Sue (and 80'ers):

Sorry to barge in. Couldn't help reading your post. Talking about myths, social structure, and the progression from tribes and city states, to the modern National State and government, it so happens that a foremost thinker in that direction, Claude Levi-Strauss, just died a couple of days ago, at the tender age of 100 + years (born, 28 November, 1909).

If you want to understand the logical structure of Julio's mythological concepts (and thought), I highly recommend Tristes Tropiques (The Sad Tropics) and, especially, La Pensée sauvage (the savage mind). He fits in perfectly well in both.

All the best.

Of your World Myths, Julio, I found the following two interesting:

2) That resources are finite and overpopulation is bad

3) That countries and governments are the logical and natural way to get organized

Care to expand on one or both? If not countries and governments, then what? Seems to me, "societies" have been the way of the world since the time when we humans were members of tribes. Isn't a country or a government a natural progression from there?

I could see the argument that maybe resources are not finite, but I don't know how overpopulation can possibly be good.

Now that's Julio Principle I totally agree with :)

Nice election results... GOP takes over two key governorships with economically conservative new leaders. While, and this is the best news, the crazed Sarah Palin contributes to a sound defeat in NY-23. The GOP had a seat for like 100 years and Sarah comes into town and blows it. May she remain the kiss of death on (her type of) GOP candidates to come!

The Maine gay marriage vote thing no surprise, because every time this comes to a majority vote, gays lose, obviously, since most people are very uncomfortable with gays even though they openly state otherwise. Just like with foreigners or blacks or you-name-it. This is not a question for a democracy or for a legislature, it's a question for the courts.

Here is a Julio Principle I am sure you will all agree with: "Gabriela and Mike, I tellya, I like!"

I think Julio is usually right except when it comes to guns and God. In those cases, he's usually wrong, at least by my standards, but then who can claim objectivity when it comes to those issues?

Where I was wrong was in forgetting to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Stephanie on the 15th and to Julio on the 29th! How could I forget?

I don't exactly agree with Julio's American, Mexican and world myth #1. There is some truth to those things been myths or partial myths, but not totaly. For an alternate view people can read "What if Jesus had never been born?" by D. James Kennedy or "What's so Great about Christianty" by Dinesh D'Souza.

Of course if you believe the myth that Julio is always right about everything then don't bother reading those other books. But if you do want to consider another alternative, then you can try reading one of those books.

BTW, I think that Julio is right most of the time and that's no myth.

The recovery may be false but yesterday I was at Best Buy and it was so packed it took a long time to get a salesperson to help me. Don't know how they're making any money, though, prices are so low. I scored a bundle including an HP PC, monitor, laptop, netbook and router for $1200, and on top of that they threw in a Cannon 3-in-1 for another $20. When I went to pay, I discovered HSBC's Best Buy card had dropped my credit limit from $3500 to just a few bucks over my current balance. If I had not just been paid this month, I might have not gone through with the purchase. As it was, I deleted the $250 "tune-up" they offer, so they just talked themselves out of $250 of pure profit. That's what I'm seeing from the streets.

Be Prepared for the Worst
by Ron Paul

Any number of pundits claim that we have now passed the worst of the recession. Green shoots of recovery are supposedly popping up all around the country, and the economy is expected to resume growing soon at an annual rate of 3% to 4%. Many of these are the same people who insisted that the economy would continue growing last year, even while it was clear that we were already in the beginning stages of a recession.
 
A false recovery is under way. I am reminded of the outlook in 1930, when the experts were certain that the worst of the Depression was over and that recovery was just around the corner. The economy and stock market seemed to be recovering, and there was optimism that the recession, like many of those before it, would be over in a year or less. Instead, the interventionist policies of Hoover and Roosevelt caused the Depression to worsen, and the Dow Jones industrial average did not recover to 1929 levels until 1954. I fear that our stimulus and bailout programs have already done too much to prevent the economy from recovering in a natural manner and will result in yet another asset bubble.

Anytime the central bank intervenes to pump trillions of dollars into the financial system, a bubble is created that must eventually deflate. We have seen the results of Alan Greenspan's excessively low interest rates: the housing bubble, the explosion of subprime loans and the subsequent collapse of the bubble, which took down numerous financial institutions. Rather than allow the market to correct itself and clear away the worst excesses of the boom period, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury colluded to put taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars. Those banks and financial institutions that took on the largest risks and performed worst were rewarded with billions in taxpayer dollars, allowing them to survive and compete with their better-managed peers.

The article wasn't too bad about American Myths, excepts it misses so many of them!

America is the Land of Mythology.

Here are a few American Myths, in order of them coming to my mind, which is easy:

1) That God is a good thing, that churches are a force of good, that God chose America, that God and morality go hand in hand, Manifest Destiny, In God We Trust, etc.

2) That guns keep people safe and everyone should have a few otherwise there would be criminal chaos

3) That Americans believe in limited government

4) That the US is a democracy and that it is the best democracy in the world

5) That America trades fairly

6) That home ownership is a good thing and, therefore, a mortgage is a good thing and therefore, a car loan is a good thing, and therefore, so is a national deficit to fund Social Security and the military


  
And just so you don't think I'm biased or anything, here are a few Mexican Myths:

1) That Dios is a good thing, that churches are a force of good, that the Virgin chose Mexico, that God and morality go hand in hand

2) That most of the country's problems are caused by the United States

3) That most of the country's solutions depend on the United States

4) That corruption is actually a good thing because it facilitates business

5) That labor costs and taxes are low

6) That subservience means someone likes you


Here are some World Myths:

1) That Allah is a good thing, that churches are a force of good, that we are The Chosen People, that God and morality go hand in hand

2) That resources are finite and overpopulation is bad

3) That countries and governments are the logical and natural way to get organized

4) That human progress is due to hard work

Edited by author 11-03-2009 06:37 AM
yes. i'm glad someone is thinking out there because that just wasn't going to come out today.

I'm more awake now. Check this out...food for argument!:

Nov 2 2009, 5:47 pm by Daniel Indiviglio

Brookings Debunks Myths About U.S. Opportunity

In an article that appeared this weekend in the Washington Post, a few economics fellows of the Brookings Institution present five myths about U.S. opportunity. I found some of their conclusions pretty surprising -- not from an economics standpoint, but more because scholars from Brookings were making them. Their tone appears to be unusually conservative for a think tank that tends be characterized as left-leaning. The piece makes a lot of sense, and its recommendations are worth noting. Let's consider each myth.

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/11/br..._us_opportunity.php

No one is growing the Indian economy "at the expense" of ours. The Indians are growing AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, because they are the ones willing to work for less. If we hired American programmers, then we would be GROWING LESS at OUR EXPENSE.

The truth is many Americans don't like foreigners. They SAY they are open to foreigners doing things but they aren't deep down. Deep down, they want Brad. Except they are rarely willing to PAY FOR Brad. Can't have it both ways.

The Swiss, for example, love themselves and PAY FOR themselves so everything is super expensive in Switzerland and the country is closed to immigration and they like it that way.

But Americans, as usual, are totally contradictory. They SAY one thing but act in a different way, whether it is about foreigners, or Big G, or drugs.

So woo-hoo to India while decrying India!

Interesting stuff about the Beatles, Gaby.

When I talk to someone in India whose name is "Brad" I think, "yea, right, who are you trying to kid?" I don't know, maybe I'm a cynic. It seems to me a ploy to make me think I'm talking to someone in the States and not someone in India. Maybe others appreciate it, but I don't.

I heard the other day that my department is hiring 12 tech writers. Woo hoo, right? Not so much. All but 4 of them will be in India. On paper, the idea looks great, given that everything there is about a tenth of the cost of things here, but I'm not yet convinced it works. Bean counters love the numbers, but I think quality suffers and overhead is much higher. Meetings are next to impossible given that we're 12.5 hours different and can't find any common meeting times that don't involve either very early mornings or very late nights. Plus, there are language/dialect barriers and cultural differences that make things take much longer. So, there you go, my thoughts on growing the Indian economy at the expense of ours.

When American companies hire customer support people in India, they make them not just anglicize their names, but actually take on entirely new American-sounding names that may have nothing to do with their own, and they train them to sound American. Maybe that's why India's economy is growing faster than ours. They have their eye on the customer rather than on political correctness.


Did you know we can thank the Beatles for the CT scan?

"The first commercially viable CT scanner was invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield at EMI Central Research Labs, Great Britain in 1972. EMI owned the distribution rights to The Beatles music and it was their profits which funded the research."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiology

Wow that was a wild Saturday in NYC with Halloween and the Yankees' win and all. And today they are running the Marathon. At least they get an extra hour of sleep!



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So Felicia talked about this the other day on Facebook but of course as it happens on Facebook everything got lost in the shuffle and the ads no real discussion was possible.

So first here is the link:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan...eatment-hotel-owner

Any opinions?

I agree with the hotel owner but really dislike the CNN guy who disagrees with his colleagues because nobody should ever agree with a Miami Cuban-American on anything. You think they are like you at first, sounding all pro-American dream and anti-Castro and everything but then... they just aren't.

p.s. the above does not apply to Gloria Estefan. Although it does, it's just that she sings so well.

Go Phillies :)

If you really want to hurl look in themouth of someone who chews tobacco. Looks and smells like a cesspool, and they don't even care.

You will not hear of a Pantheist referred to as a "churchgoer."

Good one, C! I knew there had to be an upside to the aggravations of aging.

I admit I like to stay in touch with my friends and I like the attention I get from them and give to them. What's your point, Dwight?