Chapter 27: Critiquing the Critics
Array He was only 88.* * *Although his family is making the unlikely claim that he died of pneumonia, this is no doubt a cover story they have come up with while investigators track down the conspirators behind his murder.
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Markets close with a small bounce off the bottom as the DJIA closed down 88, NAZ down 20 and SPX down 7.5.Strongest sectors included brokers as GS closed up .6; Bottom sectors included tech, semis, airlines, trannies, metals, small caps and retail.Large cap growth is starting to act crummy again as large value was the best performing of the big 4 while small growth was second and small value third.Internals on the major indexes didn’t change much from the morning lows as the SPX had 130 winners;
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When the King of Saudi Arabia hauled Dick Cheney before his throne on Thanksgiving weekend, the keeper of America’s oil laid down the law to Veep: the US will not withdraw from Iraq. We’re waste deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on.GP Missive 2:Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union, by Greg Palast23 January, 2006There was that tongue again. The little razors in the policy apple, the nasty little pieces of policy shrapnel that whiz by between the appearances of the Presidential tongue.First, there was the announcement the regime will, give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers. The Founding Fathers thought the government had no right to keep track on a citizen unless there is evidence they have committed, or planned to commit, a crime.But the Founding Fathers didn’t imagine there were millions and billions of dollars to be made by private contractors ready to perform this KGB operation for the Department of Homeland Security, tracking each and every one of us to keep tabs on our status.These work databases will tie into voter verification databases required by the Help America Vote Act. If you’re unfamiliar with the SPR, it is supposed to be the stash of oil we keep in case the price of crude gets too high.Well, the price of oil has been horribly high but Dick Cheney, the official who sits on the Reserve’s spigots, has refused to release the oil into the market.Instead of unleashing the Reserve and busting Big Oil’s price gouging Bush will double the Reserve, which will require buying three-quarters of a billion barrels of oil. I must admit I was moved by the President’s praise of Wesley Autrey, a New Yorker who, last month, threw himself on top of a man who had fallen on subway tracks — and held him between the track rails as the train passed over them.While the President properly acknowledged Autrey’s courage in saving the man who fell on the subway tracks, Mr. Bush still did not explain why Dick Cheney pushed the man in the first place.Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse (details via his website and available at all good bookshops in the English-speaking world) was for me the best politics book of 2006. One of the most interesting bits of it is how the Saudis manipulate their oil production, and hence the oil price, to affect politics elsewhere. For instance, after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the Saudis flooded the oil market, pushing the oil price down. Although, as Thatcher’s conduct as PM with the then European Economic Community shows, her so-called patriotism went out the window in the chase for a fast buck).Similarly, the only other time in the past decade the Saudis have produced flat out to bring down the price of oil was just before the 2004 US presidential election (Armed Madhouse, p.88).Well, I still have the political bug, I guess, a bit, anyhow.
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Keeping in mind that even great critics have their prejudices and agendas, and that no review should be taken at face value, Iâm going to examine two diametrically opposing Chapter 27 reviews, and see what, if anything, can be learned.The critique thatâs been getting the most attention is the superficial hatchet job written by Roger Friedman of Fox News, whoâs had it in for the film since he read the script last year and wrote a piece called âChapter 27: A New Springtime for Hitler,â a reference to the Nazi musical from the Mel Brooks movie and play The Producers, put on for the purpose of defrauding investors by staging the biggest bomb ever seen on Broadway.Friedmanâs awkwardly titled review, âJohn Lennon Murder a Bore in New Film,â predictably describes Chapter 27 as âexploitativeâ¦dull, unimaginative, repetitive and without any redeeming cinematic qualities,â and points out that âmost of the audience struggled to remain awake during the filmâs lethargic 90 minutes.âFriedman also says that Schaefer did no research, not even making clear what Chapter 27 means. Did Schaefer blatantly rip off the title after reading the section called âChapter 27â in my Lennon biography Nowhere Man, and did he then use my research and reporting to fully explain in the movie that Chapter 27 is not only a reference to The Catcher in the Rye ending on Chapter 26, but also to âthe triple 9,â a number of profound importance to Lennon, who was obsessed with numerology, Cheiroâs Book of Numbers, and particularly number 9 and all its multiples?Apparently, he didnât do the latter.
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Array He was only 88.* * *Although his family is making the unlikely claim that he died of pneumonia, this is no doubt a cover story they have come up with while investigators track down the conspirators behind his murder.
link
Markets close with a small bounce off the bottom as the DJIA closed down 88, NAZ down 20 and SPX down 7.5.Strongest sectors included brokers as GS closed up .6; Bottom sectors included tech, semis, airlines, trannies, metals, small caps and retail.Large cap growth is starting to act crummy again as large value was the best performing of the big 4 while small growth was second and small value third.Internals on the major indexes didn’t change much from the morning lows as the SPX had 130 winners;
link
When the King of Saudi Arabia hauled Dick Cheney before his throne on Thanksgiving weekend, the keeper of America’s oil laid down the law to Veep: the US will not withdraw from Iraq. We’re waste deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on.GP Missive 2:Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union, by Greg Palast23 January, 2006There was that tongue again. The little razors in the policy apple, the nasty little pieces of policy shrapnel that whiz by between the appearances of the Presidential tongue.First, there was the announcement the regime will, give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers. The Founding Fathers thought the government had no right to keep track on a citizen unless there is evidence they have committed, or planned to commit, a crime.But the Founding Fathers didn’t imagine there were millions and billions of dollars to be made by private contractors ready to perform this KGB operation for the Department of Homeland Security, tracking each and every one of us to keep tabs on our status.These work databases will tie into voter verification databases required by the Help America Vote Act. If you’re unfamiliar with the SPR, it is supposed to be the stash of oil we keep in case the price of crude gets too high.Well, the price of oil has been horribly high but Dick Cheney, the official who sits on the Reserve’s spigots, has refused to release the oil into the market.Instead of unleashing the Reserve and busting Big Oil’s price gouging Bush will double the Reserve, which will require buying three-quarters of a billion barrels of oil. I must admit I was moved by the President’s praise of Wesley Autrey, a New Yorker who, last month, threw himself on top of a man who had fallen on subway tracks — and held him between the track rails as the train passed over them.While the President properly acknowledged Autrey’s courage in saving the man who fell on the subway tracks, Mr. Bush still did not explain why Dick Cheney pushed the man in the first place.Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse (details via his website and available at all good bookshops in the English-speaking world) was for me the best politics book of 2006. One of the most interesting bits of it is how the Saudis manipulate their oil production, and hence the oil price, to affect politics elsewhere. For instance, after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the Saudis flooded the oil market, pushing the oil price down. Although, as Thatcher’s conduct as PM with the then European Economic Community shows, her so-called patriotism went out the window in the chase for a fast buck).Similarly, the only other time in the past decade the Saudis have produced flat out to bring down the price of oil was just before the 2004 US presidential election (Armed Madhouse, p.88).Well, I still have the political bug, I guess, a bit, anyhow.
link
Keeping in mind that even great critics have their prejudices and agendas, and that no review should be taken at face value, Iâm going to examine two diametrically opposing Chapter 27 reviews, and see what, if anything, can be learned.The critique thatâs been getting the most attention is the superficial hatchet job written by Roger Friedman of Fox News, whoâs had it in for the film since he read the script last year and wrote a piece called âChapter 27: A New Springtime for Hitler,â a reference to the Nazi musical from the Mel Brooks movie and play The Producers, put on for the purpose of defrauding investors by staging the biggest bomb ever seen on Broadway.Friedmanâs awkwardly titled review, âJohn Lennon Murder a Bore in New Film,â predictably describes Chapter 27 as âexploitativeâ¦dull, unimaginative, repetitive and without any redeeming cinematic qualities,â and points out that âmost of the audience struggled to remain awake during the filmâs lethargic 90 minutes.âFriedman also says that Schaefer did no research, not even making clear what Chapter 27 means. Did Schaefer blatantly rip off the title after reading the section called âChapter 27â in my Lennon biography Nowhere Man, and did he then use my research and reporting to fully explain in the movie that Chapter 27 is not only a reference to The Catcher in the Rye ending on Chapter 26, but also to âthe triple 9,â a number of profound importance to Lennon, who was obsessed with numerology, Cheiroâs Book of Numbers, and particularly number 9 and all its multiples?Apparently, he didnât do the latter.
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