Sunday, September 30, 2007
Goodbye, Miss Moneypenny
Lois Maxwell, who starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday. She was 80.
The Canadian-born actress starred alongside Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, “Dr. No,” in 1962 as the secretary to M, the head of the secret service.
She died Saturday night at Fremantle Hospital near her home in Perth, Australia, the BBC cited a hospital official as saying.
Bond star Roger Moore said she was suffering from cancer.
All the original cast members, except Connery, are gone.
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Mars is Amazing
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Darth Vader Blues
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Saturday, September 29, 2007
The Century of the SelfWatch this film. If you haven’t seen it you owe it to yourself. It shows the history of the American consumer society and how elites have used psychology to get the masses to do what they want. It does a great job of explaining how they manage to sell irrational ideas, like Global Warming...or even the War on Drugs or the War on Terror, to the masses.
Now you might say: “The war on terror isn’t irrational!” The way its being handled is. The way we’re watching our freedoms being whittled away to “protect us” against terrorists. When you consider that you have better odds of winning the lottery than being killed by a terrorist, the way they have got Americans to agree to the indignities the TSA heap on us, or the destruction of our privacy and the willingness to accept spy cams everywhere. Society has agreed to a lot of things that aren’t in its best interest. It’s worth looking at this film to get an idea how they play us.
Now, the film maker, Adam Curtis, also created the Power of Nightmares which another documentary worth watching. The film maker’s views are left leaning like most documentarians. But the overall arguments of his films are very solid and apolitical.
As I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: Both sides lie to us. It’s in your best interest to learn how to see through them. Each side has wha they think are good intentions. But you know what they said about the road to hell being paved with…
Curtis’ series, The Trap, is how we are becoming less free in our fight for freedom. How politicians have boxed themselves in to where they almost have to make our society over managed because of the way they have sold us this fear. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I agree with the premise. With the combination of our over lawyered society and the monstrous bureaucracy Bush created in Homeland Security, we’re facing a bleak future for liberty with all the security measures replicating like mad.
Bush may have created Homeland security with the right intentions. But history shows time and again that bureaucracies always get too big and out of hand. This one has way to much power. It will only get bigger and more extreme. Unless policies take some radical changes,
I’m all for fighting terrorists. But not at the expense of our civil liberties. And that is something we have to be very concerned about.
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Bad Motivational Posters Permalink
Wolves Fish
Friday, September 28, 2007
Outrage DuJourA WOMAN was locked up and “lost” for 70 years after being wrongly accused of stealing 13p.
Jean Gambell, 85, was “certified” indefinitely in 1937 over claims she had taken the cash while cleaning at a doctor’s surgery.
The money was found — but Jean still spent 70 years in a maze of care institutions.
She was “found” when brothers Alan, 66, and David, 63 — who thought she was dead — read a letter sent by a care home to their mother, who died 25 years ago.
David said: “I was about to throw it in the bin when I saw a name in the corner — Jean Gambell. I rang and they said our sister was there.”
UPDATE: A Close Second
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Writing Drama
If you’re waiting for my book on writing to come out, you can pick up an excellent one in the meantime called Writing Drama by Yves Lavandier.
The publisher was kind enough to send me a copy and I found it to be an excellent and very thorough book. Very easy to read and clear.
The focus of the book is on plays and films, but it could also be applied to novels and comics. There are excellent references in the book and very fine glossary of terms.
The book is mostly available in Europe but it can be ordered online from the publisher here.
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Ayn Rand Triumphant
While socialism keeps trying to rear its ugly head and threatens to steal freedom and choices from individuals, there has been a growing interest in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. So much so you could say its a resurgence of interest. And that bodes well for the future, as it is a rejection of the collectivist mentality which has bankrupted and stagnated so many societies around the world.
Rand, an ardent advocate of rational egoism and capitalism, might have been the bane of academics in her lifetime, but now objectivism is taught at more than 30 universities, with fellowships at several leading philosophy departments. Next year, ARI plans to enter the Washington, D.C., think tank world with a center devoted to the advocacy of individual freedom and capitalism.
Why this sudden interest in Ayn Rand? Brook gives two reasons: “First, she never really went away. Many who read the books when they were young, in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, are now confident enough to say that Ayn Rand is their favorite author, and they have the means to donate to the institute. That’s enabled us to promote objectivism more aggressively.”
Second, Brook cites what he calls a cultural vacuum: “Today’s left doesn’t have anything positive to offer to young people. When they were socialists, there was at least something they were fighting for, and they believed in a right and a wrong. Today’s leftist agenda is negative and nihilistic--focused on stopping industrialization, capitalism and even Western civilization. But young people want positive values. That’s why religion is so strong today, because many view it as the only thing that promises a brighter future.”
According to Brook, this gap between liberalism and religious conservatism goes far to explain the surge in interest. “Ayn Rand is the only voice that offers a secular absolutist morality with a positive vision and agenda, for individuals and for society as a whole,” he says.
The cultural and political climate might be opportune for the objectivist movement. After all, a philosophy that celebrates reason as the only means of knowledge seems particularly appealing at a time when liberalism is preoccupied with preventing nightmares rather than promoting dreams, when neoconservatism has been widely discredited, and when standard-bearers for traditional values--such as Ted Haggard and Republican senators, David Vitter of Louisiana and Larry Craig of Idaho, have been found looking for love in all the wrong places.
Objectivism isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a lot closer to reality than the many self destructive social systems being rammed down people’s throats around the world. There clearly needs to be an alternative society to the state controlled world of today. America is becoming too stateist. So is Europe and others. People need to take more personal responsibility and stop passing the buck to others. When you let other people make decisions for you, you’re signing away your freedoms, like a person checking into a Mental Ward. Once they have permission to run your life, they won’t give back your freedom willingly.
People need to think about alternatives to the state. At least Rand’s books are a step in the right direction. Her work is about how the individual can be free and exercise their self will. I don’t agree with everything she says, but her general sentiments are pretty solid. Which is why they continue to have resonance.
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Help a Brother Out
It’s hard out there for a Cylon.
UPDATE: Maybe he should train some seagulls.
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