The Remarkable History of "We the Living"

Andrew Leigh on Breitbart's Big Hollywood reviews a remarkable DVD, released just in time for the holiday season.

The question is, what is not extraordinary about "We the Living"? The story itself, written by Russian born American author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), the prehistory of the original film - shot in Mussolini's Italian Social Republic in 1942 and banned for its critique of collectivism, or the release of the 1986 version or now, the DVD?

"We the Living" is Ayn Rand's first and most personal novel, first published in 1936, a work which is "as near to an autobiography as I will ever write", she's on the record as commenting.

The novel is set against the background of the Russian Revolution. It tells the story of three people who see through the lies of the parallel reality that the Communists had erected, defy the power of the collective state, and demand to live their own lives, pursue their own happiness.

It laid the groundwork for the integrated theory Rand called Objectivism, which may be summed up as the Ethics of Capitalism.

Another work, "Atlas Shrugged" is still inspiring many liberty loving people today. At the bursting of the dot com bubble sales of the book sharply increased. At the height of the subprime mortgage crisis it ranked #33 among Amazon.com's top-selling books.

- "We the Living" (1942) IMDb page
- "We the Living" (1986) IMDb page
- Review on The Atlasphere by Andrew Leigh

The Neo Fascist Approach to Humanity

What say you? This is a real winner, isn't it? Uplifting and a edifying. The horror of it is, these nihilists know very well the memes of this stuff find their through the culture, into people's minds, spreading their evil message. Ideas have consequences.



Brilovett on the Objectivist dating site Braincrave has an article up with a few gems on ecofascism. It's a "posthumous" interview with Ayn Rand. Here's one:

We don't need the government to protect the environment?

[Playboy 23] My position is fully consistent. [Obj 977] In the Middle Ages, man's life expectancy was 30 years. If it were true that industry is destructive to human life, one would find life expectancy declining in the more advanced countries. But it has been rising steadily. Anyone over 30 years of age today, give a silent "Thank you" to the nearest, sootiest smokestacks you can find. (...)

Read it all >>>



from member:

In Memoriam: an Icon

Died today in Amsterdam at 76 - against the odds - Ramses Shaffy ...



Hat Tip: princessWhizz

Shaffy Cantate from beginning (1966) to end (October 26, 2009)

Combating the Crisis with the Frank Cunimondo Trio

Veterans Day with Norah Jones

On Politeia: Lest We Forget ...

The Most Beautiful of Them All

Some commentators just can't quite make their minds which is the most beautiful black tulip ever.

On Thursday November 5 one hundred Ayaan black tulip bulbs were planted in the gardens of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. The tulip is named after politician and author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The naming of the flower took officially place in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Attended by Ayaan herself, a single bulb was planted in the grounds of the Met.

This is where inevitably, the postmodern bane of political correctness kicks in. 

The Rijksmuseum's director, William Pijbes, also present in New York took the opportunity to assert that open, vital societies - like the one of the Dutch Golden Era (17th Century) - cannot exist without the introduction of foreign elements. (What Pijbes and his ilk really advocate is the elimination of national identity).

Pijbes also proudly emphasized that the Rijksmuseum is a house in which independent spirits can flourish. (Yeah, repeating multicultural truisms is the mark of the autonomous mind!).

The Ayaan black tulip is a long dream come true for tulip growers. Various black tulips have hit the market, but according to grower Lydia Boots the Ayaan is the most beautiful black tulip ever.

In September 2006 Ayaan Hirsi Ali became a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Over the last decade or so Ayaan established her credentials as a well known Islam critic, specifically when it comes to the fate of women in Islam (see video). 

In 2004 she co-produced the film "Submission" with Theo van Gogh. He was beastly slaughtered on an Amsterdam street by radical Muslim, Mohammed Boyeri one year later. His assassination was commemorated just last Monday, November 2.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali when serving as a Libertarian MP, after relentless death threats and constant political bickering, finally fled the Netherlands and settled in Washington.

She deserves every honor of having this politically correct feat of horticulture named after her, but Ayaan's beauty and valor are simply incomparable to anything they could ever produce.

Of Cultural Resistance, Child Abuse and Divided We Conquer

Big Hollywood has unearthed no less than 11 new Youth-for-Obama indoctrination videos of various qualities, styles and degrees of creepiness.

A few things they share however: inculcating in the young an adoration for the dear leader and an emphasis, not on their common humanity, but on what divides them.

Not a single moment are we allowed to forget that everyone belongs to a minority group, the postmodern equivalent of the class struggle. It can't be rubbed in often enough!

They never fail to point out the collectivist divide: black is juxtaposed to white, girls to boys, rich to poor, abled to disabled, the list is endless. It is how Progressives rule. It is nevertheless a by-product of another fallacy.

In"Why Multiculturalism is Racist and Evil" we explained how that works:

"Polylogism (here defined, and here seen in postmodern action) is a form of collectivist (group)  subjectivism that also produced the National Socialist racial theories. A postmodern term for polylogism is multiculturalism.

A people, racial or cultural group is seen as having to follow its own particular destiny apart from the rest of humanity (...) The irrationality of multiple 'logics' apart, this form of self-determination negates universalism and is in fact racism, with apartheid as a direct consequence.

Universalism endows the human race as a whole with basic rights, as poetically summed up in the American Declaration of Independence: (...) "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The most dangerous aspect in this particular instance of exploiting children for political reasons is that no one on the Left seems to be aware of any moral problem! Or do they, but do they carry on nevertheless, perhaps because the aim justifies the means? Another instance of "our collective goalis so much higher than a few individuals!"



I went into this over a year ago, in October 2008 in a post entitled "The Comprehensive Guide to Youth for-Obama" when the Presidential campaigns were winding down:

"To begin with, children of any age as a rule are innocent, vulnerable and impressionable. This is why we strive to shield them from predators and exploitation. Doses of reality are administered piecemeal in a controlled fashion, carefully dispensed when we believe they are able to handle a given situation.

Children lack the mental tool to discriminate, and are therefore open to suggestion. Precisely because their minds are like sponges, soaking up all information that's available to them, the totalitarians of our world prefer their pawns young, at the earliest age possible."

By coincidence it has transpired that the source of the Obama PropArt was the National Endowment of the Arts' (NEA) incestuous involvement with the administration; would suggest one of our intrepid new media reporters sheds his pajamas and starts ferreting into the possibility of equally inappropriate relations with someone in the dear leader's office with the National Teachers Union (or something) (tip: why not try Buffy first?).

Now enjoy the B-Cast's dealing with "V" (apparently the new "O" ... who could've thought! so much independent thinking!) and the 11 Youth-for-Obama nuggets.



Related dossiers:

- "The Dialectics"

- "Socialist Causes Explained"

"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington"

In honor of Doug Hoffman and individual patriots like him ...

"Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", posted with vodpod
Details of this 1939 film Frank Capra film on IMdB. Starring the one and only ... James Stewart! The story is shockingly relevant!

A Relevant Anniversary: "Time for Choosing"

Mission to Moscow: A Very Short History of PropArt

Barack Obama's intimate relations and conference calls with aspiring artists at National Endowment for the Arts may come as a shock to purists, it is anything but a novelty!

New York Post: "To Russia with love", by Lou Lumenick

The lost film that shows how Hollywood — and Washington — embraced the Soviets

On Christmas Eve, 1942, screenwriter Howard Koch was packing for a trip to New York when he received an urgent summons to meet with his bosses, Warner Bros. founders Harry and Jack Warner.

After thanking Koch for his contributions to “Casablanca,” which had opened a month earlier, the moguls ordered a reluctant Koch, as his patriotic duty, to whip out a script for an unusual pro-Soviet propaganda epic to be directed by “Casablanca” helmer Michael Curtiz.

“Mission to Moscow,” which arrives on DVD Tuesday (at warnerarchive.com) after decades in obscurity, turned out to be Warner Bros.’ most notorious production, an eye-catching jaw-dropper labeled by a critic as a “$2 million love letter” to dictator Joseph Stalin, now best remembered as the No. 2 mass murderer of the 20th century.

Most remarkably, the film Jack Warner would call the only one he ever regretted making — after a grilling before the House Un-American Activities Committee that sent Koch into blacklisted exile — was personally commissioned by the President of the United States, who asked Warner Bros. to make it as part of Hollywood’s efforts to whip Americans into a patriotic frenzy during World War II.

“President Roosevelt himself asked Harry and Jack Warner to assist in educating, entertaining and enlightening the American people,” says Harry’s granddaughter, film historian Cass Warner. “Little was known about the Soviet Union, who were our allies at the time, [but] this never came to the forefront even when the film was used as evidence of the Bros. making subversive films during the McCarthy Era.” (...) >>>

Mission To Moscow
Geüpload door DwightFrye. - Nieuwe video's uit de hele wereld.

Is the War on Public Enemy #1 Obama's Waterloo?

The People's Cube: "Obama's War on Fox News Becomes a Quagmire", by Red Square

THE WHITE HOUSE - Despite the President's promise of a swift and decisive victory, Obama's War on Fox News has developed all signs of an unwinnable quagmire, making the White House even more isolated in its unilateral attempts to crush the growing media insurgency.

As the war continues to grind on for a second month, public opinion is shifting towards a quick and complete withdrawal. While many observers still agree that the "War on Limbaugh" is a "just and necessary war," even the former supporters of the war effort are now labeling the War on Fox an "unnecessary war of choice" and claim that the cable channel had nothing to do with Obama's falling approval numbers. (...) >>>

No comment.

The view on the White House banana leaf from the guys at Trifecta:

Pajamas TV: "The White House Declares War on Fox News"

As we said earlier on Politeia ... the Presidential stature is crumbling.

Condemning Multiculturalism

Here is one of those viral "Thomas Payne" videos on which more in this post on Big Hollywood.

The subject is the tearing apart of America by the multiculturalists of this world. But replace America by any other country in Western Europe, and the argument works equally well.

What keeps sticking in my mind is the lie I once heard one of the proponents utter: "we love cultures so much that we think everyone has the right to pursue his or hers to the full wherever he or she is."

It sounds nice, doesn't it? So sophisticated, so respectful, so - well, cultured. Yes, and it's a load of crap!

The full implementation of that wish means balkanization, the forming of ghettos and the surging of tribal and sectarian warfare; the end of the world as we know it!

Precisely! It's the postmodern dialectic at work again: the destruction of Western civilization is indeed what the proponents are after. The habitual traitors are advocating to "delete the border" because borders - indeed nations - are immoral! They want a new, egalitarian world order!

What they can't get their thick skulls around is that - if everything is basically of equal value - nothing is worth anything and result is anarchy and nihilism: it equals suicide. But as I said, what they are after is destruction.

Why don't we let Thomas Paine explain it:

Obama Mobilizes the Nation Towards a Common Goal

Sitting in the image archive is a picture defining what precisely constitutes totalitarian culture. We've used it on the blogs before, but have been holding off on posting it again in relation to the Obamazation of the US. After all, we don't want to monger fear, do we?

Forget about "achieving socialism", as this a covert operation owing to Americans' allergy for the term. They'll think up a innocently sounding epithet at some point, like "social justice".

But news is breaking tonight on Big Hollywood and - while not unexpected - it is not good. We'll work on it later on, but for now, let's get to it. Here's the gist, but only from the first part, so go to the site to get it all.

In the meantime this creepy piece of State propaganda has surfaced about the "enemy within". Since there is no Bill this beggars the question what the facts precisely are?

Big Hollywood: "LEAKED NETWORK MEMO REVEALS: Obama Controls Your Television Set", by John Nolte

On September 10th of this year the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) posted a press release informing the world that “from October 19-25, more than 60 network TV shows [will] spotlight the power and personal benefits of service,” and that this “unprecedented block of TV programming is the first wave of a multi-year ‘I Participate’ campaign.”

On its face this all sounds rather benign in that silly, liberal do-gooder kind of way. The networks have launched these kinds of campaigns before and other than some clunky exposition awkwardly inserted into your favorite show to meet the mandate — no harm, no foul. (...)

Like the NEA story, once again we see the same buzzwords pop up; suggested topics pitched to an overwhelmingly left-of-center group: Education, health, environment, the economy and lastly — almost as an afterthought as some kind of “bi-partisan” cover – support for military families.

We’ll have to wait until next week to see what effect this initiative will have on the 60 television (and news) programs in question, but thanks to the intrepid Patrick Courrielche and Stage Right, today we can answer the simple question of…
“What’s wrong with this?”

Doing the work the Kamikaze Media (many of whom are participating in this event rather than digging for the story) refuses, and with the help of Big Government’s Dana Loesch, Patrick and Stage Right have discovered that when it comes to this White House – whether it’s the NEA conference calls or EIF’s iParticipate programming — all roads funnel into one place: online volunteer portals, including Serve.gov, where if you plug in “health care” all kinds of Planned Parenthood openings pop up along with a video dispelling those ugly “myths” knocking ObamaCare.

There’s scarier stuff, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise *cough*Trutherism*cough* (...) >>>

‘BIG GOVERNMENT’

A parody video takes on Will Farrell's ad for Move On:

Racist! (Updated)

You gotta see this!

Pajamas TV/Sonja Schmidt: "What's it Take to Be a Racist?"

Sept. 29, 2009
~

Democrats' shrieks of "racist!" this week reached psychotic levels. Let's not sum up who made up the chorus, but former antisemetic President Jimmy Carter was the temporary apotheosis.

Charges of racism have very little to do with reality and serve the purpose of what in another era was 'fascist'. It's a stopper and a slightly more grown-up version of a temper tantrum.

The big winner in this offensive is, yes ... racism.

Big Hollywood: "Real Racism: Lessons in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’", by Andrea Shea King

My name is Bob Ewell. We’re all Bob Ewells if you check with the Left and their media mouthpieces.

Who is Bob Ewell? Well, if you’ve ever watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, you’d know that Ewell is the racist character who destroyed the life of an innocent man.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic American film, based on Harper Lee’s novel of life in 1936 Alabama and racial injustice that resided there.

The importance of this movie is that the cries of racism today, most recently by former president Jimmy Carter — which are not true — damage and set back the real cases of racism.

This movie shows us real racism, which thankfully, we don’t see much of today. (...)

The contrast is glaring between this made up political racism and the real deal — the real Bob Ewells of the world. Like Television.com offers it for free online. (...) >>>

Here's the theme by Elmer Bernstein, which is exquisite!

IMdB page.

Slide show.

Wiki.

And for heaven's sake! Stop the racist! rage!!!

Another update (Oct. 15, 2009)

Red State: "The Totally Real And Not Fake Stupid Quotes Shenaniganza!", by Caleb Howe

That’s what the MSM had to say in comments about Rush Limbaugh’s recent bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. According to some guy I overheard at the mall, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that Limbaugh owning the Rams “is exactly the same as slavery, but fatter.” And then there’s what Helen Thomas probably said, “Rush to what window? With a ram? Where’s my sweater?”

So in honor of the controversy, I’ve compiled a top ten list of some completely ridiculous but totally true and not fake quotes of famous people who are not (or so they claim) Rush Limbaugh. These are, like, so the true. For really real. Really. No … really.

THE TOTALLY REAL AND NOT FAKE QUOTES SHENANIGANZA TOP TEN (...) >>>

A Cosmic Splash

Tribute to Brigitte Bardot

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

Shared via AddThis

Book Review: How to Live and Survive Among the Left (Updated)

I'm reposting this because I just found a very spirited and entertaining interview that City Journal's Contributing Editor, Stefan Kanfer had with the author. It can be viewed on C-Span's Book TV After Words. Enjoy!

City Journal: "I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to A Republican"

A Survival Guide For Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry Smug and Terminally Self Righteous, by Harry Stein

With biting wit and amusing personal anecdotes, Harry Stein’s “I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican” chronicles the everyday travails and triumphs of the plucky conservatives marooned in the liberal bastions that loathe them, from Manhattan to Hollywood, to all the noxious places in between.

Surrounded by the insufferably smug and self righteous – from the angry old lady with the anti-war sign affixed to her walker to the random jerk at a dinner party quoting George Soros – these intrepid souls live in a hostile world; knowing that anytime a neighbor chances to learn their views on affirmative action, big government, feminism, the environment, abortion, multi-culturalism, sex education, the reliability of The New York Times, the scariness of evangelicals or (fill in the blank), his/her face will register stunned surprise and deep confusion. Or worse. (...) >>>

Watch Harry Stein here in an interview on PJTV.

Israel's Raid on Saddam's Nuclear Reactor (1981)

How the Dutch Became Water Architects

NRC: "1953 flood survivors see much wrong with the film version", by Kester Freriks

People who lived through the 1953 North Sea flood were given a special viewing Sunday of The Storm, the first feature-length movie to be made about the disaster. They saw much that was at odds with reality.

A scene from The Storm; the movie was filmed on location in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Many survivors of the 1953 North Sea flood in Zeeland province had no wish to see the premiere of The Storm, director Ben Sombogaart's movie version of the biggest natural disaster in Dutch history. "I didn't want to go through all that again," said one women who was a rescue worker in 1953. "But when I heard that it was movie and not a documentary with real news footage, I decided to go anyway."

On the night of 31 January – 1 February 1953 many dykes in the south of the Netherlands failed to resist the combination of spring tide and a northwesterly storm. The resulting floods put large parts of the provinces South-Holland, Zeeland and North-Brabant under water, killing 1,835 people and forcing the evacuation of 70,000 more. The storm also affected England, Belgium, Denmark and France, and left another 700 people dead there. (...)



Although it has been more than fifty years, the disaster is still very much alive in the southwestern Netherlands. Now that there is talk of returning a piece of reclaimed land, the Hedwige polder, to the sea - to compensate for the environmental damage from dredging the shipping lane to the port of Antwerp - history, cinema and political reality seem to have come together. (...) >>>

Here's the real thing breaking news in 1953:



- Slideshow of the film
- Slideshow of the disaster
- Flood Museum
- site of "Deltaworks", the infrastructure of levees, dams and dikes
- wiki "Deltaworks"

The Unsung Hero Who Fed the World

Open Market: "The Man Who Fed the World", by Greg Conko

He may have saved a billion people from starvation, but, if you asked a random sample of reasonably well educated Americans who Norman Borlaug was, they’d probably answer, “Norman who?”

I’ll tell you Norman who. His biographer, Leon Hesser, called him the Man Who Fed the World. Science reporter Gregg Easterbrook called him the Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity. I’ve called him a Modern Prometheus. And comedians Penn and Teller said (well, mostly Penn said) that he was the greatest human being who ever lived.

Norman Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist and plant breeder whose work sparked what is now known as the Green Revolution. He was recognized with countless scientific and humanitarian awards, including, in 1970, the Nobel Peace Prize. Quite tragically, he died of cancer yesterday, at the age of 95.

Borlaug was born on a small farm in Cresco, Iowa in 1914 and developed an interest in applying science and technology to agriculture during the Depression-era dustbowl that desiccated the Great Plains in the first half of the 1930s. He went off to study forestry and plant pathology — and compete on the wrestling team — at the University of Minnesota in 1933. He eventually would complete a Master’s and Ph.D. at the U of M, after brief stints with the U.S. Forest Service that periodically interrupted his studies. After completing his Ph.D. in 1942, Borlaug worked for two years at DuPont, contributing scientific research for the war effort. (...) 

Read it all >>> 

Related:

The Washington Times: "EDITORIAL: The humanitarian the greens hated - Enabling life isn't on the environmentalist agenda"

Norman Borlaug valued humanity and had confidence in the capabilities and aspirations of human beings. He applied his intellect and energy in ways that allowed millions of people to live longer, better lives. He truly was a great humanitarian, in every sense of the word. No wonder the environmentalists hate him so (...) >>>

"A New America", the Movie

The United States economy reached a meltdown point in September 2008. A Republican President and Democratic Congress passed a massive bill to bail out banks. Many Americans were shocked that the wealthiest country in the world could be in so much financial trouble overnight. This financial crisis occurred at a point when many Americans were already looking for change in their government and an election provided the opportunity.

Then Candidate Barack Obama promised to turn the page and take America in a new direction. A majority of voters were receptive to this message. Congressional leaders pledged to work with their new President to help his vision become reality.

Americans made a similar choice in 1932, when the economy was in a serious downturn. Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a New Deal for America, a series of government programs to turn the economy around. FDR is credited by many historians for having spared the United States from drifting towards the totalitarianism that swept through Europe and other parts of the world at that time.

Barack Obama began his term in office in an atmosphere of heady optimism, in the wake of Abraham Lincoln. Many pointed to the Presidents agenda as the New New Deal and Barack Obama himself promised fundamental change.

And one cold January day, we embarked on the path to a new America...



- A New America Movie official website
- A New America Movie on Facebook
- A New America Movie on YouTube

Related:

On Politeia: "Which New America, Which New World"

"A New America", the Movie (II)

9/11: "The Falling Man"

Today on The Lighthouse the 9/11 special "The Falling Man", powerfully introduced on Pajamas TV's Trifecta in ""Never Forget" Means Never Forgetting".

Chet Baker: "My Funny Valentine"

Morbid Obama Syndrome & the World of Art

Commentary Magazine: "The Art of Obama Worship", by Michael J. Lewis

Of all the images hurled forth by the last presidential election, none will live longer than Shepard Fairey’s poster of a red, white, and blue Barack Obama, gazing significantly into the distance, resting atop the single word Hope. It had already been embossed into the national consciousness as the definitive image of Obama even before it was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and appeared as the cover of Time’s “Person of the Year” issue. His poignant mien seemed to encapsulate all his personality and promise, an expression that was at once solemn, pensive, yearning, and ever so slightly sorrowful. With good reason the critic Peter Schjeldahl termed it “the most efficacious American political illustration since ‘Uncle Sam Wants You.’”

Campaign posters are discarded like yesterday’s newspaper the morning after an election, but not in the case of Obama. If anything, the demand for posters bearing his image has only grown. A recent New York Times front-page story highlighted the trend of amateur artists’ trying their hand at painting the new president. In one three-month period, 787 Obama paintings were auctioned on eBay, showing the new president in every possible pose, and a few impossible ones: standing commandingly before the White House, cradling a basketball and wearing a Washington Wizards uniform, gamely wrestling a bear on Wall Street, even flying naked on the back of a unicorn. (...) >>>

Read it all >>>

Put The Bstds Where They Belong ...

Threadless Tees design by Tom Burns.

Made with "talent, love, and plastisol ink and a chino additive for softness."

Thomas Edison and the Universal Exposition, Paris 1900

Hat Tip: Nick Wallace Smith

Music: "Claire de Lune", by Claude Debussy

"Twenty Ten", by Lloyd Marcus

"The Government Can"

Time Hawkins' Comedy channel on YouTube

Tim Hawkins Comedy website

Home Made Satire: "I Will Follow Him" (brainless twits!)

An Angry Mob Production by: Joe Dan Gorman Media

Hat Tip: "Mobs R Us" - Sign up also for Conservative social site for Conservatives, KicSpace

"Walking in Memphis", Cher

Hyperinflation: Money to Burn

Der Spiegel: "Germany in the Era of Hyperinflation",  by Alexander Jung

During the hyperinflation in Germany of 1920s, the country's currency, the mark, went crazy. The government of the Weimar Republic may have been able to clear its debts, but it came at the cost of the citizens' savings. It's an era that is still part of the national psyche today.

Editor's note: During the global economic crisis, politicians and economists in the United States and Britain often criticized Berlin for its reluctance to initiate the kinds of expensive stimulus programs promoted by Washington. One of the most oft-cited reasons in Germany for racking up more debt than necessary to revive the economy was the fear of hyperinflation. From 1922-1923, hyperinflation plagued Germany and helped fuel the eventual rise of Adolf Hitler. The following article about this national trauma has been translated from a special issue of SPIEGEL on the history of money.


You could say journalist Eugeni Xammar had a stroke of reporter's luck when the Barcelona daily La Veu de Catalunya sent him to Berlin in the fall of 1922, a pivotal moment in the country's history. In the months that followed, it was the most exciting place in the world to report from. Germany's financial structures collapsed, and the mark began its descent into near worthlessness. (...) >>>

Related:

The Captain's Comments: "The Looming Threat"

Hot, Fresh and Soooo Amazing!

Amaze.fm is a community of music makers and lovers hoping to restore some of that lost quality to what we call "popular" music.

Artists upload their music to be listened to, rated, reviewed, and tagged.

Fans choose the songs that make it to the radio by listening to and rating songs weekly.

Each week the highest rated song from Amaze.fm gets played on nationally-syndicated radio.

We give you ... "Warm Breeeze" played by ...

Fusion Juice

Genre: 'Jazz'

Contemporary Jazz has a new sound in Denver Colorado. " Fusion Juice ” is comprised of some of Denver's finest musicians. This quintet delivers groove oriented Jazz with an emphasis on smooth sexy guitar sounds. "We really felt that the time was right for a more guitar oriented Jazz group here in Denver" says Fusion Juice guitar man Jimmy Schoettle.

Playing original contemporary Jazz, plus wonderful interpretations of classic Jazz fusion hits, this group knows how to satisfy the soul. If you are tired of the same old sounding jazz, then sample Fusion Juice and see for yourself why it's the freshest sound in Denver Colorado.

The current line up for Denver's Hottest New Jazz Group includes Jimmy Schoettle on Guitar, Matt Brodie on Sax and Flute, Carl Sorenson on Keyboards, Scott Fitzgerald on Bass, and David Young on the Drums.

My Sites: Fusion Juice

The Gregory Brothers: Auto-Tune the News #6

The Gregory Brothers present: auto-tune the news

MP3 at Amie St.

Play List on YouTube

Picture of the Month in the #IranElection Collection

Messy Properties

Der Spiegel: "Chocolate Company Promises Melt-Free Revolution"

Chocolate is just as much a part of Switzerland as the Alps. Now, global market leader Barry Callebaut has developed the product that competitors have been hopelessly puzzling over for 60 years -- chocolate that doesn't melt and is low in calories.

Serious mountain climbers know the problem all too well: Packing chocolate in your rucksack only ends in frustration when you reach the summit. If you're walking in freezing cold temperatures, the chocolate bar becomes a rock-hard block that's impossible to bite into without breaking your teeth. But, then again, if the sun is beating down, it won't take long before the chocolate melts into a gooey mess. In the worst-case scenario, you reach the mountain top, finally at your destination, and it's completely liquified.

And even if the temperature is just right, there's still the problem of weight gain. As most of us have finally realized, chocolate is not one of the staple foods of the skinny minnie.

But one Zurich-based chocolate manufacturer thinks it has a solution that could make these problems a thing of the past. Barry Callebaut, whose annual output of over 1.1 million tons of cocoa and chocolate products makes it the world's largest producer of chocolate, has developed a type of chocolate with completely new properties. According to the company's head developer, Hans Vriens, the chocolate has up to 90 percent fewer calories than regular chocolate.

What's more, high temperatures can't touch it (...) >>>

More chocolate ... Wiki ... the movie

"The Stoning of Soraya"

The director of the movie, Cyrus Nowrashteh talks to Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd on PJTV.

Topics of discussion are the origin and background of the film,  the making of, the attitude of Hollywood, feminists and the Left in the face of the savagery of Sharia law towards women.

Starring James Caviezel, Mozhan Marnò and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

The Official site.

Watch the slideshow on IMDb.

Page on IMDb.

Update:

Below is the director sitting down with Natalie Foster:

Your Choice: Liberty or Tyranny

You're watching an interview with Mark Levin, author of “Liberty & Tyranny” which debuted as No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list and has retained that position for five straight weeks.

Art Without Objective Value

The process in which our world is being deconstructed is the following. It is best made visible in art and culture, but through its anti philosophy it slowly permeates every walk of life, until one day we find ourselves plunged into the black hole of nihilism.

Narrative: "Morality is relative and depends on your point of view; the same is true of beauty and any other value; our values are middle class; values are evil, Western constructs; objective art (science, music (tones), drama, literature (language, letters) ballet (movement), culture, education, gender, family, religion, etc.) must be liberated from the constraints put upon it by evil, Western, objectivists; old culture must be attacked and destroyed."

This process of the hatred of the good for being good cannot go on forever without consequences.

City Journal: "Beauty and Desecration - We must rescue art from the modern intoxication with ugliness", by Roger Scruton

At any time between 1750 and 1930, if you had asked an educated person to describe the goal of poetry, art, or music, “beauty” would have been the answer. And if you had asked what the point of that was, you would have learned that beauty is a value, as important in its way as truth and goodness, and indeed hardly distinguishable from them. Philosophers of the Enlightenment saw beauty as a way in which lasting moral and spiritual values acquire sensuous form. And no Romantic painter, musician, or writer would have denied that beauty was the final purpose of his art.

At some time during the aftermath of modernism, beauty ceased to receive those tributes. Art increasingly aimed to disturb, subvert, or transgress moral certainties, and it was not beauty but originality—however achieved and at whatever moral cost—that won the prizes. Indeed, there arose a widespread suspicion of beauty as next in line to kitsch—something too sweet and inoffensive for the serious modern artist to pursue. In a seminal essay—“Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” published in Partisan Review in 1939—critic Clement Greenberg starkly contrasted the avant-garde of his day with the figurative painting that competed with it, dismissing the latter (not just Norman Rockwell, but greats like Edward Hopper) as derivative and without lasting significance. The avant-garde, for Greenberg, promoted the disturbing and the provocative over the soothing and the decorative, and that was why we should admire it. (...) >>>

Related:

- Stephen Hicks: "Why Art Became Ugly"

You Just Hate to Break It to Them ...

... wouldn't know how ...






The Obama Prints

Huge, Stinking, Shapeless Phallus About to Climax

Voila, the apotheosis of the Amorphophallus Titanum!

Apparently the tension at Leiden's Hortus Botanicus is getting unbearable.

On the run for 24/7 wall-to-wall coverage of the untimely demise of the king of pop? ...

... disillusioned with the Left for leaving the people of Iran at the mercy of evil old men and the bloodthirsty dungeon inmates they unleashed on to the city of Tehran (the so-called 'under-the-bus' effect)? ...

... then perhaps you can find some solace watching this rare horticultural sprout come to a short, but dramatic bloom.

Here's a link to the Hortus' webcam.

Bring your own coffee and sandwiches (but for heaven's sake, don't hold your breath!).

The Twitter Revolution

© Copyright John Cole

Amorphophallus titanum! Que?

... the huge, (stinking) shapeless phallus ...

Dutch News: "Titum arum set to bloom in Leiden"

One of the world's strangest plants, the giant titan arum (amorphophallus titanum), is expected to bloom at Leiden's botanical gardens on Sunday night. The botanical gardens are open on Sunday evening as part of midsummer celebrations. The titan arum produces the world's biggest flowers after eight to 15 year's of growth. The flowers, which have a terrible stench like rotting meat, last just two nights. A second plant is set to flower in about three weeks time (...) >>>

High resolution photos

This Hortus Botanicus page contains a link to the webcam. Perhaps nice to watch towards opening time.

Watch one on an earlier occasion at the Brooklyn Botanic.

Subtlety and Class: The "European Jazz Trio"

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More on "The making of..."  - from the European Jazz Trio DVD "Afternoon in Amsterdam", produced by Hiro Yamashita (M and I) and John Twigt.

European Jazz Trio is:

- Marc van Roon - piano
- Frans van der Hoeven - bass
- Roy Dackus - drums

Some Suggestions to your Calender This Year ...

More of This ... Much, much More!

With the habitual flaws, idiosyncracies, and fallacies running riot on the Left, one would have thought there's material to last a lifetime. We want more satire. Don't be shy: if it was them they'd go over dead bodies (remember BDS?) ...




Hat Tip: "The Reference Frame"

Historical Movie Theater: D-Day Newsreels

Tonight's historical movie comes with great gratitude from Tim Gray Media:



The Tim Gray Media site is a treasure trove of D-Day material and expert information. On the WWII tab we learn that ...  

"(...) the “D” does not stand for “Deliverance”, “Doom”, “Debarkation” or similar words. In fact, it does not stand for anything. The “D” is derived from the word “Day”. “D-Day” means the day on which a military operation begins. The term “D-Day” has been used for many different operations, but it is now generally only used to refer to the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.

Why was the expression “D-Day” used?
When a military operation is being planned, its actual date and time is not always known exactly. The term “D-Day” was therefore used to mean the date on which operations would begin, whenever that was to be. The day before D-Day was known as “D-1″, while the day after D-Day was “D+1″, and so on. This meant that if the projected date of an operation changed, all the dates in the plan did not also need to be changed. This actually happened in the case of the Normandy Landings. D-Day in Normandy was originally intended to be on 5 June 1944, but at the last minute bad weather delayed it until the following day. The armed forces also used the expression “H-Hour” for the time during the day at which operations were to begin. (...) >>>

Also, check out the blog for more wonderful stories.

Particularly noteworthy is the footage of annual visits to the Normandy coast with veterans (a number on the YouTube Channel) - in fact Tim Gray has been tweeting live all day from the commemoration site in France.

Also drawing your attention to a beautifully produced and very touching full one hour documentary exclusively available on the official Tim Gray site, entitled "D-Day, the Price of Freedom" (trailer). Note the difference in tone compared to the newsreels of the time, in which optimism and boosting morale was of a higher order than the grim reality.

Related: 

- The National World War II Museum (U.S.)
- D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery (U.K.)

- Filed on Articles in "History Compiled" - 

How Nanotechnology Works

"How Nanotechnology Works", posted with vodpod
Much, much more on the blog of American Freedomist Central.

PJTV - "A Lesson in Heroism From The Decks of The Titanic"

more about "Pajamas TV - Afterburner - A Lesso...", posted with vodpod
Viewing problems? Watch it on Pajamas TV.