PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

Hardly big or important news, but the new CBS anchor, Katie Couric, was apparently "touched up" a bit in photos to offer a leaner image.

A harmless and rather trite exercise in the new journalism but more than symbolic regarding the way the mainstream media depicts "facts," and clearly symbolic of what we can expect more of from an institution that's at least as dishonest as the political class.

It might be added that the New York liberal princess is on par with Dan Rather in her beliefs -- and desire to embed them in her reporting.

"Mainstream" media journalists - all the nonsense of academia but with higher pay.

Just listen to (or read, as the case may be) what they say.

Listen to what Lenin said.
Listen to what Stalin said.
Listen to what Mussolini said.
Listen to what Hitler said.
Listen to what Castro has said.
Listen to what Pol Pot said.
Listen to what Kim Jong Il has said.
Listen to what Bin Laden has said.
Listen to what Hugo Chavez says.
Listen to what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says.

Listen to what many American college professors, media pundits, and "artists" and performers say regularly.

Are you paying attention?

Just listen to what they say. Assume they really mean it.

...Any questions?

Okay, maybe I'm nit-picking but when I was younger it seemed that the current president, as well as past living presidents, were referred to as, "President _____."

I can't claim to have conducted a scientific analysis of the issue, but it seems to me that, "Mr. Bush" has become a rather common title for our current President from some media sources (this linked -- and very biased -- Washington Times article is actually by Ian James of Associated Press. As an aside, I should note that characters like Hugo Chavez -- a subject in the linked article -- are often described as, "left-leaning," though that's not the case in this particular article. While some Republicans are often referred to as "extreme" or "far right" wing, the major news agencies haven't yet figured out that Chavez is a full-blown communist like his idol, Fidel Castro. Maybe he's just, communist "leaning").

Back to my original point regarding skewed titles for our current president, I think it would be quite typical of contemporary journalists in "main-stream" media land to deliberately seek to diminish the stature and authority of the current commander and chief with some linguistic acrobatics. I could be wrong, but I really don't remember references to "Mr. Carter" when he was the acting President. I often see references to, "Mr. Bush."

A Google search for "Mr. Bush" -- the current President -- finds 9,460,000 entries. A search for "Mr. (former president) Clinton" finds only 975,000 entries with the title "Mr." and millions (twice as many as Bush) with the title "president."

What's up with that?

'Media clowns just doing what they do best; lying, distorting, and concocting news to promote the view of the pampered spoiled brat brigade.

...I dare say; so typical.

(p.s. I realize that living former presidents are properly referred to by their executive title or at least "former president _____.")

"What do ya get for pretending the danger's not real?"

-- From "Sheep" in Pink Floyd's album, "Animals."

...an appropriate question to those who find the thoughts, plans, and actions of Islamic National Socialists to be harmless or non-existent.

It's become the standard party line in the repertoire of "news" writers everywhere; many journalists from the New York Times, Reuters, Associated Press, Spiegel, or Le Monde etc. hold an obsessive fascination for focusing personal political resentments upon micro problems in U.S. society – or any other Western democracy of choice. Any writers so disposed can surely find areas of poverty, suffering or injustice in daily life as easily as one can find "collateral damage" in the middle of a war. Oddly, for some, it's still impossible however to see the great strides and successes that are the hallmark of contemporary free society, or the balance sheet that repeatedly proves that a free dynamic society is a cup more than half full. Of course, while all the bad stuff in the human condition continues to be highlighted in Journalism's Left-land; normal daily life goes on with less drama and greater comfort. Pointing out normal days at school, average days at work, and bourgeois indulgence in modern creature comforts just doesn't promote "the cause" as well as reports on crisis or misfortune. So it is now that the faux-rebel with the coolest collection of pirated music and leisure time in coffee shops can whine the most about the "injustice and oppression" of our current historical circumstance.

It all eventually comes down to perceptions I suppose. For some the cup is half full and for others it's half empty – regardless of how full their bank account or CD collection may be. Some just see the worst and demand the adoption of their imposed "solutions" (always a more enhanced and centralized state and greater regulation of individual lives). This same cast of characters has showed up throughout history as Nazis, Fascists, Religious fanatics, and lukewarm pseudo-socialists who hate capitalism, while daily savoring every manifestation of it that they can lay their hands on (don't remind them that those pirated tunes and movies in their materialist collection weren't produced by a state ministry of fun and games).

While the Chomsky types (this would effectively describe most intellectual leftists) intuitively guess at the motivation and plots of media conglomerate's wealthy owners, these same "geniuses" manage to completely miss or overlook the obvious left-wing sympathies of kindred spirit editorial staffs and journalist's daily preachings (often reported as objective "news").

While the type of deluded bohemian I write of makes much of the "high literacy rate" in their favorite gulag – Cuba – the point is somehow missed on them that a literacy rate is of little value in a society that highly restricts what can be read, or even accessed, in modern media channels. But hey, their hearts – and prison stockades – are in the right place.

To the left of our time (actually, nothing has changed, this has always been the case with them) the continuing advance and achievement of free society is a cup half empty and will always be seen as such (until they and their philosophies can turn the clock back to -- the stone age -- when we were all supposedly "equal").

With all their attempts to appear logical, wise, and peaceful, they fail to hide their half cup of bitterness and rage. They're mad and, I dare say -- to use one of their phrases -- "full of hate." While some hold signs calling for an end to war (always, only certain wars and certain sides) their other hands are typically raised into a fist; a more than revealing symbol of socialists' sentiment and character everywhere.

These are the people and the mindset that now justifies, distorts, or sympathizes with the actions of Muslim national socialists just as they had once before for Stalin's and Mao's communist gulags -- the pampered class of spoiled, overeducated and under worked depressives; angry at their parents, angry at their failure and lack of significance in a world bustling with dynamism and progress, and angry at a cup who's contents they seem to never truly see. Their cup is full of the bitterness and poison of "philosopher kings" who will never hold court.

Their cup is half full of nonsense, and the other half, empty.

'Still no time to play effectively in blog-land but wanted to comment briefly on, "The Manchurian Candidate," which I just viewed (although it has been available on DVD for some time now)...

What a crock of nonsense!

Amazing how the original film's villains -- authoritarian communist dictators -- have morphed into contemporary Hollywood's idea of who we should really fear most. Although a few scenes showed the evil capitalists smoking cigars in secret boardrooms, they missed the fashion detail of stovepipe hats and twirling mustaches.

We're currently in a real war with a National Socialist Islamic "philosophy" and all Hollywood can keep regurgitating is some mythical capitalist shadow monster that wants some kind of amorphous world domination.

The typical Jacobin swine is at least partially aware when they see business persons as being "in it for the money," but this almost Sci-Fi image of big corporations wishing to enslave us seems to miss the point that there really are other groups of people who would like to do just that (while eliminating capitalism in the process). They also miss the point that capitalism is what has brought humanity out of slavery to both natural elements and autocrats. (And, as a "materialist" dare I say, we get lot of cool toys to play with as well).

Like,...I soooo fear Starbucks, and McD's. To tell the truth, I really don't care that Halliburton type companies are examples of the many big corporations in the world that seek greater and greater profit either. Sell a product, people pay you, get rich -- so f___ing what?

Meanwhile, the spawn of Mohammad continue to plan a world of burka clad slaves, dead homosexuals, and obedient cave dwelling societies...with the usual sympathy and aid of Leftist control freaks with foil firmly wrapped around their mock rebel heads.

-- Pathetic.

'Certainly much to comment upon but currently overwhelmed in mundane chores.

More to come sometime in the next few weeks or so...

Be free and do as you choose. If you want to be "a part of" grand utopian schemes and efforts in noble coercion, do that too -- but learn to leave others alone and realize that not everyone has the time or clouded perceptions that lead to a desire to control others.

Just a thought...

I've linked to this essay before. I had written it some time ago but always relished the fact that the time would eventually come when its relevance would be more poignant.

As stated in the essay, a host of socialist authoritarian scum across the globe will garishly morn the passing of their favorite dictator. Even though he had turned Cuba into an economic basket case, enslaved his fellow citizens to the prison of Marxist authoritarian anti-paradise, some just can't shake their love for the idea of forcing the socialist "ideal" down innocent people's throats.

Of course we now have a virtual clone in Venezuela. I know the U.S. has adopted some politically correct decorum since the end of the cold war but couldn't we do just one more hit job down south and get rid of the new Marxist ego-maniac on the block? Chavez's list of friends is enough to warrant such a plan (every dictatorship on the planet).

Back to Castro; his coming demise appears to be looming soon. What's going to trouble me in the whole thing is the incredible pass that the leftist dominated media, entertainment, and "education" system is going to give this tyrant. I've heard it again and again, "his people love him." Using the possessive pronoun ("his") with any country's citizens should be looked on with suspicion. "Holding office" for over 40 years -- with no opposition permitted -- should make circumstances clear to any third-grader, but not our Ivy League intellectual crowd and their adoring followers in anti-capitalist chic.

Castro will soon be dead. Another dictator down, several more to go, unfortunately.

I think my old essay on the topic conveys my sentiment further:

When Castro's Gone

The world is becoming dangerous for authoritarian philosophy and the “leaders” who enforce it (no thanks to the pampered elite in the intelligentsia, of course). Even natural causes can sometimes help to crack the ugly walls erected by tyrants

It doesn’t take great insight to suggest the possibility that Cuba’s one-man authority show will soon be over. The island nation’s dictator, Fidel Castro, has certainly reached an age where death will soon remove him from the power he has held for a good portion of his life. As one of the few remaining autocrats of Marxist –Leninist rule in the world, he’s become to many, an acceptable, if not admirable, figurehead of the Left’s hopes and dreams for a police state with equally distributed poverty and “free” health care.

The Cuban gulag under Castro’s Communism is a variation on a consistent theme of brutality, oppression, and distributed destitution. What can we expect when this icon of the Socialist vision is gone? First of all, I predict that his death will be looked upon with great sympathy and admiration by a score of world leaders as well as many of the world’s artists, intellectuals, and performers. Oliver Stone, in classic self-righteous self-promotion, will remind us that he had said good things about Cuba’s “leader” all along. The media will be peppered with some trite acknowledgment of some of the less than savory actions of the absolute dictator but, for the most part, we will be lead to believe that this guy was okay and maybe even saintly. A balance sheet will be perversely drawn up admitting “some mistakes” (the complete repression of human liberty) while lauding the “great things” he accomplished and “we fail to do.”

After subsidies from the former Soviet Union dissipated, Cuba could only do what all socialist enterprises do when there is no outside host to feed off of – suck its own blood dry. Socialism makes it a crime to produce new wealth (profit). It can only seize from one group, distribute some to another group, and squander the rest for heroic monuments and bloated payoffs to bureaucrats and toadies.

Cuba under Castro’s Marxist philosophy is a prime example of socialism’s failure yet, after Castro’s death, it will be pointed to as a model for continuing the horrible legacy of famine, torture, conformity, and despair -- all because some intellectuals and idealists don’t like wealth, success, and individuality (their ultimate enemy is human nature itself).

There will likely be a transition after Castro’s death, where some stale bureaucrat true believers will attempt to keep the poison flame burning. They’ll realize their treasury and industry are mere phantoms and the common citizens will realize that they “don’t have to live this way.”

Communism in Cuba will eventually fall, because its economy was a lie. The lie exposed will result in factory shut downs, unemployment, and degrees of chaos – which will all be blamed on the “horrors” of being set free (“Capitalism”). As an honest economy asserts itself and makes for the difficult adjustments to a the real world, the Left and their mouth pieces in the media, academia, and show business will contrast images of happy proletarian slaves vs. homeless beggars -- passing over the fact that it is Communism’s fraudulent nature that ultimately catches up with a society after its socialist stage set has fallen.

When Castro dies the puppet masters of authoritarian sympathy will prod us to morn -- and many will. But some of us will be cheering, as we do whenever there is one less dictator amongst humanity.

We often read that America’s free market “distributes” more money to business people than teachers (I’m a teacher and I think my pay is rather good). What we don’t hear is that, in a socialist economy like Cuba, cab drivers and prostitutes make more money than doctors (another benefit of “free” health care).

When Castro’s gone we won’t be teaching our kids about the horrors of collectivist political ideology or the oppression of one-party rule. We won’t be hearing “never again” or “how could it happen” or “how could we have stood by doing nothing.” No, we’ll hear the same that we hear now about the former Soviet Union and its Eastern European Empire, or about China under Mao, or everywhere else Communism has ruled. We’ll hear that they tried a noble experiment and failed, and if we try again, maybe we can create an egalitarian utopia, with “free” health care -- and prostitutes who are paid more than doctors.