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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2007 : 16:51:16 [Permalink]
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And I recall, when I was in high school and the Air Florida Flight 90 crash occured in D.C. If I remember correctly (and Wikipedia isn't any help on this), Howard Stern wasn't reprimanded for exceedingly poor taste when he called Air Florida the next day and asked them how much a ticket from National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge cost, he was reprimanded because cold-calling a business while on the air was prohibited by his radio station's rules. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail) Evidently, I rock! Why not question something for a change? Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2007 : 16:54:24 [Permalink]
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I just re-watched "The Great Dictator" which is the Charlie Chaplin satire criticizing Hitler and the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The film is classic Chaplin, meaning true slapstick. There is a whole extended scene of Chaplin dressed like a mock Hitler playing with a huge baloon-globe of the world. This film came out while WWII was going on and the USA hadn't joined yet. From Wikipedia's article on the film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator: The Great Dictator is a film directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin. First released in October, 1940, it bitterly satirizes Nazism and Adolf Hitler, culminating in an overt political plea to defy fascism.
The film is exceptional in its period, in the days prior to American entry into World War II, as the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany. Well before the full extent of the horrors of Nazism had been uncovered, Chaplin's film advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, and the Nazis, the latter of whom he excoriates in the film as "machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts".
The film was Chaplin's first "talkie", and his most commercially successful film. |
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2007 : 20:12:16 [Permalink]
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Speaking of "too soon," a coworker of mine decided today that the fires in southern California are actually an attempt to revitalize the housing market by decreasing supply (and so increasing prices). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail) Evidently, I rock! Why not question something for a change? Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2007 : 22:10:55 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Speaking of "too soon," a coworker of mine decided today that the fires in southern California are actually an attempt to revitalize the housing market by decreasing supply (and so increasing prices).
| My take on this is as follows: It's not a "too soon" issue at all. If the guy's notion were true, a lot of people would want to know about it right now, in order to track down the real estate speculators behind it. Such a plot wouldn't "revitalize" so much as murderously exploit people, though.
It might even be true. (I recall one deadly wildfire in Northern California a few decades ago that was started by a single fireman who simply wanted overtime pay.) There has been a tremendous bubble-burst in recent months in California real estate. There are doubtless some unscrupulous speculators who are desperate enough to try something like that, if they felt they could position themselves to take advantage of it, and not get caught.
A desperate and/or greedy developer or speculator is not out of the question. Evidence (either sooner or later) would be the key. Right now more than a dozen fires are raging out of control throughout Southern California. It seems unlikely that so many were started at about the same time by one person or group.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/22/2007 22:13:22 |
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