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JackC

There are crass, "unclassy" people, morons, liars, opportunists and scoundrels of all types across the political spectrum. The continued efforts by some here and many in the "liberal elite" and MSM to try to attack the Tea Baggers as a group, and blame them for everything from "racist" opposition to...

JackC

"This type of thinking by a person who very much wants to shut up Tea Party people and talk radio etc etc for political reasons is a much bigger danger to the country as a whole than this massacre." Because under normal circumstances I would have responded to this statement, it's the reason I was b...

JackC

Shall we also investigate what MOVIES and TV shows he may have watched that may have lead to his violent tendencies/fantasies??? Since you say you care deeply about getting to the truth about what CAUSED this, I don't see how you can neglect to include that in your investigation. :roll: The point is...

JackC

I would add that this is going to have further backlash against the liberal MSM. It has been on a mission to discredit the tea party for year. It tried to label the movement "racist" when it was full of millions of people (and many millions more were sympathetic to some of the positions) who did not...

JackC

Jack, I said "no comment." I did not "try to paint this as the consequence" of anything. We still don't know what Loughner's killing spree is a consequence of - or what it's not a consequence of. Unquestionably it's a consequence of something , and we need to know what that is. But we won't find ou...

JackC

The rampage on Saturday that left six dead and Ms. Giffords gravely wounded may prove to be an isolated act of violence by a mentally disturbed man. The suspect attended at least one of Ms. Giffords’s town meetings before the event Saturday. Still, the shootings came after a disconcerting run of ep...

JackC

Even in the complete sets that inspire me the least, I find some merit in all of them. It's not evasion, Jack , but my sincere belief that any pianist who has the skills and recognition to have complete Beethoven Sonata sets recorded is to be taken very seriously. I'm much more inclined to prefer s...

JackC

There is nothing wrong in asking for more restrained political discourse, but it seems more and clear that this shooting was the act a delusional loner and had no real political implications. It is obscene that some in the media are trying to paint this as the consequence of vocal opposition to gove...

JackC

Cliftwood wrote:To call Goode's Beethoven Sonatas run of the mill and Lewis's nothing special proves once again how remarkably unexplainable musical taste can be.

Chacun son goût !

Well, whose sets DO you think are ordinary and run of the mill???

JackC

I haven't heard the concertos, but I have heard his recordings of the sonatas. I just don't see how this set can be described as exceptional, unless one is setting the bar very low indeed based on truly mediocre sets. If you read my initial Post, I said that the Concerto Set was the only one of Lew...

JackC

Lance.. Lewis's Beethoven Sonatas set is not just good, it's exceptional. You must go for this set. I insist! :lol: I haven't heard the concertos, but I have heard his recordings of the sonatas. I just don't see how this set can be described as exceptional, unless one is setting the bar very low in...

JackC

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/10/5804380-farewell-to-wwii-hero-maj-dick-winters-central-character-in-band-of-brothers The series "Band of Brothers" was one the best, most moving things I've ever seen on TV. Dick Winters, who featured prominently in the story, passed away on January 3 ...

JackC

At the time of the attemted assassination of Ronald Reagan, I was not of an age to be following the newspapers very closely. At that time, were there all sorts of people playing the blame game like they are now? Or did people just accept that the perpetrator was a weirdo? There has been a very conc...

JackC

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/01/jared_loughner_alleged_shooter.php Ans he are some people who knew him who say he was a "left-wing pothead". Just as meaningless as if he were a right wing pothead The common thing that is coming in from all sides is that he fits the classical pro...

JackC

Is there a decent country on the planet in which Islam is politically dominate???

JackC

Yes, and once you two have confirmed for youselves that it is the fault of some right wing group, you'll be able to sleep better, your worldview confirmed, but you still won't understand why this happened and why he shot 20 people and killed 9 year old girl. What two are you talking about? Who moi?...

JackC

Yes, and once you two have confirmed for youselves that it is the fault of some right wing group, you'll be able to sleep better, your worldview confirmed, but you still won't understand why this happened and why he shot 20 people and killed 9 year old girl.

JackC

This man shot 20 people and by all the accounts that are coming out was deeply disturbed and/or deranged. It isn't clear that there is ANY political connection or motive yet. But even it turns out that he was politically motivated in some loose way that shows nothing. They are nuts who can get angry...

JackC

>I'm sorry if it's cruel to your sensibilities to tell someone you're going to get to live off of tax dollars for the next three years, then you need to get a job or you're on your own, but if you don't do that, too many people will have a sense of entitlement to life-long government support; and t...

JackC

>the only way to really change the situation in many of the worst urban areas is to emphasize the importance of marriage, parental responsibility, and family and the value of work < But how specifically do you do it--in the meantime these high cost solutions are needed--welfare, food stamps, medica...

JackC

Very impressive. She's a leader, and precisely the type who have the best chance of shaking up organizations that, for various reasons, find change too difficult.

JackC

Again, without adequate taxation (my emphasis), how can the government fund programs that might create significantly more jobs and reduce the number of un- and underemployed? There is no indication that the private sector is able or willing to do so, especially without the financial sector willing ...

JackC

All of the polls that I have seen say that Obamacare continues to be very unpopular. I see little political downside to the Republican trying to repeal it. All they have to do is pass a one paragraph bill that says, in effect, -- "The bill enacting Obamacare is hereby repealed." I think it is the pe...

JackC

I haven't heard the Mehta, although this isn't the first time I've read a rave about it. Of those I have heard, Bernstein's first New York recording on Sony remains my favorite. The one that so many people seem to like, but which has never done anything for me is the Klemperer (and I also used to h...

JackC

"The search for life outside the Earth is one of the key questions in all of science," I see this statement all the time, and I always think it is sort of silly - if it is just posed as a question about whether there is life - in ANY form - outside of earth. Given what we know, which is a LOT, about...

JackC

I'd observe only that 50 is a normal age for a policeman or firefighter (or a soldier) to retire, after some 30 years of going into harm's way and risking life and health to serve and save us. We don't really want older men and women in those strenuous and stressful roles, do we? If Sowell means to...

JackC

As I recall, and it has been a while a since I read My Life and Music, he mentions on several occassions that of all his musical activties, he enjoyed composing the most. I think he said he did not care as much about the worth of his compositions as much as the enjoyment of the process of composing....

JackC

I remember very vividly the recession in 1980-82. People felt exactly how they feel now. There was a sense of despair, the end had come for US dynamism, and no one could see how a recovery could come about. I was in school in Boston at the time. Then came the recovery, fueled by the tech boom, and w...

JackC

Foreign policy can't be run by a 100 people who think that THEY should be President. It is important that appropriate deference be given to the President in international affairs. Treaties should be ratified unless there is a genuine concern on the part of the Senate that they are against the intere...

JackC

I think a more telling example is the Cubam missile crisis. After the missiles were in, Kenndedy acted wonderfully and we all owe a lot to the wisdom he displayed. This ended up being his "finest hour". Still when one looks at the facts that led up to the crisis, a more complex analysis is needed. ...

JackC

I can think of no example of a situation where we were threatened in a way we would not have been under more macho leadership. Check your memory banks. No way Iran holds onto those hostages, holding us up as a paper tiger for all of the other regimes in the world (like the Russians, who had no qual...

JackC

No, and I didn't mean to imply that, or anything else nefarious on Jack's part. But I do question whether "I don't want my taxes raised because I don't like the way the government is spending money" is a very useful attitude. We should pay the taxes that are needed to avert the disaster which we in...

JackC

Barry wrote:
I'm sure Jack didn't literally mean he is going to refuse to pay his taxes if they're raised.

Hey, wait a minute. I ain't payin! Don't tread on me.

JackC

I, for one, have never viewed the tax issue as about people being greedy. No one wants their taxes raised. Still, I and I suspect most people, would be willing to pay a LOT more in taxes if I truly believed that the money would be spent to restore the nation to fiscal health. But I, like many others...

JackC

Let me make this even more personal. My regular income is about $2,900 net monthly. Basically, Cosi is telling me that my income ought to go down so that billionaires won't have to pay 39%, instead of the current 36%, of their income in taxes, and so they can transfer estates of $10 B or more to th...

JackC

I'm no lawyer, so I suppose this goes beyond my competence - but how can I be forced to carry automobile insurance, but an equivalent obligation to buy insurance for health care - preventing my medical costs from becoming a public burden is constitutionally barred? It seems to me that either the Cc...

JackC

The Republicans will simply not support anything based on a government managed health care system. It is private insurance companies - for those not already on Medicare, Medicaid, or the Veterans Administration - or nothing. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of people - something like 39 million at ...

JackC

I note your comment, Jack, and while I'd agree that the potential of the Nazi regime SHOULD have been obvious to all - looking at it from today's perspective - I wonder how many people on this side of the Atlantic could see it then (in 1937.) I don't know where you were then. I was a teenager livin...

JackC

I note your comment, Jack, and while I'd agree that the potential of the Nazi regime SHOULD have been obvious to all - looking at it from today's perspective - I wonder how many people on this side of the Atlantic could see it then (in 1937.) I don't know where you were then. I was a teenager livin...

JackC

A federal judge has ruled that the individual mandate in the new health care law is unconstitutional. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/13/politics/main7145668.shtml?tag=breakingnews This is the heart of the bill. The economics of Obamacare just do not work without the ability to force people t...

JackC

Nice post, Cosima. I always use the argument with people who claim that slavery wasn't the main cause of the Civil War that it doesn't pass the "but for" test. But for the issue of slavery, the Civil War wouldn't have happened. It doesn't matter that most of the southerners who fought weren't slave...

JackC

In 1937, when Elly Ney joined the Nazi Party, the Nazis had not destroyed her country but to the contrary, rescued it from economic catastrophe and even brought nearly full employment. (U.S. unemployment in 1937 was about 18%.) Moreover, the Nazi regime had begun to restore Germany to a position of...

JackC

OK, here's one that I really like that no one has mentioned so far Barbirolli with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. I remember buying it because Martin Bookspan mentioned it in his book 101 Masterpieces of Music - which listed his favorite recordings. I don't know that it is my "favorite" but it's specia...

JackC

the professional music world is a tough one. so many instrumentalists face rejection at orchestra auditions, it take a really tough skin to persevere. I remember reading about one orchestral player who attended over 50 auditions, unsuccessfully, until he/she finally scored a job. I'm sure others ha...

JackC

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112305808.html And now our very own village idiot, Jimmy Carter, sees that North Korea wants to "negotiate." How did we ever manage to survive this moron as President. Oh well, at least his incompetence and idiocy made Reagan poss...

JackC

South Korea won't go to war against the North without the agreement and participation of the United States - not with nearly 30,000 American combat and support troops stationed in South Korea, mainly in the northern third. And that agreement and participation will not be forthcoming short of a full...

JackC

Almost as stupid as Senator Rockefeller's (has ever ever actually been in West Virginia by the way

) statement that he wished that the FCC would ban Fox News and MSNBC.

And Joe Biden says more stupid stuff every week than the rest of the human race combined. I wonder why he gets a pass.

JackC

No, you must be right, Jack. Artists are just like steel workers, only the result of their productivity differs. Couldn't possibly be any difference in personality type, and therefore could not be any question of different temperaments. How much easier it to see the world so simply! Cheers, ~Karl N...

JackC

A singer's career means everything to him/her: it's more than an identity, it's life itself. Same for many other dedicated musicians. I've dealt with many singers who have told me that they only "come fully alive" when performing, and losing their career (or hopes of same) would feel like losing li...

JackC

John F wrote:Not a chance.

That's the same thing people have been saying after each provocation. Well, the bombs are falling now, so "not a chance" seems a little silly.

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