Love in a Time of Dementia
The faces of the two old actors at the center of this film tell you so much.
Why I Don’t Have an Opinion on How to Resolve the Debt Crisis
1.) I don’t understand economics very well. (Even economists don’t seem to understand it very well, but that’s another story.)
2.) Therefore, in order to form an opinion I would need to depend on others’ explanations.
3.) The normal procedure is to get the explanatory basis for one’s opinions, and often the ready-made opinions themselves, from the “side” that you group with or agree with or share a worldview with. But I don’t group with or agree with or share a worldview with anybody, except perhaps for others who don’t group with or agree with or share a worldview with anybody.
4.) All the sources of information, explanation, and opinion on this issue seem filtered through . . . I was going to say “ideology,” but no, not even. They’re all filtered through a political agenda. It’s all about capturing the presidency in 2012, and how close the country can be pushed to the edge without going over, and who can be successfully blamed for the terrifying near miss (or, if we do go over some edge, who can be blamed for the catastrophe).
5.) Even though I agree with those who say our profligate ways have to end and that everyone will have to make some sacrifices, I will be very surprised if our new financial ruling class, those Chinese acrobats who keep the mesmerizing markets spinning with their feet above the fray, is included in “everyone.”
6.) I can’t stand Obama’s voice, and I can’t stand Boehner’s voice. I don’t hear a shred of sincerity in the calculated posings of any of them. I’m a dropout from politics because I have gone beyond ambivalence to equal-opportunity loathing. Or shall we say global loathing. Like global warming.
7) My late next-door neighbor Mamie Harmon, who used to say she lived through the Depression largely on bananas, once exclaimed that what this country needs is another Depression. Is that the only thing that will squeeze the bullshit out?
Lambchops
George and Gracie start and end this breaking the 4th wall and talking to us from 1929…
If Harry Potter Grew Up to Be a Travel Agent
(from a 1981 notebook of mine)
Who ever visited the horizon? That would make a great travel brochure, à la Donald Evans:
________HORiZON________
. . . you’ve seen it from afar . . . now, at last, discover its elusive delights . . . It’s living right on the edge in Horizon’s sophisticated night clubs . . .
(more? please continue.)
Survey Says…
Thought this 1939 Fortune magazine survey of public opinion was interesting. After looking at it, and some of the other survey questions and data also available at this webpage, there’s a lot that seems as familiar and debatable today as it was then.
New Words…
- activist, n: One who favors a more active policy; specif., in the World War, one who favored a more energetic action in prosecuting, or in taking sides in, the war.
- airplane, n: A form of aircraft, heavier than air, which is driven through the air by a screw propeller, and which obtains support by the dynamic reaction of the air against the wings. Airplane is commonly used to designate airplanes with landing gear suited to operation from the land. If the landing gear is suited to operation from the water, the specific term seaplane is generally used. Cf. SEAPLANE, below. Airplanes are classified as monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, quadruplanes, or multiplanes, according to the number of parts into which their main supporting surface is divided. The form airplane has been officially adopted by the United States Army and Navy, Bureau of Standards, etc.; aëroplane is still generally used by British writers.
- bootleg, v: a. To transport or sell alcoholic liquor in prohibited territory. b. To transport or sell anything illicitly, as uninspected milk. c. To transport, esp. to import, illegally; as, to bootleg aliens into the country
- cosmocracy, n: a. A government including the whole world. b. The people of the world, esp. when regarded as the source of government.
- Diesel engine, n: A type of internal-combustion engine in which the suction stroke draws in only air, which the compression stroke compresses so highly that the heat generated ignites the fuel (as crude oil), which is sprayed into the cylinder under high pressure.
- Great White Way: That portion of Broadway, in New York City, which centers around Times Square; — so called from its brilliant electric illumination. esp. of the theaters, at night.
- IQ: Abbr. Intelligence quotient.
- jazz, n: a. Music. A recent type of American music, esp. for dances, developed from ragtime by introduction of eccentric noises and negro melodies, and now characterized by melodious themes, dance rhythms, and orchestral coloring.
- movie, n: A moving picture or a moving-picture show; also, in pl., with the, moving pictures or moving picture shows as a class. Slang or Colloq.
- nucleus, n: Chem. a. a characteristic and stable complex or atoms to which other atoms may be variously attached. b. According to modern theories of the atom, a positively charged central part surrounded by revolving electrons.
- rayon, n: A glossy fiber, resembling silk, made by forcing cellulose through minute holes and drying the filaments in air or chemicals; also, a fabric woven from this material.
- sleeping Bag, n: A kind of large baglike receptable, of peltry, duck, blanketing, or the like, used by explorers, prospectors, hunters, and others for sleeping in outdoors.
- super: A prefix freely used in recent formations, after superman to signify a person, animal or thing which surpasses all or most others of its kind or class, as in power, size, or other characteristics; as super-dreadnought, supersubmarine, super-Zeppelin. Many of these formations on super-, however, are thus far occasional, or nonce uses only; as superace, superairplane, superbrute, superbuffoon, supercannon, superclown, superconscience, supercritic, superculture, superdetective, superdramatist, superego, supergoddess, supergovernment, supergun, superhorse, supernation, supernurse, superpatriotism, superpilot,superrace,superrifle, superservant, supersnob, superstate, superthing, superthtrill, supertramp, supertyrant, superwar, superwoman.
- windshield, n: A shield or screen of glass set in a metal frame, extending upward from the body of a motor car to protect the occupants from wind, rain, etc.
- Yuan, n: The monetary unit of the Chinese Republic, since January, 1914; also, a silver coin containing 23.98 grams of pure silver. It is equivalent to .644 of a haikwan tael, or .464 cents, U.S. Currency. Called also Yuan dollar.
Webster’s New International Dictionary (1927)
(Via The Atlantic)
California Calling…
California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation today requiring any on-line retailer with affiliates located in the state to collect the state’s sales tax on all purchases made by Californians whether or not made through those affiliates. Supporters figured the California market was too large for on-line retailers to disown their affiliates.
Amazon.com terminated the accounts of all 25,000 affiliate residents in the state today. Overstock.com terminated all of their affiliates in California as well. Amazon.com itself continues to have no physical presence in California, so the state isn’t likely to begin collecting sales tax on Amazon’s internet sales. 25,000 Californians lost an income source, however. That worked well, didn’t it?
FWIW, Associates aren’t the storefronts and other sellers seen on Amazon and other websites. Sales tax has always been collected on any sales by businesses and independent sellers physically located in California. Associates are more likely to be bloggers and others who don’t actually sell or stock anything. They earn referral fees (commissions) if someone clicks through from their website and makes a purchase from Amazon.com or any of its independent sellers. Commissions are reported to the state as taxable income.
Depending on one’s point of view, this is sad or humorous. This Los Angeles Times article seems clueless to me, but that seems to be the way things are at the state’s largest-yet-ever-shrinking newspaper.
Ambiance 
