and as you walked down you could hear them growling and snarling as you got near...
the icon is oddly similar to the title. possibly the first time in 1000+ entries that that's happened. woohoo!
watched The Dallas Buyers Club. A really good movie but I think it's watched solely for the performances of two of the actors (Leto and McConaughey) acting harrowing performances alongside harrowing weight loss. A combined 79 pounds between them! unfortunately the movie didn't tell me anything new. Meaning that it confirms what was then and what is now, even if it is the States. The fact that corporations are in bed with governments and sporting bodies to the extent that no one cares they are. the apathetic are very much in the majority, either that or the perks they give the public are so great there's little incentive to refuse.
From the FDA being in the pocket of the drug companies in the movie, thus pushing EZT as the anti-AIDS drug even when it does more damage than good in the long term to the Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia which is occurring without so much of a sniff of protest from around the world. Yes, many prominent celebrities objected and many heads of state refused to attend the opening ceremony but there were no plans to boycott the games at all. Why? Because the lost revenue is too much of an incentive to attend. And while I think Russia is barbaric in its treatment of LGBT people the games that should've been boycotted were those in Beijing in 2008. China's human rights record was, and still abhorrent (and I'm not even talking about Taiwan) but they are an economic superpower. So what if they execute thousands of their own people each year? they make cheap white goods and iPods. it's a good trade.
my mom told me a story last Tuesday. while we were both in the Rouge nursing black coffees. About her old life before me, and an acquaintance whose life in the sixties and seventies were marred with the politics of the time and the hard decisions the man had to make. The man was Lithuanian, a survivor, who went to the USA after the war ended. he met his wife and had a family and that was that. Until Vietnam came. And with two sons he was faced with a series of hoops to jump through to try and keep his boys away from the drafters. Sending them to college, getting them medical exemptions, everything. In the end he did the extreme. Upping his family altogether and travelling from America to Liverpool. Which is where they stayed, and as my mom was saying where his son must stay from them on.
I don't know if there is a statue of limitations for US draft dodgers. I know it's over 40 years but the US are bastards for rulings. It wasn't a big thing for the family, he was Lithuanian, his wife was Chilean, they weren't exactly as American as apple pie. But still. To leave your home, where you'd try to form some kind of life, to go and never return. My mom doubted Marco (the son) would mind per se, but the very idea of doing something like that just over the threat of chance is impressive.
I don't think people would do that now if the situation was repeated.
That's not me damning all the current generation. But I don't see the backbone these days like the ones I read about, and the ones that my mom tells me about. I e-petition the Health MP Jeremy Hunt (his name appropriate cockney rhyming slang) over the plan to sell sealed medical files on the population to private health companies. People sign the petition but I doubt anything will happen. why would it? how scared is Jeremy Hunt of an e-petition?
it is a paper tiger. and I see more of those these days, dressed up in the armour of public opinion. People seem to be reluctant to get behind a movement they don't understand. So they get behind no movement at all. They are ambivalent about everything. They seem uncertain about striking over NHS cuts because they don't understand every facet of the argument. Or that they hear that the heads of the unions are on 100k a year and become disgruntled.
I noticed recently two of my favourite films have similar messages, although they are argued in radically different ways. 'The Departed', which isn't a great film but does have some cracking lines, and 'Munich' which should have got Oscars. Both Jack Nicholson at the beginning of the first and an actress named Gila Almagor at the ending of second say similar words in defence of their actions, both personal and national. Paraphrasing:
"No one will give it to you, you have to take it".
I think I've gone so far one way in being pleasant and non-threatening that I've forgotten that fact.
You want it?
come and get it.
Not being rude or intimidating or.. mean ;) just being honest.
If it comes down to you or me it's not going to be me. My health isn't going to suffer for you. The years taken off my life will not be handed back with apology. The soul I sell to you will not be returned with interest. Therefore it will not be transacted to begin with. And if that offends some... tough.
This is year 214.
And all safety protocols are now very much turned OFF.
Tread carefully everyone. :)
watched The Dallas Buyers Club. A really good movie but I think it's watched solely for the performances of two of the actors (Leto and McConaughey) acting harrowing performances alongside harrowing weight loss. A combined 79 pounds between them! unfortunately the movie didn't tell me anything new. Meaning that it confirms what was then and what is now, even if it is the States. The fact that corporations are in bed with governments and sporting bodies to the extent that no one cares they are. the apathetic are very much in the majority, either that or the perks they give the public are so great there's little incentive to refuse.
From the FDA being in the pocket of the drug companies in the movie, thus pushing EZT as the anti-AIDS drug even when it does more damage than good in the long term to the Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia which is occurring without so much of a sniff of protest from around the world. Yes, many prominent celebrities objected and many heads of state refused to attend the opening ceremony but there were no plans to boycott the games at all. Why? Because the lost revenue is too much of an incentive to attend. And while I think Russia is barbaric in its treatment of LGBT people the games that should've been boycotted were those in Beijing in 2008. China's human rights record was, and still abhorrent (and I'm not even talking about Taiwan) but they are an economic superpower. So what if they execute thousands of their own people each year? they make cheap white goods and iPods. it's a good trade.
my mom told me a story last Tuesday. while we were both in the Rouge nursing black coffees. About her old life before me, and an acquaintance whose life in the sixties and seventies were marred with the politics of the time and the hard decisions the man had to make. The man was Lithuanian, a survivor, who went to the USA after the war ended. he met his wife and had a family and that was that. Until Vietnam came. And with two sons he was faced with a series of hoops to jump through to try and keep his boys away from the drafters. Sending them to college, getting them medical exemptions, everything. In the end he did the extreme. Upping his family altogether and travelling from America to Liverpool. Which is where they stayed, and as my mom was saying where his son must stay from them on.
I don't know if there is a statue of limitations for US draft dodgers. I know it's over 40 years but the US are bastards for rulings. It wasn't a big thing for the family, he was Lithuanian, his wife was Chilean, they weren't exactly as American as apple pie. But still. To leave your home, where you'd try to form some kind of life, to go and never return. My mom doubted Marco (the son) would mind per se, but the very idea of doing something like that just over the threat of chance is impressive.
I don't think people would do that now if the situation was repeated.
That's not me damning all the current generation. But I don't see the backbone these days like the ones I read about, and the ones that my mom tells me about. I e-petition the Health MP Jeremy Hunt (his name appropriate cockney rhyming slang) over the plan to sell sealed medical files on the population to private health companies. People sign the petition but I doubt anything will happen. why would it? how scared is Jeremy Hunt of an e-petition?
it is a paper tiger. and I see more of those these days, dressed up in the armour of public opinion. People seem to be reluctant to get behind a movement they don't understand. So they get behind no movement at all. They are ambivalent about everything. They seem uncertain about striking over NHS cuts because they don't understand every facet of the argument. Or that they hear that the heads of the unions are on 100k a year and become disgruntled.
I noticed recently two of my favourite films have similar messages, although they are argued in radically different ways. 'The Departed', which isn't a great film but does have some cracking lines, and 'Munich' which should have got Oscars. Both Jack Nicholson at the beginning of the first and an actress named Gila Almagor at the ending of second say similar words in defence of their actions, both personal and national. Paraphrasing:
"No one will give it to you, you have to take it".
I think I've gone so far one way in being pleasant and non-threatening that I've forgotten that fact.
You want it?
come and get it.
Not being rude or intimidating or.. mean ;) just being honest.
If it comes down to you or me it's not going to be me. My health isn't going to suffer for you. The years taken off my life will not be handed back with apology. The soul I sell to you will not be returned with interest. Therefore it will not be transacted to begin with. And if that offends some... tough.
This is year 214.
And all safety protocols are now very much turned OFF.
Tread carefully everyone. :)