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."

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Today is Already Yesterday

Groundhog Day: the perfect comedy, for ever

1993, GROUNDHOG DAY

I am holding for David O Russell, the Oscar-nominated director of Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter, who has agreed to talk about one of his all-time favourite films: the comic masterpiece Groundhog Day, released in the US 20 years ago this month. (It reached the UK in May 1993.) But the person on the other end of the line doesn't sound like Russell: it's more of a shrill whine, the vocal equivalent of nails on a blackboard. Then the penny drops.

"Ryan? It's Ned! Ned Ryerson! Bing!" After a prolonged chuckle, Russell drops his impersonation of Groundhog Day's irksome insurance salesman, a minor but intensely memorable character, and explains excitedly that he recently met Andie MacDowell, one of the film's stars. "She came to a screening of Silver Linings Playbook and I was, like: 'Oh my God, you were in one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.' She goes: 'Four Weddings and a Funeral?' I said, 'No, Groundhog Day!' I would give my left arm to have written that fucking script. It's the only movie I think of from that period other than the ones by Quentin [Tarantino]. It makes me mad because I would so like to make a film like that. Oh man, I could go on for ever about that movie …


Groundhog Day, Andie MacDowell
Andie MacDowell in Groundhog Day. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext /Allstar Collection/COLUMBIA


We don't have for ever – isn't that one of the lessons of Groundhog Day? – but Russell happily slips in and out of voices and lines from the movie, his recollections punctuated by wistful sighs. This is what tends to happen when fans of Groundhog Day get together. On its release, the picture, directed by Harold Ramis, instantly took its place alongside long-cherished favourites such as It's a Wonderful Life and Some Like It Hot. It was a hit, if not a record-breaking one – Free Willy made more money that year. It wasn't even the biggest comedy of 1993: that honour went to the Robin Williams cross-dressing farce Mrs Doubtfire, which grossed more than three times as much in the US. But if one of the marks of a great film is that we can barely remember a time when it wasn't in our lives, then Groundhog Day passes that test with ease. It seems to have been with us for ever.

So, too, does its title, which has entered our language as shorthand for any period of intolerable monotony comparable to the one experienced by the misanthropic TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray). Phil is dispatched to the folksy town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual 2 February celebrations, which revolve around a groundhog supposedly foreseeing the exact date of the arrival of spring. "This is one occasion where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather," Phil sneers to camera. But when he wakes the following morning, it is 2 February again. And 2 February it will remain indefinitely, rebooted each day at 6am, until Phil can figure out how to arrest the cycle. The secret, it transpires, lies within him.


Groundhog Day.
Bill Murray interviews the groundhog. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext /Allstar Collection/COLUMBIA


The film's timelessness can be attributed partly to its classical redemptive narrative, which has echoes of A Christmas Carol. "The redemption plot is one of the oldest story shapes," says Peter Baynham, the Day Today and Brass Eye writer whose script credits include BoratArthur Christmas and the forthcoming Alan Partridge: The Movie. "With so many movies, especially comedies, you can see the bones sticking out – you can see what they're trying to do. But Groundhog Day is such a clever, wonderful ride that you don't notice the joins. It's rare for a comedy to be funny and profound but also popular. Films such as Groundhog Day and Back to the Futuresold a lot of popcorn, but they were insanely smart too. That's very inspiring when you're sitting there trying to write a comedy screenplay. Groundhog Day is living proof that it’s possible to create intelligent comedy that still has a broad appeal."

Also remarkable is the film's refusal to reveal how Phil came to be stuck in his time-loop: there is no magical fairground machine (Big), no mantra (Shallow Hal), no curse (What Women Want). Nor does it specify the amount of times he repeats the same day. It could be 10 years or a thousand, however long it takes him to memorise the personal histories of Punxsutawney's townsfolk, and to become, among other things, a pianist, an ice-sculptor and a doctor ("It's kind of an honorary title," he shrugs). That radical withholding of information makes it something of an art film in mainstream clothing.

The artist and film-maker Gillian Wearing included Groundhog Day in her all-time top 10 when polled last year by Sight & Sound magazine. Her list included other enigmatic, if less multiplex-friendly, films – L'avventura, The Exterminating Angel, Last Year at Marienbad. "All those films reinvent structure and create a new conceptual framework that makes you understand them," says Wearing. "They share an almost surrealistic vision, and they pose philosophical questions. Groundhog Day is there primarily to entertain, but there are lots of really intelligent ideas in it. It makes me think of [the French philosopher Gilles] Deleuze and his thoughts on how change can arise from repetition. The film follows that to the letter.”

Not that the studio pushed the screenwriter Danny Rubin to go big on Deleuze or to make the third act more Marienbad-ish. On the contrary, Rubin was urged to write a Gypsy-curse scene explaining the loop, which Ramis wisely never shot. The mystery has only fortified the film's magic. Its chances of longevity were helped too by a purge on period references. Rubin urged Ramis, with whom he shares a writing credit, to expunge any nods to the 1990s: "You've gotta take all this out," he said, "because this movie is really going to go on for years and years." Compare this with Judd Apatow's films, which are peppered with gags about early-21st century celebrity culture. Parts of Funny People and This Is 40 will be incomprehensible in 50 years' time, whereas our descendants in 2063 will have no trouble understanding Groundhog Day when they download it on to their frontal lobes.

Groundhog Day, Stephen Tobolowsky
Stephen Tobolowsky (left) with Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Photograph: Allstar/COLUMBIA/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar


Speak to any of the film's admirers and one word comes up repeatedly: perfect. "I thought straight away that it was a classic," says Wearing. "It's like a Billy Wilder film: other generations will understand immediately what's so good about it. To me, it’s a perfect film."

Russell agrees: "It's perfect in its structure, and its ideas are so profound. Very much like Silver Linings Playbook, it's about someone fighting their demons using all that humble, difficult, baby-steps hard work that it takes, but doing it in such a hilarious way. It shows that until you wake up and get things right, you're gonna live that stuff until you die: the same emotional prison every day. Phil has to go through every incarnation of what he thinks love is until he really gets it.”

Like Russell and Wearing, the former Monty Python member Terry Jones also included Groundhog Day in his top 10. "What's so remarkable about it," Jones observes over a pint in a north London pub, "is that normally when you're writing a screenplay you try to avoid repetition. And that's the whole thing here, it's built on repetition. That's so bold. The way they get through it is to short-circuit everything, so just when you think something is going to happen that you've seen before, the film gets to it before you and changes or abbreviates it in some way. I saw it when it came out and it just took my breath away."

GROUNDHOG DAY Bill Murray
Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Photograph: Alamy


It still does. I watched the film again at a London cinema last weekend (on Groundhog Day itself, in fact), where it played to a rapturous sold-out crowd who hung on Murray's every poisonous putdown. ("Probably the best work that I've done," Murray once said of the movie.) His performances since then, from his collaborations with Wes Anderson (including last year's Moonrise Kingdom) to his Oscar-nominated turn in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, each have as their springboard Groundhog Day. Before that, Murray was seen largely as a clown. After it, he was a complex actor with range. "It's the movie he was born to make," enthuses Russell. "It's his greatest role. His cynicism and eventually his sincerity feel so real because he comes by them so honestly. He proves that if you feel it from the feet up, there are no cliches.”

If the impact of Groundhog Day is still felt on Murray's career, its influence on cinema in general is ever more prevalent. It legitimised fantasy aspects in mainstream comedy so effectively that stars such as Jim Carrey (in The Truman Show, Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty) and Adam Sandler (in Click and 50 First Dates) spent years trying to replicate its formula. Its imprint can be detected on films as diverse as Sliding Doors, The Family Man, Run Lola Run and the recent Safety Not Guaranteed. In 2004, there was an Italian remake, though the best thing about that was the title: È già ieri, or It's Already Yesterday. And Charlie Kaufman has also occupied the same philosophical terrain with films such as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (with Carrey again). "Look at everything Kaufman's done," says Russell, "and you'll see that Harold and Danny got there first." Later this year, Richard Curtis will try for the Groundhog Day effect with About Time, featuring a hero who can zip back and forth through episodes in his own life. In one sequence, he refines repeatedly his first night with a new girlfriend until he perfects his technique. Connors, never shy of using supernatural subterfuge for sex, would have approved.

"There have been a lot of messing-with-time movies where you can't help but see the influence of Groundhog Day," Rubin tells me. "There was Source Code, which was like Groundhog Day but with a bomb on a train. I quite liked that. Every time it happens, my friends say: 'You just got ripped off. I hope they paid you.' I'm, like: 'No, it's an homage.' It's not like I'm being erased. It's an honour. I always thought the premise could be explored a million different ways. I welcome all of these explorations; it's fun for me because I like to see how other people play with the idea. Basically it shows how ubiquitous it's become in the culture. It’s getting harder and harder now to find anyone who hasn't seen it."

 Groundhog Day by Ryan Gilbey is published by BFI Publishing, price £10.99. To order a copy for £8.79 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop, or call 0330 333 6846.

78 comments:

  1. OK, OK I'm convinced, I'll go get it and watch it.

    Everything I've ever heard about has been positive.

    'Redemption narrative", huh ?

    I like the sounds of that.

    Got the sounds of a happy ending.

    I like the sounds of a happy ending.

    I like happy endings.

    "If it's not a happy, it's not an ending yet, Uncle Bob" -- My Niece

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "It’s getting harder and harder now to find anyone who hasn't seen it."

      Won't be me in a few days. Just put it on our to-do list out in the kitchen.

      Delete
  2. March 13, 2016

    Cruz sweeps Wyoming primary with almost 2/3 of votes

    By Thomas Lifson


    The nation’s least populous state voted in its Republican primary yesterday, handing a sweeping victory to Ted Cruz, who got 66.3% of the vote. That’s very impressive until you look at the details. The total number of votes cast was 903, in a GOP-dominated state with a population estimated at 564,000. Cruz’s vote earned him 9 delegates out the 1247 necessary to win the nomination. Wyoming’s delegate assignment process is Byzantine.

    Jason Horowitz explains in the New York Times:

    Three of the state’s 29 delegates are unpledged state party officials, and only 12 delegates were contested on Saturday, with Mr. Cruz, the Texas senator, winning nine of them. The remaining 14 will be pledged at a state convention on April 16. Officials in Wyoming have begun studying whether to abandon their complicated voting system, which involves three separate elections, and move to a primary.

    “We don’t see a lot of attention,” explained Tom Wiblemo, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party.

    But what attention was paid by Ted Cruz paid dividends:


    Mr. Cruz had visited in August, hosting a couple of large rallies on opposite ends of the state, and that the Cruz campaign had remained engaged throughout the primary season. Donald J. Trump never made it to the state, Mr. Kasich visited last year and Rubio surrogates held several events.

    With 14 more delegates to be assigned next month, presumably Cruz has a leg up there as well. While it is easy to belittle the small poulation represented in Wyoming, keep in mind that Florida, with almost 20 million people, has only 99 delegates at stake Tuesday.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/cruz_sweeps_wyoming_primary_with_almost_23_of_votes.html#ixzz42mZO5v9e

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wyoming doesn't like City Slickers.

      The Donald got 70 votes.

      Wyoming is a wonderful state.

      Delete
    2. .

      One of these days Wyoiming s going to demand internet service.

      .

      Delete
  3. Just like the movie Jack shows he hasn't learned from his past, repeated slanders, lies and distortions:

    Jack HawkinsSat Mar 12, 11:21:00 PM EST
    And you, "O"rdure, calling for preemptive nuclear war ...

    Just because you're afraid, you think that justifies millions of people dying in a nuclear holocaust.


    Yahweh= Allah
    Hat tip: "O"rude



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would think that one could argue or debate a point without having to distort, lie or misdirect...

      I guess that proves the weakness of your argument again Jack, or shall we say "Mr Groundhog"?

      Delete
    2. What is "Occupation" Sat Dec 26, 07:46:00 PM EST

      Rufus: Eventually, Every Nation on Earth will have "Nukes." That's just the way it is.


      Then all the more reason to nuke those without them that are a threat asap....

      Delete
    3. "O"rdure, the blast from the past ...

      Of course with "O"rdure, each day is a new one, he can never post a direct quote that is over a day old. It must be in his Likud contract

      Delete

    4. Yahweh = Allah

      Hat tip: "O"rdure

      Delete
    5. Once again, Jack cannot post within contest a post.

      He must lie, distort and mislead the conversation and use libel and slander to make a point.

      Good fail Jack.

      In the past you have told folks they were lazy and inept for not providing a hyperlink...

      What's your excuse?

      Delete
    6. Jack has never posted about the contest of a post.

      Don't see them as part of a contest ...

      I will reference the context of post, when it suits me.


      {;-)

      Delete
    7. Jack be nimble , Jack be quick...

      Wiggle wiggle wiggle...

      Master of distortion, lies and slander....

      Mis-direction Jack.....

      Never a straight answer, but the readers see thru your bullshit..

      Delete
  4. A report about the American economy that galopin2 won't want to read -

    THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA'S PRETTY DARN GREAT ECONOMY

    http://nypost.com/2016/03/11/the-ugly-truth-about-obamas-pretty-darn-great-economy/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now if you want to discuss nukes?

    America has nuked japan preemptively, they did not have nukes....

    :)

    I guess there is value in using nukes in the right set of circumstances.

    maybe that's why America has so many?

    why build them, test them, store them, keep them, deploy them if you have no intention of using them?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jack the game has changed.

    When you slander or lie, distort or misdirect you will be called out for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe Deuce will grow a pair and start deleting you when you slander or libel or lie?

      I doubt it..

      Delete
    2. But the readers will see thru your antics.

      Delete

    3. Yahweh = Allah
      Hat tip: "O"rdure

      Delete
    4. Still not capable of speaking the truth?

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is "Occupation" Sat Jul 19, 10:54:00 PM EDT

      it's a great time to buy the stock (Sodastream) Herr Rodent..
      It's undervalued. ($29.11)
      LOL
      you really just don't understand business..


      That was then ...
      This is now

      Let us review ...
      "O"rdure recommends buying Sodastream on 19July 2014 at $29.11 telling us it was undervalued.

      On 11Mar2016 Sodastream closed at $14.57

      More than a 50% decline since "O"rdure told us it was undervalued.
      Someone really does not understand business, and it ain't Herr Rodent

      Delete
    2. It's been months since Jack "Memorial Day" Hawkins predicted Iraq would be ISIS free by last Memorial Day, 2015.

      Someone really doesn't understand war, and it is Herr Rodent.

      Delete
    3. And it's STILL undervalued.

      Investors like Warren Buffet advise buy and hold, if the price drops and the company still is the premier producer BUY MORE.

      Jack, the name is "What is Occupation" learn the rules. using slander or insults just proves you lack a decent argument.


      Try again, Jack.

      But you are true to form, going down your check list of issues.

      It's groundhog day every day for those without an original thought...

      Delete
    4. Jack, please go look up the word/term "undervalued"

      I was right then, and I am still right....

      Delete
  8. Whenever you want to discuss realities, "O"rdure, we can.

    But as long as you post emotional rants, libels with no factual basis, well, you will be answered, humorously. By your own writing.

    The archives are chuck full of inane statements you have made, or at least that you continue to claim as your own.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Go back to bed, you moron.

    "There's something really wrong with you, rat."

    Trish

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. trish
      Sun Dec 24, 12:35:00 AM EST

      The old fashioned way: Declare victory and come home.

      Rat WAS always right about that.

      Delete
    2. Hack, the name's "what is occupation"

      as long as you slander and distort you prove you lack the ability to rationally discuss anything.

      Groundhog day at the blog, Jack and his un-original thoughts, over and over again...

      Delete
  10. Jack brings up Sodastream...

    Let's review.

    It completed it's new factory in Southern Israel, far from the savages...

    Larger and more modern than any other factory in it's holdings....

    Got RID of 500 palestinians employees!!

    In fact, got sympathy for the last 74 Palestinians it had to let go LOL

    Now it's consolidated it's manufacturing, it's making new products, creating a pick up service in the USA for it's CO2 cartridges, adding new flavors and still is making a 100 million in profit a year on consumables...

    Now of course in business nothing is a sure bet but the Motley Fool is impressed..

    http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/11/sodastream-smells-like-keen-spirit.aspx

    SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA - Snapshot Report) recently launched a new carbonation system called SodaStream Spirit at the 2016 International Home + Housewares Show. In addition, the company updated its SodaStream MIX beverage maker and a number of sparkling water mix flavors. - See more at: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/209996/sodastream-launches-new-carbonation-system#sthash.ZLDQvN5j.dpuf

    I'd sure love to own that company...

    an annuity based consumption business with great cash flow..

    speculators be damed, investors love it.

    We note that this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is known for manufacturing innovative beverage carbonation systems that can transform ordinary tap water into soft drinks and sparkling water. The company’s products are sold at major retail stores like Kohl’s, Corp. (KSS - Analyst Report), Macy’s, Inc. (M - Analyst Report) and Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (BBBY - Analyst Report).

    SodaStream Spirit is a premium sparkling water maker, but has been priced affordably so that more families can purchase it. Spirit features a slimmer design, and a snap-lock bottle insertion mechanism. Spirit comes in black and will be available to some retailers in Sep 2016. The product will be launched nationwide in Jan 2017.

    Now Zack is a hold on Sodastream, but if you have not invested yet? Prices are ripe for purchase.

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://theenterpriseleader.com/stocks/value-stock-buzz-sodastream-international-ltd-nasdaqsoda/79185/

    Value Stock Buzz: SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ:SODA)

    The latest firmnotching a place into the Zacks list of value stocks is SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ:SODA). Value stocks investors list stocks that are noted trading at a lower price against respective fundamentals. Zacks identify such stocks by computing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and price-to-book ratio. The stock tends to shift closer to its ‘intrinsic value’ on the basis of fundamental factors. If the last price fails to match the intrinsic worth of a company, there exists an investment opportunity.

    Zacks applies a changed rating scale that can be effortlessly used by stockholders. On this scale, the rating range is indicated in a range of one to five. The rating of ‘1’ is labeled as a positive stance on the stock. SodaStream International Ltd. (NASDAQ:SODA) stock has a rating of 2.67 calculated considering the opinions of 4 brokerage houses. Value investors consider the idea that a stock’s market cap fundamentally doesn’t denote the company’s real performance.



    This line is for Jack:

    Value investors consider the idea that a stock’s market cap fundamentally doesn’t denote the company’s real performance.


    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  12. More great news from Sodastream

    Shares of SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA - Snapshot Report) gained about 4% after the carbonation system manufacturer launched a new CO2 carbonator exchange pilot program, SodaStream Fizz Concierge, in select locations in the Northeast. The company intends to roll out the program nationally by 2016 end. -

    See more at: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/209418/sodastream-fizz-concierge-to-replace-used-co2-cylinders#sthash.JT4y8uOa.dpuf

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is still trading at one half the value it sold at when you recommended buying it, touting it was 'undervalued'.

      The Head of US Operations has exited the company, another of the transient management team that does not stay, after digesting reality, at Sodastream.

      Delete
  13. Now more of the Deuce and Jack Show...

    Deuce ☂Sat Mar 12, 12:43:00 PM EST
    Zionism is bullshit developed by a Ukrainian Jew, based on some religious myth that cultist Eastern Europeans have been given permission by some make believe god who talked to some psychopath named Abraham to practice apartheid, ethnic cleaning and cultural aggression against indigenous people in The Middle East.


    No answers from either Deuce of Jack....

    What right do they have to support the creation and continuance of the USA as it is a prime example of a "European Colony"?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anybody want a job ?

    Soros is hiring.

    See application form in link below.

    March 13, 2016

    Soros-funded group getting ready for ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations ‘caused’ by Trump’s rhetoric at GOP Convention?

    By Thomas Lifson

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/sorosfunded_group_getting_ready_for_spontaneous_demonstrations_caused_by_trumps_rhetoric_at_gop_convention.html#ixzz42oJzveet



    ReplyDelete
  15. Why don't you try to hire on as a Soros Thug, Jack ?

    You've got some experience.

    You're great at disrupting this place with your repetitive bullshit.

    Heck, it's a natural for you.

    And, it would finally give you something to do.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Interesting the silence from the Deuce and Jack Show..

    Deuce ☂Sat Mar 12, 12:43:00 PM EST
    Zionism is bullshit developed by a Ukrainian Jew, based on some religious myth that cultist Eastern Europeans have been given permission by some make believe god who talked to some psychopath named Abraham to practice apartheid, ethnic cleaning and cultural aggression against indigenous people in The Middle East.


    SO why are all the rest of the nations of the world, created by the English, Spanish, Portuguese, French acceptable but 1/900th of the arab colonized middle east is not acceptable...

    Arabs are a people, historically, from arabia, they moved into the neighborhood 1400 years ago with a sword of Islam.

    They are the very definition of OCCUPIERS..

    Of course the Turks/Ottomans kicked their asses for about 500 years, til the Brit kicked their asses...

    What's an indigenous person?

    An Arab is but not a Jew?

    How do you establish what is a NATIVE?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Who gives a shit?

      You have been ranting about this shit for three days.

      .

      Delete
    2. Glad you can count. But it's been much longer....

      about 10 years.

      Who gives a shit?

      I do...

      might I suggest you either ignore it or comment ON it....

      use that thing you call a brain and ponder the query and do a blog like thing and answer....

      or dont...

      Delete
    3. Quirk:

      Deuce ☂Sat Mar 12, 12:43:00 PM EST
      Zionism is bullshit developed by a Ukrainian Jew, based on some religious myth that cultist Eastern Europeans have been given permission by some make believe god who talked to some psychopath named Abraham to practice apartheid, ethnic cleaning and cultural aggression against indigenous people in The Middle East.


      SO why are all the rest of the nations of the world, created by the English, Spanish, Portuguese, French acceptable but 1/900th of the arab colonized middle east is not acceptable...

      Arabs are a people, historically, from arabia, they moved into the neighborhood 1400 years ago with a sword of Islam.

      They are the very definition of OCCUPIERS..

      Of course the Turks/Ottomans kicked their asses for about 500 years, til the Brit kicked their asses...

      What's an indigenous person?

      An Arab is but not a Jew?

      How do you establish what is a NATIVE?



      try answering the questions without hostility.

      Delete
    4. Quirk, as an American what right does America have to be a nation, since we are the offspring of an European colony with Deuce's comments in mind..

      Delete
    5. .

      might I suggest you either ignore it or comment ON it....

      I did above.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      I only care about facts, not what Deuce says, what rat says, or what you say.

      .

      Delete
    7. .

      ...try answering the questions without hostility.

      I've answered the question dozens of times before. You won't accept it.

      You argue that Jews have a 'historical' tie to the lands. I say so what. So do the Arabs, so do the Persians, so do the Romans, the Greeks, the Babylonians (read Iraq), the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Sea People, and others.

      You argue that the Jews were there first. That's crazy. The geographic area called Palestine has been occupied for 10,000 years. It is estimated Jericho has been occupied for 8,000 years. Jerusalem, under other names, was occupied 1000 years before it was conquered by the Jews. Before the tribes of Israel got there and conquered the land it was occupied by the Canaanites a Semitic people and offshoot of the Sea People, Phoenicia and Mycenae of Greece.

      Israel conquered the land and were in turn conquered. There were countries or peoples who owned the land as long as the Jews did.

      And what does it all mean? Zero.

      Israel controls it now and that is all that is important. For now.

      .

      Delete
    8. Great, Jerusalem is Israel's, for now

      In the meantime?

      The Moslem world is imploding.

      It will be interesting to see if the majority of Moslems survive the next 100 years, this is in doubt and it's really in their own hands to see if it happens..

      A nuclear exchange between the Shia and the Sunni is in the cards.....

      Delete
  17. .

    They are the very definition of OCCUPIERS..

    What's the difference between conquering a country and merely occupying one?

    Carter Moore

    Occupying a country implies that the nation in control will still recognize some level of the occupied state's sovereignty, perhaps with a view towards returning full security responsibility to the nation at some point in the future. This usually happens when the victorious nation doesn't want to absorb the occupied one, but draw some form of concession or impose its will following the breakdown of peaceful negotiations. Generally, there's something to suggest that the occupying nation intends to withdraw its military down the line.

    Conquest happens when the intent to annihilate the subjugated state's sovereignty and absorb it into the victorious nation. There's no talk of returning any form of self government to the conquered nation except under the authority of the victorious nation.

    It can be a blurred line, however. If, say, the nation proclaims that it is merely occupying a nation until [x] criteria are met, and then either actively undermines progress towards those criteria or maintains its occupation force beyond stated timetables (or simply indefinitely)...


    Conquest and occupation are viewed differently in international law. There can be criticism of each. International law is written to address each.

    You pays your money and you takes your chances.

    No matter which a country chooses, it is their decision and they they should reasonably expect that their will be some reaction.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well said.

      Please show any real example of a nation called Palestine ever existing?

      The lands of the area known as Palestine was never a country.

      Ever.

      The lands that Israel liberated were in fact historic Jewish lands that date back 3000 years.

      Judea and Sameria...

      The modern, recent term "west bank" in a novel new verbiage.

      Delete
    2. .

      The only ones who care a whit about what you just posted are Jews and Marco Rubio.

      You offer up inanities as if they mean anything.

      There was no country called Israel in 1947.

      .

      Delete
    3. QuirkSun Mar 13, 06:40:00 PM EDT
      .

      The only ones who care a whit about what you just posted are Jews and Marco Rubio.

      You offer up inanities as if they mean anything.

      There was no country called Israel in 1947.


      True, but the Kingdom of Israel lasted for 2200 years on that very spot by my ancestors.

      History is real.

      In 1947 MOST of the arab world did not have countries either. Nor Pakistan.

      Delete
    4. .

      True, but the Kingdom of Israel lasted for 2200 years on that very spot by my ancestors.

      It's understandable that you might believe so.

      I disagree.

      For the the greater part of that 2200 you speak of the geographical area called Palestine was merely a province controlled by various greater powers not the Kingdom of Israel.

      http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Kingdoms1.html

      .

      Delete
  18. Conquest happens when the intent to annihilate the subjugated state's sovereignty and absorb it into the victorious nation. There's no talk of returning any form of self government to the conquered nation except under the authority of the victorious nation.

    Yep that's what the arabs have done...

    And now the jews have LIBERATED their historic lands from the conquering savages.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Quirk, then your facts are clear.

    Israel is the Jewish Nation state.

    It holds 1.2 million arabs that enjoy more freedom than any arab living in any arab nation on the planet.

    Israel sits on 1/900th of the arab conquered middle east.

    At this writing the other 899/900th is destroying itself

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I would agree but you are probably wrong about the percentages when you ignore Kurds, the Turks, Iranians, etc.

      .

      Delete
    2. If we included the Turks, the Iranians it would not be the middle east

      The stat I quote is the arab controlled areas.

      Iran is huge, as is Turkey.

      If we included those areas?

      Israel would sit on a tinier slice of land.

      The Kurds are included in the Syrian and Iraqi %'s.

      Delete
    3. Jack HawkinsSun Mar 13, 06:53:00 PM EDT

      Yahweh=Allah
      Hat tip: "O"rude


      There is no "O"rude, unless you are trying to be slanderous or insulting...

      Please refrain from being a jack off.

      Delete

  20. Want to know why Trump's winning? Here's what's really driving angry white voters


    So people are angry. They are angry they can’t find fulltime jobs with decent pay, and angry that their kids can’t either. This anger has sometimes been cast inward. When Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton evaluated life expectancy for middle aged white Americans, they found it was going down, not up.

    Even as middle aged Latinos and African-Americans are living longer, middle aged whites are dying in droves from drug overdoses, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver and diseases traditionally defined as self inflicted. A Washington Post reporter recently matched up the county by county breakdown of white deaths from these causes with Trump support on Super Tuesday.

    What he found, was that Trump support was concentrated in these areas.

    This week I spoke with Michael Barone, the astute author of the “Almanac of American Politics,” about the primary in Michigan. I asked him where Trump’s support was strong. He said, “Where wasn’t it?” And, then he told me a story about Michigan’s jobs history. In 1970, he said, the UAW conducted a legendary strike against GM in which it demanded 30 years on the line and out for assembly plant workers.

    GM was so dominant at the time, that a strike by all its line workers meant one in 200 of all U.S. employees were idle. The national jobs rate plunged for the two months of the strike. Workers got what they were asking for – retirement after 30 years and lavish healthcare benefits. Golden years for these workers started at 48 years of age. Unimaginable, right? Today we’re trying to keep working into our 60s and even 70s to pay for retirement on our own.

    Now the children of those retirees are voting. Some of them live in what Barone calls the Flint Riviera along Lake Huron. They voted in huge numbers for Trump. In Iosco County more than 50 percent of the primary vote went for Trump.

    These people know precisely how far the American economy has fallen and they are struggling to make it. In a couple of generations, they witnessed the country’s loosened grip on growth and prosperity. And, they don’t like it. Neither do I. Ultimately, I wish fixing the financial problems of American families were as simple as controlling the Kardashian ninnies. In fact, the problems are much more difficult to solve. Coasting along like we have been just isn’t good enough. And, that’s what those angry white voters are telling Washington.


    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/03/11/want-to-know-why-trumps-winning-heres-whats-really-driving-angry-white-voters.html?intcmp=ob_article_sidebar_video&intcmp=obnetwork

    ReplyDelete

  21. US ally attacks Kurds in Iraq

    Turkey bombs PKK targets in northern Iraq

    ISTANBUL (Turkey) - Turkey's air force bombarded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq this week, killing 67 rebel fighters, the military said Saturday, the first such strikes in nearly a month.

    The air strikes, carried out by 14 F-16 and F-4 fighter-bombers, hit camps and other installations run by the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies, the military said in a statement carried by local media.

    It is the first such operation against PKK bases in Iraq since February 18, when the air force launched raids in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 29 people, which Turkey blamed on Kurdish rebels.


    http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=75724

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      What's new?

      During the Iraq war, the US pressured Iraqi Kurds to allow Turkey to cross the border and attack PKK camps in Iraq.

      .

      Delete


  22. (IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The security committee of Anbar Provincial Council announced on Sunday, that 80 ISIS elements and suspects were detained in areas west of Ramadi.

    The head of the security committee, Rageh Barakat al-Issawi, said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces managed to detain 80 ISIS elements and [other] suspects during the scrutiny which the civilians came under [it] in the areas of Zankura and the modern village as well as areas near Heet District west of Ramadi.”

    Issawi added, “The security information confirmed that elements of ISIS have shaved their beards in the districts of Heet, Kabisa, and A’anah in preparation for an escape to Syria,” pointing out that, “The security forces transferred the wanted suspects who were arrested during the liberation battles to a security detention center for interrogation.”

    ReplyDelete
  23. QuirkSun Mar 13, 06:40:00 PM EDT
    The only ones who care a whit about what you just posted are Jews and Marco Rubio.
    You offer up inanities as if they mean anything.


    Sorry Quirk but just because you do not care to suffer the actual history of the Jewish people doesn't mean it isn't real.

    Just like the Nazis, they sought to erase my people's history.

    You will not succeed either.

    Might I suggest you pull your head out of your ass a little and learn something about my people?

    You might be surprised how much positive impact they have and had on you...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      You repeat yourself.

      I might not know about Jewish culture, your holidays, the foods you like to eat and on and you might be right in asserting if I knew more it might have a positive impact to me. I won't argue the point.

      However, I do know a little about the history of the ME and about international law and diplomatic recognition.

      Rather than compose another response, I will simply repost my answer from above.

      QuirkSun Mar 13, 08:56:00 PM EDT

      .

      True, but the Kingdom of Israel lasted for 2200 years on that very spot by my ancestors.

      It's understandable that you might believe so.

      I disagree.

      For the the greater part of that 2200 you speak of the geographical area called Palestine was merely a province controlled by various greater powers not the Kingdom of Israel.

      http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Kingdoms1.html


      .

      Delete
    2. Doesn't change the fact that the Jews have lived there for thousands of years, no matter how many times they were defeated, they rose up again.

      Now the last ass kicking, by the romans? lasted for almost 1900 years...

      But again, we have risen...

      Liberated our lands, for now.

      How long? Who knows..

      But we won't be on our knees..

      Delete
  24. IS jihadists pull out of several Iraq towns: officers

    Baghdad (AFP) - Islamic State fighters retreated from several western Iraqi towns and towards the Syrian border on Sunday as security forces worked their way up the Euphrates Valley, officers said.

    The jihadist organisation's leadership ordered its fighters out of Hit, Kubaysa and Rutba, prompting thousands of civilians to take to the road to meet advancing federal forces while others enjoyed their first hours of freedom in months.

    "The majority of Daesh (IS) fighters in Hit, Rutba and Kubaysa have fled through the desert to other regions," Yahya Rasool, Iraq's top security spokesman, told AFP.

    Hit, around 145 kilometres (90 miles) west of Baghdad, was one of the main towns in Anbar province that was still held by IS.

    Kubaysa is a smaller town to the west of Hit while Rutba is a desert outpost on the road to Jordan about 390 kilometres (245 miles) west of the capital.

    "There is an operation to hunt them down with Iraqi aircraft," said Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS in Iraq.

    "Hit is surrounded by Iraqi forces from the south and north," he said. "Thousands of families have fled the area to meet our forces."

    Iraqi government forces have yet to enter Hit and no security source would immediately confirm whether any holdout IS fighters remained.

    However, residents reached by AFP said no jihadists were visible on Sunday following a pullout that began on Saturday.

    One resident said IS's local military leader was killed in an air strike as he tried to escape on Saturday.

    "Ahmed Mashaan Abdelwahed al-Batran was killed when an air raid destroyed his boat -- he was trying to cross the river with his family," he said.

    "Since yesterday, the Hisba (Islamic police) has vanished from the streets. Before they withdrew, Daesh (IS) fighters booby-trapped houses, roads and government buildings," he added.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. - First cigarette -

      Another Hit resident said one of the first things the men did after IS pulled out was to light a cigarette.

      "The young people in Hit are smoking on the street and they also changed back into their normal clothes," he said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

      "There are women in the street without the niqab (full veil) for the first time" since the town fell to IS in October 2014, he said.

      Witnesses and officials said IS leaders -- many of them from the city of Mosul or foreigners -- tried to slip out of Hit by blending in with fleeing families after shaving their beards.

      "Yesterday there was not one razor blade left in the markets of Hit," the second witness told AFP.

      The top regional army commander, 7th division chief Noman al-Zobaie, overflew the city to assess the situation, senior officials said.

      Naim al-Kaoud, leader of the local Albu Nimr tribe, said tribal fighters in the area were close to Hit but awaiting government coordination to move in.

      "The decision to retake control of Hit has to come from the leadership of the security forces. It is when they go in that the recapture of Hit will be complete," he told AFP.

      Delete
    2. In Rutba, "Daesh's armed men started pulling out last night and completed their withdrawal this morning," a major general told AFP on Sunday.

      He said they all moved towards Al-Qaim, a jihadist bastion on the border with Syria, further north in Anbar province.

      After launching a final push against IS in provincial capital Ramadi late last year, Iraq's security forces established full control over the city last month.

      They have since been securing areas east of Ramadi, further isolating the jihadist stronghold of Fallujah, which is only 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

      The US-led coalition that has been carrying out air strikes against IS for more than a year and a half has said that the jihadist group was stretched increasingly thin.

      Iraqi forces have in recent weeks been trying to flush out jihadists from vast areas around Lake Tharthar, which straddles Anbar and the province of Salaheddin.

      In several of its strongholds, IS is reported to have forcibly recruited children for checkpoints duty as it sends adult males into combat.

      Yahoo News

      Delete
    3. When razor blades are sold out in ISISLand it is a very good sign. A very very good sign.

      :)

      Delete
  25. "You might be surprised how much positive impact they have had on you..."

    :) heh

    Sometimes, but only sometimes, I have to struggle with something like this in regard to the Quirkster. Right now is one of those times.

    I always try to give Quirk the benefit of the doubt, his heart generally being in the right place.

    The statement is generally true of us all, Jewish ideas having had such a great impact on the culture of our country. The other influences are important too, the English especially, what with the basic trends of its law etc which we also inherited. And the Greek with its philosophical inquiry outlook and its many myths which we carry around inside ourselves, often unrecognized. The Roman not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  26. It's looking like The Donald will win Florida, but lose in Ohio.

    Perhaps Kasich is in this for the possibility of the VP spot.

    Ben Carson has said he'd serve if asked.

    The Soros Storm Troopers are making big plans for the Republican Convention.

    These ranks are heavily infiltrated by Sanders supporters.

    If totalitarianism comes to the USA, it will comes from the left, not the right.

    Let us pray we never have to suffer and deal with that.

    Gary Kasparov, who lived it, had a good article on this general topic of socialism and freedom the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Kasich promises Amesty within 100 days if elected.....Drudge

    Good Grief....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Let us pray we never have to suffer and deal with that."

      I think prayer, properly conducted, is one of the beneficial aspects of our Jewish heritage.

      Whatever the results it most always makes a person feel a little 'cleaner' after, and better about things, as Hemingway once noted.

      Delete
  28. SEATTLE EMPLOYMENT CRATERS

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/13/fight-for-15-update-seattle-employment-craters/

    Well, duh.

    You raise wages dramatically so fast and what do they expect would happen. The Obama Administration argued that this was a myth.

    You can't do things so suddenly and dramatically without the easily perceived consequences occurring.

    But then the Obama Administration is blind to most things.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Pea Pickers Camp "Migrant Mother"
    The story behind the photo:
    "I was following instinct, not reason; I drove into that wet and soggy camp and parked my car like a homing pigeon.
    “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet."
    She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed.”

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/times-past/article65656337.html

    (Open in incognito window.)

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/times-past/7o9yvg/picture65656322/ALTERNATES/FREE_480/0312dlange2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://museumca.org/sites/default/files/styles/exhibits-640x425/public/field/gallery/Kern%20Co.%2C%20California%E2%80%94Lettuce%20Strike%2C%201938_lo-res.jpg?

      Delete
  30. What has caused everyone, here, to lose the ability to make clickable links?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laziness in my case. Refusal to learn in Bobs. You'll have to explain 'Rat and WIO.

      Delete
    2. In Chrome, you can select the link, Right Click, then Click "Go to" and it will open the link in a new tab.

      Delete
  31. For some reason it doesn’t work using an Apple.

    ReplyDelete