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The latest polls show Republicans are poised to take control of the Senate this November if progressives don't show up to vote. We've got a plan that's proven to be effective, but it can't happen without you …
by Ilya Sheyman
I was disappointed to learn that Coca-Cola contributed more than $3.2 million to defeat the state initiatives to label genetically engineered foods (or GMOs) in California and Washington. Please stop …
by Center for Food Safety
Tell Costco: Don't stock Koch brothers products in your stores.
by Ann Harlan
As your constituent, I want to make sure you know that I strongly support the "Not My Boss' Business" Act. Billionaire CEOs shouldn't get a say over what happens in their employees' bedrooms and …
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Tell members of Congress: Our justice system should rehabilitate, not just incarcerate. Please support the REDEEM Act.
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We can start by voting OUT every liberal and progressive in the government !
ReplyDeleteThat would be a great beginning .
I'll say this for the Left: their various factions organize, then unite behind one particular candidate.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP, in contrast, is divided and disorganized.
I was an enthusiastic supporter of the office of the President of the United States of America before Barack Hussein Obama was elected. But now I find that i am not and that I can no longer believe or trust my own government, and especially the president. My trust went bye-bye, along with the phoney “Hope and Change” BS we we promised, and I never believed in the first place. . .
ReplyDeleteI don’t have all the answers, but ultimately, it comes down to whether you want an open, transparent and therefore free government or a closed, secretive, authoritarian regime.
The President was, and is fully aware of the extent of the laws that govern this Great Nation but he chose to violate both domestic and international laws, and was willing to go along with them, by his constant Lying, and creating Cover-ups and going along with Cheaters. .
Aristophanes, "The Birds"
ReplyDeleteAN INFORMER. What are these birds with downy feathers, who look so pitiable to me? Tell me, oh swallow with the long dappled wings.[337]
PISTHETAERUS. Oh! but 'tis a perfect invasion that threatens us. Here comes another of them, humming along.
INFORMER. Swallow with the long dappled wings, once more I summon you.
PISTHETAERUS. It's his cloak I believe he's addressing; 'faith, it stands in great need of the swallows' return.[338]
INFORMER. Where is he who gives out wings to all comers?
PISTHETAERUS. 'Tis I, but you must tell me for what purpose you want them.
INFORMER. Ask no questions. I want wings, and wings I must have.
PISTHETAERUS. Do you want to fly straight to Pellené?[339]
INFORMER. I? Why, I am an accuser of the islands,[340] an informer …
PISTHETAERUS. A fine trade, truly!
INFORMER. … a hatcher of lawsuits. Hence I have great need of wings to prowl round the cities and drag them before justice.
PISTHETAERUS. Would you do this better if you had wings?
INFORMER. No, but I should no longer fear the pirates; I should return with the cranes, loaded with a supply of lawsuits by way of ballast.
PISTHETAERUS. So it seems, despite all your youthful vigour, you make it your trade to denounce strangers?
INFORMER. Well, and why not? I don't know how to dig.
PISTHETAERUS. But, by Zeus! there are honest ways of gaining a living at your age without all this infamous trickery.
INFORMER. My friend, I am asking you for wings, not for words.
PISTHETAERUS. 'Tis just my words that give you wings.
INFORMER. And how can you give a man wings with your words?
PISTHETAERUS. 'Tis thus that all first start.
INFORMER. All?
PISTHETAERUS. Have you not often heard the father say to young men in the barbers' shops, "It's astonishing how Diitrephes' advice has made my son fly to horse-riding."—"Mine," says another, "has flown towards tragic poetry on the wings of his imagination."
INFORMER. So that words give wings?
PISTHETAERUS. Undoubtedly; words give wings to the mind and make a man soar to heaven. Thus I hope that my wise words will give you wings to fly to some less degrading trade.
INFORMER. But I do not want to.
PISTHETAERUS. What do you reckon on doing then?
INFORMER. I won't belie my breeding; from generation to generation we have lived by informing. Quick, therefore, give me quickly some light, swift hawk or kestrel wings, so that I may summon the islanders, sustain the accusation here, and haste back there again on flying pinions.
PISTHETAERUS. I see. In this way the stranger will be condemned even before he appears.
INFORMER. That's just it.
PISTHETAERUS. And while he is on his way here by sea, you will be flying to the islands to despoil him of his property.
INFORMER. You've hit it, precisely; I must whirl hither and thither like a perfect humming-top.
PISTHETAERUS. I catch the idea. Wait, i' faith, I've got some fine
Corcyraean wings.[341] How do you like them?
INFORMER. Oh! woe is me! Why, 'tis a whip!
PISTHETAERUS. No, no; these are the wings, I tell you, that set the top a-spinning.
INFORMER. Oh! oh! oh!
PISTHETAERUS. Take your flight, clear off, you miserable cur, or you will soon see what comes of quibbling and lying. Come, let us gather up our wings and withdraw.
[337] A parody of a hemistich from 'Alcaeus.'—The informer is dissatisfied at only seeing birds of sombre plumage and poor appearance. He would have preferred to denounce the rich.
ReplyDelete[338] The informer, says the Scholiast, was clothed with a ragged cloak, the tatters of which hung down like wings, in fact, a cloak that could not protect him from the cold and must have made him long for the swallows' return, i.e. the spring.
[339] A town in Achaia, where woollen cloaks were made.
[340] His trade was to accuse the rich citizens of the subject islands, and drag them before the Athenian courts; he explains later the special advantages of this branch of the informer's business.
[341] That is, whips—Corcyra being famous for these articles.
Oy!... Gotta love the Chattering Class!
The point of the post, of course, is to expose and make clear the tactics and methods used by the Left. If MoveOn.org is any example of how leftists operate, we must admit they are clever, well-organized, and -- as AOW duly noted -- UNITED in their determination to diminish and eventually ELIMINATE the influence of Conservative Thought.
ReplyDelete"We," as AOW also noted, tend to be more focused on ISSUES and less on WINNING per se. "We" are also far more burdened with PRINCIPLES and CONSCIENCE than leftists, who regard their point of view as the SUMMUM BONUM -- the highest good, and therefore, whatever ends must be used to promote and defend, however manipulative, disingenuous, dishonest, abusive and violent, are always perfectly justified in the mind of leftists. In this regard leftists and religious fanatics have a great deal in common.
All of this tends to divide “us,” and works to our great disadvantage in the filthy field of political gamesmanshit.
What makes it even more challenging is the mounting evidence that “we” are becoming more like our political enemies every day in our feeble attempts to combat them. This will not help “us,”
Why? The answer is right in Psalm One:
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Unless and until we return humbly and wholeheartedly to the religious roots that enabled us at one time to become “The Envy of the World,” we will suffer nothing but defeat after defeat, until we are swept into the dustbin of history.
Thersites, the dialogue you have quoted between Pisthetaerus and The Informer may possibly be summed up in this humble anonymous rhyme written by my Sophomore English teacher on the blackboard one fateful October day. Though the interior of the building has long been demolished and turned into condominiums, I can still see that classroom exactly as it was at the time.
ReplyDeleteUp the crag in the screaming wind
Naked and bleeding I fought blind.
Then I moved toward the Eye of the Sun;
Past the cromlech I found a gun.
Then, I strayed in the Cities of Men,
In the home of my love –– I found a pen.
Les, I have warned you -- and everyone else -- countless times that we here at FT's blog are not the least bit interested in who is posting as whom or why. We are interested only in comments that relate to the contents of whatever happens to be posted here or to points made about those remarks from other commenters.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be welcome to post here as long as you respect our wishes in future.
If, perchance, we occasionally violate our own rules, that is our affair and no one else's.
I hope you understand.
First thing I notice is that the issues listed don't look particularly left-wing to me. Might not a conservative support any of the named legistlation, and net neutrality?
ReplyDeleteSecond thing I notice is the Ayers quote -- I'd not heard of Ayers or his quote before, but the first synapse to fire was "I wonder if he's paraphrasing Luke 14:26?
Right wingers petition too.
ReplyDeleteIt's a waste of time. When the revolution comes, AND IT WILL COME, just kill a few extra Marxists for good measure. :)
FreeThinke, there are many ways to stifle hones discussion and criticism one dislikes. But I know you are well aware of that.
ReplyDeletePerchance if I should comment in the future I shall endeavor to comment only if I believe the comment will be supportive of your thinking. Certainly there is no need to ruffle feathers.
Les, I only object to off-topic criticisms and "exposés" of other posters, and attempts to tell me how to run this blog.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am arbitrary, though I don't really think so. Had I not kept busy sweeping out the trash, as it were, there would be 16-18 remarks here now.
All I ask is that people stay on topic, and avoid making rude, insulting remarks about other bloggers present AND absent.
You, like so many, closely resemble the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When you are good, you are very very good, and when you are bad, you are horrid. ;-)
The only thing more stupid than a left wing petition is a left wing boycott.
ReplyDeleteFreeThinke, what do you have against a bit of levity?
ReplyDeleteNot a thing, unless it doesn't happen to strike me as funny, Les.
ReplyDeleteThere certainly is a dearth of good humor on the net, on the air -- and across the land.
That's what Socialism does. It takes all the fun and the joy out of life.
The "standup comics" that became popular in the late 1950's and throughout the SICK-sties -- Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Shelly Berman, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, et al. spelled the Death Knell to good-natured, good-hearted, honestly funny, knee-slapping humor, and replaced it with mockery, sarcasm, and smut.
What purports to be entertainment deserves more wary critical attention than political bombast and dreary recitaions on the latest "theories."
Our naiveté and outright stupidity about the power of the Entertainment Industry to do harm has been one of the basic causes of our undoing.
Red Skelton... now that was funny stuff.
Deletesmut -- don't knock it.
ReplyDeleteWell JEZ! Thank you for Tom Lehrer's satirical veneration of SMUT. If you are able to appreciate the brilliance of Tom Lehrer's wit, there may be hope for you yet.
ReplyDeleteDo you understand, however, that he was cleverly MOCKING what-had-by-1967-become an OBSESSION that later transformed itself into The New National Pastime?
Only if you take what he says LITERALLY, could you interpret this remarkable opus as an ENDORSEMENT of SMUT.
As I've said so often, "Satire is the Best Revenge."
The dour, deadly serious, frontal attack against "sin" usually ends up PROMOTING it.
Vice is a creature of such fearful mien
As to be hated needs to be seen.
Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face,
First we endure, then pity -- then embrace."
~ Alexander Pope
There really is nothing new under the sun. We overcome the stultifying predictability and ineffable dreariness of it all by looking to those who persist in finding refreshing new ways to express the obvious.
I'm not sure what it means really, FT, and I'm wary of eisegesis, an easy trap with ambivalent pieces like this. I reckon at least some of its ire is directed at the person who supposes that smut can be objectively identified, filth being (he's glad to say) in the mind of the beholder. Could it be that the comedy that you've dismissed as smut could, in another mind, have that vital quality of redeeming social importance?
ReplyDeleteFrom the depths of the crypt at St. Giles
ReplyDeleteCame a scream that could be heard for miles.
"Good Heavens! Good Gracious!"
Cried Father Ignatius,
"I forgot that Your Grace had piles!"
};-)>