The man who helps "little minds" understand the "big ideas" in the news.... But are they even worth understanding?
It's happened again, boys and girls! Another Monday came rolling around after Sunday! And "Uncle Jay", a Brooklyn boy with a white beard and not a whole lot of hair, a fellow who has worked in movie sound production and movie editing, started making his three-minute video "explaining the news."…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - zingzing
roger: "But zing, Ruvy was born and raised in U.S. - same parts as you."
exactly. although i wasn't born and raised in this part. it's his religion that makes him so judgmental of the culture he grew up in.
clavos: "Pretty good characterization of american "culture" -- up to that part."
well, god knows why, but the world keeps gobbling it up. and so do we.
27 - roger nowosielski
That was later in his life, zing - the result of the conversion. I doubt he forgot his American roots, more like he's denying them now.
And why not gobble it up to a point, I say. Once upon a time - hell, even today, there's still freedom. No country comes even close.
28 - Cindy
america the exceptional...
my country tis of thee sweet land of liver tea...
(sounds like something Stan or Dr.D would drink)
29 - roger nowosielski
I'd go along with that. And I'd gladly join them.
30 - Ruvy
i'm not sure the extremely religious (ruvy) are ones to talk about american culture. they are a part of that culture that likes to separate themselves from the culture by sometimes violently condemning it. the rest of us like our vices, and understand them for what they are.
Extremely religious? What do you know about Judaism - or about me - to say I'm extremely religious, zing? Keeping kosher and attempting to keep the Sabbath is minimal stuff. Extremely religious Jews wouldn't bother communicating with the likes of you here, zing.
Having grown up in American culture, and seeing it sour in my own mouth in my own lifetime, it bothered me to raise my kids in the States. And this had nothing to do with religion, zing, it had to do with seeing morals go down the toilet. You know, stuff like personal responsibility, respect, sobriety, etc. I saw as a relatively non-observant Jew, the way kids were NOT raised by self-indulgent parents who were more interested in their own pleasure and entertainment. That's what happens when you hang around single, bitter, women, looking to get into their crib. They have kids to raise - but they want their own pleasures, too. You learn an awful lot in those bars in St. Paul, zing.....
I got lucky and married a woman who was not divorced or bitter towards men. I really got a second chance to try to do it right - something few people get - and I have done my best.
Now, to be blunt, if kids in Tel Aviv were not lapping up American ideas like "lunch tax", drugs, getting drunk, buying expensive clothes for no good reason, you could all stew in your shit, and I wouldn't care. If American politicians were not constantly interfering in our affairs (that credit chit you call "foreign aid" - with all of your damned restrictions that cost more than your credit chit all tolled - is interference in our internal affairs), I'd have NO reason to write here at all.
But since Israeli kids are imbibing your trash - and Israeli politicians are getting your trash shit all over their lips - and all this damages the country
I live in, I have plenty to say. And if it comes out as a condemnation, you are seeing what a slightly religious, secular minded Jew sees when he looks back at the
corpsecorpus of mass American culture he left behind.31 - roger nowosielski
But Ruvy, in the sixties when I was there, the respect for U.S.A. was at its height. I've seen Lois Armstrong in live performance, the movies and adoration of the American movie stars, the Saturday night scene and pick-ups. It was vintage Americana before I even knew what America was like. So things were different once, weren't they?
32 - Ruvy
Roger,
If you view 1959 as the start of the "sixties" (I know, I'm stretching it a bit) you are looking 50 years back. And by 1969, the country was a whole different place. By 1971, it had lurched onto an awful path that was going to injure it terribly, and by 1975, when the soldiers had to flee from Saigon, America had really changed - and not for the better.
The issue is not "wasn't there some good stuff?" but "where did the good stuff go?"
Guys like Jay Gilbert, who do parody on their drive time radio shows, and who now do it on YouTube, are making fun of where we/you have gone. Uncle Jay, is especially funny and good at it because of his deep and detailed knowledge of American mass culture.
BTW, while I'm at it, re-read this article once or twice, guys. I made some serious mistakes in the original text that I had to change.
33 - roger nowosielski
I'm in perfect agreement with you here. And that precisely was the context of my dissatisfaction with America now - where did it all go?
34 - Clavos
I've seen Lois Armstrong in live performance...
Would that be Louis' mother, sister, wife or aunt?
35 - roger nowosielski
Sorry. The man himself.
36 - Clavos
C'mon, Roger, that deserved a smart-ass riposte, not a wimpy apology...
37 - Dan(Miller)
where did it all go?
I think it went where the fire goes when it goes out.
Dan(Miller)
38 - roger nowosielski
I agree, Clav. Fighting Cindy all the time gets me on a whimpy side now and then. Won't happen again!
39 - roger nowosielski
I hope she appreciates my submission.
40 - roger nowosielski
Sally, the dominitrix.
41 - Jet
All women appreciate it when a man submits Roger.
42 - roger nowosielski
How well do I know it, Jet. I'm just waiting for the chance. It's round the corner.
43 - Jet
Submit your checkbook
44 - roger nowosielski
I've always been generous, especially when women were concerned.
45 - Cindy
All women appreciate it when a man
submitsquits: trying to boss them around, tell them how to think, correct their "misguided" opinions, and treat their ability to be comfortable expressing emotions as "hysteria"...46 - Jet
...and people still wonder why I'm gay
47 - Cindy
“Having a big idea is a fairly arrogant thing to have.”
Naomi Klein's remark on being asked why authors of popular “ideas” books tend to be men.
48 - Cindy
lol Jet!
49 - zingzing
ruvy, if you're "slightly religious," i'd hate to see someone who is "extremely religious." but if you object to the "moral" lapses in american culture, there's one of two things going on: you're getting religious, or you're getting old.
our culture (and probably your culture) have always been morally suspect. it's just what bubbles to the top and what remains hidden. we're all perverts in one way or another.
50 - roger nowosielski
Don't worry, Jet. It's just the usual war of the sexes. "Taming of the Shrew" is what they all ask for. Never mind protestations to the contrary.
51 - Cindy
Colorful, Roger...most men who find themselves to weak to deal with strong opinioned women just call them a bitch.
52 - roger nowosielski
Spoken like Heneke. BTW, zing. Heneke was only following the script (The Piano Teacher), which was much more radical and shocking. You should read the book. A Noble Prize winner.
53 - Cindy
Not cowing to a control-freak bully who thinks it's their job to forcibly change everyone doesn't make one a shrew or a dominatrix.
54 - roger nowosielski
"Having a big idea is a fairly arrogant thing to have."
Naomi Klein's remark on being asked why authors of popular "ideas" books tend to be men.
Now, here you display real prejudice - by generalizing. What would you want to do that (even if it's true in most cases) unless you're not secure enough with respect to your own identity as a person, irrespective of sex?
55 - Ruvy
zing,
ruvy, if you're "slightly religious," i'd hate to see someone who is "extremely religious." but if you object to the "moral" lapses in american culture, there's one of two things going on: you're getting religious, or you're getting old.
Maybe I'm spoiled. Like I told you, I live with a woman who is not bitter towards men, loves kids, and has a solid moral foundation - probably far more solid than mine. She taught me about faith, not the other way round. She has stuck through our roughest days in this country, even though originally she did not want to move here. She is "a woman of valor whose price is far above rubies".
I can't sing her praises too highly. Screw this submission crap. I give her what I can with an open hand and a grateful heart.
I'm used to living with someone to whom honesty means something, to whom loyalty is worth giving. So looking askance at vices is not really part of my equation anymore. It might have been once - my dead roommate smoked pot, drank to excess, once got rolled for $140 in Mpls. He was an okay guy, a good man, but his vices diminished him. And my vices diminish me. If you are willing to live with your vices diminishing you, zing, that is your business. But I do not want to be diminished by my vices. The price gets higher by the year.
Oh, by the way, we all get old. It's a function of staying alive. If you live to be 58 or 68 or 75, you will be getting old. Get used to it, dude. You are not getting any younger.
56 - Cindy
You're projecting. Anyway, you'd have to ask Naomi Klein why she's so insecure. I'm sure she'd find that amusing.
57 - roger nowosielski
That does sound perfect, Ruvy, a true soul-mate. But you know, I've been married three times and had numerous long-term relationships, not to mention a couple of gun-shot marriages. All my mates have been great, except that were weren't mature enough at the time. And one one had made a better person out of me, better ready and able to take on the new challenges.
Women are smart and lucky a man who realizes that. All that one-upmanship and the war between the sexes is bullshit: it all dissolves in light of decent communication and sharing.
I'll second Will Rogers: I never met a woman I didn't like.
58 - roger nowosielski
I never suggested that Naomi is.
You fail to understand that I'd like nothing better than a secure woman.
Christ, get it into your head that I want an equal partner - not a pushover.
Always have, always will.
59 - Clavos
Are you sure you don't have some masochism in you, Cindy?
You keep beating your head against the same wall...
60 - Ruvy
Cindy, Roger,
Reading the two of you argue here is almost like reading "The Lockhorns". Fortunately, it is just internet piffle, and not a real argument....
61 - roger nowosielski
The argument would be very quickly resolved, Ruvy, over a round of drinks. I guarantee it!
62 - Jet
I wonder who'd have the hairier chest?
63 - Cindy
Clav,
That's an excellent point. It's dawning on me. I'm just slow.
(at least that's what my nephew claims :-)
64 - Ma rk
Here at BC Harmony we discourage drinking contests until couples shows themselves to be truly simpatico.
65 - Cindy
lol Jet! (smack)
66 - Ruvy
I wonder who'd have the hairier chest?
Such pleasant memories of high school you bring back to me, Jet - about the busty young thing whose jealous female colleagues allowed that there was more than mere mammary glands on her chest - and then there was $5/hr Elise....
Of course, in those days, $5 bought a lot more than a cup of badly burned coffee or a subway fare or two.
67 - Cindy
I wouldn't mind talking to women once in awhile.
68 - zingzing
ruvy: " He was an okay guy, a good man, but his vices diminished him. And my vices diminish me. If you are willing to live with your vices diminishing you, zing, that is your business. But I do not want to be diminished by my vices. The price gets higher by the year."
you know what, i realize that. that's why i have continually diminished my vices. slowly, until i grow old, i say, but with the understanding that sex is not a vice. drugs and booze are vices--fun, but vices--and they have/will/have/will pass away. but sex, and the wonderful, wonderful perversions of sex, will never be something to judge or diminish.
that's where religion goes too far. it makes women into whores and men into... wait, what? tyrants? how does that work out?
...when it comes to sex, the rules about it aren't fair. and especially when the religious men make the rules, the rules become some sort of perverted thing. we (men) created this world where women are sexualized by skin. men are sexualized in a different way. by money. by jawlines. shit, i dunno... i'm straight. but we don't sexualize men by (usually) removing clothing from their midriff. (unless it's 1985.)
anyway. religion doesn't object to the sexualization of men. it only objects to the sexualization of women. some, like feminists, might call it objectification. and that may be true. but we only go for what you tell us we can't have. whether you're feminists or religious nuts (ruvy, don't deny it), or whatever... you tell us we're wrong and we know we're on the right track.
WANT is far more powerful than "truth" or "faith." DESIRE makes those things seem like hope.
69 - Cindy
zing,
i can't speak for feminists in general. but, i don't think objectification has anything to do with not excepting sexuality. for me it distorts sexuality. i also don't think that there is something inherently wrong with men. and that objectification of men as income producers is also distorting.
i don't see that young boys treat girls as objects normally, even if they likely want to have sex with every young girl they see. theoretically they could, in my opinion, without treating anyone as an object. so, recognizing sexuality is not the same as objectification.
it's more, to me, about how a person is viewed than the fact that they are viewed.
70 - Cindy
"excepting" should be "accepting"
71 - Cindy
also zing,
i think commoditizing sex is a destructive thing, but that's what one get's with Capitalism. female images are distorted into an ideal that has nothing to do with real people. pornography is degrading. this is all learned stuff; boys don't begin with these ideas of sexuality. it also makes girls body conscious and self-deprecating.
i would rather promote a view of sexuality that is based on acceptance of real people (who have real bodies). there isn't much/any? sexual material that takes this view of women and men.
real experience with real people is what i think is desirable. i accept that teens are sexual people. i would just like to see that sexuality blossom in experience with real people.
72 - Clavos
Cindy,
i think commoditizing sex is a destructive thing, but that's what one get's with Capitalism.
I agree, except that sex has been commoditized (?) since the dawn of history; it long predates modern Capitalism.
Remember what is said to be the world's oldest profession?
73 - Cindy
It's not the idea of images that bothers me Clav. Men are visual, so that quite natural. It's the way they are distorted and the content.
In fact I was trying to find some material that held sexuality in a positive light. Something with images that depict real body shapes and happy people. Something artistic, maybe, and suitable for a young person. This would be for my nephew, to offer a substitute for what his older buddy is no doubt introducing him to. I haven't found anything. I never thought about it before he became a teen. But, I can't find anything.
74 - Clavos
I understand your point, Cindy.
I meant that sex has been a commodity with some segment of the male population pretty much since we came down out of the trees, and likely even before.
And, truth to tell, women have recognized and used this as a means to their ends as well, and for as long.
It always has been that way, and probably always will be.
But again, not everybody.
75 - Cindy
Thus, the need for a society that doesn't require becoming a commodity to satisfy material needs.