Atlas Shrugged As Relevant as Ever

A recent Wall Street Journal article covers the relevancy of Ayn Rand's novel ATLAS SHRUGGED, as well as an over view of the book and a note on its influence to many in today's society. I attached a link to the above headline, or you can go here to read the WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html

Atlas Shrugged is one of my favorite books, not only for the viewpoint it serves, as much as the sociological discussion it encourages. Though this article is almost a Cliff Notes version of why the book is more relevant today that ever, and why it would be so important to get a message like this out into modern media. there has been talk of a movie (Angelina Jolie attached at that), as well as a miniseries for HBO at one time or another, but given the powerful message and points raised I would say it would be a small miracle for such a project to actually be done, let alone left faithful to the book.

If you have not read Atlas Shrugged, believe me when I tell you that it is well worth your time and money to do so, even in "Books On Tape" form.

I close out today with a small clip from another important Rand work that did make it to the silver screen (with Gary Cooper no less) The Fountainhead, which emphasises the important of the individual over the collective, again well worth the read, as well as Rand's other fiction work Anthem (In which a man i9n future society rediscovers the word "I"). Here, via You Tube is Gary Cooper from The Fountainhead. Enjoy and WAKE UP!

WTF: Another Week, Another Bitch or Five

What can I tell ya? Some stupidity just makes you "Hulk Out". Here's a short list of bitches that have me a little fired up lately...

The ECONOMY.

As you saw in my last post The Economy has me bitching, but I'm still doing a little research on that so you lucky readers here won't be subjected to that little slice of heaven just yet. Still mad, but still prepping. Onward...

GM AND SATURN.

Because of their money troubles, GM is making plans to dump or sell off the Saturn brand name. Who the boneheaded idiot up in the big silver tower in Detroit came up with that wonderful idea ought to be either fired for being an asshole idiot, or at best have their year end bonus (corporate bonuses will from now on be refer ed to as "boned-us")taken away and given to the Saturn marketing department. wait, actually, honestly both that idiot AND the Saturn marketing department deserve to go, and go quickly.
Saturn is one of the few bright spots out there in the GM stable, it's just that SO few folks realize this (apparently even their corporate heads refuse to realize this as well). Saturn, though they have had their defective design problems, and sad auto lines, was able to do one or two things totally right: 1) they stayed making the same car (the SL-1) for many, many years until they refined it and made it a quality product, and 2) Since they stupidly stopped making the SL-1 they have designed as good, or better products at a lower than average price structure, especially for a GM product.

Ask anyone who owned, or still owns an SL-1, you still see them on the road, they are quality cars, and frankly my little SL-1 is a TANK. I don't know of anyone who's owned one within the last three years of it's manufacture that does not love their car. A good portion of those people have actually gone on to purchase another Saturn based solely upon their love of the SL-1, and they will probably be faithful to the brand for a few more years to come. My second car is an Ion, and it is NOT designed nearly as well as the SL-1, I have had to pour a grand into it's upkeep within the last six months and need to take it into the shop again in fact, but I am already looking at buying an Astra as soon as a few more of my debts are gone.

Saturn's problem is that they stopped making the SL-1, PLUS they have yet to successfully market ANY of their cars to the public. Their marketing STINKS. I honestly cannot remember a single TV ad for Saturn that I liked- NONE. I bought my first SL-1 because a friend of mine swore by them. I bought it and have ran it into the found over a period of seven years now and have yet to do any kind of serious maintenance on it. It was a showroom sampler when I bought it, and loaded with options, easily affordable, and I think the only major thing that ever went wrong on the sucker so far is the electronic window switch went bad (but that was from me playing with it too much I'm sure). My Ion, on the other hand has had front wheel structural problems, a plastic window clip bust and have to be replaced, a circuit switch in the steering column replaced, my windshield wiper assembly totally replaced, and one or two other things done to it, all with about half the actual millage that my SL-1 has had. Still, it's been almost 5 years owned and I has not spoiled my taste for the Saturn brand a wit.

So, if you ask me, DON'T sell off the brand, REDEFINE it with the rep it;s earned from it's drivers who LOVE it. It fits a market (low end, practical users and first time buyers) and needs to be catered to it. There are SO many other makes and models you can trim before shitcanning the entire company. Oh, and you can stop making the Vue if you have to, either that or make it look a hell of a lot cooler. that MIGHT get me to buy one if it looked cooler. i would have bought the Astra by now if it looked a little sleeker. The wife likes it at least.

McSCREWED.

That double cheeseburger DID get jacked up around here, it only took them a couple of days to do it. McD's entire menu has been jacked up, all this AFTER the price of transporting their products has dropped, AND the fact that they've received a sales jump due to the economy and folks wanting to eat out and not spend- well, if they hit the McD's they'll be spending a little more than they did last week. Now all the other fast food chains are expected to follow, AGAIN after the cost of moving their products have hit a new low. For once i kind of agree with the sad Wal-Mart philosophy of keeping the price structure manageable- pound the supplier to pound their supplier to give them a cheaper price. McD's is officially the LAST place I'm buying fast food from now on. They join Wal-Mart and Circuit City for places I'd rather be dead than to walk into. McScew 'em!

COMICS.

There's an entire blog's weight in problems from this shoe sized industry that I just don't want to approach right now, but eventually will. There hasn't been any good reading out there in months, but on the plus side I have found a few books well worth my time. I'll tell you all about those as soon as possible.



MY BITCHY BLOG

Hey, sorry if you think I should 'lighten up" here in my blog. I speak my opinionated mind and TRY to have my opinions backed up by a little fact every once in awhile. I KNOW some of you would rather I speak about comics 24/7, and for that I have to admit that I write about what I give a shit about, and more and more lately it just doesn't include today's funny books. I stopped buying most of that crap, even though I love the art form, there's only so much shit you can put in the barn before you drive out the animals. I'm still trying to get up the energy to tell you about the Heroes I Miss, but I'll TRY to get more comic commentary here asap.

This whole political thing has had me in a tizzy, followed by our bungled economy and the fact that we as Middle Class Americans have been the primary ones screwed out of all this just pisses me off a lot, and as more and more of the Obama administration is revealed as the old Clinton administration my thought about my country and my livelihood are dimming in their cheeriness.

I hope Obama at least tries to live up to his promise of "change" without screwing us any more. After looking around this area I honestly don't know how much more we can take.

On the plus side my interest rates on my credit card(s) and the evil equity loan has dropped considerably, allowing me to keep paying the same and yet pay off more of the principle. I want to say it helps me see the light at the end of the debt tunnel a little clearer, but I'm a cynical monkey and know that that exit has a tendency to move farther away at times. Enough bitching I have work to do. More here when I can- till then...

WAKE UP!

Middle Class War

I gotta hand it to all the freakin' spinners out there; "Bail-Out, No Bail-Out" crappers who really haven't taken the time to look and research it all, to TRY to wrap there heads around just what has been happening here, in out local area, in our state, in our country, in our world, but most of all in our very way of life.

I'm from FLINT, you think we're just heading into a recession, and the economy is just a little unstable PLEASE STOP BY. Our economy has been on a slow and steady decline since the late 70's and all we did was shoot (and bad spin) the messeger. Michael Moore will tell you that he's not "from" Flint anymore (really he was from Davison, a suburb of Flint), he lives in Traverse City, WAY north, and MUCH more quiet and secluded from Flint. You see, FLINT's the place that GM screwed in the late 70's. I know because I was around to see it. Flint was THE birthplace of the "middle class" the beginning of the "middle class disposable income", and the first city to feel the economic pinch way, way back when.

When I was a kid all the shop workers had cabins "up north", bought the latest recreational toy, populated an incredibly high per capita fleet of bars and strip clubs, baby we had it GOOD. Late 70's, when GM started outsourcing, I watched as a tap was turned on draining the area of the money brought to us, not only by industry but by the working man's capitalizing on that industry and "getting them some". I was offered admittance into "the shop" TWICE and turned them both down, primarilly for my sanity, but I was also lucky in that EVERYONE my age that went into "The Shop" when I would have were all caught up in the first waves of lay-offs during the Carter administration. I was that guy running the local bookstore chain that was capitalizing on everyone else's misery by selling them Houston papers, wrapping papers, and racing forms.

Later on, through the 80's and a failed marriage, I worked as an art department in a few t-shirt print shops (an experience both happy and rewarding as well as tedious and stressful- not from the work as much as the employers)and watched as our local economy settled out a little. Times were a bit better, but not because our local economy was better, but because we made them better by working harder and earning more money. I stayed sane working in an artform that I loved on a mostly part time basis, but living and breathing comics was what kept me sane.

The 90's were different. I watched as the art form that I loved decayed into a state of near nothingness. Where a readership of over 1000 meant unusual success, and Flint struggled on with systematic lay-offs and a manufacturing industry that was still bleeding, albeit a little slower at some times than others. The Clinton years saw housing values rise, even depressed area's property values. and a stock market where folks could make a little jing on that new fangled internet. There was a guy back then name of Perot that was spun into being a mad man, chastised for warning everyone that that new NAFTA agreement Clinton was signing would spell doom to our national economy, and there would be a "Giant Sucking Sound" of jobs running south of the border and elsewhere as we people suffered a slow economic drain EXACTLY like the one I've been watching happen in Flint for the previous 15-20 or so years.

The century turned and I voted for a new president to come in and add a little dignity to a job that was demeaned by a guy getting a BJ in his office. There would be change, and a new definition of America as we knew it running square into the new century of growing wealth and oppurtunity. Oh yeah, we forgot in all that spin to realize that that oppurtunity would come at the cost of our freedoms, rights, personal income growth, and many more middle class youngsters who would give their lives uselessly on what everyone now says was "bad intell" on some despot(or 3 or so)that we gave money and power to in the hopes of...really...in the hopes of what exactly? Honestly, what were we out to acheive and did it work?

Makes you think that Alex Jones (look him up!) isn't such a madman after all doesn't it? Who out there is crying asnd pointing about a "War On The Middle Class"? I was talking about it for YEARS before CNN made up their little graphic and Lou Dobbs decided that there was ratings into it. But then again I was looking at it from a Flint perspecitve, from growing up listening level-headedly to folks like Perot and Michael Moore and looking around considering both sides of their spin and making up my own mind for myself as to just how valid they were (and still are).

I'm talking the REAL Michael Moore here, NOT the liberal characature that his name has been spun into, believe me when I tell you that they are 2 SEPERATE things. Go read his stuff for yourself, free of any spin, and decide on your own. Sit and watch Roger and Me...but wait I digress and Moore is another posting for perhaps another time...

Back to point here, I'm from Flint, I KNEW about the "War On The Middle Class" YEARS ago. All I had to do was watch it happen. I LAUGHED at Bush saying our economy was sound. I KNEW McCain would NEVER have the guts/balls/stupidity to come here to campaign (and yes, I was SHOCKED to see Obama here as well, and the more I think about that...well...that copuld turn out to be as bad a mistake as voting for Bush...), I watched with my own eyes as the spicket on our local economy was turned wide open YEARS ago when folks started treking the hell outta town in greater numbers. I voted against Bush the second time because all I had to do was look around, I voted against out Governor the last time for the same reasons. Nice to see folks finally saying we're in a reccession, I say "Where the HELL have you been?!" As Flint goes, so goes the national economy, and I can tell you folks that we haven't seen the bottom of this hole yet not by a LLOONNGG shot! If you think it's bad now, just wait to watch how many retail stores go out right after Xmas, THEN tell me about how "sound" our economy is!

I say we as Americans SHOULD rebel, but not against our system as much as the people running it, and ESPECIALLY against all the sad spinners out there trying to say we are okay and that things are fine. Those folks that are telling you how great our economy is are only saying that untill they shore up their wealth, and then they're outta here and we all can go to hell.

The "War" hasn't only begun, we're way into it and we've already lost a number of key battles.

More on this as I get fired up and start to gather a little evidence. What, you didn't think I wouldn't want to prove my point here? In the meantime do us all a favor and

WAKE UP!

stay tuned!