Harold Ramis passed today. Included in his epic body of a work as a writer, director, producer and actor is "Animal House," which in my view is the funniest movie ever made ("Trading Places" may share that spot for me).
"Animal House" ignited the re-birth and proliferation of frat house participation and culture on college campuses across the country, which had started to die out during the "counter-culture/social revolution" movement that swept the nation starting in the mid-1960's.
The 1970's are an important period of time for me not only because that was the period of my teen years, but also because - upon reflecting back - it was probably the last window of opportunity for the citizens and progressive politicians (Gary Hart and Tim Wirth, for instance) to save our system.
After the revelations of Watergate, there was a chance to burn the system down and rebuild it from the ground up and make the adjustments to the legal structure required to prevent the build-up of the systemic rot and decay which had accumulated over the previous 200 years.
But instead, Nixon was pardoned and the elites seized and began to implement the extreme power and control that accompanied the possession of the world's reserve currency in pure fiat form. This enabled the business and political elites to hasten the erosion of The Bill of Rights and obliterate the check and balance system of power separation that was fundamental to our democracy.
Notwithstanding the appalling failures of every post-Nixon President leading up to the present, currently we are stuck with a man who promised hope and change - to do his best to restore Rule of Law. Instead, we have a President who has dedicated his first six years to advancing the despotic powers that have accumulated into the Executive Branch of Government and has shepherded our county further down the path of systemic destruction and totalitarianism.
"Animal House" is symbolic of both the rebellious spirit that had proliferated American culture during the 1970's but also of this country's transition into a system of pathological social order and behavioral control.
Gone forever is the "question authority" spirit upon which this country was founded.
R.I.P. Harold Ramis and R.I.P. USA:
Monday, February 24, 2014
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Dave-- Thank you for that
ReplyDeleteThis article is BS! The funniest two movies were Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Tommy Boy.
ReplyDelete;)
LOL
DeleteMoe Green on the early SCTV episodes. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteYou left out the most telling Animal House connection metaphor to our present situation-- Kevin Bacon lost most of his life savings to Madoff, around $50 million if u believe the number.
ReplyDeleteu can find clips of interviews all over the place with him talking about it.
He's 56 or so (JULY/58), so that is out of primetime even for a male actor, i doubt he can make it up.
Sorry to disagree but dumb and dumber tops all of that!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSXbgfKFWg
Sorry everyone, but the funniest move ever made was the 1963 classic "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" followed closely by "Blazing Saddles" in 1974; a film only the inimitable Mel Brooks could get away with making.
ReplyDeleteCarl from Kalispell, MT
Harlem Nights and Don't Mess With the Zohan. The rest are all contending for 3rd place.
ReplyDeleteVery sad indeed. "Stripes" will always be my enduring memory of him, over Ghostbusters.
ReplyDeleteThe two best things about growing up north of Detroit were Canadian TV and The funk station WJLB. Hockey, SCTV and commercial free funk.
ReplyDeleteDave, you are the best journalist/artist/human in the blogisphere.
This is my salute to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfAMj5dZrMc
lol - you're too kind shakealeg. i'm definitely not worthy of that Bobby Weir performance! Love that tune!
DeleteDave I came across something about the fed on mining.com about a vacancy for a fit individual to lift gold bars????
ReplyDeleteOur founding fathers will never let this country "rest in peace".
ReplyDeleteI Was Right All Along: Conspiracy Practices, NOT Theories
ReplyDeleteThe latest Snowden-Greenwald revelation shows that I was right all along about my so-called psy-ops “conspiracy theory” paranoia. Here is Greenwald’s article, and it is a huge story.
A confidential slide presentation reveals a whole range of sleazy, paid-troll manipulations of online activity, blogs and comment sections. On one of the slide there is a program to become an accredited troll. To me, it was obvious this was going on, and I think it got its stride during Occupy Wall Street. It appears part and partial to the whole scene of dumbed-down, absurdity trolling that is evident on the Internet nowadays [see "Psy-Ops and Trolls in the Mining Space"]. This is also heavily used in Parasite Guild market manipulations. It is getting so prevalent that I will no longer ignore the canned propaganda term “conspiracy theory.” These are conspiracy practices, not theories.
http://winteractionables.com/?p=9578
If You Think You're Anonymous Online, Think Again
ReplyDeleteAngwin's book is called Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance. She considers dragnets — which she describes as "indiscriminate" and "vast in scope" — the "most unfair type of surveillance."
We've learned from [Edward] Snowden, for instance, that the NSA is getting data from Google and Facebook and Yahoo and all the big companies that are out there, and in fact, even from things that I wouldn't have thought were worth our time — like information that flows between an app you're playing like Angry Birds and an advertiser that might be trying to advertise within that app. And so we have seen that these commercial databases have so much data and [are] so granular and so enticing to the government that they come in either way.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/02/24/282061990/if-you-think-youre-anonymous-online-think-again
William Engdahl Exposes the Western Agenda in Ukraine
ReplyDeletePosted by Corbett
In this wide-ranging interview, author and geopolitical analyst William Engdahl of WilliamEngdahl.com breaks down the history and context of the geopolitical machinations in Ukraine. We talk about the US/NATO encirclement of Russia and the evidence of western intervention in the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. We also discuss the breakdown of the Saudi-US relationship and the destabilization of the Middle East, as well as China’s increasing geopolitical influence around the globe.
http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-830-william-engdahl-exposes-the-western-agenda-in-ukraine/