Topics discussed: America without real leadership, individualism, political parties, Democrats, Republicans, the Iraq war, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, unsecured borders, manufacturing and industry, 2008 presidential election, history.
I may do more of these. It was a lot of fun putting together. The song is "Road Movie to Berlin" by They Might Be Giants, in case anyone's wondering.
EDIT 10:06 AM EST 01-10-2007: I'm watching this again and, it could have been a little better. Sometimes people notice that I tend to blink a lot, which is 'cuz my eyes are VERY sensitive to light (I can see much better at night or in a dark room than most people can, is one neat thing about it). It also tends to ramble a bit. But this was my first time trying this so this was something of a "trial run". The next ones should be more focused/concise and somewhat briefer.
3 comments:
i pretty much agree with all you said, but the question also is, where are the critical thinkers?
the education system has failed in this country. the majority of people reject science and choose the idea of an supernatural being impregnating a woman in the middle east. i'm 41 and my boss at work is also 41, but he beleives the earth is 4000 yrs old, adam and eve, noahs ark, etc... i am so glad i'm not his child, if i was, he would raise me with no critical thought process and to blindly beleive nonsence. i also was disapointed with pelosi's comments of power, but from a historic point of view, it is great that a woman has finally been put in a powerful position. men should be ashamed how they've treated women thoughout history. what i want to see for this country is energy independence. i'll shutup now, you'll probably delete my post anyway.
Chris, good points all around and stated very well. I agree with much, if not all, of what you said. The state of our government today is pretty sad. Just one comment & one question...
- Jobs: It's not just industry going overseas. I have a computer-related job, and I and others in my dept. are losing our jobs in March because of offshoring of our duties to a company in India. Way too much of America is owned by, controlled by, or at the mercy of foreign interests. When are we going to own our own country again?
- Pelosi: When did she make that power-hungry quote you previously blogged about? I'm assuming it was in an interview before or after her induction. I listened to her acceptance speech on YouTube, and I don't remember her saying those exact words. I think I saw those same quotes in an online article, so I know she said them, but I don't know when.
The quote from her is found in this story from the Washington Times. I also happened to catch her saying it on one of the cable news shows last week while I was at work.
Here's something I keep thinking about when it comes to our industry: as the Roman Empire began to slip into stagnation, so did their level of technology and craftsmanship. One example is that Roman armor and weapons made in the 300s A.D. were *much* inferior to comparable armor and weaponry made two hundred years earlier (the shields and helmets especially demonstrate this). When Constantine came to the throne and was building his triumphal arch, he had to plunder the artwork from the memorials of previous emperors because the artisanship of his own day was totally lackluster.
Where was all the good stuff being done? Outside the borders of the empire, in places like Gaul and Germany and Arabia and China, getting shipped in.
We are approaching the same point as the Romans, if we haven't arrived there already. You can even see it in our entertainment industry: ever notice how so many of the movies coming out Hollywood lately are remakes? Meanwhile some absolutely amazing stuff is starting to be done in overseas cinema. The only big entertainment industry that is growing in viability is television, because I think that medium is only now, after all these years, becoming something useful as a true art form that demands attention from the viewer (thinking about shows like 24, Lost, Heroes etc.)
Where is all that vitality going that we used to have? Yup, overseas.
One of two things is gonna have to happen: either we continue the downward slope into stagnancy and America really does become a third-world country, or the identity of this country shifts from being fixated in a powerful centralized government, and goes back to the people, because it's only from regular people are we going to find that vitality again.
I'm gonna be video blogging some more about that point sometime soon.
And Todd, thanks for watching :-)
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