David Mamet’s The Anarchist: The New Left’s Terrible Triumph

David Mamet’s The Anarchist: The New Left’s Terrible Triumph
Great article by Hugh Hewitt in Townhall last week. Mamet’s new play opened for previews last week in New York. Formal reviews out in early December.

I grew up ashamed of most of the 60’s radical and “revolutionary” activity. Mamet takes a look at this movement through the eyes of an imprisoned 60’s radical and her prison warden and the dialogues they have regarding her being approved for parole.

One of these real life retreads is Bill Ayers. Wiki: “1969 he co-founded the Weather Underground, a self-described communist revolutionary group[2] that conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings (including police stations, the U.S. Capitol Building, and the Pentagon) during the 1960s and 1970s in response to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.”

He’s now reconstituted himself as a retired professor from the University of Chicago. “Although never convicted of any crime, he told the New York Times in September 2001, “I don’t regret setting bombs…I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Hewitt asks:

“But where did their “ideas” go? No one in the MSM espouses that claptrap anymore, or uses the hackneyed phrases of “the movement,” but very, very few people in the Manhattan-Beltway media elite talk about anything serious at all.

Here’s a clue. The idiot wind of the ‘60s blew and blew and blew and ended up bottled in newsrooms and green rooms all across the land. It ended up tenured and stupid, credentialed and wholly incapable of basic economic analysis though it is very good at regression analysis applied to polling data and Twitter quips.

Ezra Klein, Rachel Maddow, Jon Chait and Chris Hayes are the heirs to and current super-egos of the great noise from four decades back, with Kos as its id. That’s it: all that is left of the New Left.”

Be interesting to see how the New York Times and so on review this. Mamet was on a private plane when the towers were struck in 2001. The moment had a considerable impact on how he viewed terrorists, anarchists, and self styled revolutionaries. I’m sure that impact is reflected in this play.

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BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform. RIM stock has almost doubled in the last 2 weeks and according to this article in TECH Vibes one analyst sees it quadrupling again in the next year. BB10 comes out in 3 months.

“The company’s forthcoming browser slaughters standard HTML5 tests, making the iPhone’s Safari browser look like an antique. And now BB10’s browser has cleared Ring 1 on the Ringmark test, becoming only the second mobile browser to ever achieve the ranking.”

RIM may have made it through this incredible journey and may emerge end of January with the most revolutionary mobile OS ever. Anyone who loves a comeback story, and who loves a company who builds devices the world over for doers and not viewers has got to be excited.

Who Can Help the Needy in the most Effective and Compassionate Manner

Can Bureaucrats do a better job of helping the needy than local volunteers, the Salvation Army, the Catholic Church, and millions of other volunteer and non profit organizations all over the world. If everyone of us could have this kind of compassion and caring for our fellow human beings, we could reduce or eliminate all the government non elected appointed positions who mandate “caring and giving” into existence.

A Life in Motion: Mike at TEDxOC

A Life in Motion: Mike at TEDxOC.
TEDxOrange Coast has posted FWM’s Mike Kenyon speaking on “A Life in Motion” at this year’s TEDx Orange Coast event and we wanted to share his talk with you.

“The Yoga Community Must Shelve Both Idealism and Politeness to Loudly and Publicly Endorse Obama. Right Now. Who’s In?”

So I check out some Yoga instructors at my club and find a new one who has retweeted a link to a post by Matthew Remski on his elephantjournal blog (click through on the photo for a direct link). How on earth I wonder, is Yoga tied to the essential nature of Obama’s reelection.

Matthew makes a long argument for why the Yoga community MUST step out of its comfort zone and endorse Obama/Biden. It’s a moral imperative. The crux of the argument is summarized in this excerpt which lays out the mandate: “preventing a hateful, mendacious plutocrat who evades taxes to tithe to a racist jabberwocky church from seizing the reins of power.”

Now anyone who has studied tax law knows that there is tax evasion (go to jail) and tax avoidance (pay what is required and use the rules to minimize tax liability.) Hollywood elite, Congressmen, Senators, men and women of all parties and politics “generally” pay what is due and don’t go out of their way to pay more. But, if Romney plays by the rules it’s suddenly evasion.

And, while I am not a particular fan of the Mormon Church, Romney and any Mormon or any person for that fact has a perfect right to tithe to the limit to that entity without explaining themselves to me or Matthew. Apparently, what he really may mean is that it is unfair that Romney, and not the Federal Government, had a say in some portion of his income that was tithed down the drain to the Church rather than put into Washington’s hands for politicians (who must know better) to make use of.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a partial sentence that so eloquently spelled out the divide in this country between personal responsibility vs a Federal/State Centered solution. Clearly, Matthew views highly successful individuals who dare put their money to charitable use that he deems inappropriate to be dangerous to the societal needs as better determined by others. I wonder where Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army, World Vision, Direct Relief and too many other organizations to mention that put Billions of Dollars to work and feet on the ground all over the world fall. Surely they are depriving the government of taxable income that could be better used by Washington.

I love Yoga as it restores my body, allows me to clear my mind, puts me in contact with some really cool people for an hour a day, and has helped my flexibility tremendously. I’m probably missing the boat here on the rest and may offend some of my more serious friends. Matthew refers to the ”Republican flunkies who enjoy backbends are a small and self-absorbed minority in contemporary yoga.” Count me in. I’m one them. I have a Savior. He died 2000 years ago but still walks the earth. I don’t need Yoga to fill that void.

“One Goal, Well Executed, Could Change Your Life Forever.” Dr. Tom Hill

Tom Hill is one of the best Personal Growth proponents and coaches I’ve ever met.  He amazed me with his Vistage presentation years ago, and I’ve been receiving his Eagelzine newsletter every Friday since.  He’s starting a One Year Program called the “Movement” which begins next year.  I’m signed up and am looking forward to a focused and structured year of growth.  Click on his banner here for more information if you’d like to join me.