“Now that I, too, am a professional whore, I can see that the sharp distinction I used to draw between the working press and the shoe scrapings of the PR industry was simply a vanity of vanities — a product of my youthful arrogance …. And whatever real distinction there may have once been between journalism and flackery has long since been swept away by the howling, gibbering tsunami of the cable news channels, leaving only a few dazed refugees clinging to the treetops in the print press. And pretty soon they’ll be gone, too.” — Billmon
Category Archives: Theirs
Synchronicity
On this day in 1973, the last American combat troops left Vietnam, ending the direct involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. Several thousand civilian Defense Department employees stayed on in Vietnam after the withdrawal of troops. The last of these Americans were airlifted out of the country when Saigon fell to the Communists on April 30, 1975.
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This day in 1865 marked the beginning of the Appomattox Campaign, the final campaign of the Civil War.
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As we look back to the end of US military involvement in Vietnam, remember that our “defeat” (our failure to finish destroying Vietnam) has been a powerful motivator for the Radical Right for over 30 years. To this day, they and their children and their grandchildren despise the dirty hippies and peaceniks they blame — all those disloyal Liberals who see more value in peace than perpetual war.
I wonder how many of those same people still curse the Union almost 140 years after the Civil War. Hatred has 9 lives. mjh
QOTD
What I finally had to confront was the fact that truth alone is impotent in the face of modern propaganda techniques ? as developed, field tested, refined and deployed by Madison Avenue, the Pentagon, the think tanks, the marketing departments of major corporations, the communications departments of major research universities, etc. …
And in a world where the airwaves are overloaded 24/7 with the mindless babbling of complete idiots, it isn?t very hard to make inconvenient facts disappear, or create new pseudofacts that reinforce whatever bias or cultural affinity you want to cultivate ? particularly if the audience is already disposed to prefer your reassuring lies to discomforting truths told by strangers.
QOTD
“I’m a warrior, and I know what is inside of me.” — Michael Jackson
“It’s very painful, but this has kind of been a pattern among black luminaries in this country.”
[mjh: the “Kobe Bryant defense” is a lot like Bill O’Reilly’s.]
QOTD
“I do not want to end up with an American style of politics, with us all going out there beating our chest about our faith,” said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
[I]n a question and answer period Blair said that using religion in politics was ?a bit unhealthy.?
QOTD
via NewMexiKen:
“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true that, in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions of enormous public debt. … If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost. For this is a game where principles are the stake.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1798
The Company We Keep
I like to think I defy categorization. According to the Political Compass Questionaire (about 6 pages of questions without any “no opinion” choices), I am “Libertarian Left.” Better yet, my dot is right in there with Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama — what company! mjh
Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.87