I coulda watched that clip follow the fat red arrow all the way from Borneo to Malaya (wherever that is...) to Sri Lanka to Jiddah to Cairo to Rome to Madrid to Paris to Warsaw to Boston to D.C. ... No wait, that wouldn't have been a good thing, nevermind.

For those not old enough to recognize the name:

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (Polish: Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński, pronounced [ˈzbigɲev bʐɛˈʑiɲski]) : (born March 28, 1928, Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish-American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Known for his hawkish foreign policy at a time when the Democratic Party was increasingly dovish, he is a foreign policy realist and considered by some to be the Democrats' response to Republican realist Henry Kissinger.[1]

via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski

People aren't listening to him because he's talking about real politics, real international policy changes and radical internal political change.

Obviously most Americans would rather spend time being entertained by the stage managed wrestling match of Obama vs McCain, so they can get the satisfaction of seeing who is going to pwn who live on TV, whilst the Brzezinski family, who are the brains behind Obama get in by the back door.

You can read all about Zbigniew Brzezinski's anti-Soviet, anti-Muslim geopolitical agenda in his own book, "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower"

Yes, read in his own words how Brzezinski destroyed the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, how he plans to take apart the Russian Federation and use Afghanistan to build an impregnable US military base against China, Russia, and whoever else stands in his way.

Better read it in fact, because it is going to be the manual for the Obama presidency. Or dismiss it as a conspiracy theory. Your country, your choice.

Ron Paul was the correct answer.

>> ^NetRunner
^ Ya missed the biggest of the bunch, though I didn't frame it in the form of a question...

probably why i didn't treat it as one. as originally phrased, i thought you were just making a preamble to your questions.
S Korea, sure. different situation, and you'll typically find wiggle room there among libertarians, myself certainly included.
but yeah, main point being, most would be like Germany. hard to justify, yet never a choice offered to the american people.

and yes, i'd not only want to withdraw, but i would want to talk to everyone in NATO about the idea of simply disbanding it, for the reasons i mentioned. what's NATO there for, without the mighty USSR/Warsaw Pact in opposition? is it now the Everyone But Russia club?

> Also, what should we be doing specifically about Iran?

how about, not float the idea of invading them every other weekend, just to feel tough? then we could stop pretending that it wouldn't mean a draft. what has iran done, that anyone here should be willing to kill or die for?
i'd treat iran like any other neighbor on this planet, near or far. trust, but verify.

Not surprising really. As people get older, they fear the new and unknown more. Listening to his talk, it shows how little he actually understands EMPs ("like a lighting strike, only different").

What strikes me as odd though is that nuclear space- and airbursts have been known to produce EMPs for decades, and they have been part of the strategies of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Why suddenly raise a ruckus over something that's been known for what, about half a century?

Noyce! If you think this is clever you should check out the Crab Canon from my most favourite book in the world Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadetr.

Crab Canon
----------

Achilles and the Tortoise happen upon each other
in the park one day while strolling.

Tortoise: Good day, Mr. A.
Achilles: Why, same to you.
Tortoise: So nice to run into you.
Achilles: That echoes my thoughts.
Tortoise: And it's a perfect day for a walk. I think I'll be walking home
soon.
Achilles: Oh, really? I guess there's nothing better for you than walking.
Tortoise: Incidentally, you're looking in fine fettle these days, I must
say.
Achilles: Thank you very much.
Tortoise: Not at all. Here, care for one of my cigars?
Achilles: Oh, you are such a philistine. In this area, the Dutch contribu-
tions are of markedly inferior taste, don't you think?
Tortoise: I disagree, in this case. But speaking of taste, I finally saw that
Crab Canon by your favorite artist, M.C. Escher, in a gallery the other
day, and I fully appreciate the beauty and ingenuity with which he
made one single theme mesh with itself going both backwards and
forwards. But I am afraid I will always feel Bach is superior to Escher.
Achilles: I don't know. But one thing for certain is that I don't worry about
arguments of taste. De gustibus non est disputandum.
Tortoise: Tell me, what's it like to be your age? Is it true that one has no
worries at all?
Achilles: To be precise one has no frets.
Tortoise: Oh, well, it's all the same to me.
Achilles: Fiddle. It makes a big difference, you know.
Tortoise: Say, don't you play the guitar?
Achilles: That's my good friend. He often plays, the fool. But I myself
wouldn't touch a guitar with a ten-foot pole.
(Suddenly the Crab, appearing from out of nowhere, wanders up ex-
citedly, pointing to a rather prominent black eye.)

Crab: Hallo! Hullo! What's up? What's new? You see this bump, this
from Warsaw - a collosal bear of a man - playing a lute. He was three
meters tall, if I'm a day. I mosey on up to the chap, reach skyward and
manage to tap him on the knee, saying, "Pardon me, sir, but you are
Pole-luting our park with your mazurkas." But WOW! he had no sense
of humor - not a bit, not a wit - and POW! - he lets loose and belts me
one, smack in the eye! Were it in my nature, I would crab up a storm,
but in the time-honored tradition of my species, I backed off. After all,
when we walk forwards, we move backwards. It's in our genes, you
know, turning round and round. That reminds me - I've always
wondered, "which came first - the Crab or the Gene?" That
is to say, "Which came last - the Gene, or the Crab?" I'm always
turning things round and round, you know. It's in our genes, after
all. When we walk backwards we move forwards. Ah me, oh my!
I must lope along on my merry way - so off I go on such a fine day.
Sing "ho!" for the life of a Crab! TATA! Ole!

(And he disappears as suddenly as he arrived.)

Tortoise: That's my good friend. He often plays, the fool. But I myself
wouldn't touch a ten-foot Pole with a guitar.
Achilles: Say, don't you play the guitar?
Tortoise: Fiddle. It makes a big difference, you know.
Achilles: Oh, well, it's all the same to me.
Tortoise: To be precise one has no frets.
Achilles: Tell me, what's it like to be your age? Is it true that one has no
worries at all?
Tortoise: I don't know. But one thing for certain is that I don't worry about
arguments of taste. Disputandum non est de gustibus.
Achilles: I disagree, in this case. But speaking of taste, I finally heard that
Crab Canon by your favorite composer, J.S. Bach, in a concert the
other day, and I fully appreciate the beauty and ingenuity with which
he made one single theme mesh with itself going both backwards and
forwards. But I am afraid I will always feel Escher is superior to Bach.
Tortoise: Oh, you are such a philistine. In this area, the Dutch contribu-
tions are of markedly inferior taste, don't you think?
Achilles: Not at all. Here, care for one of my cigars?
Tortoise: Thank you very much.
Achilles: Incidentally, you're looking in fine fettle these days, I must
say.
Tortoise: Oh, really? I guess there's nothing better for you than walking.
Achilles: And it's a perfect day for a walk. I think I'll be walking home
soon.
Tortoise: That echoes my thoughts.
Achilles: So nice to run into you.
Tortoise: Why, same to you.
Achilles: Good day, Mr. A.

Love this film.
Please add *bravo/cinema
and full credits
Avalon (2001) by Mamoru Oshii
Music composed by Kenji Kawai performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic with choir.

so... us military sales to saddam before the kuwait invasion made regime change then a potential quagmire?? that us military sales to the taliban emboldened them??

really???

not really

from 1972 to 1990 us military sales to saddam amounted to a measly total of 200m dollars, in the form of 117 light helicopters -- during the same period, the warsaw pact, china and others sold saddam a grand total of 43.96 BILLION dollars worth of military goods, making the us contribution towards the whole a whopping half a percent

in afghanistan, us aid went to afghan mujahideen until the soviets pulled out in 1989 -- when was the taliban created? oh yeah, 1994... hmmm? but, but... weren't the mujahideen and the taliban allies?? nope, they were enemies... in fact, the mujahideen fought alongside us forces AGAINST the taliban since 2001

so... if this was posted for jon's very funny comedy - great! heh heh, his hammish act is always worth some laughs

if this was posted as any sort of political history, well, it's lack of context makes it dishonest

ah... Yoko Kanno's best music...

She was great in Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell TV, etc... but Escaflowne, with her conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic still gets to me every time I hear it.

By the time you get about 2/3 of the way through the series, with war and other tragedy arriving, the music keeps hammering the pain of it all home.

/waaah - now I need to go watch it again... ;_;

Winterzauber, "Winter Magic"

More info from the artist's website: http://www.p-geist.de/start.html

Multimedia art in Zurich: A restaurant is turned into a work of art

english version (translation Julie Draper)
Zurich, 11.27.2005

Beginning at sundown from 11.27 through 12.31.2005, the historically protected building housing the Lake Side Restaurant in Zurich will be transformed into a 450 sqm. three-dimensional video art installation.

It is the work of Berlin-based multimedia artist Philipp Geist, a rising star in the young art scene. Together with the symphony orchestra OBC Barcelona and the Finnish sound ensemble Pan Sonic, Philipp Geist appeared as a video artist at the opening of the Sonar Festival in Barcelona in 2004. He was represented at the Dissonanze Festival in Rome, at Clubtransmediale in Berlin and at the Mutek Festival in Montreal which is renowned for new media. His video works have been exhibited at important international art institutions including the Central House of Artists (CHA) in Moscow, the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, the National Gallery in Warsaw (Zacheta), at the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich – and now for the first time in switzerland.

For his work in Zurich, the 29 year-old Berlin-based artist deliberately avoids the use of canvases and instead projects directly onto the concrete building façades and windows which have been prepared with a special projection foil. Every evening, visitors can expect to see a selection of images alternating between purist, dreamlike and intangibly fragile compositions. The starting foundation for all of Philipp Geist’s work is video material solely filmed and produced by himself. Geist finds the subjects for his work in everyday things like hairbrushes, leaves, raindrops and curtains. He releases these objects from their usual setting and places them in new visual and correlated contexts by employing special camera and video techniques using motion blur and superimposition.

Especially for Winterzauber (Winter Magic) in Lake Side, Philipp Geist went in search of wintry, Christmasy motifs which attempt to break the link to consumption and indulgence, and instead direct visitors’ attention toward the pure aesthetic component that is all too often obscured by the kitschy madness of Christmas.

It is in this way that a ride along the highly commercialized Oxford Street in London takes on a completely new appearance as it is seen through a window pane. Distorted by the raindrops at night, it allows viewers only a vague impression of the twinkling Christmas lights. Microscopic close-ups give sparklers, burned down candles and snowflakes an element of diversity that would have remained unappreciated by the human eye without the aid of technology.

By opting to use the three-dimensional, defined structure contours as projection surfaces instead of canvases, Geist increases the motifs’ abstraction while simultaneously regaining depth and diversity. In this way, Geist initiates a dialogue between the historically protected architecture, his artistic work and the people going in and out of the structure: The visitor himself becomes part of the projected image on the threshold between the inside and outside of the building.

Geist allows a wintry world to emerge in front of visitors’ eyes. The subject matter and motifs, although familiar, astonish with their size and unusual presentation while altering the observer’s perception and challenging conventional viewing habits.

Given that the opening of Geist’s work will coincide with the first day of Advent, it will be intriguing to see how he uses his playful, artistic interpretation to approach winter and Christmas themes. One thing is for certain: Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in a tranquil, wintry, dreamlike world of lights.

"Winterzauber" 2005 at Lake Side
Videoart installation by Philipp Geist
open daily from 11.27 - 12.30.05, 6:00 pm – 12 am
12.31.05, 6:00 pm – 5:00 am

I'm with you on that one, deputy. they did an album under the name Warsaw before they became joy division which is well worth checking out too.