Umberto D
The Bicycle Thief
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045274/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001120/
For the making of the film UMBERTO D, Vittorio De Sica found an unsophisticated and innocent school girl, Maria-Pia Casilio, an orphan girl from a small village, to act the little maid in 1st supporting role in the movie UMBERTO D, and she absolutely carries this film. In THE BICYCLE THIEF Enzo Staiola at the age of about ten, plays the young son who witnesses the humiliation of his father. Both movies are stories of pathos in post war impoverished Italy.
As often happens, the special interviews are the best part of many DVD movie experiences. In the case of the Criterion remastering of the title UNBERTO D, with it we get a quirky self narrated (this is my life), style biographical documentary. De Sica brings us a retrospective and personal introduction to the audience of his favorite collaborators, actors, producers and other notables. De Sica started as an actor in silent film and throughout his career related to his actors with a one-to-one coaching method, line for line, in every minute detail of reaction and expression to get his beautifully simple and "neo-realist" effects of unrehearsed spontaneity.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Maria-Pia+Casilio&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=1
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/umberto-d/121586
In his world of an Italian high society reconstructing itself after the nightmare of Fascism and war, De Sica glows as he emerges from the debris as, if not heroic at least a successful human being. He is the epitome of the suave, perfectly groomed and attired nobleman. He takes everyone he meets to be a friend, and kindly opens to them the most genial hospitality, and pertinent conversation. It appears De Sica found ways to avoid being co-opted by either the Fascist or NSDAP propaganda machines and made non-political innocent and unprovoking films during the war which offended no one and kept him out of trouble. He emerged from the disaster that was post war Italy as a magnetic force gathering a creative circle of talented writers and players and inventor of the neo-realist school of film making. If he had a core philosophy in life and in story telling it was one of simplicity and honesty and transparency. Italy needed a clear and honest self assessment to right the post war wrongs and his movies were made to cause the Italian people to see themselves without any pretense or illusions. As he moved on in his career his movies appear to have become less literal and more fanciful. Yet he served his purpose well.
Tonight's Feature
Joi Baba Felunath
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077775/
Hindi mystery in search of a stolen Idol. Satyajit Ray is the founder and classic force behind the film revolution on the Hindu sub-continent. His movies are often deceptively simplistic. Very low budget by western standards and acting sometimes amateurish. It is the beginnings of a new industry in India, with an almost documentary style. The exposure of the secret life in every caste of society, usually lyrical but sometimes shocking. Dialog is often amusing, with common English phrases and slang mixed in the native speech. These films are more educational insight into the time and place, rather than exercises in great story telling. The movie in question that I call the Mystery of the Ganesh (Idol) ) was a homage to Conan Doyle's Holmes stories with little touches such as doppleganger McGuffins, revelations of a criminal mastermind and disguises to entrap the sinister villain.
CASSANDRA'S DREAM
Stumbled on a new release film written and directed by
Woody Allen. Some of his recent work has been
made in London and he seems to have found a new
milieu "over there" in a region where societal degeneracy has been advanced to a fine art. Despite the decrepit
condition of his moral-ethical reputation he
continues with enough pull to get films made and
distributed. As a kind of semi-expat "Polanski" he
seems to have found his center and the latest
release "Cassandra's Dream" (the name of a sailing
yacht ), looks to be developing into a very well
written and perfectly executed story of moral
expediency on the level equal to his CRIMES AND
MISDEMEANORS of old.
Yes this is a 2007 made movie, not a new release. Hollywood entertainment, new releases world wide, are so dangerous to the psyche and reliably unwatchable that it is the exception rather than the rule that a recent film, post 1980, has any merit whatsoever. Well perhaps some DVDs make good drink coasters. We're not trendy here, so as movies are released then migrate to DVD and find their way to the $1 "borrowing" stack at the Public Library, I'll take the chance on a look-see. As to the decline, fall and partial resurrection of W. Allen, just another weird pervert in the movie business - whats new? As long has he continues to produce, on a rare occasion, something of value, I'll watch it. I may not pay much for it, but I'll watch it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795493/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097123/
Review
http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/12/28/jaqs-review-cassandras-dream-a-nightmare-of-choices/
I especially like the work of Tom Wilkinson (Uncle
Howard), who can be found everywhere from BBC to
Hollywood doing fine performances on may levels
with an admirable charming ease and alacrity.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0929489/
IT Conversations - Stack Overflow - Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky
These I.T. Conv "Stack Overflow" operatives are two of the supremely confident and well versed technicians found on the ITC WEBcast roster. They represent some of the best conversations found on ITC. Yet even that network of IT movers and cutting edge innovators and theorists can only be credited within their narrow channel of expertise. When I hear Phil Windley or Moira Gunn on various subjects that wander slightly outside of the narrow confines of digital tech, they often sound terribly biased and insecure as they take up and sustain the outrageously facile frauds of the radical Left, Politically Correct Theorizing and a general assortment of ditzy PC belief systems, such as the Climate hoax. Living on the edge of fear of criticism by the many "progressive" saints of rectitude. An existence rather similar to living under old fashioned oppressive puritan grinds. An interesting dichotomy - 19th socialist "Progressives" walking on the thin ice of doctrinal approbation. Real courage and independent thought is RARE. I guess this need for approval from some peer group, notwithstanding it's malevolent or self destructive ends, is the Human Condition. However it rubs the sheen off these kinds of "experts" so that their thin exterior does not overcast their foundational fragility.
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/
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Then you have the wunderkind such as George Lakoff -"cognitive linguist" and semanticist or, as I define his purpose, obfuscating double speaking huckster for the left. This guy is the most overbearing, interrupting, argumentative and insulting bore ever accidentally and erroneously made by human cellular division. If ever there was a justification for murder its Lakoff, the person Rush likes to ridicule by naming him "rhymes with..." (Jack-off). I'm sure part of his problem was the teasing and bullying insults he received in childhood about his name - what a joke. He insisted his name MUST be pronounced Lake-off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakoff
Pray tell - WHO DOES THIS GUY LOOK LIKE? Sorry about that, but you could go as Lakoff on Halloween Trick or Treat night, and threaten to harangue your victims with corrections of their implied underlying attitudinal meanings and errors of thought within their hidden semantic lexicon until your candy basket was full. Then tell them that giving you candy is a hidden hate reflex and a class distinction gilt reaction.
The Chomsky Lakoff theme is "how to block-intimidate- confuse- and crush opposing opinion to Progressive Philosophy and (recalcitrant 19th century Marxist) control of news and media". Ancillary codicil; how to shut down right wing media talk radio. The philosophical nuances are a nice decorative front.
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
Is Marxist Fantasy the Only Reality We Need (at gunpoint)?
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lakoff/lakoff_p1.html
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/iraq-and-the-betrayal-of-trust
Hilarious to listen to, but maddening. Read some of this guys articles and tell my what you think. Yes I've poisoned the water here, but when have I not? Lakoff is a Noam Chomsky disciple. Kind of like wearing a sign saying - I'm a horrid brain worm, just like that other parasite over there. The entertaining part of this is that higher academia is so besotted with weak impressionable dimwits that they accept these frauds as leaders in their fields, give them lifetime tenure to practice professional confidence gaming and intellectual flim-flam and bamboozling of the Lefty mutton herds. Id love to sit though some of these lectures, wouldn't you - what a hilarious kick. I'd need heavy tranks or heroin to do it but it'd be fun. The sad part is all the mayhem, intellectual damage and money they cause to be wasted.
These characters, Chomsky and Lakoff, are the current working epitome of Freud-Fraud, a side show carnival of Leftist hokum wending its way through the intestines of academic recognition to the eventual plop of realization - "hey this is a crock of Barbara Streisand" (BS). Why am I wasting my time with these delirious overbearing chitterlings? It took a century to get the Academic Wise Guys to recognize that three generations of professorial psychiatric cranks had ruined thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands?) of lives and polluted hundreds of medical tracts with Freud's demented irrational nonsense. I shall do likewise while they still live and advise taking these persons for the sideshow conjurers they are - end of story. Mercifully these two flatworms will never see the pop-culture acceptance that Freudian hip-slang has excreted.
Madness on the Couch
http://skepdic.com/refuge/dolnick.html
"The malignant effect of Freud's Theory..." Book Review
http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9302/reviews/vitz.html
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I'm listening to the church muzak bells as they gong - "Bringing in the Sheaves", or is it "Bringing in the Sheep"? As the term SHEEP became a derisive stab as religiosity they may have changed the lyric, not wanting to be associated with the imagery of the "sheeple" dupes of a controlling cleric as depicted in the pop-kultur. Is it sheep or (wheat) sheaves? I'll look it up.
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The testing of several AV products
Avast - PC Tools AV and AVG 8 all failed my requirements. AVG recent upgrade to v8 was an over-complex bloated disaster on my system and had to be removed. Avast was incompatible with PC tools Threatfire heuristics.
I've removed ClamWin, a sadly rude and incomplete product. The poor thing is so slow it could take 8hrs to scan this system. I had found PC Tools AV fairly satisfactory, but the weird anomaly of it's inability to contact the update Db killed it's chances. The pairing of PC tools AV and Threatfire seemed like a good idea. Very very strange.
I've settled on Comodo AV for now, until they finish the beta v2 program at least. The Comodo people are very competent and adept. It they commercialize the release candidate and opt for their annoying annual subscription payment plan, I'll have to drop them. I'm just not going to have nag notices and pay rent on software. The Comodo install and system analysis regime is extremely well done and confidence inspiring. The check every living EXE on the system when first installed and any unknowns are sent up in a pass-fail dialog for approval.
The Comodo AV scanner has a feature I really like called HIPS. This functions rather like the Vista User access Control, annoying to the careless impatient user but reassuring to the careful peoplr who take some trouble to remain Malware free. Highly recommended.
Here is the definition of HIPS from their help index:
New in Comodo AntiVirus Beta 2.0
Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) Application Control
The new Host Intrusion Prevention Systems enables a user to prevent and stop spyware and malware from ever being installed on their PC. With HIPS activated, the user is warned EVERY time an unknown application executable (.exe) attempts to run. If the application is not found in Comodo’s safe list database, the user is immediately alerted and prompted to allow or block this file from running. The user can also submit the application in question to Comodo for analysis and, in the case of a false positive, addition to the safe list. Comodo AntiVirus is continually updated with the latest list of safe files directly from Comodo servers.
Steve Gibson and Leo have made their first detailed exploration of Phorm / Nebu-Ad and similar ISP installed market tracking on the Security Now WEBcast. Unfortunately it is difficult to convey the true danger of these techniques in a technical discussion. This kind of interrupt and redirect I-net server query tracking is truly insidious evil and opens up an inherent weak point which is invisible to the end user. Installing contracted third party "services" at the ISP is an invitation for all kinds of abuses. We need some serious privacy legislation to block these insects. It may stimulate something I think is already necessary - transparent universal encryption of all browser traffic. I would like Firefox to encrypt all traffic. This will certainly be resisted by the FBI and Homeland Security. Dropping internet use altogether is not off my list of lifestyle choices.
One of the common problems at outdoor events photography is the contrast between shiny reflective surfaces and those areas in shade. I use a circular polarizing filter and mild fill flash as much as possible. Some car show shots remain very tricky. That white reflective plastic on some identification placards and the "glow white" paint on license plates are a plague. Its like having a mirror in the middle of a photo reflecting your fill flash. These surfaces may catch the sun or interior lights. You actually need to carry a black drop cloth to cover those license plates or in some cases the signs and markers. I always get a separate shot of the placards and signs. I do two or three close-up no flash angled shot of the placard to insure it fills the whole frame in sharp focus and does not pick up sun or light reflections. I even shoot placards using my own shadow to dampen reflections.
In the photo above, the area under the bonnet is lit by fill flash, yet the white wall tires remain in moderate contrast and the glare from chrome and windscreen is reduced somewhat by the polarizer. This is a very reduced resolution thumbnail for the purpose of this illustration but the full size photo allows a detail study of every part of the car.
I've been listening to discussions by pro-photogs
on Pixel Corps TWIP, and most of them who take
live event shots and outdoor nature and
opportunity shots carry only one filter, a top
quality circular polarizer. The problems of
setting white balance for indoor lighting is ugly,
literally and figuratively. I just don't
photograph in bad light. It is not that important
to me. When the photography begins to detract
from the experience of the place I'm visiting, I
just drop it.
This Week In Photography
This Week in Media
http://www.pixelcorps.tv/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/G9/G9A.HTM
Unfortunately the equip it takes to set-up an
indoor shot with poor light can't be carried in a
jacket pocket on an MC and frankly I just don't
bother with it. Great museums like the Henry Ford
Dearborn are so poorly lighted that I would take a
film company with banks of lamps and giant
umbrella reflectors to fill a 20x20 space with
light. Huge objects like the giant steam engines
just fade away into a murky infinity of smudged
shadows. Carriages made from lacquered wood and
leather soak up enough light to illuminate a ball
field. The typical convention hall with an indoor
Hot-rod show or New Car show is lighted with
combinations of overhead neon and merc and
incandescent - 200-300 points of light at all
angles messing up shots. The cars are thirty feet
below the lights in a relative darkness with
hundreds of annoying reflections repeated on every
glossy surface. That is why real pros get th big
bucks (maybe).
In fact I'm thinking of simplifying and turning
back to a very high quality point and shoot like a
Canon G9 which many pro photogs carry as their
grab-shot spare camera. I want more-or-less
"thoughtless" photography where I only have to
subsume myself into the composition and not worry
about exposure and depth of field.
My naming conventions keep all associated photos
sorted together in a folder so the shot of the
sign or placard is always included in a series
sequential to the car it describes. I use an
initial and number series to describe time and
place, then the name of the mfg, then year &
model, then coach maker, then body style, then
detail of the shot. I can sort any makes and
models or anything I shot at any particular event
or location, or search by year etc. individual
car series come up in sets including the signs and
placards. It is critical to have this kind of self
sorting convention as the memory fades into old age.
Gilmore Museum 2007, 1929 Duesenberg Model J dual
cowl phaeton, La Grande Union City Body, shot from
the left front.
CCCA07 Duesenberg 1929 J DC phaeton LagrandeUC LF
CCCA07 Duesenberg 1929 J DC phaeton LagrandeUC placard
Inserting photo dat into the meta-data fields is pointless because it won't sort in an ordinary folder. I suppose there are some proprietary utilities that can keep track of this. I'm sure the new GPS protocols will add some usability here and be enable sorting on time and place, but not by object. My naming conventions will sort an any folder hierarchy without proprietary tagging.
At some point equipment and software, like the
up-coming new Microsoft RAW protocol, will help
eliminate these problems for ill equipped
amateurs. Some super-powerful automated photoshop
action in combination with a camera mode setting
called "Lousy Museum RAW". Until then, photo sites
and archives will remain full of murky-glaring-ill
focused unrecognizable blots with the occasional
accidental perfect dramatic capture. Its about a
20:1 work to result ratio to get anything usable
and I'm too lazy and relaxed to make the effort.
Outdoor shooting static objet d'art like vintage
cars and architecture is about a 5:1 reward ratio
- pretty happy results usually.
The history of photography and motion video is one
of gradual independence from a prepared set and
bulky static equipment. We're getting there. The
problem is the camera cannot infer what is implied
in a shadow as can the human brain. We
unconsciously complete the image of a known or
assumed object in out minds even when we can only
see a portion of it. This condition adds drama
and artistic ambiguity to some photos but merely
leaves out critical information in others.
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As the Wrench Turns
This may be a non-starter. Zip and Zap have
little to say that is factual about anything.
They may appeal to a small segment that make the
tiny NPR audience seem large in their experience.
Their very specialized audience laugh at humor
based on the presumptive canards of the arch
Jacobins who believe their own legend of elite
infallibility. Yip and Yap's annoying self
deprecation is painfully false and is a cover for
incompetence. They would be much funnier had they
a grasp of automotive history and solid factual
understanding of the subjects they discuss. There
audience is a class who watch PBS who live in a
realm of frozen Leftist stereotypes initialized in
the 1960s.
There is a superb British automotive series called
TOP GEAR which has been on BBC for about a decade.
It is supposed to be due for Americanized
syndication on NBC. I can only imagine how an
irreverent, wildly humorous, utterly
disrespectful, thoroughly critical bunch of hard
drinking, hard driving Brits will adapt to a "no
criticism" detroit approved pablum adaptation
sqeezed between twenty minutes per hour of
insulting advertising.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA
PHILOSOPHY OF PBS CARTALK SNOIDS
Any foreign car is better than any American car
The car was invented by fascists (conservative capitalist entrepreneurs)
All cars made prior to 1995 should be destroyed except a few Volvos
All cars not Volvos should be destroyed
Auto racing, auto restoration, auto collecting, historic auto enthusiasm is a trivial mindless pursuit for dangerous ignoramuses who should be arrested and tortured. Stupid ignorance of these interests is a sign of advanced "progressive" enlightenment.
Mass transit must replace individual autos even if
it does not go anywhere
A few cars will be preserved for the convenience
of academics, social workers and auto mechanics
We love high fuel prices just like Europe - it cramps the insufferable conservative yokels and hot-rodders
Anyone not from the northeast elite corridor and educated as a liberal arts major is a non-person, to be exploited, possibly somewhat amusing but to be largely ignored
SUV and PU Truck owners are criminals and should be shot in the basement of the Lubyanka
CARTALK CALLERS;
are social workers, teachers, veterinary
assistants, Nat'l Park guides, lesbian
Episcopalian clerics and mental defective welfare
drop-outs
give their cars cute names
cant find a hole in a donughnut or walk and chew gum
converse with their pets
are confused by Newtonian physics - the difference between momentum, inertia, gravity and centrifugal force
are experts on tarot, astrology and Zoroastrianism
Pip and Dip the Humbug Brothers can't help callers with their car maintenance, but can advise them on massage therapy, colonics, whoopie cushions and plastic turds
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Tonight's Movies
(8-1-08)
Double feature DVD - Heady Lamar
DISHONORED LADY http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039324/
STRANGE WOMAN http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038990/
Still available from Netflix on DVD
ECSTACY http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/
These are trivial Sat matinee women's fantasy pieces, yet an amusing change of pace. Heady was
quite a looker. She was born in Austria and hated
Hitler. She and her piano composer boyfriend
George Antheil, created the concept (and patented)
the frequency "hopping" encryption (anti-jamming)
guidance system for radio controlled torpedos and
bombs. Yes for our side, WW2. This stuff cracks
me up no end. She does a full frontal nude scene
in one of her earliest movies, Extase 1933.
Read the excellent history/biog of Lamarr and Anteil at INVENTIONS.ORG
http://www.hedylamarr.org/hedystory5.html
http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html
Hedy Filmography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/
She had a supporting role in the Steinbeck -
Victor Flemming - Spencer Tracy TORTILLA FLAT.
She also had a role in SLAUGHTER ON TENTH AVENUE,
but her scenes were deleted!?? This film was an early Walter Mathau work, with Dan Duryea.
Possibly the greatest dramatic sound track of any film, in my opinion equal to any Gershwin or
Copeland modern orchestral piece. Music was from
a Rogers Ballet - SEE BELOW
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http://www.answers.com/topic/slaughter-on-tenth-avenue?cat=entertainment
Though Slaughter on Tenth Avenue's background
music relies heavily on the Richard Rodgers
composition of the same name, the film itself
bears no relation to the ten-minute ballet for
which Rodgers wrote the piece. Instead, this
Albert Zugsmith-produced crime meller attempts to
expose waterfront union racketeering. In trying to
solves a murder on the docks, deputy DA Richard
Egan runs up against the stevedores' code of
silence. It also dawns on Egan that his own boss
(Sam Levene) shows little interest in pursuing
justice in this instance. The DA is finally able
to mount a case, but at the crucial courtroom
moment he may have to pull out due to lack of
evidence--a lack engineered by crooked boss Walter
Matthau, who has several local politicians in his
pocket. A last-minute dockside battle enables Egan
to bring the racketeers to justice. Slaughter on
Tenth Avenue was based on New York district
attorney William J. Keating's memoirs The Man Who
Rocked the Boat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Yesterday's surprise discoveries. A DVD from Public Library contained several 50s TV detectives
Craig Stevens PETER GUNN (Blake Edwards Writer Creator Driector)
Gene Barry BURKES LAW
David Janssen RICHARD DIAMOND PRIVATE DET
And a Bulldog Drummond English mystery and a fantastically funny sarcastic and well acted Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong. Detective!!! Absolutely the
whole cast was lit up and haveing a whopping good time - HILARIOUS ON PURPOSE with underplayed supporting roles rich with sarcastic humor by Maxine Jennings and George Lloyd
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mrwong.php
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000472/
MR. WONG DETECTIVE
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030473/
Here is a comment from one of the writers to the Bangkok Post Bag from todays paper (approx June 20)
"ENOUGH ALREADY; I'M SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING SOME AMERICANS TALK ABOUT DEMOCRACY AS
IF IT WERE A MESSAGE FROM GOD THAT ONLY THEY CAN HEAR AND INTERPRET. THEY HAVE BECOME AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE CIVILISED HUMAN BEINGS OF THE WORLD AND I HOPE THEIR ECONOMY, MILITARY AND POLICICAL SYSTEMS COMPLETELY FALL APART AND COME CRASHING DOWN ON THEIR HEADS.
SIGNED: SICK AND TIRED"
The statement in the Bangkok Post in abhorrence of American style "democracy" gets one to thinking. Of course we all know so-called "democracy" (representative bicameral parliament and variations), is a rare historical experiment. This is strictly a modern condition. Some historians and demographers point out we are at a peak high for numbers of nations engaged in this new form.
We are simultaneously at a peak for dissolution
and ethnic or factional rebellion. Residual
frictions remain from the age of colonial empire
which sewed disparate tribes and cultures together
involuntarily. Even the Trans Dniester / Moldova
situation trends toward enfranchised self rule
although many of the throwback ex USSR colonies
contain a radical faction of USSR regurgitators.
Much of the problem is language and culture
related with Slavs rejecting Romanians. Need I
mention Christians vs Muslims? Georgia and
Ukraine have maintained some core independence and
democratic structure, but Belarus and Kazakhstan
have retrenched. Though a bright and bustling
economy has broken out in Russia, politically it
is a sad and dangerous place. Most happily India
has gradually reversed its experiment with Soviet
style central planning and is thriving.
Still, most peoples of the world are not open
minded or open hearted and confident enough to accommodate active dissident factions and enclaves
or compromise on certain ethnic power struggles
and violence is always near at hand. Foolishness
is never in short supply and abject hatred of
America's role as democratic exemplar and guiding
hand is a confounded foolishness beyond
redemption. Think about it. The USA is a
phenomenal example to the world. Yes we borrowed
some Dutch, Swiss and English ideas and inspired
Italy, Germany the Nordic nations and even eastern
Europeans to experiment.
The French terror was an unfortunate turn of
events, but France has taught the world lessons in
Evil for centuries. The Czars of Russia modeled
their courts and feudal repression on French
medieval practice. France brought high culture
and aristocratic excess to a fine art. They
largely invented the modern police state with
Napoleon, and inspired the Commune and
totalitarianism further fueled by the 19th century
industrial age insanity of Marx and Engels.
What the writer in the Bangkok Post is probably
only half able to articulate is a hatred for
American super-corporate dominance in world trade.
I share some sympathy in that regard. There is
too much to be said about that to be included in a
modest weekly post. One could only hope that
moderating changes evolve in corporate business
structures, and the machinery of cultural
annihilation, aggressive marketing practices. What
corporate masters desire as universal productivity
and uniformity, I find repulsive. A sudden
turnabout against this trend is a very unlikely
outcome as corporate globalism continues to generate short term profits
that corporations prefer at the cost of long term cultural decline.
Mozilla FF3 has, because of complaints and
insistence of users, returned it's check box to
turn off default acceptance of 3rd party cookies.
An evil practice rife with potential malware and
annoyance potential. Very Good. You can click a
check box killing 3rd party cookies.
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NebuAd and Phorm
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/phorms-all-seeing-parasite-cookie/
Please download and listen to latest Security Now
WEBcast with Steve Gibson #149.
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
New intrusive tracking and marketing practices and services are on the horizon. Services like PHORM will be contracted by your ISP and all your internet searches and activity tracked at the ISP server level. Without your express permission or knowledge all your send-receive files and commercial traffic (except that which is encrypted), will be sniffed and filtered for key words and you will be fed advertising to match your "interests".
The company now called PHORM was once called 121 Media, which developed root kit spyware that commandeered victims computers with impossible to erase advertising engines and unwanted home page and browsing adverts.
http://www.itpro.co.uk/179484/think-tank-calls-phorm-intrusive-and-illegal
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1275
Pro-Marketing Site
http://www.marketingvox.com/phorm-comes-out-rosy-on-concerns-over-ripa-037929/
Several intrusive ISP "interception" marketing plans are on the boil for near future introduction as an income stream for ISPs. Some are more-or-less legal, but the end user advocates insist they be defaulted to opt-in choices rather than opt-out. Opt-out means they are installed on your account by default and you have to jump through customer service hoops to get them removed. Keep ahead of this at Security Now in the next two weeks.
BOUMEDIENE vs. BUSH, and HAMDI vs. RUMSFELD - Habeus Corpus for non-uniformed terrorists, saboteurs and combatants.
These Documents Presented in the Name of USA Hating Left in league with Ruminating Bovine Gas Passers in the Supreme Court.
Excerpts from dissent - Scalia / Roberts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030105/posts
This legal document is extremely dense, complex and contains all precedents and citations in support of Scalia Dissent. Justice Antonin Scalia's Dissent: Boumediene v. Bush
By Steven Foley - Posted on June 13th, 2008
http://theminorityreportblog.com/blog_entry/steven_foley/2008/06/13/justice_antonin_scalia_s_dissent_boumediene_v_bush
Previous but similar case
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasul_v._Bush
Scalia's Previous Dissent on Gitmo
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-03-26-scalia-guantanamo_x.htm
Other Related Documents
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/06/29/rulings_afford_detainees_their_day_in_court?pg=full
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/07/15/scalias_dissent_gives_signing_statements_more_heft/
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=06-1195#dissent1
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13370
Justice Scalia
"What competence does the Court have to second-guess the judgment of Congress and the President on such a point? None whatever. But the Court blunders in nonetheless. Henceforth, as today's opinion makes unnervingly clear, how to handle enemy prisoners in this war will ultimately lie with the branch that knows least about the national security concerns that the subject entails."
Some Background - Wars Of European Royal Houses
Under "rules of war" (since the "enlightenment" of the Renaissance) non uniformed irregulars are considered saboteurs and spies and generally summarily shot or hanged. Prisoners might be given a chance to join opposing forces or be converted in religious orders if it was a religious war. Officers and nobles were often given parole except in religious wars where they might suffer a fate more cruel than the simple infantryman.
Wars Against Tribal and Barbarian Hosts
These were generally wars of extermination on the part of each opposing force, but even Atillas armies were often satisfied with tribute, loot, slaves and women and left many cities intact. The Turks wanted taxable properties, political and agricultural entities left as functioning additions to the Empire, notwithstanding a little ad hoc torture, pillage and rapine.
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b3atilla_p1dz.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila_the_Hun
Only in the "enlightened" and all too humane USA army are non-uniformed religious fanatic prisoners given counsel and tried by Army tribunals. The customary procedure is that ordinary POWs are kept until cessation of hostilities. It is not a fault or in any sense a lack of common decency on the part of the West that the Jihad is eternal and forever and populated with fanatics. In fact it is a weakness that these sworn killers are allowed to live at all.
Because ordinary and traditional ruthless measures WERE NOT TAKEN and these prisoners were ALLOWED TO LIVE, they will now be seen as a weakness and used as a leverage point by the disloyal opposition. As always the lawyers have found a way to use our humane careful and lawful practices to undermine military effectiveness and public safety.
Some prisoners from Guantanamo have been released because the Army was convinced they were harmless or inadvertent captives. In many such incidents these released individuals have returned to the battlefield and have killed allied soldiers, have been killed or acted as suicide bombers.
Treatment of POWS by Other Nations
The practice of Stalin and the North Koreans and Maoist Chinese was to execute returned prisoners as they had been tainted with bourgeois individualism. It was assumed they would be forever unreliable. It may be that returned or released prisoners are suspect in the minds of their controllers and Mullahs, and must prove themselves martyrs to protect their families.
My interpretation of the ruling as a tactical field commander would be to quit taking prisoners, to interrogate and liquidate in the field. If judges are to interfere and endanger military effectiveness over specious theorizing they actually force commanders to at least consider illegal but effective expediencies. Can you imagine taking prisoners of men having set IEDs and killed troopers, have them released by layers and civil judges to return and kill more of your men.
As usual the Left will wreck a practice or tradition refined over several millenia and force a worse circumstance that causes a breakdown and a general confusion. A practice refined by military tradition based on pragmatic common sense is unjust by definition in the mind of a radical leftist. Such a practice must be politicized to fit an idealized theory and restructured or erased.
If you read the analysis of the purges and terror of Stalin he was always explaining himself as a sculptor of men and society and that the human collective must be shaped using terror and forced into a new uplifted socialist norm. Of course he was a madman as are most of these Societal sculptors and theoreticians like Mao, Hitler, Stalin, PolPot. Likewise our idealist judges.
You are taking the rational look at this case examining arguments on both sides. In my view the base of this is emotional, like an old vicious personal opinion looking for an opportunity. It is a lurid and sensational leap, without legal merit.
In my view the only argument is to expedite defeat of the enemy and insure the experiment in individualistic high civilization in the West, survives. Prior to these two rulings BOUMEDIENE v. BUSH, and HAMDI v. RUMSFELD court decisions were made expressly to insure they continuation of the civil juris prudence on which the existence of the
court depended. In other words a few more personal revenge rulings of this kind and it will become a court of ignorant hateful Mullahs, not legal scholars.
Speaking the obvious; that we are in this position due to the bungling Rummy-Bush underwhelming petit-force operating mode. Anyone weaponizing in a battlefield is assumed to be friend or foe and these are foe. Yes they should have been imprisoned, shaved put in striped pajamas, with no privileges whatsoever, and de-nazified.
More importantly than the strained legalese they are trying to squeeze out of this dried husk, the underlying psychology smells like the courts shivering and beseeching the enemy and saying: please sir, don't hurt ME. We are your friends, kill the other guys. That is what it feels like, looks like, smells like to me, if I squint at it and hear the little whingey voice in the shadows. I know that sounds preposterous, but I think we have a psychology of abject apologia working feverishly uner the robes, saying they are seperate and distant from GWB or aggressive nationalist executive action.
What do you want to bet 2-3 of the "justices" are thinking of a radical revenge impeachment rule on GWB? The other 2 or 3 just weak and confused and keeping their liberal halos polished. I don't think there is anything in law that explains this ruling. The legalese is there to cover up the real motive. I think it is political revenge and part of a future set-up against conservatives and the right to make war by the executive. Especially war against "scary" terrorists. The
court seems to have already been terrorized.
The courts have been chipping away at legislative and executive power for a century. It is as though there were a natural tendency to devolve the courts into a rule of high priests of the Utopian-Socialist religious order. The courts are
the warhead of the left in its destruction of representative rule and balance of powers. Lets hope the court is in session when Mohammad's suitcase goes off. Replacement justices chosen in the heat of a glowing crater will of necessity be
of a belligerent caste. Sounds like an weird fantasy I know. That will at least give us respite while we prosecute the resulting war. I think we can predict the "civilizations end in a whimper" outcome if this trend of puny-half measures and "diplomacy" takes it natural course to defeat.
This decision is a disastrous wrecking ball blow to the constitution and the notion of legal citizenship and an invitation to all pirates, terrorists and mass murderers that these USA borders are a non-entity and ripe for invasion, loot and rapine. I can't wait to see the next episode - colonies of foreign nations established in American soil? Iranian Judges trying USA Military Generals? Exaggeration? Think of the possibilities.
Iowa Floods have ruined a huge percentage of corn syrup and silage crop destined for diabetes generating feed-lot beef and corn syrup. I wonder who made a killing holding contracts on a corn shortage? Gonna be a great bonus for somebody.
We've had ordinary spring rains in much of Indiana, not too severe, but some mild flooding, and now looking for a cooling trend. 86deg today but starting Mon several days down to mid 70s and eve temps in low 50s. Ice age is a'comin'. Do you prefer cone or dome igloos?
Watching Rabndolph Scott Western HANGMAN"S KNOT, with prissy Donna Reed. Not much in it about Hangmen and I imagine the screenplay has little resemblance to the original story or book. Scott is always a good action man but has problems with his northern urban accent, almost a kind of Brooklynese, and then they cast him here as a Confederate Officer. Not convincing as a southern gentleman but still a good small unit leader and tactician. Beats the hell out of Lee Marvin at least twice and a supporting cast of some of Hollywood's best heavies and stunt men-cowboys. Good Job.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044683/
There is a good little BBC production, a typical BBC reverse (imorality) morality play called THE LAST HANGMAN. England used to have a single executioner for much of the Brit isles, though there must have been several working the colonies even after Ww2. The film goes into very nice detail on the job routine. England used to be a safe place, but now rampant with violent crime and corruption. Ethics and procedures of old Hangman position was pretty high standards. No messy situations like electric arching and burning or chemical screw ups from failed injections. Hangman had to calculate drop length acording to weight of subject so as to keep head on. The authorities and polticos kept the Hangman's identity a secret and the state gave him a disguised pay check based on a per capita (hah!) commission. On his day job Albert Pierrepoint was a cheerful publican.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462477/
UK is going through a "golden Age" of wealth and very strangely the per capita income of UK residents (except perhaps illiterate immigrants) is higher than ever, taxes and social services higher than ever, living costs higher than ever, london being fantastically expensive. It may have something to do with their own version of the high tech revolution and the fact that britain no longer contributs to, and hardly participates in war to maintain the freedom of the West. They have continually declining military budget and increasing welfare entitlements creating fat-lazy-indolent and weak population. They have created a "needy" beggardly welfare state and with no religious worship and little ethical education, falling non-replacement birth rate, so the system systains on a momentum of the past but is hollow. Shouold prove interesting.
Last netflix movie was a French Police-Gangster movie UN FLIC (A COP) of 1970 when paris Police and gangsters were using imported powerful fast USA sedans. Very good robbery plans and details, even an interesting shot of a police combat firearms training range. French Police and Sûreté (Political Secret Police) used to come to USA to get ideas on training and equipment. Many pro-Americans and WW2 vets still in charge through the 70s. Hilariously bad special effects using toy helicopters and model trains. Alain Delon as ruthless district chief inspector and two American actors Richard Crenna his crooked nightclub owning brother and Michael Conrad a jack of all trades getaway driver-heli pilot henchman. Cathrine Deneuve is the SEX interest - Delicious. Deneuve is equal in beauty, poise and sophistication to Grace Kelly. Director Jean-Pierre Melville is quite good at urban suspense tales, a genius at camera placement and telling visual story without intejecting dialog to explain situations. A pretty compelling story of greed, misplaced intellectual energy, and treachery. Lots of good shots of Paris and Clichy District popular nightspots and gaudy noisy all-night shops, "hotels", and restaurants. You watch enough French film and tyou get to know some districts lile Montmarte and Clichy, besides the obvious Champs
Un Flic 1947
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194483/
Un Flic 1972
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067900/
Michael Conrad - Hill Street Blues
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=michael+conrad&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=1
Catherine Deneuve
http://tinyurl.com/59auq4
Alain Delon
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=1&hl=en&q=alain+delon&btnG=Search+Images
Clichy - Pigalle
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=1&hl=en&q=clichy+district&btnG=Search+Images
Wonderful shot of Place de Clichy circa early 1930s- Now most likely an Algerian Hell Hole transformed from a quaint French Hell Hole.
http://www.terresdecrivains.com/IMG/jpg/Wepler.jpg
Avast Free Anti-virus Replaces bloated and muddled AVG8
I'm finally fed up with the bungled AVG8, returned to v7.5 and saw a deliberate refusal to update detection files, so I erased all traces of both pkg. Too bad, another company gone berserk. Their product is too complicated (even the crippled Free version) and has too many resident processes, slows down the PC, interferes with downloads and streams. It also will not reliably allow manual updates by either failing to turn off automatic updates (sometimes) and failing to update manually on demand (always).
Parts of the interface don't seem work. They have help forums that are only available through a weird "registration" process, which I have done twice and the password, login will not work and the last time attempted the new pass word was never sent. Are they trying to plant some tracking code on my system, because the registration does not work when in a sandbox (a good way to test this)? It feels like its trying to insert some files and cant find Win32 or some other location not available in the sandbox. I've wasted two hours with this AVG 8. Far too long for the dubious protection it might offer and the slowing down of browser and other symptoms. What nonsense. They presume everyone is on a 2Mbit or faster broadband link and will not notice the little games they are playing and crap they are installing. Another good reason to stay on dial-up is sensitivity to code bloat and crap injection.
Avast installed no problem. I loaded the minimum number of components to check internet mail and incoming or exe files and that all. I have Threatfire heuristic behavioral checks in parallel. With all my prophylactic measures in place I am very safe. Old Kerio4 Firewall also overlaps and checks behavior and incoming/outgoing files.
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BOR (Bill O'Reilly) had good show yesterday (6-12-08) on USA-Mex border "success". Well, we are half done. Two tattlers called in and reported the Border Patrol stations in Laredo and other southern ports are just waving people through. One lady said her husband is middle eastern truck driver who drives across border several times a month at different points and all guards do is ask him if he is USA citizen and no ID check. BOR is going to look into it.
My MEXICAN BUS RIDE program still stands - surplus city buses, prison buses, army transport buses and trucks - 2000 cities, two bus loads a week @ fifty person each vehicle per wk and we have ten million deported in five years. Actually much more than that but load start to thin out in a couple of yrs as illegals flee. We're Americans we can accomplish anything we have a will to succeed at, and border security and rule of law is one of the great priorities.
They will flood back to Mexico to avoid confiscation of assets and forced deportation. In Los Angeles Freeways are not jammed traffic flows freely on days Mexicans have holidays or political demonstrations and boycotts. LA residents are quite pleased to discover this defacto evidence of millions of degenerate illegal parasites cause much of the traffic congestion. The Mexicans made it apparent they are bankrupting state, stealing jobs, importing millions of criminals.
FYI - so far almost 4000 killed in Mexican drug cartel wars internally and near border. This in last two three yrs. Almost as many as entire decade occupation of Afghanistan-Iraq-Bosnia etc. This is what is in store for Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix if we have lax liberal policies and sanctuary cities. Be prepared. This is what Bumba Lumba (Obambi) brings to the picnic.
Alan Taylor at Car and Driver Radio expresses loud and vociferous objection to his $800 Oregon to Calif commute fuel bill @$4.00+ per gallon. Car and Driver Radio originates from a studio in the Petersen Auto Museum, Los Angeles CA.
http://www.radioamerica.org/PRG_caranddriver.htm
http://www.petersen.org/
Alan Taylor and C&D crew;
I think we would be better served to seriously consider the facts in the oil-fuel-refinery flub-a-dub, as opposed to loud and ineffective rants. For one thing a substantial segment of your local audience and many of your I-net audience don't speak or understand English with any confidence. Secondly, about 30-40% of English speaking citizens (semi-literate nincompoops mostly un-educated in public schools) will most often vote Liberal-Socialist. Lib-socialists depend on continued unsolved crisis for gaining greater and greater political power over individuals. They are idealizing "international environmental" solutions - pie-in-sky idiocy that is calculated to cost 45 trillion dollars (and not produce a single additional drop of fuel).
Calif and many other areas are inundated with sub-literate aliens from nations which are either socialist or police states (the next stage beyond initial socialism). They think Gov't is the be-all end-all arbiter of quality of life and manager of material goods. Allowing in a flood of alien welfare dependents and wrecking the school system so that even American kids in public schools don't learn history and self reliance is the root of the problem you are dealing with. This is a worsening problem that will sustain itself for at least two more generations even if we made emergency corrections in the education system today. We could easily protect the borders but neither of the remaining presidential candidates have any serious interest in doing so. Stupidity Votes.
You're sitting in a studio populated by the Movie Car Guy and the Piloti Shoe guy, and Mr. Dick Messer (Museum Director). These people, nice and conversational as they may be, don't give a hoot in any serious way about a self sustaining, strong and traditional America. They are steeped in in internationalist politics and think we need to suck-up to the Europeans to legitimize our existence. They are infected with Hollywood new-age politically correct (superiority complex) celebrity disease. Adopting pop-culture twaddle such as the Global Warming hoax, the cap-and-trade carbon credit hoax, makes them think they are "good people" when they are actually working with socialist termites who are deliberately wrecking the system. You can measure intelligence by watching a man sublimate common sense, patriotism and long term well being to quick profiteering and association with "celebrities".
Influential voting citizens like these have control of the economics and enviro-regulation in USA. They are living in a fantasy and will cause a lot of hardship and destruction (and probably a world Nuc war) before reality bites them and wakes them from their myopic aloof attitudes. A strong well educated America would marginalize and ignore such people, and opt to use our own resources to sustain us through a transition of about 50yrs. We have plenty of oil and nat'l gas for that eventuality. During the transition we can develop an infrastructure for something like hydrogen electrolysis production from water and remain self-sustaining and militarily strong through the whole process. We have to see this as a military and national security imperative.
With a population made up of semi-educated, shouting, boob-tube perpetual adolescents (sound familiar - look in mirror), we are not going to sober up and attack the problem and build a better future as our grandparents did through the depression and two world wars. With state and Fed institutions and political parties controlled by immature, systematically destructive pro-gov't liberals, we are going to remain stalled in a deeper and deeper delay in correcting this problem and continued gov't regulatory interference in a market place that could (if allowed), rapidly R&D an alternative fuel system. The oil companies have absolutely no interest in reducing the oil cartel manipulation of prices. Nor do they have any direct responsibility for production shortfalls - the politicians and enviro-cranks have caused the current impasse which may eventually be catalyst to a catastrophic inflation. The oil companies have come to the conclusion they can stop resisting, just go limp and submit to the Feds and profit from Liberal leftist stupidity, greed-head lobbyist, and speculative distortion of the market. Nor do they have any intention of participating in this quest for hydrogen. THEY ARE IN THE OIL BUSINESS -DUMMY.
The depression our grandparents survived was NOT solved by Gov't (as the Libs like to propagandize), but CAUSED BY GOV'T INTERFERENCE in a normal market correction of excess speculation. WW2 production got us out of depression NOT Roosevelt incompetence. We can produce ourselves out of a recession or depression or a fuel supply transition, IF the population is dedicated to a national effort. Our population is fragmented into ethnic and poltical factions, most of which are unable to understand the problem or too greedy and self serving to pay attention. Most want the Gov't to fix it but the gov't is made up of incompetent corrupt self-serving beetles who only want to assure job security and dept growth. A house divided and tax bankrupted will fall.
Taylor, You drive nearly a 1000 mile round trip commute? I hope you only do this once a week. How does this work out to be $800 in gasoline? 10mpg x 1000 miles = 100gal x$4 = $400. Do you do this twice a week? I have to join with the rich oil company execs in laughing at you for doing this. I moved to a small town and drive approx 10-20 miles a week, and sometimes take a trip of about 100miles round trip two or three times a year. I ride an old Honda 900MC @45MPG for long trips. A few years ago I took two yrs off and did an RV tour of USA and spend about $6-$7K on gasoline (5-8MPG Ford 460) @$1.80-$2.25 per gal. RV travel is another form of idiocy - I'll admit that. Rip-off RV parks and Rip-off mechanics convinced me to stay at home or drive a car or MC to motels in future. I drive a Cadillac coupe (25MPG) and run rings around 5000lb "sports trucks" and especially like to leave them far behind going up mountain passes like the Truckee pass, the Battle Mountain Pass (GA) and the Vail Rockies Passes (Colo) and always had a good laugh at the notion of trying to go fast and corner fast with a huge over weight top-heavy monstrosity. Where do these kinds of ideas come from?
