Publictakeover's Weblog

Opera ancora

June 27, 2011 at 4:32 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Went so far as to actually download the Early Caruso from iTunes, now I’m considering another $10 purchase of 44 more songs by him

Banned Again

June 25, 2011 at 4:41 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Looks like my Firedog Lake account was suspended. I must have attacked another blogger pretty harshly for me to get bounced from that blog.

The other place I couldn’t believe I got banned from was Media Matters. I mean–they know me, personally. I mu st have sent them a half a dozen requests to either reinstate me or at least explain why they kicked me off–what rule I broke.

Silence.

Control

June 21, 2011 at 4:41 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Under a subheading, Ideological Control in Democratic Societies, Jean Bricmont writes, in the first chapter of Humanitarian Imperialism (2006)

Ideology is especially important in democratic societies, where it may constitute the principal form of social control. The dominant ideology is far more powerful in the United States, with its freedom of expression, than it was in the Soviet Union, where the obvious monopoly of political expression, enforced by repression, created widespread disbelief.

Weiner Had To Go: Just Ask Judge Thomas

June 16, 2011 at 3:38 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Based upon his willingness to dig into the improprieties of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s misleading income tax filings and Financial Disclosure Forms and by Thomas’s wife’s profiteering from the Citizens United ruling–not to mention the questionable influence buying of the Citizens United ruling itself–Weiner was a marked man.

Many will say his own hidden improprieties justify forcing him out, that he set himself up, and that he was stupid and crazy and deserved to be exposed and ridiculed from office.

That may be true, but I do not yet know of any evidence that Weiner committed a crime. In fact, his failings are very commonplace among professionals these days, and they are treatable. Additionally, no one was victimized in his misdeeds.

So, why the great outcry for his resignation?

Massenet

June 16, 2011 at 3:22 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Who knew that Jules Massenet composed an opera entitled, Cleopatre, that premiered in Monte Carlo in 1914?

Listening to Werther for the first time in a long time. It can just play and play in the background and never gets too distracting.

Farm, Penitentiary and Currency

June 15, 2011 at 3:54 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Just got the first newsletter from our CSA, Roxbury Farm in Duchess County, NY. The first delivery of turnips and radishes was delayed/cancelled two weeks ago due to extreme weather. Now he’s saying that the weather the last week was too wet and then too hot and dry and the woodchucks ate the broccoli.

We’ll see what happens. The first share is supposed to come in Thursday. We went with this outfit because they deliver to our neighborhood.

Witness Against Torture is having another fast and protest against Guantanamo, prisoner abuse, illegal detentions, and unjust proceedings next weekend.

Money Matters
Apparently, there is talk in some foreign and “underground” press and blogs about a link between Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Khadaffi and a new world reserve currency.

Rumor has it that Strauss-Kahn was going to propose plans for a new reserve currency to compete with or supplant the dollar at the May 26th Deauville talks. The proposal had the backing of many third world countries, including Libya and South Africa, who have been working to unifying the African countries into a trading block with one currency.

Ellsberg’s Leaks More Sensitive Than Mannings

June 14, 2011 at 9:30 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Forty years later, the US is still going after Whistleblowers.

It’s interesting how the power structure always wants to block the sunlight, and anyone threatening to let it in.

By the way, there’s a petition circulating to convince 5 Open-government groups to take back their Transparency Award from President Barack Obama.

Opera recordings

June 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

It’s tough finding Richard Tucker recordings of complete operas in the New York Public Library circulating collection of Music CDs.

I’ve spent a few minutes every day for the last week searching the catalog for the old recordings I used to listen to as 33-1/3 rpm records growing up at my parents’ house.
Anyway, who cares now? They have plenty of other stuff.

Politics

June 14, 2011 at 12:20 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Republicans are talking about the economy: cut taxes, deregulate, repeal Obamacare.

What a bunch of nonsense.

Henry Noewen has a book about living here and now that I’m listening to on my ipod on the way to work.

It’s hard to live in the world of publicity and mass media.

Commercialism is the voice of Satan.

Ungghhhh!

June 14, 2011 at 4:02 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

One thing the news hasn’t been reporting about Omar Khaddafi is that he isn’t overweight. I am, but the news hasn’t been reporting that, either. It’s the unthinkable, curve-ball, X-factor in my world view that seems to foul up the whole picture.

If one generation is considered to be roughly twenty years, then two thousand years is only one hundred generations. Ten thousand years is only 500 generations. Five hundred thousand years is 25,000 generations.

What we consider to be the past isn’t really Past. It’s just the earlier phase of the present. It’s not SEPARATE from now. Now is a COMPLETE CONTINUATION of the past, as far back as we want to go. The past never went away. It just became the present–and that’s only because my body-contained consciousness is very limited in time to what I call the present, which is really just MY PRESENT or ME.