— And doing so with the kind of confident non-elitist elitism that makes elitist non-elites practically purple with elite envy:
Forget cultural insularity or smugness. The main problem with the “new elite” is that they’re not an elite at all. That is, they aren’t particularly smart, or competent. They are credentialed, but those credentials aren’t so much markers for smartness or competence, or even basic education, as they are admission tickets to the Gentry Class, based on good standardized test scores.
Sure. But let’s not oversell the perks of the Gentry Class too much, Glenn.
After all, admittance requires that you sit through a number of tedious “expressionistic” foreign films you haven’t a chance in hell of fathoming — and that you pretend to find the political humor of Stephen Colbert’s absolutely delicious! With a straight face!
Really. It’s hard out here for a pimp.
(h/t dicentra)
getting an MLIS is a very curious choice of pursuit to pursue during a John Galt sabbatical really
I’ll pass on the films on the grounds that I can.
Or if I must see them I’ll just make up my own storyline. Seems to be the sort of real avante-garde type thing I can grasp.
Beats shooting wolves from a helicopter with your phony-ass Jesus-blessed hoochie gun though, eh?
I like this approach to the issue. Something in me revolts over referring to idiots as educated or elite.
Btw, gotta keep that pimp hand strong, Jeff. You can skip the tedious films and Colbert by scoffing at them as derivative. If they ask “Derivative of what?”, go with the disappointed look you’d give a child eating something off the ground.
When you push political reliability ahead of all other criteria when selecting those who will be fostered, mentored, raised up into the new elite then you get what you select for.
New elite, the credentialed class, the ruling class are fine but what they really are is our very own nomenklatura. A list of names of those who meet the highest standards that matter. all the others can be faked, forged, rigged as needed.
All not all
Can you imagine any of the “elite” dropping in here an engaging in normal routine banter and discussion?
Sarah Palin is the quintessential reference point for all things America in 2010
that’s neat it reminds me I might have some wine in the cabinet behind that one chair
crap
I like this approach to the issue. Something in me revolts over referring to idiots as educated or elite.
Ditto. You’re talking about people – like myself – who come from an environment where the importance of academic achievement is beaten into your head from an early age, and it only gets ramped up in high school. It has little to do with learning for the sake of learning and is wholly about credentials. And at that, for the most superficial of long-term objectives like money, prestige and influence.
Starting with education, there are only a small handful of schools that are out of reach for extremely mediocre minds that are diligently, or even tirelessly focused. And the problem with all of this is that while there is a reason to feel superior to others who haven’t achieved as much, it’s only within the confines of people who grew up in the same milieu.
That’s is what makes the insularity of such people maddening. I have no problem dismissing someone from Scarsdale who went to a fourth-tier state school as a moron, but you simply can’t apply the same measuring stick to people outside of this environment.
You may be crap, dramafuss, but you certainly are tedious.
Did we start screwing this up when we developed the notion that everyone should go to college and that white collar jobs are just intrinsically better than blue collar jobs?
Look at those we refer to as elite. White collar professions and the arts with sports being the oddball of the group.
So, we get some people with large student loans, with no appreciable skills making little money with little chance of independent action scoffing at someone like a master craftsman who works his own schedule and makes three to four times as much a year. They don’t want to admit there is a valid reason for this so they hide inside a mindset wherein adopting a few cultural markers allows strong ego protection.
Along this line, this is something I quite like about the world view of someone like Hayek. When he looks for the location of useful knowledge and expertise, he’s not likely to set his sights upon the person striking a careful pose at a hip coffee shop.
I’m not crap I’m just disappointed in the lack of alcoholic beverages.
I like being in construction and fake grass.
credential
cupcake
connoisseur
pw comment nanny suxs
Kitna, elite. har-dee-har-har mumble mumble
I think… our elites are besotted with can’t do is what’s happened – you can’t build this you can’t drill that you can’t develop here you can’t use frackings you can’t prevent terrorisms you can’t have infinitesimal traces of cadmium you can’t have your choice of lightbulbs you can’t have a manned space program you can’t have salt you can’t spread democracy… it adds up to a feeble failshit little country in which the failshit elites disdain people what think that America should be able to do things.
Vonnegut was wrong wrong wrong they don’t want to bergeron individuals they want to bergeron the whole fucking country.
Dallas should have a bigger cushion considering how things have played out so far.
They don’t because they stink JD, simple as that.
what about cupcakes elitist?
That makes sense, bh, but I really think the coalescing of these people into what’s essentially a separate culture owes more to the advent of the internet than anything else.
cupcakes are of the people for the people by the people
yes i was trying alliteration but the pw s/w said no
With the exception of the scoffing at master craftsmen, you’ve described me.
But the scoffing seems like the really important part of your point, so I’m good.
Ay, sdferr. That they are. 20-7 does not reflect how poorly the Giants have played. Helluva catch by Smith.
That might well be, Abe.
I think it has at least as much to do with John Stewart as the internet
*Jon*
if we’re keying in on the scoffing and disdaining anyway
It truly was the important point, Jeff. Besides, you do have appreciable skills which is another key difference. You can think analytically as well as creatively while expressing yourself extremely well with words.
As I sometimes say in defense of valuing talented people rather than posers, I don’t come here because I find you stupid and inarticulate.
But what the audience wanted to hear (and what they got from most of the other speakers) was a message that once the Republican establishment is back in power, all will be well. There is no way that I could have said that.
THAT is why I believe the Tea Party is not going to fade away after Nov 2.
I want more small-gov candidates who are dedicated to going to Washington in order to make their jobs just this side of obsolete.
The funny, sad funny not hah funny, is that midget racist plagiarizing hill jack skin flute players think they are th elite, and look down their snooty midget noses at people that are objectively superior people.
I think about someone like Meghan McCain – the quintessential credentialed idiot – who latches onto a bunch of cultural markers and thinks she’s hip because she likes bands that are on the cover of Rolling ‘Fuckin’ Establishment’ Stone and she has a tattoo. Where else could an idiot like this summon the strength to think she’s anything but a sheltered little idiot?
bh
Master Craftsman? WHO says? Who gave him/her that title?
I demand a government commission to look into this Master Craftsman nonsense. No one who works with his hands has the intelligence to decide what is or is not a Master Craftsman!!!11!!1!
I think it has at least as much to do with John Stewart as the internet
Really? You think a subculture which runs the gamut from artistic preferences to food preferences to political inclinations to fashion choices emanates from a Comedy Central show?
“Where else could an idiot like this summon the strength to think she’s anything but a sheltered little idiot?”
Where else? How about the Chronicle of Higher Education, Brooklyn College and the City University of New York’s Graduate Center?
yes I think Jon Stewart modeled a brand of supercilious unseriousness what has metastasized tremendously… if you listen you can hear bumblefuck hit a lot of the same notes I think
link
I don’t scoff…I want to be that master craftsman in the most wonderful way. It’s kind of funny in a sad tragic kind of way, but I told myself all my life that I had, had, had to get a Master’s degree in anything so as not to be a member of the hoi polloi (yeah I was really dumb and I was the first one in my family to go to college). Funny thing happened on the way to the forum, though. I have neither the Master’s Degree nor am I a master of anything. Sigh. But, my children adore me and my wife of 15 years absolutely loves me more than anything, so it’s definitely not a loss at all. Just a case of misplaced priorities when it came to a career.
I gotta second happyfeet in regards to Jon Stewart. Far too many people that I work with find him a credible source of “news”. I thought they were joking at first, but then it dawned on me that they really think he is a serious thinker. Of course I do work for a large urban county, so there is that. More sighs. Melancholy doesn’t exactly describe my mood tonight. Maybe forlorn.
I agree — though I think it’s the attitude (and political identity) that trickles down moreso than any substantial content.
Never before have so many demonstrably stupid people assumed the role of the self-styled cultural elites on the basis of so little merit.
And why not? It’s the “truth” if they all agree to it — and insist upon it forcefully enough.
end the scam now or never
OI – don’t you have some Dem luminaries scheduled to come through your town in the next week?
That’s ludicrous, hf. The fact that he’s captured the zeitgeist among a certain segment of the population and flatters the perspective of his viewers doesn’t have anything to do with how their preferences develop across a broad spectrum. They’re as mindlessly earnest as they are whatever hollow ironic posturing comes out of Stewart’s piehole.
Ludicrous was too strong a word. But I think you overstate the import of a TV show in all this, if for no other reason than the draw of his show is an example of the sheep-like tendency among these people rather than the cause of it.
it’s a world of hopes and a world of fears
Although some of engineers I’ve known are arrogant, know-it-all, arseholes (mostly the MIT guys), that smug know-it-all-ness was generally limited to whatever narrow disipline they specialize in; although they can be conversant in a great many things.
So it must be a humanities thing; because y’all aren’t as elite…
I know, I’m an ass; but it was a requirement for fighter pilots…Think I’m bad? You should have met some of the other guys :)
JD, They are always coming through my town. I don’t know, nor do I care. Cleveland is reliably dem, so I’m not sure their infatuation with this shithole. Maybe it’s not as reliable as I think, though.
William Fucking Yelverrton is a case study in this faux elitism superior attitude.
OI – I think that some of the big guns will be coming through your way.
I’m sooooooo going with that bh; it’ll enhance my obnoxiousness…
And by the way, I know you didn’t take a READER POLL! or anything, but I’m definately on board with referring to educated incompetents as “credentialed” instead of elite. We just need to figure out a way to write it so it reflects the proper amount of contempt for someone who got a sheepskin because they could take tests well, or kiss the right arse, but who can’t actually apply anything they learned in the real world.
You know, like guys who use teleprompters at press conferences…
Obama is soooooo the epitome of this.
Obama is soooooo the epitome of this.
You mean, people you’d maybe call as your lifeline on “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” but would also keep you up all night with worry if you’d entrusted a project to them?
You could combine Yelverton, Caric, and Thirstytitties and still not get the requisite synaptic fire required to blaze up a brain fart.
You might as well call them ????? Bob, for all they’d be capable of understanding you.
pdbuttons
is missing
Yes. Not only did we cheapen the value of college degrees but introduced an artifical stratafication in society; because although we had previously had economic strata, now there is an entire level of people feeling an air of superiority over blue coller working folks, because they know more.
It also misdirected a lot of people into a thankless existence of cubicle life who might have done well othrwise practicing a trade.
Education is a wonderful thing for those with the desire to pursue it seriously, but awarding degrees to folks that mark time and pass some tests is like a grand bait-and switch thing.
And I’m not even going to get started about the dumbing down of the system so that academically unqualified, but preferred victimhood group members, can feel good about themselves.
Get out of my head, Bob!!!!! I sit in a cubicle all day long, now, but what I would MUCH, MUCH rather be doing is fabricating metal and/or making blades and other assorted metal things for paying customers.
I sometimes daydream of stealing this guy’s life, OI.
And, yeah, Yelverton and Caric are perfect examples of demonstrably deficient to mediocre minds struggling mightily to feel superior by employing attitudes and fashionable habits rather than works and ideas.
Norm’s a master, to be sure, bh. He makes it look so easy. Of course editing is always the friend of the televised, but his stuff is impressive. Well, g’night all.
Ten or so years ago I read about the experience of leaving a white-collar job for a blue job. The writer described it as entering the working world where “competence mattered more than credentials”. I think we’re seeing a version of this in the Tea Party movement unhappiness with much of government by the best and the brightest.
OI, look and envy. The guy is also a published SF author (good one, too, with strong libertarian slant)
Regards,
Ric
I sometimes daydream of stealing this guy’s life
You’re not alone. And I actually think that’s something being missed, here. The demographic we’re talking about actually almost glamorizes people who take to these sorts of professions. So long as they cater to the aesthetics of the tribe.
Yelverton and caric-ature, as JG noted, are the fucking poster children for this mentality.
Abe – I think they are viewed as more of a novelty. Maybe the bisexual ones from HGTV could get invited to the right parties, but that will end when their tv show does.
Government workers “are a lot of cool cats” who work hard, listen to good music and watch Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” “but that’s all after they’ve spent a whole day keeping the country running,” he said.
oh jesus keerist on a pony [slams head against desk a few times]
Many government workers DO work hard. But too many others, more than in the private sector, are terrible. The only reason they don’t get booted is because almost need to murder someone on the job in full view of a camera before someone can fire you.
Instead of supervising just one location, I now supervise 3, triple the personnel … (no raise for me btw … haven’t had one in 3 years) and while I try and work on my projects I spend an inordinate amount of time minding people who have a tendency to treat work like fucking junior high!
I know a good third of government workers would never survive in the private sector more than a couple of weeks.
sdferr,
Menon? From Plato? Unless I’m too distracted by Monday night football, or too brain dead, to remember correctly; and my lovely wife’s vociferous glee at her beloved J-eye-ntz success.
I regularly tell her to seek an act of contrition at confession for loving the Giants more than God :)
“Menon? From Plato?”
The same Bob. Their model, were we not told different.
happyfeet,
pdbuttons has been living on the doggerel poetry thread from October 11th since, well, October 11th.
I think it’s more than that. The thing is, though, a guy who builds decks is an ape, but inject some prattle about sustainable building or feng shui and you can show your face at a party. If I’m gonna give these people I’m surrounded by credit for anything – it would be an admiration for craftsmanship.
“Government workers “are a lot of cool cats” who work hard, listen to good music and watch Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” “but that’s all after they’ve spent a whole day keeping the country running,” ”
Daddy, I want to be a bureaucrat when I grow up. They’re cool
We don’t want your admiration of our craftsmanship though Abe (we get that from ourselves when we’ve done something worthy enough), just show us the cash.
I was speaking from their perspective, not mine, sdferr.
“If I’m gonna give these people I’m surrounded by credit for anything – it would be an admiration for craftsmanship.”
That was them and not you? My mistake.
Ah I see, you mean the “credentialed elitists” model. I’ll have to look up which dialogue he’s in, and reacquaint myself.
The beauty of paying for ones own education by working your way through college is that you always take a full load; to get your money’s worth! All of my college buds back in the day wondered why I took so many philosophy and history courses that weren’t required.
He gets one named for himself, so worthy is he!
I’m a very sharp dresser — in that jeans-and-a-t-shirt/sweater-with-hip-boots-kinda way.
So I got that going for me.
No, the part about calling a guy who builds decks an ape, sdferr.
That’s part of the polish and sophistication that comes with higher education JeffG.
I get to drive a dozer and a grader on our next job.
Who is Thirstytitties?
But this is Charles Murray, so you have to denounce yourself as being a racist before you can quote him.
Unless you are Andrew Sullivan.
No worries there, [ ;-) ] since I built a hellofalotta decks and I am for damned sure an ape.
Another thing good about the blue collar experience is the ability to work on things. During the years when I was stationed in DC, with occasional TDY travel, I was able to buy some crappy houses and trade up on the sweat equity myself and my brothers would put into them.
Essentially “flipping” before it was in vogue. That’s when it was really profitable…
People should have scars. And power tools.
Amen, Bob.
That sounds pretty cool JD. I never got to operate any large construction machines! Just bobcats…
“I’m a very sharp dresser — in that jeans-and-a-t-shirt/sweater-with-hip-boots-kinda way.”
Hip boots? Let’s see the sweater…
His doctoral dissertation was titled “Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence.” *
Oops- hip boots
Not as cool as a fighter jet, LtC Bob.
“People should have scars. And power tools.”
Scars from their hand tools. From the power tools, not so much.
That’s more like a destruction machine JD :)
“Scars from their hand tools. From the power tools, not so much.”
More like missing digits, eh?
In addition to potential chunks of leg, forearm and so on. I shudders just to imagine it.
OK gang, I gotta call it a night. The wife has an early appointment and needs a chauffer for the ride home afterward, so, that’s me.
No cool cap and a suit though. No limo either, come to think of it!
I have scars from both, which speaks to my spectacular lack of skill. Yet I keep trying.
Shouldn’t leave out the part about the probable onset of deafness though. Eye and ear protection, while often forgone back in the day, are worthy measures I’m thinking now.
“Never before have so many demonstrably stupid people assumed the role of the self-styled cultural elites on the basis of so little merit.”
-Jeff
” Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”
-Winston
Compare and contrast.
I think that a new season of Justified and Burn Notice is long overdue. Sons of Anarchy and visions of Jennifer Lothrop will have to do in the interim.
…and use the phrase “Credentialed, not educated,”
Burn Notice is the best show on television, bar none.
I love wandering Home Depot and Lowes and my fav HGTV show is Holmes on Homes.
I only have a few power tools myself and stuck mostly to craft type stuff.
What I can do is several needlecraft things – crochet, knit, embroider, counted-cross stich and I’m a very competent seamstress. I actually learned to sew on a peddle machine my mom still has at home.
Youngest daughter caught the sewing bug from me and earned a little extra money in the dorms by altering clothes, and doing some of her own designs.
So many people have no clue how to even thread a needle. I just chalk this up to some more survival skills on my part for any underground economy. :-)
These elites do not dominate everything, but they definitely are in power in academia and government agencies. Obviously not everyone who goes to Yale or Harvard is a dick, yet when even Scalia (who I admire) says he has an Ivy League bias:
Well, when those alumni control the levers of hiring at key positions, then a bias forms that makes it hard for others to get into those spots without going to the same schools.
Dallas’ pain is almost over.
no i’m not, i just don’t feel
like embarrasing [yoink1 myself tonight
what a great site! every comment has been
wonderful and makes me think
so thank you pw people
pd, you are the poet laureate of pw
Second or third best, frito bandito, but still excellent. Justified is without equal.
Monica Bellucci is also without equal.
Well, when those alumni control the levers of hiring at key positions, then a bias forms that makes it hard for others to get into those spots without going to the same schools.
I went with some of my co-workers to a talk given by a bunch of Saturday Night Live writers some years ago and it made me realize that a big part of why the show sucks is the number of ass clowns from the Harvard Lampoon who get hired there.
awww-pshaw-ur making me blush!
thank you
You deserve it pd.
And Abe, I hear you. Although occasional SNL can be good. I tried to post the link but it won’t take tonight. But search Broadway Gumby Rose.
I give the Cowboys credit for fighting to the end. I am sorry about Romo.
wait ’til i learn how
to link shit
that’s when the madness will truly begin
The culture existed before the internet. It was carried on by letters, telephone, workshops, conferences. The internet simply allowed an expansion, especially since early on it was most easily accessed by having University connections, in both senses.
The “33rd degree” ones were there before and are still. The expansion has added some to their number but has brought about many, many more of lesser degree. Posers, plastic hippies aping the words and mannerisms to be part of that elusive exclusive in-crowd. The internet also gave an opening for hubris to play its tune, and it will bring nemesis to the show as well.
Popcorn anyone?
Christopher Caldwell in the NYT, The State of Conservatism:
88.Comment by JD on 10/25 @ 9:34 pm #
People should have scars. And power tools.
A sign of proficiency is how little scar tissue you have. I’ve been doing this(fabrication) for nearly thirty years and still have all my digits in nearly original condition.
Oh, my. PFT’s Week Seven Power Rankings are out. Good news! Titans at No. 4.
The bad news is at the bottom of the list.
#61
You got any pictures of your work? Blades, I mean.
“but I’m definately on board with referring to educated incompetents as “credentialed” instead of elite.”
I wouldn’t even use “credentialed”, I would use “papered”. Credentials are earned, sometimes. A Professional Engineer has to take an exam, for example…
I have a whole bucket of degrees, certifications, licenses, commissions, etc… they don’t make me anything other than ‘allowed’ to work at my desk, hold my rank in the Army and such. “Elite” comes from performance – and trust me, I’ve seen elite. I’ve seen amazing trial lawyers, soldiers, mechanics and doctors that would all be considered the”elite” in a more accurate world.
If I were given my druthers, I’d be a farmer… maybe I could use the college diplomas for composting material?
Unfortunately I haven’t started, yet, Mueller. I’m still setting up shop. But that is what I’m talking about. You wanted to see something that I created. If you ask me that is really cool. So far the only things that I’ve created, not including my gorgeous girls :), are two solid fuel forges. One is a sideblast adobe in the Tim Lively style (think elongated wash tub) and the other is brake drum forge with an angle iron fabricated body. Both work great, however, I haven’t had a chance to put any steel in them, yet. I’m dying to.
Thanks Ric, for the site. Some good stuff. I’ve been lurking around some bladesmithing sites for the past year and, as to be expected, bladesmiths do definitely have a libertarian bent to them. Maybe, that’s part of what I find so interesting and comforting about the art.
I liked “La Femme Nikita” subtitles and all and own a copy of “Das Boot.”
Does that mean I’ve started down the road of elitedom?
If I was a lazy hack troller, I’d say the poll shows that there are more Democrats who think it would be better if Republicans won than there are Republicans who think Dems should keep control. And also that there are fewer Democrats who think their party should keep control than there are Republicans who think that they should win control. That speaks to intensity, as in the Dems don’t have any.
ah shit, wrong tab. sorry.
Mueller,
I’ve loads of scars from my years of fabricating/welding. Sort of hard to avoid when one is working with sharp metal edges and really hot welding sparks.
No Blake. You have to like French “New Wave” cinema in which nothing happens, because the what doesn’t happen is all that really matters.
if u haven’t seen a 12 hour andy warhol film
ur just a piker
I spent more than a hundred grand at a top 25 university and am now working on getting a job in firefighting.
Got sick of my job in finance because what I did doesn’t matter to anyone except the IRS and a few people who don’t understand what I do but pay me for it anyway.
If I’d known how much of firefighting involved breaking shit, I’d have been doing it years ago.
“Downfall” was awesome. As was “The Lives of Others.”
And, I will admit to having enjoyed an unhealthy amount of French Films. It’s my cross to bear. My secret shame.
But I’ve seen a fair share of stinkers.
You have to like French “New Wave” cinema in which nothing happens, because the what doesn’t happen is all that really matters.
You also have to throw around the phrase “mise en scene” a lot
frenchies make good films-that’s one of
the things they do-and make good food
and allow dogs in restaurants
and australians make quirky comedies
i wish i could have half the hours i’ve spent watching
hollywood dreck back
Preach it, buttons, preach it…
I prefer the montage to the mise en scene myself.
The trick to it is pretending Bertrand Blier is just another frog.
oh, and they aren’t just a couple of guys worn out by their wives. One’s a pimp, the other a gynecologist.
Well, let’s get down to the brass tacks of French Films. Godard or Truffaut?
frenchies make good films
I like Amelie and A Very Long Engagement, but that’s probably because I’m infatuated with Audrey Tatou.
Zhang Yimou! (French, Chinese, what’s the difference?)
Luc Besson.
if u have one of them
channels on ur cable-ifc-sundance
or even if turner classic has ‘theme’ night[ japanese films]
u can catch some pretty good stuff
i stopped going to movie theaters cuz it was too LOUD
and i had to got to the mens room and get toilet paper
and squash them up and stick it in
my ears and frankly i have some dignity left
though i did see avatar and toy story three
netflix is cool too
their ain’t nothing, nothing
that can compare with American films..
USA,USA,USA,USA
John Ford and Howard Hawks baby!
i’ll see ur ford and hawks
and raise u a cukor and capra
the brits wanna chime in
and join the betting with a hitchcock and a kubrick
but fuck-em
we saved their asses in ww2
aside
if u liked a very long engagement u’d like
manon of the spring
another aside- i worked with a french canadien
who looked just like the french actor
daneil autiel
i totally got a kick out of it
he had a french accent and was a nice guy
but i like everybody
[…] government and tax cutting and a pull-back on federal spending — are not only jaw-droppingly stupid, but they are terribly hateful, as well. Sowell’s decision to harken to the 20s and 30s for […]
Cukor never directed a Western. Capra neither.
Ahhh, you are a man of great taste, Ernst. You might enjoy Hors de prix/Priceless as well.
Just don’t try to talk me into The Da Vinci Code bh
Heh.
true dat-i have a ‘western’ channel
on my cable and it’s good- i love it
but i could wath
the good,the bad,and the ugly
forever!
when eli wallach shoots the guy from the tub and says
‘ur gonna talk,talk, ur gonna shoot shoot’
or when he gets out of the tub
and sees blondie, and blondie says angel eyes is downstairs
and eli says [paraphrasing] “i’ll go kill him”
and blondie says “he”s with 5 others”
and eli pauses….and says”well i’ll go down and kill them all”
i love that!
Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo, another foreign film worth seeing.
thanks mr shrieber/ i’ll put it on my ntflix list
u should see
manon of the spring if u liked
a very long engagement
Peter Wood, studying Stanley Kurtz’s scholarship:
You’ve already seen it buttons.
Il Buono = Joe “blondie” Monco
Il Brutto = Tucco Ramirez
Il Cattivo = Angel Eyes
Not when you consider that these people didn’t want to know the answers. There are no so blind as those who can’t handle the truth they won’t let others see.
Pleas pardon my hasting post there: I meant but failed to include a link to Kurtz’s own post at NRO where I found the link to Wood’s piece.
“none so blind” curse my fat fumble fingers
well aren’t u a clever one!
thanks for saving me the rental fee
but what the hell
i should just buy it
i like the scene where the oncoming cavalry
comes upon them and eli waves all glad
and shit thinking they’re on the same side
uniform wise
and the cavalry rides up and dusts their uniforms off and they’re union/ and eli’s confederate
i just love that scene!
i gotta buy that movie!
i like high noon.stagecoach,shane..
i could watch them films over and over
the man from snowy river was good also
i think i’m gonna go see secretariat
searchers
outlaw josey wales
where he spits on the dog
westerns are a genre
i like film noir
and 30’s 40’s slapstick romantic comedies too
like philadelphia story, bringing up baby
shop around the corner [ which is you’ve got e-mail]
shit like that
i guess i just like movies
and hanging out at protien wisdom
i’m lucky
going doggerel
good morning Mr. buttons you are up and at em bright and early
The Searchers is the greatest western ever made, and quite probably the greatest American movie, period, quintessential Americana.
good morning happyfeet
i would hold u in high esteem
if i didn’t have a teddy bear [ MR BIM}
in my hands
and i wouldn’t want to drop u and
have ur precious brains spill on the ground because,
frankly
zombies!
zombies eat brains from sidewalks
natalie wood was in the searchers
and i love natalie wood
she’s good
that wood
#128
I apprenticed as a tool and die maker. We do stuff slow and steady. Most of my fabrication is bench work with a TIG torch. I rarely get a chance to throw big iron around and that’s the way I want to keep it;-)
I just finished a recumbent bike frame in 4130 tubing. That stuff don’t like to cold bend.
what do
you do about a problem named maria?
I liked “La Femme Nikita” subtitles and all and own a copy of “Das Boot.”
Does that mean I’ve started down the road of elitedom?
They’re great films. You’ll know you’ve started down the road of elitedom when you watch bad or insufferably pretentious foreign films and lie about liking them.
how do u solve a problem
like maria
sorry/ my brain ain’t working
Robert Wagner and
Christopher Walken
thought that Wood
was good
for “wood”
and only later
fount out that
Wood
unlike wood,
wouldn’t float.
how about pretentious American films?
or independent films where the plot is
i’m a geeky fag filmmaker and i’m trying to get my girlfriend back
or
i’m a geeky pussy boy filmaker and this
is a film about me being a pussy boy twat filmaker
and all the troubles [oh! the trouble i’ve seen!}
i’ve had making this film
when u order popcorn u should ask for an xtra
bucket-empty
so you can puke in it
i like chrissy walken
but, really- who doesn’t?
radical islamists?
Christopher Walken is an american icon
like
hank williams sr.
john wayne
bob dylan
bettie davis
robert deniro
bugs bunny
mickey the fucking mouse
want me to go on?
USA-USA-USA!
“insufferably pretentious”…were we talking film or “President Obama?”
@172…almost all of my welding was MIG. I started out doing light stuff (tubing, sheet metal).
Toward the end of my welding career I was welding structural steel using MIG. That dual shield wire runs HOT. The small stuff I welded was 500+ lbs. The larger stuff weighed tons. Way hot, way dirty and way cool.
I always envied the TIG guys. Running a TIG torch is an art form all to itself. I’ve done some mild steel stuff with TIG. I was never that good with TIG, though.
I’m pretty much won over by any movie which contains dialog like: “He needed killin'”.
The greatest western of all time is Seven Samurai
You forgot the classic after battle line “We’ll call it a draw.”
Kurosawa was a Ford fan, you know.
The greatest western of all time is Seven Samurai
The original western is probably Burnt-Njal’s Saga.
Six-String Samurai
tarintino quentin is pretty good
some of his shit
scorcese
coppalla [cuz of the godfather 1 and 2]
and spielberg
though i find him maudlin sometimes
i like stanley kubrick of course
it’s halloween and ‘the shining’
should be on tv somewhere sometime
notice when u watch it how everything is framed
perfect! it’s all square
the rugs/the overlook hotel
the bathroom scene where the waiter brushes off
nichollson
everythings square/ framed!
come play with us danny
forever and ever and ever
[brought to u by pdmovie critic]
I knew Kurosawa was a Ford fan (and Eastwood is a Kurosawa fan). I did not know about the Story of Burned Njal. Very interesting. Thank you Ernst.
kubrick made
paths of glory
dr strangelove
2001 a space oddity
the shining
barry lyndon [long-but xcellent cinemaphotography-or however u spell that word]
quite an impressive list
lee marvin plays a good villian
[brought to u by pd movie-hiccup cupcake
movie guy]
is burnt njal a movie
i just googled it and it’s a great story/
i just hope a young hunky max von sydow stars in it
and of course
bjork is from iceland so i like anything iceland
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned the Coen brothers or Jim Jarmusch.
I did not know about the Story of Burned Njal.
Think of it as a range war.
I have the earlier Magnusson translation.
lee marvin plays a good villian
Faint praise. That’s like saying Sophia Lauren has a great rack.
i like the number 4 doctor who
the one who looks like bob dylan
and has a big scarf and is a
total wise-ass
and the cheesy back-drops but
it’s all about the plot
and them plots be good
[brought to u by-awww u know] my name]
Coehn brothers:
I love Miller’s Crossing and refuse to see Fargo out of a misdirected sense of state pride.
millers crossings dialogue was great
amen bmoe
and the cinematography
amen again
whats the rumpus?
The fourth Doctor would be Tom Baker, would it not?
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned the Coen brothers or Jim Jarmusch.
Elitist!
Dead man is one of my favorite Westerns, though obviously a very twisted take on one.
i just rented the coen brothers
burn after reading
it was good!
john malkovich was excellent in it
and it was just a good movie
[brought to u by pd buckethead]
What about Jarmusch?
Permanant Vacation
Stranger in Paradise
Down by Law
Night on Earth
Mystery Train
If you haven’t seen those, you are in for a treat.
I love Miller’s Crossing and refuse to see Fargo out of a misdirected sense of state pride.
Try being from New Jersey for a minute.
Not Ghost Dog, BMoe?
yes/ tom baker
who married in real life romana two [lalla ward]
and then they had a messy divorce
romana one [mary tamm]- was in the
odessa file and got killed in
the parking garage scene
and i am not a geek
i’m manly and have a good cut of jib
i find jarmush too navel gazy-precious
i’ve seen some of them films but
eh
to each his own
not a put down-just an opinion
i liked night on earth
that was the cab driver movie/right
that was pretty good
Haven’t seen Ghost Dog, good one?
No problem, pd, Jarmusch was the one that got me to give independent films a closer look, I thought his stuff was more real and down to earth than any of that Hollywood dreck. I honestly haven’t watched many movies at all lately, more into reading.
Ahh… Lalla Ward. God she was great to look at.
Sheriff Marge was one of the greatest movie heroines ever!
How could you not be proud of Marge?
How could you not be proud of Marge?
The fucking Lawrence Welk accent B Moe. As if you didn’t know!
well upon my
respect for u i will
have to go back and look at
jarmush
i really don’t want to see
any movie with tom waits [down by law?]
in it
and was ghost dog the one
with forrest whittaker [eh]
again/ just my opinion but i will
check out permanent vacation
i’m more of an ‘oldies’ guy
i guess
wine gets finer the as time goes by
who’s sheriff marge?- i really don’t know
“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” on ukulele…
I am from southern appalachia Ernst, I really don’t want to hear about movie accents.
I liked Ghost Dog a lot. It’s more polished than his previous work, but the same sensibility. Dead Man is really good too, if you haven’t seen it.
Marge is the Frances McDormand character in Fargo, the pregnant lady Sheriff who nabs the bad guys.
I will give it a look, I like Forest Whitaker a lot.
oh yeah? i liked when william macy tried to chip
the ice off his windshield
ha ha
sheriff marge
got it
oh yeah
I am from southern appalachia Ernst, I really don’t want to hear about movie accents.
Then there’s probably a funny video to be made if somebody got you, me and Abe all drinking at the same table and started recording.
this is why this is
the best website
a ukelele version of the good,the bad and the ugly
get out!
get out of town
stranger
tanks sdn-i’m still laughing
Yah, you betcha!
was coal miners daughter from apple lay cha?
where is butchers hollow?
bolagna makes me horny
We add ‘feets or Ric or another Texican to the mix, and there’s probably a pop-soda-coke routine worthy of Abbott & Costello.
Love the Coen Brothers. Blood Simple, Millers Crossing, Raising Arizona, and on and on. Loved No Country for Old Men, but I don’t think of it as a western. It’s more a crime thriller, to me anyway.
Hated, Hated, HATED, Dead Man. But I was deep into a bottle of Sapphire when I watched it, and time and logic ceased to exist. Gin will do that to you. I’ll have to give it another, more sober, look some day. The movie, not the Sapphire
Open Range is a good western, wherein Costner redeems himself for Dances With Wolves.
Open Range is the best western since Unforgiven. I liked Wyatt Earp too, but Tombstone is the better movie.
Tom Selleck did a number of good westerns for Ted Turner before he went back to playing cops.
I don’t have an accent of any kind, Ernst. Even weirder is that my mother, who grew up on the same street as the Coen brothers, doesn’t either. The accents in Fargo had her in stitches though. No Minnesota pride at all I guess.
I got the idea from the New Jersey comment that you might sound like Bugs Bunny, Abe.
i got one of them
park the car in harvard yard
boston accents which served me well when i moved to Texas
because if u’ve even talked/flirted with a Texas girl
who giggled at your every sentence/utterance
i think angels smile at me sometimes
You are one horny bastard pd
My next door neighbor growing up, a retired widower, sounded exactly like Bugs Bunny. But mainly what people think of as a New Jersey accent these days is really a metro NYC Italian retard dialect. Like leaving the last vowel silent on Italian foods and other assaults on language.
is horny a good thing?
ever talk to a yellow rose of Texas..
I am a gentleman who
resembles that remark
#181
Nah. If you can oxy/acet. you can tig.
I’m getting too old for it though. My eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be.
I find I’m spending more time with Autocad and CAM programs than hands on anymore.
funny that:
Well, that’s certainly reassuring.
Gives new meaning to card check, does it not?
Is there a rule that beautiful actresses must be political morons?
While I certainly hope not, I’m not sure how it would change their appearance while comfortably reclined and disrobed.
Are ball gags involved?
Are you referring to the fetching Olivia Wilde, sdferr?
aye, so saddening ta see JD.
I shall tell you an anecdote, sdferr.
One day, I was getting off the train at the Belmont stop and a woman asked me if I knew the location of a theater she had circled in the Chicago Reader. I decided that this meant something other than a request for directions.
She had a bit of time before her audition so I we had dinner. While talking I learned that she was from an even smaller town than myself and that she wanted to try on a few different provocative opinions that she had also probably just circled in the Chicago Reader. I played along.
I learned that girls who have down home morning accents that don’t match their train accents are wearing these things just as I was wearing a suit and carrying the Financial Times. Which I read only because it was a different color and could be recognized easily as a successful man’s paper to women from small towns. I didn’t circle anything but I might have if it had local news or apartment listings.
Fin.
Full on barking moon bat.
I’d fix some of my errors above but my brain lesion prevents me.
It’s possible Olivia has reasonable — though hidden — knowledge of political matters which would place her athwart the show she puts on for her homies [I can suppose]. Perhaps I should use that supposition to clothe Olivia’s (feigned) opinions as your train acquaintance used her accent? On the other hand, why shouldn’t Olivia work at her political opinions even only a little harder and bring forth something both beautiful and useful on that score? Is it too much to ask?
Her father is Alexander Cockburn’s brother. So, yuck. Plus, she’s an Andover grad. So, double yuck.
Let’s hope she was just whoring herself out for her looks, and doing it for the filthy lucre.
I don’t know. I mainly just used this as a chance to remember the time I was banging a struggling actress.
Relevant lessons were learned, I suppose, but it seemed to distill down to “she was fake, I was fake”.
Wait, there is a lesson here. That is: Cockburn is an insane name and everyone should laugh out loud every single time they hear it.
jarmush did this this one
love that one
That’s my favorite.
I really want to see Winter’s Bone.
Might have to break down and blu-ray it tomorrow.
Wait. Looks like it’s on DirecTV cinema.
Bitchin’
It’s good, Jeff. Takes a little while to develop but yeah.
Is is Sons of Anarchy or Justified good? Jennifer Lothrop good?
Different sorta good.
Third generation, commie moonbat, but she is hot though,