91Èȱ¬

Thanks Robin - as you said last night, good luck..!

Excellent, and welcome to a new world of blissful freedom. I have bookmarked your blog. Mine, by the way, is . All the best. Marcus

I was thinking how much I would miss you, and then I saw your options:
I have emailed you with "newsletter" in the subject line.
Wherever you go, whatever you get into, best of luck and my best wishes for personal satisfaction and success.

Only two words to add--

Who, What, When, Where, Why --am I ?

Do the contributions on the new blog appear only when you are awake ?

Oh, no! Not another great broadcaster sailing off after the shipping forecast. Shall miss greatly your wisdom, warmth and dry humour, Mr Lustigious. All good wishes for your new broadcasting voyages and will listen out keenly for your reports.

I'll miss this blog. Not least because it was one of the few remaining that allowed a proper discussion to evolve in more than 140 characters.

Doubtless what is left will be deemed easier, faster, cheaper and better.

And any taking issue can always be referred.

#6 Junkkmale you'll still be able to post comments on my personal blog at the link above. I look forward to seeing you there.

But I imagine after going through all that, Mr. Lustig, you have emerged with your left-wing tunnel vision and prejudice intact, though perhaps less intent on inflicting it on others.

I imagine you are still speculating on whether Obama will "get tough" with Israel while never even thinking of posing the same question regarding the Palestinians.

JunkkMale: I'll miss this blog. Not least because it was one of the few remaining that allowed a proper discussion to evolve in more than 140 characters.

But not much more. How can anyone possibly develop a discussion in the few lines that are allowed here? The Twitterising and Facebookishness the 91Èȱ¬ has so keenly adopted speaks volumes about its aversion to open, uncensored debate.

Being a long time listener of 91Èȱ¬ online I had to say from US that you'll be missed. Mr. Robin, all the best from here on.

'7. At 19:10 17th Dec 2012, Robin Lustig wrote:
#6 Junkkmale you'll still be able to post comments on my personal blog at the link above. I look forward to seeing you there.'

Well, I may on occasion have taken issue here, but the courtesy of a reply and such a kind invitation is too seductive to resist to part now. Au revoir over adieu it is then.

FWIW, I think you may have caught the last helicopter just in time, as I see what the 91Èȱ¬'s Premier News Magazine has decided is all the news we need (TT... they are not doing well for reaction, even via their twitter & FB boltholes, so there are pockets of hope still)...

/news/uk-20765046

I will miss your voice, especially in those moments when you asked the question the powerful man or woman didn't want to answer-- and then, you asked it again. With that marvelous inflection that said, you don't actually expect us to believe that, do you? Thank you.

#8 and #9 TrueToo

91Èȱ¬ News comes to Burma
06:50am on 18 Dec 2012
Mr. Horrocks, with all the 91Èȱ¬'s propagandist highlighting of facts it likes and minimising or ignoring facts it doesn't like, all the grinding bias against Israelis, US Republicans, Tories, global-warming sceptics and anyone else that doesn't slot in with its leftie agenda, you still think you are impartial and responsible?

And you really believe you have something to teach anyone else?

--------------

--Seems to be a fixed daily pattern ?

JunkkMale: (TT... they are not doing well for reaction, even via their twitter & FB boltholes, so there are pockets of hope still)...

I wouldn't know since, I avoid Twitter and Facebook like the plague but I'll take your word for it.

It's good to know, since the 91Èȱ¬ needs to be shaken out of its complacent belief in its own magnificence.

Thank you for bringing the world closer ! I will miss your voice!

'It's good to know, since the 91Èȱ¬ needs to be shaken out of its complacent belief in its own magnificence.'

It might yet happen.



Top-rated comment:

‘Hang on a minute, if those ‘91Èȱ¬ execs’ knew about a criminal offence and made no attempt to report it to the police they are complicit in the crimes and should be prosecuted. End of story. Or are the 91Èȱ¬ immune from normal laws, like politicians??'

That is, of course, the DM, which can be easily dismissed for, well, not being the Guardian.

?

Lose it and, more critically, its readers, and there may be more than a slight tremor in the Force yet.

Just questions being asked; powers being held to account.

'It's good to know, since the 91Èȱ¬ needs to be shaken out of its complacent belief in its own magnificence.'

"But I imagine after going through all that, Mr. Lustig, you have emerged with your left-wing tunnel vision and prejudice intact"

"And you really believe you have something to teach anyone else?"

"QuietOakTree, I have no idea what you are talking about and no intention of clicking on your links if you can't be bothered to explain yourself."

-- It appears that more than one are ´casting the first stone´?

--or have we´The Magnificent Ambersons´?

17. At 17:22 19th Dec 2012, quietoaktree

"But I imagine after going through all that, Mr. Lustig, you have emerged with your left-wing tunnel vision and prejudice intact"

An apparent, if personal critique of certain leanings based on what is broadcast or published, clearly understood but disagreed with.

'"QuietOakTree, I have no idea what you are talking about and no intention of clicking on your links if you can't be bothered to explain yourself."

An apparent, if personal critique of certain abilities in clarity based on what is published, disagreed with as far as it goes but then declining the opportunity to try and sort out the author's work for them.

There's a difference.

'It appears that more than one are ´casting the first stone´?'

While others appear to be setting off flash-bangs in glass theatres to distract the audience from the 'performance'.

All the world's a stage...

#18 JunkkMale

--Thanks for the link.

-- The problem has always existed in the UK (and America). The author places the blame on the TV stations --I would place it on the Nationalism present, as the daily newspapers were much worse.

What surprises me is the author mentions it only now -- the ´Island of the Uninformed´ was present long before his birth.

(Original description was used in DDR to describe the area around Dresden that could not receive West German TV --´Valley of the Uninformed´)

'19. At 22:20 19th Dec 2012, quietoaktree wrote:
--Thanks for the link.'

Welcome. Here's another..

/news/uk-20789566

It's a Christmas present of humour to all who do not have hearts of stone.

It would seem that DGs... past present and future, do all seem sourced from the Valley of the Uninformed´. Lucky it does not affect market rate talent rates or, indeed, payoffs.

ps: The current Newsnight twitter feed and FB pages are rich seams too.

#20 JunkkMale

-- While the ´Saville case´ is a tragedy for the victims and the denials ´entertaining´, it is how the larger role of media in the UK has formed the society and its beliefs over many decades that interests me.

For the masses it was newspapers, film newsreels, radio and television. The internet was introduced when the ´axioms´for many citizens (most?) had already been decided and generally accepted. No society is immune from one-sided ´propaganda´or by the omission of opposite views. One begins with children ´waving flags´at kindergarten --and the rest is one-sided history.

A reporter or correspondent who has ´won their spurs´only in their own society and used (if any) foreign excursions to only praise that society upon return is in the wrong job.

America has the McCarthyism excuse, the UK class divisions (Colonialism etc) and (say) Greece its total dysfunction --all affect and often dominate how news is reported and commented both at home and from abroad in most National media.

There are of course possible exceptions --



"In Greece – a country that is dysfunctional, prone to escapism and the absurd – capitalism created the illusion that everyone had the right and the means to live as though they were rich. The result was that the lines between the financial strata into which every society is divided were erased. Working-class folk gave their children skills that would not prove helpful for their futures. The privileges of the wealthier classes became the birthright of every child with two working parents." etc.

-- Worth reading --especially for those discussing Europe and who know little about Greece.

-The 91Èȱ¬ also has its share of those who wish to ´bend the news and comments´--with some probably hoping for Feudal titles ´for services rendered´

-some others ask " who?, what?, when?, where? and why? -- much to the dissatisfaction of ´TrueToo´-- when he is presented both sides of an argument.

--Sorry, but I had to bring in a few thoughts --hope it does not confuse ?

I had to bring in a few thoughts

As is your right. The option of other to pay heed. But only in one, unique case is funding the process via compulsion, uniquely.

hope it does not confuse ?

What you share, no. What I just did above... it is hard to comprehend, yes.



From whom, by what means, when there is no accountability or means of imposing check or balance from outside the 91Èȱ¬ bubble, I remain unclear.

More changes needed
re: Newtown, CT USA symptoms of changes needed in the USA

Issue 1: Being a gun owner means being responsible for accessibility.
Being an irresponsible gun/s owner can =
Child endangerment
and/or
Community endangerment
Issue 2: Public schools and the teachers that work there are the front line work force documenting the children with developmental disabilities and being emotionally disturbed in order to try to get them the help they need for their success in their academics and personal lives. There is probably historical documentation on Adam Lanza while he was in K-12 that indicated he might be needing support, guidance, and assistance to accommodate to what we perceive as a normal life. These are normally referred to as "special education" students. Special ed is not just what was formerly referred to as mental retardation or brain damaged or some combination with physical disabilities. Every classroom teacher and all of a school's support staff can detect these students and encourage but not require that the parents choose to have their student variously tested. Many parents choose to not have testing done as they fear stigmatization for their child. That child goes unassisted. I see it every day. Often times the documentation is onerous before any help is even considered. It is a legal minefield.
Personally, I wouldn’t want the liability or weight on my conscience, the potential to devastate my family’s finances and good name if I didn’t take full responsibility to take all possible actions and obtain all possible assistance to insure the safety and security of that child, the rest of the family, and my community for the length of their life, in other words, not just until they reach the age of majority.

One child's problems, Adam Lanza, has become those of a de-sensitized, violent-type-play and entertainment nation as he may've sat at home without a job or friends for balance and perspective, in other words, reality checks.
Issue 3 Being responsible citizens
v.s.
Nanny government and loss of rights/privilieges/self-protection in any eventuality
Issue 4 Public Policy
Armed citizenry constitute the United States largest volunteer militia. These citizenry need to be adequately trained in the safety and security of their weapons within and without their domains.

Issue 5 Mental health coverage should include extended opportunities for supervised day care/in home caregivers,and/or assisted living facilities and/or drop in centers for medicine/s administration and guidance for identified citizens that should be part and parcel of Obama Care Health Insurance.

Just bailed from a twittersurf as it has appeared the NRA rather foolishly did not learn from 91Èȱ¬ market rate talents and kept its head down or held an inquiry until it was safe again to announce they had checked and it was still about right.

I bailed because there was simply no value to any ‘analysis’ from any quarter, so I can only imagine what the 91Èȱ¬, with its pre-vetted set, is/will be like.

Whaitiffery was a pervasive game that has become an industry.

Having failed to mock the media and those it is allied with into any shame on this, I think the time is here to simply join them. With a healthy dose of two wrongs make double top of the hour ratings ladled over it all.

So, here’s a question: what if, as the crazed shooter had approached that school, some ‘body’, forewarned by some means, had swooped down and secured him, painlessly, and then whisked him away to a place of incarceration; how long would it have been before many currently screaming their heads off about gun ownership would have been clamouring for his release and the vilification of those who locked him up, even if he was a mobile one man arsenal en route to mayhem?

I’m not saying that those defending heavy weaponry have much of a case (other than, to me, the one any such thing should be in, at a club, and nowhere else), but for sure I am saying those currently ranged against them don’t seem too appealing in logic or argument or even sincere intent either.

Somehow increasing the number of weapons from 300 million to 500 million may give a feeling of security for many non-thinkers --but putting armed guards (or teachers) in each of the 100,000 US schools for safety, suggests ´mass mental instability´.

With at least one guard/school armed with semi-automatics (to be on the safe side), who would vouch for their mental state ?

Who would want armed teachers when they have a classroom filled with unruly pupils ?

"What we are seeing now are hundreds of thousands of Class C misdemeanor tickets being issued to juveniles in Texas [who are] being processed for those tickets through what is really an adult criminal justice court system,"

--- Love of children ?

Here's one for the thinking person's thinkers..

The breakfast airwaves are alive with the sound of market rate talking heads trilling as another bunch of ‘A’-list usual suspects traipse into the same studio with the same backdrop to read the same script about another ’something must be done’ they have no clue and care less about as they walk out 5 minutes’ later after a great emoting take to camera for the holidays.

That most I saw will be walking straight back onto a set where sex-bondage or beheading is an essential part of the narrative to sell the making of DVD will be an irony too far for minds that are only good for parroting what their minders tell ‘em.

Guns… exist.
A-bombs exist.
Israel exists.

Wishing so hard that your forehead throbs that any of these things didn’t so all will be well in the world… is the stuff of which Breakfast TV hosts are made, fed by smarter, more dangerous folk in the production suite, typing out the teleprompter feed.

Merry Christmas to all on this lovely planet. And those who know better, on theirs.

´The smallest hope, a mere continuing to exist is enough for the anti-heros´ future. Leave him says our age -- at a crossroads, in a dilemma with all to lose and only more of the same to win -- ´( John Fowles-- The Magus)

--Seasons Greetings.

Thank you Robin Lustig. You have been an excellent host. I enjoyed your excellent choice of topics as well as your lively thoughtful articles. Like other regulars I regret that you cannot continue to host this blog. I am thinking of some lively exchanges that could ensue in the next few years, for example, on the topic of a WW I retrospective in 2014 when the web is filled with discussions on the centennial of this most important event in European and world history which set the scenario for the rest of the 20th century including much of the turmoil in the Middle East.