September 9, 2010 archive

Hunger Games Trilogy … a review of sorts

Soooooooo… imagine if Buhdydharma had the desire and wherewithal to write (and publish!) a really good dystopia styled book, and orient it for a teen audience. (I’m totally convinced he has the talent!) He might just come up with something like this trilogy from Suzanne Collins:

hunger games trilogy banner Pictures, Images and Photos

Hunger Games (1)   Catching Fire (2)   Mockingjay (3)

Note: You really need to read these books before they come out with the movie and ruin it. heh. Well, you probably have a year or so.

Here’s an official video promo for the book:

Faux Populism

The government is the enemy. If we could just go back to the 50’s, things would be swell, you know.

Father knew best. Whether he left us or stayed. Lets face it, when you work 14 hours, and come home to a well dressed, obedient family pampering you, life is grand. Back when we let Father run things, jeepers, everyone went to Church, no one had to lock their doors, and all those darkies knew their place. There were boarding schools to make the Natives see the error of their ways. No one would mess with us. Teachers  didn’t spoil the child, they applied every spare rod imaginable to them, even their own. There was no crime, because no one spoke of crimes. Loose lips sink ships, and every day was Family Day and Flag Day and Church Day. Your obligation was to protect all three!



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Things were better before the Government got all involved in our lives, and taxed us to death. That’s what orphanages and sanitariums were for – to keep the distasteful and dissenters out of view. Commies belonged on chain gangs and the lazy as migrant pickers. We productive Americans did fine. No one had sex, drank, did drugs or disobeyed. I mean, without the sanctity of marriage, the prescription of Dr Feelgood, or to calm their nerves from a trying day of Mommyhood. Frank Sinatra was king, and all that be-bop was the beginning of the end. People should have listened to Tammy, stood by their man, and kept their traps shut. Men will be men, and Father knew best.

We just need to go backward, backward to a time most of the people who talk about it, don’t really remember.

The path back is simple: Listen to Fox News.

Open Hair

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Burn This!



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Some crazy-ass Jews burn the New Testament (not something you hear much about in the Land of the Free) Some crazy-ass Christians burn the Koran (something you hear nothing but). But, hey, burning a Koran is much better than pooping and pissing on the Koran which U.S. Military personnel and private contractors have been doing for years with nary a word of criticism. We are, after all, at war with the Satanic religion called Islam.

And some crazy-ass Muslims burn bibles, flags and the faces of women who don’t toe the crazy-assed fundamentalist line.

Which just goes to show some folks worship some crazy-assed God.

But if I were to start a burning binge of an object of hate, you know what I’d burn?

The Constitution of the United States of America. That god-damned piece of paper.

The Myth of Scarcity, The Reality of Abundance

One of the most famous passages in the entire biblical canon begins this way.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

And yet, wanting more, desiring more, being fearful that what we have will soon leave us, these anxieties are responsible for so much evil in the world. The myth of scarcity influences our decisions in so many ways. The reality is that we live in a world packed full of abundance, both for good and for bad. And yet, when we believe otherwise, then we respond in ways that are frequently irrational and rarely beneficial. Leaders have a knack for making the nonsensical seem plausible and justified, appealing to the worst parts of ourselves. When we are obsessed with our own demise rather than delighting in the gifts laid before us, we neglect an opportunity to build community with others. This conflict is so integral to the human condition that one can see examples of it everywhere, especially where power and acquisition are of paramount importance.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

An Opened Mind XXI

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

— Helen Keller


Storyboard

Performance Art

A life is a play in many acts

each day a new scene

Sometimes one is the actor

and sometimes the script

but a life only attains

full measure or meaning

when one assumes

the role of director

–Robyn Elaine Serven
–November 30, 2005

Late Night Karaoke

Have we got your attention now, Wall Street!?!

 Wall Street’s troubles are compounding. It appears that small investors have waken up to the fact that the game is rigged. They are fleeing from casino capitalism in droves.

 In a speech Tuesday, Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the SEC  was informed by retail brokers that the Main Street investors they cater to “have pulled back” from the stock market since the flash crash.

  To buttress her point, Schapiro noted that stock funds have suffered net outflows every week since the flash crash.

 

 When I wrote this well-received essay a week ago, the net outflows were beginning to gain attention from the media. In the past week, things have gotten much worse for Wall Street.

  Because the lack of new “dumb money” flowing into Wall Street, as many as 80,000 banksters will lose their jobs.

 Since Washington refuses to enact serious reforms of Wall Street, and the regulators refuse to do their jobs, it has come down to mom and pop investors to starve Wall Street into submission.

On Voting

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There’s been a lot of talk about voting here at Docudharma.  This essay was inspired, lol, by reading curmudgeon’s comments trying to persuade posters here to vote Democratic.

The sad thing, or perhaps it is normal given human nature, is that nowadays the only real reason one can give to vote for a Dem is that the Repubs will otherwise win.  In other words, a negative example.

As I was a debater in both high school and college, I could probably manufacture some more persuasive arguments on why we should vote Democratic in November.

I’ll probably be doing so, voting Dem, that is.  As I’ve said before, I am no political genius.  Sigh.