COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, August 22, 2008

Gents, Please buy the ladies a drink.



20 comments:

  1. A DRINKING SONG

    WINE comes in at the mouth
    And love comes in at the eye;
    That's all we shall know for truth
    Before we grow old and die.
    I lift the glass to my mouth,
    I look at you, and I sigh.

    W.B. Yeats

    dibs on the girl with the red dress on, leaving the blonde beauty to Miss T.

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  2. FOR ANNE GREGORY

    'NEVER shall a young man,
    Thrown into despair
    By those great honey-coloured
    Ramparts at your ear,
    Love you for yourself alone
    And not your yellow hair.'

    'But I can get a hair-dye
    And set such colour there,
    Brown, or black, or carrot,
    That young men in despair
    May love me for myself alone
    And not my yellow hair.'

    'I heard an old religious man
    But yesternight declare
    That he had found a text to prove
    That only God, my dear,
    Could love you for yourself alone
    And not your yellow hair.'

    W.B. Yeats

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  3. This is the one I was looking for. We must keep our priorities straight, in this political year.


    POLITICS

    {'In out time the destiny of man presents its meaning in political terms.'}
    THOMAS MANN

    HOW can I, that girl standing there,
    My attention fix
    On Roman or on Russian
    Or on Spanish politics?
    Yet here's a travelled man that knows
    What he talks about,
    And there's a politician
    That has read and thought,
    And maybe what they say is true
    Of war and war's alarms,
    But O that I were young again
    And held her in my arms!

    W.B. Yeats

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  4. I'll still take Ms Walsh!
    ---
    Steve was tracking this too:

    ThreatsWatch.Org - US Ambassador Calls Russian Response 'Legitimate'

    This is simply difficult to fathom and is an embarrassment to the State Department’s foreign service and diplomatic corps. Or rather, it should be. To many, perhaps it is not.

    While nuance is overrated, there is a distinct difference between diplomatic nuance and event revisionism.

    For starters, here’s hoping the US Department of Treasury is monitoring the bank accounts of South Ossetia’s ‘president’ Eduard Kokoity for any recent or near-future - shall we say - “transaction anomalies. ”
    It takes a lot of money to start a war. To my knowledge, South Ossetia’s entire provincial economy is somewhere south of that of Ford County, Illinois. And regional strongmen never skim for their own pockets. Never.

    Just a hunch.
    ---
    Check the accounts please, Treasury. Inquiring minds want to know.

    ---
    Meanwhile, at CNN
    Below is original story quoting the ambassador.
    Current (longer) CNN article leaves him out!

    Here is a screenshot of Google search with partial quote cited:
    CNN-Cleanup


    - Russia We've completed pullback -

    “The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, told the Russian business daily Kommersant it had urged Georgia not to launch an attack and that Russia responded in a “legitimate” way, though he went on to say Russia went too far in its military incursion.

    His comments represent a public acknowledgment from a senior U.S. official that Russia had some justification for its initial response to Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia.“
    ---
    John Bolton shakes head in dismay.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. How did you get a pic of my wife? (top photo)

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  7. We have our ways, WiO, we're not in this business for nothing:)

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  8. The US has voiced its grave concern over reports that Russia is working on a deal to sell weapons to Syria. “We are obviously very concerned about reports that Russia may be providing weapons, weapons systems to Syria,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Friday.

    “We have always said to the Russians that these sales should not go forward, as they don’t contribute to regional stability,” Wood said, urging Russia not to go through with these sales.

    Earlier this week, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source in Moscow as saying that Syria and Russia were working on a complex deal involving Damascus buying anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems.


    Weapons Deal

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  9. sell weapons to Syria
    ==
    When was it that the Syrians actually paid for the weapons they received?

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  10. How does Syria come up with any money for foreign exchange? They grow little, make nothing that I've ever heard of, have no oil or natural resources.

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  11. How does Syria come up with any money for foreign exchange?
    ==
    They squeeze Lebanon. The Saudis pay for Lebanese whores and contraband, and the Lebanese in turn pay the Syrians protection money. When the Lebanese refuse to pay, they die. It's not complicated.

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  12. Hey look at this. This might be worth listening to---


    Fri 08.22 >>
    First Hour: Attorney Philip J. Berg discusses his lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's qualifications to be president. Open Lines will follow.
    Filling in for George: Ian Punnett


    C2C, always the firstest with the mostest. And, it's Ian Punnett too, the best feller they've got.

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  13. Should have figured it was something sleezy and simple like that.

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  14. It's either that, or tourist income.

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  15. Bobal: dibs on the girl with the red dress on, leaving the blonde beauty to Miss T.

    Bobal, how'dja know I'd scoop that blond one up?

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  16. Hillary got snubbed for VP, and there's a riot going on right now among the PUMA people (Party Unity My Ass). They're going to write her name on the ballot rather than pull the lever for Obama. That makes this 1992, Obama is Bush-41, McCain is Bubba, and Hillary is Perot.

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  17. Aug. 22, 2008
    Contact:
    Martin Johncox, 208-658-9100
    Don Gillispie, President, CEO and Chairman, Alternate Energy Holdings Inc, 208-939-9311,

    Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., the company seeking to build a 1,600 megawatt nuclear reactor in Elmore County, today filed a defamation suit against the Snake River Alliance for comments broadcast in a television interview last week.

    In a story broadcast on KTVB Channel 7 on Aug. 11 about AEHI’s finances, reporter Joni Shriver mentions “And investors are also waiting,” to which Snake River Alliance Executive Director Andrea Shipley appears on camera saying, “These guys are scammers. Regardless of how you feel about nuclear energy, these guys are scamming Idahoans.” As of this writing, the story was available at www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-aug1108-nuclear_power_plant.393e050b.html



    A “scam” is defined as “a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit; swindle.” Don Gillispie, president and CEO of AEHI, said the comments cross the line and constitute defamation, interfering with the company’s legitimate business.



    “Regardless of how you feel about nuclear energy, comparing a law-abiding enterprise to a fraudulent activity is beyond the pale and we must confront it,” Gillispie said. “We have passed two SEC-required independent financial audits in our short history and if anything were even slightly amiss, we’d have heard about it from sources far more knowledgeable than the Snake River Alliance.”



    Gillispie said Shipley’s statements also insult investors – many of whom are Idahoans - and appear to be intended to reduce the value of their stock and defame them as well. Gillispie also said the comments are especially offensive because the AEHI board consists of men who individually have 30 to 40 years of experience in the nuclear industry, including former senior executives, military officers and government officials who have received Presidential decoration. Investors, officers, directors and company consultants may individually take legal action against the Snake River Alliance as a result of these damaging remarks.



    “The statements are an outrage against these fine men who, in their retirement, are working without compensation to help the nation meet its energy needs,” Gillispie said. “Our board, our team and our investors deserve better than for Andrea Shipley to compare them to criminals.”



    Gillispie said damages will take some effort to calculate as they will be tied to, among other things, the number of potential investors who heard the story and see it online and decide not to invest for that reason.



    “For a start-up company that depends on investors and lenders, comments like this could be a death blow – certainly we believe they were made with that intent,” Gillispie said. “These groups are allowed to make almost any claim they wish, regardless of the facts, and the media rarely question them. Someone has to hold them accountable.”



    Idaho law does not allow AEHI to specify its damages in the lawsuit, which says only that the damages exceed the minimum threshold to be heard in District Court. AEHI will ask for a judge or jury to determine the specific damages. The suit also asks the Snake River Alliance to immediately retract the statement and that the court order the SRA to refrain from making similar comments in the future.



    The lawsuit alleges that “Shipley published the statements in a television broadcast seen not only throughout Idaho, but disseminated worldwide over the internet on KTVB’s website. Because the statement was so widely disseminated and continues to be disseminated through Internet access, irreparable substantial damages have already occurred and continue to occur. Because AEHI is a publicly traded company, a retraction could mitigate some of these damages but cannot eliminate the damages that have already occurred.”



    The absence of any facts to support the defamatory statements made by Shipley, and the SRA’s failure to immediately retract them in light of this suit, would emphasize the willful and reckless nature of the comments.



    “Our critics might claim we are trying to stifle public debate and silence our opposition, but the truth is just the opposite,” Gillispie said. “A robust public debate can only occur when all sides respect the boundary between civility and defamation. Comparing people to criminals simply because you disagree with them violates that boundary and we are giving the SRA an opportunity to do the right thing and retract their defamatory comments.”

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  18. For this, everything the French ever did wrong is forgiven.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQLOCU6KBg

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