It's like That 70s Show meets Second Life! McCain has jowls!!
And I keep expecting the soundtrack to say 'I buried Paul.'
Our poor mother in the wheelchair!
Also, wherever they filmed it is really pretty.
Reminds me of that video the Kazakhstan ministry of propaganda put out in response to Borat. It was great -- the screen splits in four and the many strengths Kazakhstan are touted: steel plants! Combine harvesters! Other big stuff!
Gene Sharp?! Gene Sharp at a table with George Soros & John McCain plotting the downfall of Iran?
On a less contentious note
I can tendentious anything. What is the verb form for tendentious anyway? Tendend? Ok, ML tendent. I claim OED rights on "tendend."
That was surprisingly boring. Especially the first part, which was just a bunch of old guys sitting in a room talking.
Gene Sharp?!
That's the beauty of it. War-mongers, democracy activists, theorists of non-violence, all in cahoots!
7: Teo, what are you talking about? I learned more about what the Iranian gov't thinks from that segment than anything else.
It's true! It's true! They do fear non-violence more than anything else. The "Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare" is right up there with Soros, "White House official John McCain" and a generic John Smith as enemies of the Islamic republic.
I learned more about what the Iranian gov't thinks from that segment than anything else.
Like I said, boring. They apparently fear detailed speeches on democracy-promotion policy more than anything else except non-violence.
I hope our intelligence is better.
Dial 113 to find out!
the sister-informant is the saddest part
if i understood correctly
at least family should be together at all times
Honestly, I didn't realize Gene Sharp would show up on anyone's radar. This is like finding out that the Chinese Communist Party fears Ian MacKaye as much as Falun Gong.
The CCP fears Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides, Jon King, Andy Gill, Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham.
I am apparently too technologically challenged to make this file play on my lowly MacBook.
When I was there and talked to young people who cared about politics, their level of intellectual engagement and erudition was shockingly high. They were all, "Oh yeah, Heidegger, he's really hot here right now. Habermas, too." Slightly older relatives wanted to talk about Hobsbawm. My guess is that Gene Sharp is also read, enough that they have to discredit him.
I assumed that the bags would have bombs in them---but I suppose that would not fit the proper narratives.
20: Well, there was a gun. And papers! Probably chock full of seditious pacifism!
I wonder what the gun laws in Iran are like. Ogged?
Yeah, I loved where they were talking about how much fun they were going to have in America, because they all had these faces like, "Oh, man, I hate fun. I don't want to look like I actually have any idea what fun is."
I wonder what the gun laws in Iran are like. Ogged?
No idea, actually.
7, 12 That was surprisingly boring.
Boredom, an instrument of oppression and terror (Solzhenitsyn)
That video was odd. Their propaganda vision of America would actually be recognized as the best foreign policy course going forward by alot of moderates—fund opposition groups, spread propaganda with satellites, etc.
Also spooky that Iran basically copped to being a police state in which mothers turn in their sons (albeit one in which the sons, if naive and mislead, are quickly released), and that an ad for that police state was indistinguishable from one on the New York subway ("Call this hotline if you see anything suspicious!").
25: Thanks, destroyer. I couldn't get that to work for me, but I'm also kinda coming-down-with-something heady. I'll sleep and try again tomorrow.
Their propaganda vision of America would actually be recognized as the best foreign policy course going forward by alot of moderates--fund opposition groups, spread propaganda with satellites, etc.
This struck me as well (and is part of what I was getting at with my "boring" remark). It's actually pretty easy to imagine a conversation just like that happening among US policymakers, though probably not among the specific group of policymakers shown in the video.
Indeed, I suspect many conversations on Iran policy in the Bush White House are significantly crazier. And scarier, from either an Iranian or an American perspective.
If you see something, say something, destroyer.
Although, to be fair, a lot of the MTA's in-house ads are really good. I love the one about how if you're sick, please, tell someone; it ends with "You will not be left alone." I find that weirdly comforting, and even a little moving. I will not be left alone.
If you see something, say something, destroyer.
I've spent the last year trying to decide if "Last year, 1,944 New Yorkers saw something and said something" is meant to invoke World War II, or if that hunch proves I'm going crazy. I'm still not sure.
I have wondered that very thing. Surely not exactly 1944 New Yorkers, right? Hm?
What makes me think that they're counting people who saw nothing and said something?
Oh god that sign drives me batty. I keep wanting to know what percentage of tips led to a discovery of dangerous activity. "Last year, 1944 New Yorkers got their panties in a knot over a Hispanic guy they thought was Muslim."
Surely not exactly 1944 New Yorkers, right? Hm?
Wouldn't surprise me if they had a precise official figure like that. It all depends on a pretty broad reading of "saw something", though.
What they mean is that an unspecified number of time-travelling New Yorkers saw and said something.
Last year, 0.023% of New Yorkers peached on a fellow.
He seems to have taken it poorly.
You're right. In fact, all things considered, that may be what taking it well looks like.
I retract my earlier statement.
I retract my earlier proboscis.
Say, did you hear that chemists for Pfizer, operating on a military contract, have succeeded in creating a aerosolizable compound that, on inhalation, causes the subject to become extremely aroused by anyone present, regardless of the subject's antecedent sexual orientation? Seems it was derived from bitumescent coal.
I can never fully hate William Saffire, because he once ran a piece with the hed, "It's not the teat, it's the tumidity".
Who's he? Is his picture on bubble gum cards?
He's basically the same as William Ruby, except he's not a communist.
I hadn't seen that column before. It's cracking me up:
"The purpose of Indiana's nudity law would be violated, I think, if 60,000 fully consenting adults crowded into the Hoosierdome to display their genitals to one another, even if there were not an offended innocent in the crowd."
That aroused Justice White...
I've long been a sucker for the Safire column warning against common errors in writing while (comically!) making said errors. Unfortunately I can't remember the text well enough to search for it.
I hate to walk around a small but lively protest yesterday in front of the White House. Against the Administration's Iran policy, but because it's too soft. Chants that include the name of the Iranian president and a demand that he do some particular thing aren't particularly effective. Indeed, the leaders of the chanting seem not to have figured out how to use rhyme or rhythm.
If they'd been around in 1968 they'd know how to protest, by goddess.
Shit. Had to walk around. I didn't hate it, and I don't care what Dr. Freud says.
I liked the the Intelligence officer. Bags under the eyes, stubbly chin, rounded features, warm tired look - it's like the international casting language for "good cop". Map behind him was nice touch.
The Gayatollahs need to take a lesson in propaganda from John Manlove.
great fumblerules
it could be even more useful if the errors were corrected-highlighted there, coz not every error is obvious for example to me
thanks for posting
Although, to be fair, a lot of the MTA's in-house ads are really good. I love the one about how if you're sick, please, tell someone; it ends with "You will not be left alone." I find that weirdly comforting, and even a little moving.
It is weirdly comforting and moving!
61 remarkably identical thoughts
all last week i was afraid i'll faint somewhere b/c felt some strange lightheadedness as if my brain was floating in the skull, thought even may be MS is already starting or what
seems it was just coffee withdrawal or may be hypotension, coz today i had coffee in the morning and do not feel that
i wish i could live drinking tea only as i always did before
Already?
Are you expecting MS to kick in at some point?
oh, you asked me a question, ST
sorry, i did not know, browsed away
may be it runs in our family, it's just my phobia, may be should check my HLA or something
my mom had it, grandma perhaps also
but if it kicks in may be not until mid-50ies hopefully
a fortune-teller predicted me to live until 90 if i won't die before 60, a very precise prediction :)
my father's side females all lived pretty long i remember my grandgrandma, she died when i was 12 only 2-3 yrs short to be 100 yo, so it's possible thanks for asking
i don't know why i tell personal things here, just i'm sure noone whom i know reads this and other sites which i visit, totally anonymous
and it's not i'm telling something embarassing also
64: everybody tells personal things here at a point. Just maintain your anonymity.
