I really like this post on Good Math, Bad Math.

Beyond being mildly humorous in that cranky math person non-funny kinda way, it touches on lots of my favorite subjects: enumeration, Cantor, classic proofs, cranky math people.

The catch – and it’s a huge catch – is that the tree defines a representation, not an enumeration or mapping. As a representation, taken to infinity, it includes every possible real number. But that doesn’t mean that there’s a one-to-one correspondence between the natural numbers and the real numbers. There’s no one-to-one correspondence between the natural numbers and the nodes of this infinite tree. It doesn’t escape Cantor’s diagonalization. It just replaces “real number” with “node of this infinite tree”. The infinite tree contains uncountably many values – there’s a one-to-one correspondence between nodes of the infi To see the distinction, let’s look at it as an enumeration. In an enumeration of a set, there will be some finite point in time at which any member of the set will be emitted by the enumeration. So when will you get to 1/3rd, which has no finite representation as a base-10 decimal? When will you get to π?

FUN!

Google + Tatu Caminha = Vai dar merda capitão

Nasceu nesta sexta (27), a primeira filha do cantor Daniel. A pequena Lara nasceu pesando pouco mais de dois quilos.
 
O cantor, que está noivo de Aline de Pádua, está feliz e comemorando a chegada da menina.

- Eu assisti o parto, é uma emoção indescritível.

Na noite desta quinta (26), o casal participou de jantar beneficente no Palácio dos Bandeirantes, em São Paulo. 

Logo cedo, nesta sexta (27), Aline foi internada para a chegada da filha do casal na mesma cidade.

Aline Barros

Aline Barros é uma importante referência na música gospel.

Ganhadora por 3 vezes do Grammy Latino como Melhor Álbum de Música Gospel.

Dona de uma voz inconfundível, costuma alcançar notas bem agudas. Atualmente tem uma extensão vocal de 3,1 oitavas. Passou por várias classificações vocais, sendo que no início de sua carreira era considerada Mezzosoprano leggero com registro agudo chegando à C#5, mas após sofrer de um problema na voz,  passou a ser apenas Mezzosoprano com registro agudo chegando à B4/C5.

Devido as peculiaridades de sua voz, Aline Barros usa somente produtos da marca Shure em suas gravações e shows.

Aline Barros usa:

:: UR4D

:: UR2/Beta87C

:: P7R

:: P7T

:: SCL4

Belo nega rumores de que substituiria Netinho de Paula: “Eu gosto é de cantar”
O cantor Belo esteve nos estúdios da Record nesta quinta (26) para gravar o programa Hoje em Dia. E foi em seu camarim, cercado de assessores e da namorada, Gracyanne Barbosa, que ele concedeu ao R7 uma pequena entrevista sobre seu novo CD, Primavera, um disco de 15 músicas inéditas.

 Belo está viajando o país inteiro para divulgar seu novo trabalho. Diz, com orgulho, que é o segundo CD mais vendido do Brasil.

- Estou indo já para a terceira música de trabalho, Reinventar. Este CD é a prévia do meu DVD, que eu gravarei provavelmente em abril.

Belo conta que gosta de gravar músicas de pessoas que estão com ele desde o início, como Arlindo Cruz, Sombrinha, Altay Veloso.

- Mas também gosto de dar chance pra compositores novos, como Alexandre Lucas, Umberto Tavares… O Rafael Brito começou comigo e está aí, fazendo sucesso com outros grupos.

No novo álbum, Belo assina duas músicas.

- São bem românticas. Eu só falo de coisa romântica – disse o cantor, que, apesar da afirmação, não quis falar sobre sua vida pessoal, nem uma palavrinha. Só trabalho mesmo.

Quanto à história que corre por aí, de que Belo substituiria Netinho de Paula no Show da Gente, no SBT, ele e o assessor negam, em uníssono.

- São especulações. Já tive uma experiência na TV, em 2008, e não gostei, não. Eu gosto é de cantar, é o que eu faço desde os 13 anos. E a estrada é muito longa ainda.

 fonte:  http://folhavitoria.com.br

Salve gente boa!

Na Vila Madalena, em São Paulo, existe um instituto de ensino e pesquisa da cultura popular brasileira, o INSTITUTO BRINCANTE, idealizado pelo casal mais genuinamente tupiniquim que eu já conheci: Rosane Almeida e Antônio Nóbrega. O Instituto, além de promover cursos, palestras e workshops sobre a cultura popular, conta com shows, espetáculos de dança, sambadas e outros eventos que eu diria que são a fina flor desse nosso país cheio de plurais e coisas interessantes pra se ver, ouvir e sentir. Coisas que transformam o ser humano e que a gente nem imagina que exista. Enfim, uma vasta e linda coleção de passos, sons, cantos, costumes, cores e culturas. Eu conheci o trabalho do Nóbrega durante a faculdade, mas só tomei conhecimento da Rosane e o Instituto uns 3 anos mais tarde, em meados de 2007.

Iowana (atriz, cantora, bailarina, locutora e namorada) me deu a oportunidade de criar uma música para uma das cenas do espetáculo “Sonho e Sina”, evento que sela o final das atividades do curso de Formação de Jovens Brincantes 2009. Recebi a letra – criada por ela mesma – pronta para musicar, criar o arranjo e produzir. Ela me passou orientações quanto à concepção da cena e quais eram suas intenções: uma introdução mecânica e repetitiva, seguida de uma “abertura” musical que gerasse uma sutil sensação de liberdade, valendo-se de uma instrumentação  percussiva típica da cultura popular brasileira, com ganzás, alfaias, agogôs, etc. Por esse motivo também julguei mais interessante usar uma viola caipira como instrumento harmônico. Uma trilha sonora para um solo de dança muito tocante. Ouça:

Pra quem se interessar, vale a pena:

“Sonho e Sina”  é o resultado de um processo de pesquisa sobre o que é “ser brasileiro” e as possibilidades de reinvenção dessa identidade conforme os sonhos e sinas de cada um, envolvendo dança, teatro e música.

SONHO E SINA

6ª feira 27/11 – 21h

Sábado 28/11 – 19h e 21h30

Domingo 29/11 – 17h e 20h

Quanto? ——  R$10,00 (preço único)

INSTITUTO BRINCANTE – R. Purpurina, 428, V. Madalena – São Paulo/SP

acesse o site do brincante e saiba mais sobre o Instituto

Tel: (11) 3816-0575

Ficha técnica da música:

Letra: Iowana Cardarelli

Música/arranjo/voz: Leandro Sosi e Iowana Cardarelli

Locução: Iowana Cardarelli

Técnicos de gravação: Julian Ludwig e Leandro Sosi

]]> http://milmilhoes.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/mike-tchaaa-nana-nanana/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:46:25 +0000 latiuk http://milmilhoes.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/mike-tchaaa-nana-nanana/

créditos: daniel

Uma das mais famosas luvas brancas de Michael Jackson foi leiloada e como as outras superou as expectativas de seus vendedores. Mas o item arrematado no sábado, em Nova Iorque, foi muito além do esperado, conseguindo um cheque de seis dígitos.

Pois é, leitor. A luva usada pelo Rei do Pop na primeira vez em que fez o moonwalk, em 1983 estava avaliada em 60 mil dólares, mas foi leiloada por 350 mil.

De acordo com site “Fox 23″, o fã Hoffman Ma, de Hong Kong, ainda vai ter que desembolsar mais 70 mil dólares, devido a taxas e impostos.

Depois de minha amiga  Onilde, do Rio Grande do Sul,  me perguntar quem era o “bonequinho que eu conversava” na foto do cabeçalho do blog, me abriu a chance de falar de um dos maiores homens de comunicação do Brasil de todos os tempos, o bravo Ari Barroso.

E bravo mesmo! Uma das características do comunicador era a falta de paciência, que divertia tanto quanto deixava os calouros tremendo mais que “vara verde”. Mas até chegar ao comando de programas de rádio, uma longa estrada foi percorrida pelo mineiro nascido em Ubá, Minas Gerais em 7 de novembro de 1903 e radicado no Rio de Janeiro a partir de 1920.

Seu primeiro contato artístico com o público foi em sua cidade natal, aos 15 anos de idade, trabalhando como pianista auxiliar no Cine Ideal. Três anos depois compôs uma marcha em homenagem aos ubaenses e um cateretê de nome “De longe”. Cateretê ou Catira é uma dança indígena-africana, onde se faz duas fileiras, onde homens, de um lado e mulheres, de outro evoluem batendo os pés no chão, acompanhados por violeiros.

Dois anos depois chegando ao Rio começou a traçar um rumo. Passado um ano desde a chegada, se matricula na Faculdade de Direito, mas foi reprovado. Diante desse insucesso caiu de vez na vida de artista. Começou a trabalhar no Cine Iris (até hoje ainda existe, na Rua da Carioca) e fazer fundo musical para os filmes mudos tão em moda naqueles tempos, era 1922.

Em alguns meses depois, passou a fazer parte da Orquestra do Maestro Sebastião Cirino.  Já valorizado como músico, correu trecho como diz o mineiro. Sempre surgiam convites para apresentações fora do Rio de Janeiro e os anos vão passando. Finalmente em 1929 concluiu a Faculdade de Direito. A sorte era sua companheira fiel. Ari Barroso com suas performances ganhou vários concursos musicais e diante do sucesso e do dinheiro que chegava dando tranquilidade ao bolso, casou-se com Ivone Belford Arantes.  Continuou como compositor, com músicas de sucesso e logo se empregou na Rádio Philips, primeiro como pianista e em seguida como locutor esportivo. Mas como sobrava talento, acumulou também as atividades de animador e humorista.

Foi pra São Paulo, voltou pro Rio e para Rádio Cruzeiro do Sul com o programa “Hora H”.  Mais à frente lançou o “Calouros em Desfile”. Os concorrentes eram obrigados a só cantar músicas brasileiras. Depois a Rádio Tupi foi o seu destino.

Em 1939 explodiu com o seu maior sucesso que até hoje é cantado por muita gente boa da música, “Aquarela do Brasil”.

Em 1944 viajou pela primeira vez aos Estados Unidos e compôs para o filme Brasil, “Rio de Janeiro” que é indicada para o Oscar.

De volta ao país se envolveu em política e em 1944 é eleito o vereador mais votado do antigo Distrito Federal.

Foi várias vezes homenageado como grande personalidade, incluindo a Medalha de Honra ao Mérito que lhe foi entregue pelo presidente Café Filho, em 1955.

Torcedor fanático do Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, em 1960 se tornou vice-presidente do Departamento Recreativo e Cultural, do seu clube de coração.

Com essa nova conquista pessoal, a alma Rubro – Negra se encheu de luz ainda mais.

Infelizmente uma cirrose hepática veio para dar um fim em tão brilhante carreira. Depois de várias melhoras e recaídas, Ari Barroso faleceu em 9 de Fevereiro de 1964, deixando um legado de dezenas de obras de sucessos musicais e inspirações para muitos profissionais de comunicação.

Assista o vídeo com Roberto Carlos e Martinho Da Vila, interpretando “Aquarela do Brasil”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_r4eCn0poE

________

Pesquisa> http://www.arybarroso.com.br

________

Leia Também> JORNAL AFOGANDO O GANSO/  http://afogamdooganso.blogspot.com

Wham-a-lamma-ding-dong, baby, my blog stats tanked over the last couple of days. Everyone must have been as busy as I was. Either that or esoteric discussions of khipu appeal to very few peeps.

So, just what have I been up to these past few days? On Thursday, Hubby and I attended the funeral of our brother-in-law’s mother. The funeral took place in a gorgeous Catholic church done in a Romanesque architectural style, complete with vaulted ceiling and columns that looked like a cross between Corinthian and Ionic. I’ve always been impressed with Catholic statuary and art. This church had a number of fine statues, plus a Black Madonna, direct from Poland, I believe.

Because of the space and construction of the church, the acoustics in the church are great. Our brother-in-law served as cantor for the funeral and we had a rare opportunity to hear his beautiful voice. When he sang for our wedding some two decades ago, he did so with a couple of other family members, so this was the first time I’d ever heard him sing solo.

In the late afternoon, when Young Son returned from school, he and Hubby took off on a trip to my sister’s so they could go deer hunting. One of Hubby’s sisters decided to stay for a couple of days after the funeral because of her long drive. She and I hung out most of the time she was here, with her staying over night at our house because we had empty beds.

Thursday evening we went to visit another of Hubby’s sisters (Hubby has three sisters) and we had a late supper at Famous Dave’s. Daughter couldn’t go with us for this outing because she had band practice.

When we returned, we found Daughter in the middle of making “faux mousse” for a class the next day. Faux mousse is simply chocolate pudding mixed with Cool Whip. Strangely, only about two people in her class had ever heard of mousse, let alone faux mousse, which tends to be a staple on restaurant buffets. Everybody liked it though and the gigantic mixing bowl came back empty after school on Friday.

While Daughter was introducing classmates to faux mousse, my sister-in-law, her parents and I went to St. Cloud. The parents had a meeting to attend and my sister-in-law’s car needed an oil change. After her car was serviced, we went to Bonnie’s Spinning Wheel, a local yarn shop that is filled to the rafters with luscious skeins of every conceivable color and fiber. I picked some out as a birthday gift to my other sister-in-law (the one we had visited the previous night).

After retrieving the parents, we ran a couple of other errands, then headed home to pick up Daughter, who was home from school. We had dinner at Perkin’s, where I ate pot roast that was to die for.

On Saturday morning, my sister-in-law left. She wanted to get an early start on her long drive home. I caught up on dishes and started the laundry. In the afternoon, Daughter and I got a ride from Hubby’s parents to the birthday party for his sister. (Are you keeping track of the sisters/sisters-in-law in this post? It’s hard for me to keep this general, but clear.)

As we approached my sister-in-law’s house, Daughter said, “Are the boys here?” I thought she was talking about my nephews, but it turns out she was talking about Hubby and Young Son. We didn’t expect them back from hunting until Sunday, but sure enough, the car they had taken was in the driveway. Woohoo! They were home early!

We had a lovely birthday party, complete with Dairy Queen cake and a meal of grilled chicken, Caesar salad and garlic toast. I mention the food because within these past few days, starting with the post-funeral meal, I have eaten more food than I thought was humanly possible and it was all delicious.

Visiting and eating. That’s what’s been going on in my life.

amigo / irmão / sou fã / cantor / arquiteto / honesto / prestativo /  para todos os momento.

Para conhecer o trabalho  clique:

http://www.myspace.com/bobdiniz

Olá galera hoje o assunto é polêmico …. infelizmente aconteceu alguns incidentes alguns dias atrás com o cantor Dinho Ouro Preto, vocalista do grupo Capital Inicial que caiu de uma passarela do palco montado na Festa do Pijama, segundo informações do Corpo de Bombeiros de Belo Horizonte, onde eles estavam fazendo o show , o músico foi socorrido por uma ambulância contratada pela organização do evento e levado até o Hospital Regional da cidade, pelo aglomeração quase que não dá tempo deles socorrerem uns gargalhavam , outros tiravam fotos outros e outro atrapalhavam e organizador do evento só berrava no microfone para a galera dar espaço. O médico Thales Henrique Caixeta apresentou o laudo de traumatismo craniano a imprensa, porém, o estado de saúde dele é estável.
Acredito que foi um pouco de distração do músico, mais graças a Deus não aconteceu o pior e você o que acha ?
Dinho Ouro preto se distraiu escorregou ou o palco da organização do evento não oferecia segurança e iluminação suficiente para os músicos ?
Bom galera não deixem de comentar assiste o video , eu sou o Eber Amaral todas as quartas, estou aqui com vcs e todos os dias tem uma matéria diferente, mande sugestão ebermenac@gmail.com
Abraço

Assista agora pelo You tube

A Cooperativa Médica está mudando de nome: de agora em diante, Atívia.

O jingle é um samba-funk que já veio com uma melodia pronta da agência e foi muito gostoso de produzir, escrever pra metaleira (sax, trombone, trompete) e cantar.

Ouça:

Agência: Full Case – São Paulo/SP

Produtora de Áudio: Digimax Estúdio – São José dos Campos/SP

A week or so ago, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) threw a party of sorts on the steps of the Capital. Her goal was to show, in real time with real actors, the Nation’s anger over the Democratic sponsored Health Care Reform legislation. But it seems that she staged her little circus and more chose not to show than did show. But it made for great TV.

Although the numbers of those who actually attended vary, the more honest of those doing the counting estimated the turnout at some 10,000. Of course, Bachmann and Hannity and the rest of the distorting, manipulating, lying minion of thieves and parasites claimed their count to be a much higher figure. Mr. Beck, though, did not ask his University of I Don’t Remember to do an actual mathematical estimation so we will never know what the true number was. But we do know that the standard cast of characters who could not tell the truth if their lives depended upon it, did offer estimates of a number of attendees at a multiple of four or five times more that actually attended. In fact, so great was Hannity urge to lie that on his tv show he used footage from the larger 9/12 protest to support his claim that Bachmann’s circus was attended by a large number of angry, frustrated, ignored Americans. He later apologized for his mistake…has he been waterboarded yet? He said he would allow himself that honor. Okay; another day, another lie.

But size doesn’t matter; at least not for this discussion. What does matter is content and intent. And a thing called morality.

An attendee of the rally held up a sign that showed a picture of Holocaust victims being buried along with a commentary saying that this was health care reform, National Socialist style.

How vile, disgusting, contemptible, repulsive and just plain nauseating. Whether you like or dislike the health care reform effort, this attempt to Nazify the debate is sickening. Men like Limbaugh, Beck and the others who occupy the space referred to as right wing radio live to divide this nation. They enjoy the transformation of debate into ideological warfare. They couldn’t care the least about things like truth, morality, ethics, principals and good will. They only want to destroy, at any cost, that which they say they do not like. Destroy is the operative word here.

So these parasites, whores and two legged vermin, who claim the moral high ground, laugh in the face of God and decency and bring into the debate Nazism. And the throngs of the ignorant and the stupid, too lazy or dim-witted to try to understand and debate the real issues, have adopted this hate mongering and made it part of their mantra.

But Nazism? Have we not forgotten what Nazism was really all about? Have we forgotten the brutality, the malevolence, the genocide and atrocities carried out by the Nazis? Have we not forgotten the sacrifice made by thousands of young men and women who fought in the European theater during World War II to defeat Nazism? What are we doing to their memory?

Spineless weasels like Congressman Eric Cantor seem to dismiss the horror as it being some jokesters off color joke.

“Do I condone the mention of Hitler in any discussion about politics?” said Cantor, who is the only Jewish Republican in Congress. “No, I don’t, because obviously that is something that conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful.”

That’s it. This Jew just sold his soul to anti-Semites and Racists just for a few votes here and there.
And where were the complaints and outbursts of outrage voiced by other members of the Republican leadership? And what about the newspapers; where were they? Have we lost our moral compass? Has this nation lost its morality?

No, let me tell you Eric Cantor and the rest of the more-or-less silent GOP leadership: that sign was more than just inappropriate. It was vile, vicious, repugnant, revolting, disgusting, immoral and an insult to the very soul of this country.

The swastika and all references to the deeds of the Nazis is not something that should be taken lightly and thrown around because cancers like Rush and Glen say it is so.
Can’t you see beyond your pocket books for a moment? Their actions, words, and the silence of the Republican leadership neutralizes and de-horrifies the atrocities of the Holocaust. And we sit back, too busy to care.

What have we become?

Esse é o grande Josenildo, morador do bairro de Santo Amaro/PE. Não vou falar muito pra não perder a graça do vídeo, mas ouva escute essa bela canção!

Atento aos momentos:

1. Um tapinha não dói: lá pelos 27 seg

2. “…pra onde eu não seio, pra onde eu não vou…”: 1 min 22 seg

Dedicado ao amigo André Papoula.

Bom dia galera! Mudei o assunto, porém acho importante para quem curte por se tratar de um pedal assinado e, não apenas por um músico, mas sim por Zakk Wylde, dono de uma pegada inconfundível, furiosa e precisa, que entre outros feitos. A marca que o produz dispensa comentários, pois além de hoje pertecer a Dunlop, sinônimo de wha-wha, a MXR sempre foi vista como uma fábrica de música, pois já espalhou pelo mundo inteiro, e isso vem de muito tempo atrás, efeitos como Dyna Comp, Uni Vibe, Phase 90 e muitos outros. A junção entre marca não poderia ser mais perfeito, pois conseguiu-se juntar dois pesos em uma única caixa.
A caixa branca quase que docil tem visual vintage e cara de que não é tudo isso que aparenta. Burro engano, pois o pedal ZW-44 assinado por Zakk Wylde, assim como ele, é uma porrada certeira nos ouvidos Seu design é o já bem típico desta marca, que esta acustumada a fabricar caixinhas sonoras hermosas, sendo que o único detalhe as ser comentado são os circulos que se tornaram marca registrada de Zakk Wylde, devido a sua tão top Les Paul.
É uma deliciaaa mais seu que vocês vai comprar um certo?
Fique ligado, eu sou o Eber Amaral estou todas as quartas escrevendo e buscando coisas interessantes relacionado ao mundo da música. Fique ligado!
Contato: ebermenac@gmail.com

Pelo visto não foi só a Madonna que veio para o Brasil comer sushi.

Pra cima delas Jason!!

Internado para o tratamento de um quadro infeccioso desde a última sexta-feira (13), o cantor Dinho Ouro Preto foi mantido pelos médicos do hospital Sírio-Libanês de São Paulo na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva. Não existe previsão de alta, de acordo com a assessoria de imprensa do hospital.

Dinho foi hospitalizado no Sírio-Libanês em 1º novembro, um dia depois de sofrer uma queda do palco durante show na cidade de Pato de Minas (MG). Ele foi levado à UTI porque teve traumatismo craniano – leve, segundo os médicos – e fraturas nas costelas. Saiu da UTI em 5 de novembro e retornou na sexta (13). A assessoria de imprensa não informa se ele corre risco de morte.

Lulu Santos

Atendendo a pedidos da galera, iniciamos mais uma categoria que apresentará os sets (equipamentos e recursos) usados pelos famosos para produzir aquela sonzeira que você tanto curte.

Para começar, fui buscar informações sobre o que o Lulu Santos usa em sua voz tanto em shows, como em estúdio.

“Microfone p’ra mim é shure”, diz o músico, de 56 anos. Em depoimento para o site da própria marca diz: “Sou shure desde garotinho (…) adquiri um sm-57 (pedi de presente de aniversário) e levava todo cheio de mim”.

Lulu Santos usa:
:: KSM32
:: SM58
:: U24D/Beta 58
:: Beta 52A
:: Beta 98
:: SM81
:: SM57
:: Beta 57A
:: P7R
:: P7T
:: Beta 87A
:: SM 86-L

Para conferir as características e especificidades  de cada um desses microfones acesse o site www.shure.com.br .

Confira em breve sets de outros artistas.!

No sábado (14-11), a Fundição Progresso (Rua dos Arcos, 24, Lapa)
recebe pela primeira vez em show solo o jovem sambista de linhagem
nobre Diogo Nogueira. O artista mostra as canções de seu mais recente
trabalho, o CD “Tô fazendo a minha parte” (EMI) e recebe os convidados
especiais Ivan Lins e Moyséis Marques. O evento leva o selo do projeto
Samba Social Clube.

LEIA MAIS NOS SITES
:: SORTIMENTOS.COM >> http://www.sortimentos.net/?p=4152
:: GEBBEG >> http://gebbeg.com.br/?p=7319

.

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS:

Speaking about the Republican “fear” factor, why don’t they cooperate, et al?  Most people don’t understand (or can imagine) the neocon bottom line because it is so outrageous: they really wish the United States to fail.

Background – I was an administrator for the City of Portland, and Multnomah County, Oregon, speaking and dealing with neocon repubs on a national basis for thirty-two years.  Their GOAL is to preserve, protect and defend special privilege from the democratic rule of law and the American nation.   They are NOT afraid; just arrogant.

Thirty years ago, in the early 1980’s, a CTPPD (a Consensus To Preserve Plausible Deniability), including Texas oil millionaires, automotive manufacturers, bankers, big-ticket real estate developers, insurance and medical care providers, investment firms, and wholesale raw materials providers, began a concerted and integrated campaign to discredit, loot and crush the American government. Call it “Stamping on Franklin Roosevelt’s Grave.”

I was told by Congressman Barbur Conable (R I-forget) back in ’73 that compulsory public education was unconstitutional and undemocratic and vouchers and home schooling would be introduced forthwith – it would be “most helpful in educating children with the right understanding for when they become adults.”  The John Birch Society injunction to its members was, “Join your local PTA, and take it over!”

I stood witness to the shenanigans surrounding local government’s share in the Savings and Loan Scandal (watched the Mormons spirit Jake Gaarn, Mormon hero astronaut-senator who led the S&L thieves on the Senate side, away to Salt Lake City and out of the public eye before the “s” hit the fan – I think this was their rehearsal for the Great American Mortgage Collapse – it has the same modus operandi).

Reagan assaulted government itself – “The ten most dreaded words…’I'm from the government…’“ Reagan went after the Air Traffic Controllers and made the first significant breach in federal protection for unions. The list goes on, as if subject to a consistent and integrated general game plan worthy of the best hostile takeover experts.  Clue.

The people’s government is the one force that is able to withstand and force these self-interested robbers to change. Therefore, the people’s representatives had to be bought, or as many as necessary, depending upon the moment’s tactical need, to shill for and protect corporate interests. The Republican Party (as the easiest – smallest, most uniform, least principled – to corrupt and manipulate had to become ascendant for a short time to gain control of the government and “fix” institutional areas that were most intrusive on the corporatist ability to do pretty much as pleased, including “enslave” people (wage-wise), or “waterboard” them (use any pressure or torture to force compliance and contribution to the corporate will).

They then stole the people’s treasury – carried it out under the glad hand of their born-again rich president Geo. W. Bush.  Dick Cheney is not an accident, but a premier product and instrument of a rapacious piratical, and practically pathological, corporate elite.  These are generationally all pretty much the same guys playing the same ugly way, administration after administration.  They are a scary bunch and they are not American patriots.

The neocon corporatist tactic now is to wave the weak hand – the Republican Party – to obfuscate, delay and confuse, while the real work goes on with the Rubin clones surrounding Obama (it is a real mistake to think that we can continue by reconstructing the past – our environmental jeopardy and social crisis require innovations and new directions that cannot include corporate capitalism – but while we must develop lower economic expectations, we don’t have to give up on a compassionate civilization.

The continued private dismantling, bankrupting and removal of America’s manufacturing capabilities to foreign climes is still in hemorrhage. Leading the list of outsourcers are well-known American companies, including the Xerox Corporation, the Oracle Corporation, The Hewlett-Packard Company, Accenture Limited, International Business Machines Corporation and Perot Systems (Recall old Ross warning against NAFTA that there would be “a great sucking sound as business went south.”

The neocon corporatists are not trying to fix the broken Republican Party – it is in the game plan to eventually destroy the two-party system and run with one party: cheaper, more efficient, less wasteful (ha!). Steele, Limbaugh, Beck, Cantor, Boehner, all the rest, are handy decoys, making a lot of noise all around the edges so that public attention is diverted from the corruption still proceeding at the center.  The corporatists like the wingnut Republicans because they are obediently silly followers; the Democrats, however, are apparently programmed to self-destruct, which would leave us with a permanently dysfunctional and therefore easier to manage wingnut government ?  Garbage in, garbage out.

The Republican circus masks the real working level where the boodle bags are still being packed. They are not working with us, because the neocon corporatists are still using and stealing from us. They don’t expect any retribution or punishment for it; it is the culture. They are so highly placed that they expect to tiptoe through the tulips while the rest of us fry in the ozone hole. They believe the “highest and best use” of any piece of land is how much money you can make off it, not the future it may provide if unmolested for all life, as we know it.

In 1991, an assistant from President Bush Sr.’s office met National Association of Counties (NACo) President Michael Stewart (R – Salt Lake Co.) at a cocktail party at the Annual Conference in Salt Lake City. I overheard them discussing the “best” form of government, ever. They agreed that it was Medieval England. Its benefits?

• The king is the sole authority, secures obedience, neutralizes all possible challengers; gains the monopoly of force; and, maintains law and order.
• Patriotism is focused on the nation, not on the localities that comprise it, transferring identity from the local to the national level, putting it at the disposal of the king.
• The state dominates or controls the religious life of society, or at least allies itself with the representatives of a single authoritarian religion to more easily manage the mob to the king’s totalitarian advantage.
• The state exerts control over economic life to facilitate circulation and exchange of goods, and to grasp as much as possible of the national wealth for the king and his allies.

In the medieval model stability is created through divine hierarchy. The church prays for the soul, the military fights to save the bodies and property of the “community”, and the peasants work to feed everybody. It’s a simple model, which allowed it to last for several hundred incredibly stultifying and repressive years in which the majority of humankind subsisted on the level of cattle, or swine, and wars were fought at personal whim of a vainglorious, and occasionally religiously demented elite. Does this ring bells, or what?

The important men at the 1991 cocktail party didn’t intend to install a king or a single church in America, but in variation, updated and recycled form, they favored state identification and alliance with a majority religion and a CEO working with a board of directors (perhaps preserving a faint hint of representative government – old habits, even bad ones, die hard). Call king and court president and cabinet, or rose and garden, they envisioned a tyrant working with an oligarchy of the privileged elite that they believe is, of course, best suited to govern.  The Bush-Cheney’s cabinet.

They were deadly serious and not amused when I asked if they had ever heard of Robin Hood or the Magna Carta.

Edward Gibbon wrote an apt description of Augustus Caesar that sounds a lot like George W. Bush, the lately deposed thinly veiled champion of the corporatist New Medievalism.  It reveals the shadowy Republican approach to governance, image over substance.  Gibbon writes:

     “He delights in the image of liberty and is pleased with considering himself as the accountable minister of the laws.

     “He claims a tender respect for a free constitution, which he destroys.

     “A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition prompt him to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never lays aside.

     “With the same hand, probably with the same temper, he signs death warrants and pardons.

     “According to the various dictates of his interest, he is at first the enemy, and at last the father of the nation.

     “As he frames the artful system of imperial authority, his moderation is inspired by his fears.

     “He wishes to deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the army by an image of civil government.

     “Finally, the forms of civil administration are carefully preserved. The ideal restraints of the senate and the laws may serve to display the virtues, but can never correct the vices of  the leader.”

“Americans deserve the government they elect,” my father used to say, but we know we didn’t elect Bush. Is Obama entirely our new free choice? Kings, as I recall, are divinely chosen – in our case, by fat cats and the Supreme Court. Kings represent the elite status quo, which presently resides in Wall Street. Wall Street wants to govern everything by itself, without any interference from the rest of us.  Father knows best.

Our species probably won’t be around long enough to figure out how to change from consumerist overpopulating inattentive polluters into minimalist birth-controlling aware conservationists.  We’ll overgraze our range soon.  One can see our rapidly escalating devastation of the planet.  Bush and his idiot followers accelerated it even more; they “rationalized” their irrational actions with fantastic myths to justify unreasonable behaviors.  There are only a few values in their make-believe world that are any good, and they are, of course, common and obvious to all humankind: love, mercy, truth, honor, and justice – those sorts of universal things, echoed by every other life philosophy ever conceived, that is, invented by man; but hypocritically enshrined by Republican spin meisters.

They have created and are attempting to retain dominance in an amoral, or consciously immoral world of corruption, thievery, and violence, instead of trying to eliminate or improve conditions that would remedy or heal it.  They are in fact, the enemy, and clear-thinking people who treasure compassion and cooperation must vigorously oppose them.  If a thing is contrary to the health and safety of the world, it should be destroyed.

You know what? The world is a dangerous place.  The fact that many choose – even, hysterically – to resist knowledge of its danger, do so at their peril, and endanger the rest of us.  Keeping silent about abuse, perversion, injustice, greed, vandalism, or prejudice is self-defeating, irresponsible, and destructive.  Self-willed ignorance is a socially and spiritually criminal act.  Pericles was right: People who say they have no business with government (democratic Athens, or the U.S.) have no business here at all.

Final words:  Keep on keepin’ on. We, the people, need you, dear reader.  Best regards to all,  j

President Kool-for-daze and family.

A cantora Vania Abreu comemora 15 anos de carreira em apresentação
dia 19 de novembro, quinta-feira, às 21 horas, no Teatro Bradesco.
O registro do show será lançado em DVD, o primeiro de sua carreira,
com a direção artística de Daniel dos Santos e direção musical
de Paulo Dáfilin. O cantor e compositor Chico César fará participação
especial.

LEIA MAIS NOS SITES
:: SORTIMENTOS.COM >> http://www.sortimentos.net/?p=4036
:: GEBBEG >> http://gebbeg.com.br/?p=7153

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