Comment of the Day 2

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For the first time ever, the Comment of the Day, for Monday 5th December, and the original article were written by the same person, rising writing star and author Douglas Anthony Cooper. Visit his blog btw, for it is good.

In Comment #7 to his How You Know You’ve Been Kidnapped by the CIA post, Douglas reminds us all of the following crucial verse:-

Dave,
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I wonder if you’ve ever come across this (from a Lutheran pastor who, despite having a good German name, and even an early history of apologizing for what became the, uh, administration, was sent to Dachau)…
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FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE JEWS

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First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
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Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
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Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
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Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
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– Pastor Martin Niemöller

A timely and wise reminder any day of the week.

The pastor had a very varied life, as this short biography on Wikipedia explains. They also quote the same poem, although with an extra stanza between the Communists and Trade Unionists:

“Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist.”

Course, they’re as rare as hen’s teeth these days…

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Yesterday’s politically themed star comment nicely sets the stage for the Comment of the Day this Tuesday 6th December, penned by that mighty Maine man gonzo marx , who contributed the following extemporaneous words as Comment #29 to David R. Mark‘s impressive news report on 9/11 Commission Gives Bush Administration Dismal Grades On Homeland Security.

David has nailed it right there…far too much of the GOP machine is geared towards, as i stated before…distract,distort,deny and destroy…

in a recent Interview a senior writer for the Weekly Standard, Matt Labash, opened the door and let some of the “sunlight” in for us all to see….

*JournalismJobs.com: Why have conservative media outlets like the Weekly Standard and Fox News Channel become more popular in the past few years?

Matt Labash: Because they feed the rage. We bring the pain to the liberal media. I say that mockingly, but it’s true somewhat. We come with a strong point of view and people like point-of-view journalism. While all these hand-wringing Freedom Forum types talk about objectivity, the conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We’ve created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective. It pays to be subjective as much as possible. It’s a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It’s a great little racket. I’m glad we found it, actually.*

so..self admittedly by a writer for the Weekly Standard, we see that Objective reporting is NOT what they have in mind..instead it is all pure Propaganda…writing for furtherance of a political goal…Truth is not required…

now, remember that folks like Bill Kristol, Krauthammer and many other of these “pundits” who do the news circuits and/or write for Weekly Standard or National Review are card carrying NeoCons…Apostles and Disciples of Strauss and his “noble Lie” that needs to be fed to the public so that they can carry out their Agenda

what Agenda?…check the PNAC website…look at the folks that have signed on…then count how many have been in the Administration…even better, check who laid out much of the Iraq policy

folks like Perle and Wolfowitz…and Wolfowitz’s Disciple who had been his student in college…Scooter Libby

nice bunch of folks , eh?

note the SAME tactics David speaks about used by ALL of these miserable pigfuckers on the TV news channels…

a common tactic for them to use on the television is the “fillibuster”….they will ramble and rant for as long as possible, knowing the segment is finite and that every second they talk is one less for the opponents view, or even the Interviewer/moderator

if you watched the Rice confirmation hearings…or really any of the Administration’s tough appointees that needed Senate confirmation you will see two things..

one…contrary to normal, they all had literal time limits on how long the hearings could take

two…the subject of the hearings rambled on , repeating themselves, going off on tangents…ANYTHING to kill time

next time you see one of the news shows where there are both sides there…break out your stop watch….i have

then go and re-read what i have Quoted above

i could not make this shit up, kiddies

woe is U.S.

Excelsior!

gonzo is responsible for many of the more inspired, if lengthy, comments around BC. We sincerely hope this is not causing him to neglect his own fine Absurd Scribblings blog…

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There are so many nooks and crannies lurking around BlogCritics, it’s damn near impossible to spend enough time as I should simply keeping up – and then they go and add some more!

One of the latest, though by no means last, sections is Blogcritics.org Gaming, edited by the formidable Ken Edwards. I don’t get to spend enough time playing games or in this section as I’d like, particularly as they’re hacking up some good writing there.

The Comment of the Day for Wednesday 7th December goes to LegendaryMonkeyGirl for the following pointed and polished prose, contributed as Comment #14 on the stroke of midnight BC time to Matt Paprocki‘s excellent work Roger Ebert and Video Games: A Sign of the Times.

Zach makes an excellent point here in the comments, and Matt, your mention of lowbrow comedy strikes a chord as well.

Some video games, certainly, can’t be labeled as deep or meaningful, but then, neither can many movies and yet they are still considered art, if a lower form. Some video games, however, are a little more deep than that. Hell, you may write off Resident Evil (the whole series) as cheap zombie fare, but underneath is a story about research and capitalism and the perils of not knowing where to draw the line.

In fact, many horror games in particular I find far more engaging than I do horror films. Fatal Frame II, for example, was the best damned horror movie I’ve ever played, and Resident Evil 4 made me shriek in a way no horror movie’s made me shriek since the age of 12.

The Final Fantasy franchise boasts some of the best storytelling (though not voice acting, at least, in English) of any video games I’ve played, and the good ones are comparable to anime, in my opinion… and anime is most certainly art.

Finally, as a writer, I too disagree with Ebert on the issue of control when it comes to books and movies. If you want to speak in a literal sense, not all do — many movies and books are open-ended, allowing the watcher/reader to assign their own decision to final events. But out of the realm of the literal… some of the best books I’ve ever read have left many things undescribed, or imbued with emotion rather than a physical scene, and thus film adaptations of such can be jarring or strange to readers because none of it looks like they wanted it to be. How does that dictate authorial control? If true authorial control (jesus, what IS that, anyway?) existed, I doubt that situation would ever occur… much less be common.

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The other new section of BlogCritics I don’t get to hang in is Blogcritics.org Music but it seemed outrageous to not swing by there on the day of the 25th anniversary of the pointless murder of John Lennon.

There’s everything from single reviews to articles on artists as diverse as B5, Pretty Ricky, Depeche Mode and Beastie Boys. Then there are the endless arguments; perfectly pitching everyone’s fave songs, riffs, guitarists, singers, you name it into battle, people are rightly very passionate about their music.

All well and good you say, but where is the comment? I’m glad you asked. The Comment of the Day this Thursday 8th December goes to the normally fiery “tommyd”, who interrupted his usual spiky style to offer these thoughts to Blogcritics on John Lennon, lovingly assembled by Eric Olsen.

I’ll never forget that Monday night 25 years ago, when Howard Cosell broke through the Monday Night Football game to tell me (14 years old) and the world that John Lennon was dead. One of the few times in my life that I actually cried over someone or something for days! A piece of everyone’s spirit of peace or idealism was rudely ripped out of our hearts and replaced by a growing dissonance amongst all areas of social relations.

The art of music has also drastically declined in quality over 25 years, although it wasn’t really apparent the night when Lennon was shot. But nevertheless, we should’ve known that without John Lennon still in the world making music (good or bad) that rock n roll was on it’s way out. Yea, there’s been some shots of good rock over the past quarter century, but let’s face it: Rock will never carry that weight a long time. The world has changed and John Lennon wasn’t around to stop it from changing for the worse. He is sorely missed.

Peace.

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Comment of the Day for Friday 9th December goes to one Harry McLoud, who appeared out of nowhere in Al Barger‘s opinion piece on the 2006 Rock Hall of Fame Inductees: Lynyrd Skynyrd Justice to drop these extraordinary views as Comment #24.

As ANYBODY who was listening to rock, pop and R&B in the mid-1970s can tell you, the Ohio Players ruled. They dominated the pop charts with a string of high-octane hits, forged a bawdy, distinctive brand of funk-rock and spawned a ton of imitators.

“Gleaming proto-disco concoctions like Fire and Love Rollercoaster would leave entire dance floors slavering for more,” the Rolling Stone Album Guide notes, giving five stars to the band’s Gold package of hits, from 1976.

Bands have to have been recording for 25 years to be inducted; the Players’ first album came out in 1968! The group has legendary status as a pop and rock band, not just R&B. They’ve been covered by lots of other bands (Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc.)This was THE band that Mick Jagger secretly longed to be in! Plus they are from Ohio — right in the Hall’s back yard!

I rest my case…

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Many of the star comments on BC are written by people who’ve been on the site a while and often the comments can be as detailed and passionate as the posts that spawned them. Other times a casual visitor, drawn in by a particular work, leaves a nicely put comment to mark their visit.

Comment of the Day for Saturday 10th December 2005 was from one such passing ship, a certain Photoscribe, who contributed these persuasive words as Comment #11 to David Mazzotta‘s two year old piece in BlogCritics’ Film/TV section on The Most Influential Movies Ever.

Why don’t any of these “most influential” lists have “Goldfinger” on them? “Goldfinger” was, hands down, THE most influential piece of pop culture, movie, film or print…EVER!!

No other franchise element, not “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, “Friday The 13th” or anything ELSE, came close to exerting such an overwhelming international rash of imitation and satire! All three networks, every major movie studio, (and a few minor ones!) and every publishing house sought to bring their Bond clones to market after “Goldfinger” proved to be such a hit.

However, it couldn’t have been just the monetary aspect that caused the plethora of imitators. I think there was a sincere affection for the character, his suaveness, the cleverness of the movie itself…its production values, music, etc. that also inspired the slew of clones. I respectfully put forth “Goldfinger” as, hands down, the indisputable KING of “most influential movies of all time”!

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It’s Sunday again, a rare pause for breath before waking to the working week, the perfect opportunity for a little personal cleansing. The same thought may have prompted today’s Comment of the Day, from another comparative newcomer to BC and our first known non-USA resident, alpha, who added this helpful hygiene advice as Comment #2 to our own Mary K. Williams‘ News story on Avian Flu, Wash Your Hands!

Good thought not just for avian flu and a pandemic but for day to day flu and cold and general safety.

We Americans are too sure of our safety and food supplies and, like that wealther system that ate New Orleans; we may one day regret the time we didn’t wash.

How many times have you seen people use public toilets and leave without? Too many. Once on a cruise ship the guy had his white jacket and chef’s hat on. Scary.

Then there is disinfecting fruits and vegetables — especially those pretty ones from the third world.

There are dangers in the world and many are as small as a virus; some as big as a fat chef.

alpha lives in Southern Mexico, which is nice, but claims to have “retired after a heart attack from photography”, which would, I think, be unique.

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