t have it easy. She was a great actress: tough yet vulnerable, great at comedy and more than capable at handling the dramatic parts. Have you seen “Night Nurse”? That was THE movie that turned me into a classic movie fan.
College Widow,
Stanwyck had me at NIGHT NURSE. HEck when she was in that black dress at the beginning of the movie I instantly fell in love.
Yay! Another “Night Nurse” fan. Isn’t that the one Stanwyck snarls, “Whatta mother!” ?
I have a theory that when all the crap subsides over climate control, Al Gore will take up the banner of taxing any and all things that weigh too much! This runs the gamut from the weight of your dog, to your car, all the way up to his inflated ego. Watch and wait, gravity control will be next.
Barbara Stanwyck was considered by most in Hollywood to be a very class act. I’ve read that all who worked with her loved her professionalism and humility as an actress. She was reported to be very helpful to those new to the profession and never a typical pain in the rear as were a lot of the seasoned actors were to the newer ones on the set.
Christmas in Connectict? Floyd reads my comments!
I’m not sure whom I should talk to about this, so I’ll put it up here in hopes that some kindly Thredonian will take pity on me and point me at the right person:
I was wondering if I might be allowed to occasionally, fairly rarely, start my own threads here on Thredonia. Occasionally I come up with things that are better suited for here than my own site, but it’s hard to shoehorn ‘em in to conversation, and I hate to hijack threads already in progress for my own purposes (Such as I’m doing here). It’s not something I’d intend to do regularly, but I think it would be kind of fun and interesting for all of us.
Pros: I’ve been running a fairly high-profile mid-sized conservative website for a year, I’ve been a regular here on Thredonia for seven or eight months, and I’ve been contributing to Modcon (on average) three times a week for five or six months (As far as I can remember. I might be off on any or all of those numbers), I comment all the hell over the place online, and I frequently get attacked on other websites for my presumed “Homophobia,” so I’ve got some minor web credentials, added to which I’m kind of funny, unpredictable, and chicks (Aside from Stephanie) like me. I’m good to have at a party.
Cons: I’m annoying as hell, I tend to obsess over religious issues because they fascinate me far more than they fascinate other people, I’m kind of a rabblerouser, I’m somewhat disrespectful of authority (Which I choose to see as ‘charming’ but others apparently disagree), I have an tendency to come at questions from really oblique angles, some of my views are unpopular, I tend to question the basic assumptions of others, I refuse to sugarcoat history, I’m unrepentantly geeky, and of course Stephanie doesn’t like me. Also, basically, it’s just a matter of time until supplies start disappearing from the office…
I won’t lie: There’s a lot of low cards in that hand, and I’d totally understand if everyone here on the site bitterly opposed it – to be honest, it’s probably the wiser choice – but I just thought I’d put it out there for your consideration, anyway.
Whadya’ say?
Republibot, while I’ve always enjoyed your posts, be warned that if there’s one thing we won’t tolerate here at Threedonia, it’s a rabblerouser.
Republibot 3.0,
Open Threads are always here for the nabbing. You can’t hijack something that has no stated destination. Every day we leave the G- V gassed up, on the tarmac with the keys in the ignition.
Hi from a Kohls parking lot.
Because the word “Fascism” is over-used to the point it has lost all meaning, can someone here give me a good working definition of “Fascism”. What are its core tenets, its roots, and its beliefs?
For the quickie, I’d go with total control by the state of as many (if not all) aspects of private life. For much more fun, speed-read Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism.
But what seperates fascism from Communism? The B.S.? (Fascism is for “the State” and Communism is for “the People”)
Went into my local Wal-Mart to do some early morning Christmas shopping, and there was a Marine there in full dress uniform, collecting for Toys For Tots. Of course, I had to get some toys to add to his bin because, well, HOW do you refuse both needy children AND the Marines? It’s like an adorable girl scout who wants to sell you delicious cookies; it’s just a deadly combination that you can’t say no to.
Well played, Wal-Mart. Well played.
Well,Fritz,you’re forgetting that Al Gore weighs too much…that guy’s farts alone would punch a hole in the ozone.
Yes, Scott, but that falls right in line with his take on climate…his jet and his home are leaving a huge carbon buttprint!
Beck is making me laugh my ass off right now.
SO that’s a “Hell no,” then?
@ Kit:
In ancient Rome the symbol of power during the time of the republic was the Fasces, which was a bundle of sticks bundled around an axe. In times of extreme crisis, the Fasces was given to one individual who was given absolute power for the duration of the crisis (or so is the popular impression), who was expected to give power back once the crisis was over, though in actual fact the only person who ever actually did voluntarily give absolute power back was Cincinattus. The US has frequently used the Fasces as a symbol of the republic in an unofficial capacity, for instance, on the arms of Lincoln’s throne in his memorial.
In the 1930s, Mussolini appropriated some old Roman symbolism during his rise to power, including the fasces, which he used in more-or-less the correct historical context as he did take asolute power during a time of great national crisis. He named his movement “Fascism,” which had only positive connotations at the time, though he gave some lipservice to the concept of an elected dictatorship, basically, it boiled down to just a dictatorship, and eventually the name was applied to all the dictatorial regimes of the day, whether it applied (As in Nazi Germany) or didn’t (As in Imperial Japan).
In general, Fascists saw the Country and The People as being one unified thing (“Ein Volk, Ein Reich”), exalting the nation and/or race above everything else and giving it almost religious connotations (actually religious in some cases), talking about how they’re better than everyone else, and how their way is best for everyone, even the mongrel peoples who don’t really deserve better. In this regard, it’s kind of a reaction to a profound national crisis of faith, wherein the society overcompensates for thier problems.
Fascist governments were generally imperialistic, or at least wanted to be, though in the case of Italy, they were never very good at it. They usually maintained the pretence of democracy, but were in fact one-party democracies headed by an absolute dictator (Who was, in fact, generally popularly elected), and was usually pretty charismatic, an inspiring speaker, and a kind of ‘national messiah’ who could deliver the country from its crisis into it’s rightful place in the world. Again, this doesn’t quite fit Japan, but that’s guilt by association with them.
They tended toward command economies rather than free markets or communism, they viciously opposed communism, but usually tended towards socialism, either overtly, or de facto. They tended to be racist as a natural outgrowth of the “Cult of Nationalism” they were trying to develop, and this was usually backed up with some hokey interpretation of darwin.
“Fascism” is generally depicted as extremely right wing by the modern-day left, but in fact it was all over the map politically, conservative on some issues, liberal onthers, pragmatic in some areas, and so whacked out that you’d think they beamed in from the planet saturn on others. One interesting aspect of all the fascist powers during that era was their obsession with and development of very impressive, if stark, art as a tool for propaganda and for national identity. Also, they tended to be damn snappy dressers. As an insult, in America, it generally has nothing to do with the fascism movements of the 1930s, and is just a name to call people who are right wing, or who tend to be a bit authoritarian (Like cops, the military, unpopular high school coaches, etc.) When I get called a fasicst – which doesn’t happen much, but has happened – I generally say, “Why thank you, I do try to dress nice, and it’s always nice to know my efforts are appreciated.”
I hope that helps.
Republibot 3.0,
Wow.
Thanks.
Oh, and I love the title of Republibot, “If we like it, it gets cancelled.”
Funny.
Talk about hijacking. Where is the talk from the main-street media that our lord and savior, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, has won a Nobel Peace Prize?! Now Republibot, that’s rabblerousing.
By the way I just coined that “main-street” media thing. I thought that was borderline clever, although you folks may not quite appreciate it. Floyd, can I copyright that?
Oh, I’m just in mood tonight.
If I had to guess, I’d say Barry is wondering why we’re not talking about the Peace Prize.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I think that prize became a joke long before Obama won it. And to be fair, it’s not his fault that he was chosen.
I always have to guess at what BarryO is trying to say. I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or what.
Yes, Mike, but a real man would have turned it down. We discussed this here quite a bit when it first happened, and I may post later about his “acceptance” speech, which wasn’t bad on the surface but oh, so very interesting below the surface.
If some group honors you for something you haven’t done a real man would not accept the honor. A venal man would. Or, as Groucho Marx loved to say, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”
Hate to shatter your moment, BO, but Young Gun Conservative show’s been using “Main Street Media” for several weeks. I’m sure they didn’t coin it, but bravo on your try.
Channeling my inner Charlton Heston, “Damn you! Damn you all to helllllllllll! Okay, I’m not so original.
Barry, I’m not quite deciphering what you’re saying.
Yeah, I really couldn’t make any sense of that either. To quote The Tick, “Barry, you’re gonna’ have to start making sense!”
(That was from the episode “The Tick vs. The Tick,” which is the popular favorite episode of the entire series, though I think the one with the evil furniature is my favorite. “This isn’t some kind of superhero thing, is it?” “No, no, no, we just want you to help us pick out a new couch.” “Oh, ok, I’ll be right there!” The one where The Tick goes up against the “Chatty and officious” alien nihilists was pretty good, too. I go back and forth on the “Blowhole” episode.)
My sons and I have a motto: Every animated television show and movie should have at least one character voiced by Patrick Warburton.
Good post on Rome and Fascism R3. Have you ever noticed Obummer’s “symbol”..its reminsicient of the bound wheat or whatever isn’t it? Beck pointed that out once and that image is very telling. They it seems to me either have no idea what the symbols of fascism are or they are aware of fascism and want to perpetuate it. Right Barry O.
I am going to go off reservation and say I admire Teddy Roosevelt. I disagree strongly with Beck about him.
Teddy had his faults and strong points like many great presidents. I admire many things about TR, most of all his sheer fortitude. He had more than his share of chutzpah. I do like Beck but I think he’s too harsh on TR. I’m kinda tired of the ‘hey, look at me! I wrote another book this weekend’ phase he’s in.
And hey, what about my BROWNS?? They defeated the struggling Steelers! Sacked Rottenberger 8 times! Sure, this is only the second game they’ve won this season but give it up for my Brownies!
TR was not a strict constitutionalist. He didn’t necessarily hold Constitution and limits of law in contempt, but pragmatist that he was, he was happy to use its letter to bend it past its spirit
Bully!
That is not to imply bending the constitution is ok. Just felt a little Teddy like there for a moment.
It was more the statutory law than the Constitution, but it should be remembered that the name for FDR’s New Deal came from Teddy’s Square Deal. I don’t think he imagined what his part in the growth of government would bring about, but he should’ve known better.
but he should’ve known better.”
This is exactly what I meant in my earlier reply. It’s easy for us to sit here, in our easy chairs, skimming a book while sipping some sherry, and castigating a leader for a decision made a century ago, but sometimes, when a leader is leading, he has to act on behalf of the people actually living in that time, and not for the benefit of some author who is going to write about him 100 years hence.
I’m going to make a lot of enemies here, but even FDR gets trashed by Conservatives far more than what is reasonable. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Plenty! But the guy was looking out of his window at 20+% unemployment. Literally looking out his window at them because half the nation was sleeping in tents on his front lawn. And remember kids, back then “unemployment” meant Dad didn’t have a job. Mom wasn’t even counted in the equation.
Almost everyone I’ve talked to who was old enough to be paying attention at the time speaks well of FDR as a President. That means something. The actual people who were alive and living under his Executive management loved the man. Even Republicans I know who lived under Roosevelt speak well of him. He would be an awful President today (assuming he’d act the same way), but he led the country through a very difficult time and a great majority of the electorate appreciated his stewardship.
It is very, very hard for us to understand just how raw, independent and wild our country was prior to the ’30′s. Your dad could go to work at a factory, get injured in an industrial accident and lose a limb and that was that. His employer owed him nothing. He’d probably even get docked for the time he was lying unconscious on the factory floor. Social Security was a widow’s and survivor’s pension fund. We did need that. It has gone way, way too far, but prior to FDR widows and survivors had nothing. Perspective. Judge the man by the times he lived in, and how he reacted to those times.
Now, I know that a lot of what FDR was doing wasn’t really doing what folks thought it was doing, even at that time. A lot of his actions didn’t really improve unemployment, might have even made things worse, BUT it made people feel better. He improved the mood of the country, gave people hope and helped the nation pull together. Similar to Reagan after Carter had us all in a funk. No matter what policies and statistics say, the mood of the country is very, very important. That is our biggest problem right now. President Obama is so erratically focused, and tends to be focused on the wrong things, that we Americans don’t have any confidence in our future. When people don’t feel confident they coccoon. They don’t start new businesses. They don’t borrow money and build rumpus rooms. FDR got people moving. He inspired Americans.
In the words of the almighty Sen. Blutarsky, ho-ly shi-tuh … ho-ly shi-tuh!!! About the Browns that is.
Eric, the spouse and I are in shock. It’s our Super Bowl. Really, the rest of the season doesn’t matter now. It was a great boost for the team and the fans. Josh Cribbs is amazing and I hope we can keep him.
Oh and as we say in Ohio, Pittsburgh s*cks.
The College Widow, the Browns deserve credit for the win, but let’s not forget these are the same Steelers recently beat by the Oakland Raiders, so keep it in perspective.
Stephanie,
I agree, he had guts.
He and McKinley put America onto the World Stage.
Stephanie,
I too admire Teddy. One of the tricky things with history is it’s very hard for us to avoid looking at it through the lens of our current times. I don’t think Teddy would have done half the things he did if he were alive today. I think he’d the huge, Federal bureaucracy would infuriate him and he’d be working very actively to dismantle it. Teddy was no slouch when it came to understanding the Constitution. Lincoln also gets a bum rap in this area. I believe both men were big fans of the founders’ principles, and the Constitution, but both men lived in times when the nation needed their “extra-Constitutional” forays.
It’s one thing to sit in a chair, in 2009, after FDR, LBJ, Nixon and Carter have expanded the Federal government into a monstrosity, and tsk, tsk at the writings of Teddy, but it’s another thing to put yourself back into the turn of the 19th century and examine what the country really needed at that time. Just as some of what FDR did would have been fine if it had been temporary, solely to deal with the crisis of the depression. Lincoln did intend his extra-Constitutional measures as temporary, and he did undo them as best he could, but less well-intentioned folks who followed him took advantage of his methods to bastardize the Fed.
In the TR vein I highly recommend two books… TR: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands and 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents by Pietrusza.
Thanks, David! It just didn’t seem lady like for me to do that. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
Rufus here; I deleted David’s comment. David, we love you here, but that was just a little too explicit.
@David — not for nuttin’, but ya may wanna get back to the boring academic stuff that impresses the stacks chicks, ’cause your trash talking needs some work. Observe…
Being the dual citizenship PA/OH guy (I only play the OH card when the Cleveland area’s involved — F Toledo), call it the Browns Super Bowl all yunz want. Can’t explain their mid-season funk to save my life, but Stillers have been to 7 big dances and lost only 1, plus still NFL Champs till next February at minimum. By the way, Ernest Byner and good night. (drops mic and walks off, stage-virtual)
I do indeed give the Steelers their due. Can’t deny they have those championships and I have my moments when I admire them despite being a Browns fan. I can’t help but respect Big Ben, Hines and Polamalu (or however he spells his name). They have built a great dynasty but even dynasties have their down moments.
Ernest Byner…OUCH!
Let’s just say anything can happen in the NFL and last night proved it.
As I think I mentioned, CW, being an ex-Bills guy, I have complete sympathy for the Browns, and I apologize for the Byner reference. Merely had to show David how to talk smack without resorting to the infantile (a shock from me, I know).
Wins like last night don’t mean a whole lot other than jockeying for position away from the likely bust of taking Tim Tebow first in the draft, but for that rivalry it means everything. Can’t remember which Browns player said it post-game (Cribbs?), but that 2.5 hour bus ride back to da ‘Burgh’s gonna feel a whole lot longer for the team that hasn’t had to endure one like it in a long time.
No offense taken over the Byner reference. It’s all part of the fun of rivalry! I can take it!
You’re right about last night’s win meaning nothing. It was merely a bright spot in an otherwise dismal season. I don’t really care much about having first draft picks…it’s not as though the Browns have done much with those anyway! The best players don’t seem to come from #1 picks.
Thank you, Stephanie.
I’ve not seen what you’re refering to, but the bundle in the fasces was usually made out of 12 elm sticks, generally white elm. It seems to have been a fairly common mediterranean symbol for group unity – a similar thing shows up in the Bible in one place – but the Romans thought up the whole “Axe” thing.
I generally describe myself as a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican,” in that he was conservative, but not adverse to experimentation, and he was a populist who didn’t allow himself to be dictated to by the rabble. He tried an awful lot of things, not all of which worked, but he ditched the ones that didn’t and kept the ones that did. He basically gave us the 5 day/40 hour work week, was honest to a fault, hurt the mobs, and was very pro-middle class. Basically the greatest president of the 20th Century, and the guy who sent the whole 20th Century on its way.
It’s easy to forget what a tumultuous time his presidency took place in, because it was so long ago, and we don’t have endless documentaries about it like we do the FDR presidency, but there was an economic panic going on, a rising tide of organized communist and anarchist violence, international tension, an ongoing Vietnam-styled war in the Philipines (That no one ever talks about, but which basically went on until the geurillas allied themselves with the Japanese and forced us out in WWII FORTY YEARS LATER), massive graft and corruption, racial tension beyond believing – the country was in a serious mess at the time. And, yes, he basically did put us on the world stage, as was mentioned above.
Is it wrong that I like him primarily because he had a lot of kids and played with them, running through the White House at times? I also like his big stick attitude. He really understood that what kept us safe was having a kick ass military that will kill you in your sleep at Christmas if we need to.
Think the band I used to manage said it best about Teddy: “I’m an American, no hyphenation!” You wanna be a Irish/African/Italian/Chinese-American, congratulations but your prefix-of-choice has a better need for you if you if you choose not to assimilate to the greatest land of opportunity in existence. Progressive faults aside, damn I love that Teddy bastard for that sentiment!
Ditto on TR, Eric. Tracy, you can like Teddy all you want. There’s no shame in it. It’s easy to look back on someone like him from our place in time and be critical. I can’t say I know enough about his progressive views BUT perhaps he’d take a different view if he saw where those policies and philosophies took his country.
Yeah, that appeals to me, too. Also that he boxed. I’m pretty sure he was the only president who boxed while in office. Also that one time he accidentally threw Alice out a third-storey Whitehouse window while playing football indoors. (She landed in a tree, and was basically unharmed) There’s a pretty funny story around that one, actually.
I love that TR was a real man. I admire him for once being a sickly youth and then becoming a he-man. Thanks for the story about Alice!
Ok, well, here’s the Alice story: TR and the kids were playing football on the third floor, and Teddy tackled Alice a bit too hard and sent her out the window, where she landed in a tree. Scared hell out of him and her, but none of them wanted to stop playing football, so he had bars installed around all the third-floor windows. No one noticed at the time, and of course he didn’t give a press conference about it or anything, unlike today.
Time passes, and Woodrow Wilson is president. After his stroke, the administration obviously tried to keep it quiet, so all the public knew was that Wilson wasn’t seen in public anymore. A rumor was spreading that he’d gone insane and was being kept on the third floor, and people pointed to the never-before-noticed bars on the windows. On one occasion, reporters cornered Alice and asked her about the insanity rumor, which she hadn’t heard about, and of course they cited the bars. She busted out laughing and told the whole story of the football mishap to the increasingly chagrined reporters, and that was the end of the rumor then and there.
Didn’t his kids bring a horse upstairs too?
Hey, what a man does in the privacy of his own house with a horse is none of my business.
VP Thomas Marshall said when Roosevelt died in his sleep: Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”