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Home » Open thread 3/20/24

Open thread 3/20/24

The New Neo Posted on by

This dancer is only twelve years old. I’m impressed by the calm quality of her dancing. It’s not easy to dance slowly and keep the musicality going:

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Open thread 3/20/24 — 23 Comments

  1. Which Wars Are Worth Fighting?

    What do Americans really think about foreign policy? According to the polls … meh.

    Despite the U.S.’s leading role in global affairs — and recent crises in places as varied as Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan — a 2023 survey found that the proportion of Americans who ranked foreign policy as the most pressing challenge facing the country was … two percent.

    Context of the “two percent” – “no opinion” polled at four percent.

    Unlikely Ally Ruth Bader Ginsburg Could Save Trump $355M

    The Excessive Fines Clause traces its venerable lineage back to at least 1215,” Ginsburg wrote. “Magna Carta required that economic sanctions ‘be proportioned to the wrong’ and ‘not be so large as to deprive [an offender] of his livelihood.’

  2. huxley brought up the first two hours of MTv on yesterday’s thread and, prior to that, I had shared a Steely Dan song about cave paintings.

    I think many of you would enjoy this music video by Steely Dan’s, Donald Fagen, “New Frontier.” I imagine the era depicted is mid-60s, based on Fagen’s age. It features design, clothing, hair styles, technology, art, even animation from that era (I think). A comment on the Cold War, boom of suburbs in New Jersey and young love. I think it’s very well done, and might be a fun trip down memory lane for some of you. A really fun mesh of music, lyrics and imagery. And it’s a good song!

    https://youtu.be/FtovFI8etOg?si=7De_YhogiAx6-ax8

    “I can’t wait to move out to the city
    And make up my mind,
    To learn design,
    And study overseas.”

  4. Biden administration announces climate rules to phase out gas cars and make sure majority of vehicles sold by 2032 are electric or hybrid

    Democrats are determined to force me not to vote for president at all – or to vote for Trump (if he clearly states support for Ukraine).

    Black Biden Voter Rails Against Migrant Crisis Before Show Host Calls Her Out For Voting Blue

    Our taxpayers, we already paid $32 million out of our taxes to house and take care of the migrants thus far,” she said. “Now, we already know the only ones who qualify to become citizens in asylum here if they were here after August. They don’t even qualify. Here, we’re gonna be taking care of them for five to seven years while this paperwork floating on people’s desks and why? Send them home! Send them back! Venezuela already said, ‘Oh we’re not taking them back.’”

    “I got a question for you,” one of the hosts said. “Who did you vote for?”

    Chicago voters haven’t seen any ‘Thang yet… 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Donald Trump: ‘Safety and Security’ Driving Women, Minority Voters to Me and GOP, Away from ‘Lunatic’ Biden and Democrats

  10. Donald Fagan created what in the rap/hip hop world would come to be known as a “diss track” years before such a term existed. The song “Only a Fool Would Say That” on the first Steely Dan album is a “diss” of John Lennon over his song “Imagine”.

  12. Lovely dancing, but the tiptoe (pointe) dancing of ballet reminds me that it’s too unfun for me, making it hard to appreciate beauty. A lot like most ballroom dance competitions where those who waltz used to be severe, but increasingly have what looks like fake, practiced smiles. (Yechh – even if I love the movements).

    Fagan of Steely Dan* is a genius, with a unique voice that is not a “gay voice” but also not a crooner. “Only a Fool Would Say That” is great, and a generic diss against most juvenile “a world where all is free” socialist ideas and ideals.
    I grew up in the 60s* & 70s very much knowing:
    There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL from Heinlein).
    So I believed Steely Dan far more than John Lennon.
    (*the name of a large dildo from Naked Lunch, which I read at a far too young age but haven’t felt like re-reading it.)

    Funny how few “socialists” are arguing for an end to copyright, so that all digital info can be copied and distributed without royalties.
    Copying is not stealing. If I stole your car, I’d have the car but you wouldn’t.
    If I copy your car, or NFT, or special car, than I’d have that copy but you’d also have yours. So “use value” nearly doubles — except that use value of exclusive status. Yes, without copyright, the “market incentive” to create is hugely decreased, so it’s not clear the world would be better, but a “world where everything digital is free” is plausible (tho doesn’t fit the song rhythm).

    Politics is downstream of culture – and the culture I find quite accessible now is music, only partly thanks to my karaoke habit. The fragmentation of internet available music feedbacks into the fragmentation of society and politics. I’m increasingly finding cool song lyric phrases that reflect important aspects of society.
    “Everybody wants to feel love, everybody wants to be adored …
    I’m in love again, and tomorrow I’ll be sad”.

    Lust & fake commitment do NOT equal love, but it’s fake commitment that makes some wake up sad after a night of “love again” casual sex.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI9ztgoZ5yQ&list=RDMM&index=3

    Rob Henderson has the idea that stable, 2-parent families are MORE important college for the poor. This truth is an important anti-luxury belief. I was wrong with my prior Heinleinian (& Randian) idea that “responsible promiscuity” was good. Now I think that both slut-jerks & sluts should be shamed for casual sex, because the society is worse with unshamed promiscuous coupling.

    Most of the videos I see are still promoting lots of sex. And I like the music, but…
    745 videos (was a different amount a couple days ago) Punk & Emo
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9tY0BWXOZFuD_2QZ93xmZCP7Ktzka97B

  16. Re: Steely Dan

    Rufus et al.:

    In the seventies I was stuck in the earnest singer-songwriter or prog-rock models. I couldn’t figure out Steely Dan. I could tell there was an immense amount of talent being brought to bear, but where it was coming from or going to, I couldn’t tell, and it bothered me. Nor was I getting the inside jokes, e.g. “Only a Fool Would Believe That” or Steely Dan’s name.

    I’m less bothered by such things these days and I recognize Steely Dan’s brilliance, though I rarely think to cue the boys up. I do love “Deacon’s Blues.”

    –Steely Dan, “Deacon’s Blues”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iac-vLq6tnY

  17. I couldn’t begin to list the music I liked from 1964 to around 1980 – went to numerous live concerts during the 70’s. Went country sometimes after 1980, then back to rock, and to some new age stuff later. Hot Tuna was a favorite that a musician friend turned me onto. Never cared for rap, and not much of a music listener now. Was a fan of Rush Limbaugh and like this one he used to play: CARIBOU – Can’t Do Without You

    The Who must’ve been one of my favorite bands – because most of the time I heard a song I would ask ‘who is that?!?!’ and was always amazed I didn’t know it was them. If I have a favorite song it might be from Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Inca Queen

  18. Dr Drew is LIVE interviewing Mike Benz — author of the forthcoming book “Weapons of Mass Deletion” covering the online censorship crisis.

    Murthy v. Missouri (formerly Missouri v. Biden) is being called the “most important Free Speech case in the history of America.” Mike Benz – executive director of Foundation For Freedom Online – The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments over alleged pressure from federal officials to censor opposing voices on social media platforms during the COVID pandemic, under the guise of “fighting misinformation.” But when the people being censored are experts like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff… who is really spreading misinformation?

    Mike Benz is the founder of Foundation for Freedom Online, a free speech watchdog dedicated to restoring the promise of a free and open Internet. He is a former State Department cyber official in the Trump Administration, whose responsibilities included formulating and negotiating US foreign policy on international communications and information technology matters.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvU-_rB5dws

  19. Tom Grey:
    Copying is not stealing. If I stole your car, I’d have the car but you wouldn’t.
    If I copy your car, or NFT, or special car, than I’d have that copy but you’d also have yours.

    Copyright is not about money or objects. It’s about you stealing my right to determine the means of distribution of my works from me.

  20. Re: Steely Dan, “Deacon Blues”

    Looking up “Deacon Blues” on wiki I find that the song is essentially a beatnik, “Beautiful Losers” hymn to the Outsider:
    ________________________________________________

    Fagen gives credit to Norman Mailer as inspiration for the narrator’s persona:

    [It] toyed with the cliché of the jazz musician as antihero. It was kind of a takeoff on that old essay by Norman Mailer, “The White Negro,” not to mention our lives up to that point. . . . the alienated white suburban kid thinks that if he learns how to play bebop, he’ll throw off the chains of repression and live the authentic life, unleash the wild seeds of art and passion and so on.

    On the origin of the song’s name, Fagen says, it was inspired by football player Deacon Jones, as they like the sound of his name: “It also had two syllables, which was convenient, like ‘Crimson,'” The song, however, is really about “the ultimate outsider, the flip side of the dream, boy-o . . . call me Deacon Blues.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon_Blues
    ________________________________________________

    Call me Deacon Blues.

    I lived by that myth for much of my youth. I don’t mean to dismiss it now. However, it seems so far away and non-applicable to my current life.

  21. Riffing a bit more on the Outsider….

    Back in the day, straights were straight and We Happy Few became Outsiders. It was beautiful.

    Now everyone fancies themselves Outsiders speaking Truth to Power and Goodness to Evil. Or some such.

    Cheapens it, you know.

  22. Testing. I’ve been unable to comment for several days. I hope this works. Changed my nom de internet from J.J. to Jimmy J.

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