ABC FIRES JOHN STOSSEL?

[Jerry Biggers]

This, from John Stossels blog over on Fox Business channel, today. ABC "fires" him long after he left for Fox? And over his piece on 20/20 on Obamacare?

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/12/08/abc-fires-stossel/

His new show will be on Fox Business channel tomorrow. It might inaugurate with a show about ATLAS SHRUGGED!

Here's a link on this story from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/78749012.html

Edited December 8, 2009 by Jerry Biggers

[9thdoctor]

This, from John Stossels blog over on Fox Business channel, today. ABC "fires" him long after he left for Fox? And over his piece on 20/20 on Obamacare?

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/12/08/abc-fires-stossel/

His new show will be on Fox Business channel tomorrow. It might inaugurate with a show about ATLAS SHRUGGED!

Here's a link on this story from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/78749012.html

I thought the debut was going to be Thursday. Today's Tuesday, n'est pas? Hope the TARDIS clock's not all fouled up again.

[Dragonfly]

Today's Tuesday, n'est pas?

"n'est-ce pas?"

[9thdoctor]

"n'est-ce pas?"

D’Oh!

I took French almost 20 years back, but yeah that was a pretty basic slip. You live in the Netherlands, right? I’m sure you have to keep up on it much more. This is way off topic, but I went to the Opera in Antwerp, and the house was called the Vlaamse. Which language is that name from?

[Jerry Biggers]

This, from John Stossels blog over on Fox Business channel, today. ABC "fires" him long after he left for Fox? And over his piece on 20/20 on Obamacare?

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/12/08/abc-fires-stossel/

His new show will be on Fox Business channel tomorrow. It might inaugurate with a show about ATLAS SHRUGGED!

Here's a link on this story from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/78749012.html

I thought the debut was going to be Thursday. Today's Tuesday, n'est pas? Hope the TARDIS clock's not all fouled up again.

Two responses:

1) picky, picky!

2) (gulp!) err, just trying to see if you guys are alert!

Yes, actually, John Stossel's new show is on THURSDAY, December 10, 8:00 PM, EST, on the FOX BUSINESS CHANNEL (not Fox News Channel).

[9thdoctor]

Two responses:

1) picky, picky!

2) (gulp!) err, just trying to see if you guys are alert!

No harm no foul. It’s probably just too much anticipation, you’re getting too excited. In Peikoff’s latest podcast he discusses pre-mature ejaculation, give it a listen, it may help.

[Max Eichelberger]

God knows how much I love the "Hebrew Hammer," as I like to call him. Too bad I'll be in school, but nonetheless: I'll be thinking of him. He's amazing, on so many levels, and one of the main reasons all I watch these days is Fox for political commentary.

Edited December 9, 2009 by Areopagitican

[Jerry Biggers]

Two responses:

1) picky, picky!

2) (gulp!) err, just trying to see if you guys are alert!

No harm no foul. It’s probably just too much anticipation, you’re getting too excited. In Peikoff’s latest podcast he discusses pre-mature ejaculation, give it a listen, it may help.

Thank you ever so much for your suggestion......I will carefully take notes on Leonard's suggestion so that I can refer to them, if the need arises....

Regarding Dr. Peikoff's acumen on sexual topics, I would say to him, "Don't quit your day job!" Except that he does not have a day job, so I guess he has to do something to keep his hands busy.....

(the something I was referring to is his podcast preparations, of course).

[Greybird]

No harm no foul. It’s probably just too much anticipation, you’re getting too excited. In Peikoff's latest podcast he discusses premature ejaculation, give it a listen, it may help.

I suspect that if I listened to that, I'd be impotent for the next twenty years.

... Wait a minute. That phrase sounds familiar, somehow {wicked biographical grin}

[9thdoctor]

God knows how much I love the "Hebrew Hammer," as I like to call him.

Hebrew Hammer = Yaron Brooke? You couldn’t mean Stossel, I’m not sure but I don’t think he’s Jewish.

[BaalChatzaf]

God knows how much I love the "Hebrew Hammer," as I like to call him.

Hebrew Hammer = Yaron Brooke? You couldn't mean Stossel, I'm not sure but I don't think he's Jewish.

From the wiki bio on John Stossel:

Early life and career

John Stossel was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois, the second of two boys and graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, also attending Ben Shalom synagogue. He overcame a stuttering problem so he could become a reporter, and is now a supporter and advocate for The Stuttering Foundation. Stossel graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Psychology in 1969 and was a member of Princeton Tower Club while there. He began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon. He later became a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City before joining ABC News in 1981 as consumer editor and reporter on Good Morning America.

....................................................................................................

If John isn't Jewish he must have felt a bit out of place in the ben Shalom synagogue when he was a kid. Being a libertarian or a neo-con is a cottage industry among secular Jews. Also check out the ethnicity of the folks who were first generation Objectivists and acolytes of The Mistress. Also look at my nom de post. Cheekiness or chutzpah is almost genetic among secular Jewish males. Smart ass and circumcision go together, it would appear.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited December 9, 2009 by BaalChatzaf

[9thdoctor]

Hebrew Hammer = Yaron Brooke? You couldn't mean Stossel, I'm not sure but I don't think he's Jewish.

If John isn't Jewish he must have felt a bit out of place in the ben Shalom synagogue when he was a kid.

Yaron Brooke (and the whole ARI cabal) are vocally pro-Israel, arguably to excess, while I can’t think when Stossel has addressed Israel policy or said anything that would earn him the title “Hebrew Hammer”. Unless there was something big in a special I missed (I’m sure I didn’t catch them all over the years).

[Max Eichelberger]

God knows how much I love the "Hebrew Hammer," as I like to call him.

Hebrew Hammer = Yaron Brooke? You couldn’t mean Stossel, I’m not sure but I don’t think he’s Jewish.

I think it's been made fairly clear, but no; I do mean John Stossel.

Though, for better or for worse, you do make the point about how Stossel does not push a Zionist agenda (in any sense of the word). You seem to enjoy him, but have no inkling of his heritage. That just re-affirms another amazing aspect of the guy.

More seriously, you'll be suprised how many Neo-Conservatives are Jewish; almost exclusively, NeoCon intellectuals are Jewish.

Edited December 9, 2009 by Areopagitican

[Robert Campbell]

ND,

"Vlaamse" is Flemish for ... Flemish.

How different today's Flemish is from today's Dutch is a question that Dragonfly can answer and I can't.

Robert Campbell

[9thdoctor]

ND,

"Vlaamse" is Flemish for ... Flemish.

How different today's Flemish is from today's Dutch is a question that Dragonfly can answer and I can't.

Robert Campbell

It looked Slavic to me, I thought it was weird at the time but didn’t know the explanation. Everything in Belgium was in multiple languages, and most everyone spoke English to boot. Great beer, too, the best, I loved Belgium. I’m feeling envy for Dragonfly, he’s probably just an hour’s train ride away.

In one of AR’s answers she talked about her pet theory that countries with many languages produce fewer creative people, I’m pretty sure it was in the Q&A of the Global Balkanization talk. There were plenty of great Benelux creators though, Rembrandt, Spinoza, and Huygens come immediately to mind. When you get back around to transcribing maybe you could look up this one? I remember it as one of her lesser statements to be sure.

[Robert Campbell]

ND,

I think Rand's allegation that bilingual countries don't produce a lot of creative thinkers was in her main talk on "Global Balkanization." I'll have to check the recording of the talk to be sure, because it's been a long time. But the damaged audio of the Q&A (the first half of it, maybe a little more) that can be heard on atlashrugged.com doesn't include any questions like this.

I kind of doubt that she checked any statistics on the matter. Belgium didn't become a country until 1830, so who knows whether she was counting anyone from old Flanders and Wallonia, such as Johannes Ockeghem or Peter Paul Rubens?

Also, Switzerland, where they put four languages on the currency, would have to be a land of highly diminished creativity by her lights. Hmm, well, OK, in psychology both Jean Piaget and Carl Jung were Swiss.

Robert Campbell

[Dragonfly]

"Vlaamse" is Flemish for ... Flemish.

How different today's Flemish is from today's Dutch is a question that Dragonfly can answer and I can't.

The official language of Vlaanderen (Flanders), the Dutch speaking region in Belgium (to confuse matters, there is also a part in the Netherlands, called Zeeuws-Vlaanderen) is the same Dutch as in the Netherlands. In practice there are some differences (some typically Flemish words and constructions), so that we in most cases can see that a text has been written by a Belgian, but the Dutch of an educated Fleming is very close to that of a Dutchman (with less educated people local dialects have a stronger influence).

I think that the building mentioned would be "De Vlaamse Opera", but perhaps they've shortened it to "De Vlaamse".

[BaalChatzaf]

Also, Switzerland, where they put four languages on the currency, would have to be a land of highly diminished creativity by her lights. Hmm, well, OK, in psychology both Jean Piaget and Carl Jung were Swiss.

Robert Campbell

To say nothing of Leonard Euler (one of the greatest mathematicians, ever) and the Brothers Bernouli.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Dragonfly]

I kind of doubt that she checked any statistics on the matter. Belgium didn't become a country until 1830, so who knows whether she was counting anyone from old Flanders and Wallonia, such as Johannes Ockeghem or Peter Paul Rubens?

Other well-known artists from the Belgian region: Van Eyck, the Brueghels, Memling, Van Dijck, Magritte, Delvaux, Ensor, Maeterlinck, Simenon, to name a few.

[BaalChatzaf]

In one of AR's answers she talked about her pet theory that countries with many languages produce fewer creative people, I'm pretty sure it was in the Q&A of the Global Balkanization talk. There were plenty of great Benelux creators though, Rembrandt, Spinoza, and Huygens come immediately to mind. When you get back around to transcribing maybe you could look up this one? I remember it as one of her lesser statements to be sure.

AR said many Just Plain Wrong Dumb Ass Things (as most of us do, from time to time). It was her acolytes who were instrumental in causing her errors to persist. They defended them against all fact and good sense simply because the Mistress uttered them. What about the howler that a women should not be President. Jeez!

Ba'al Chatzaf

[tjohnson]

Today's Tuesday, n'est pas?

"n'est-ce pas?"

I think Austin Powers says "n'est pas".

[Dragonfly]

It looked Slavic to me, I thought it was weird at the time but didn’t know the explanation. Everything in Belgium was in multiple languages, and most everyone spoke English to boot. Great beer, too, the best, I loved Belgium. I’m feeling envy for Dragonfly, he’s probably just an hour’s train ride away.

When I lived in the south-west of the country it was a bit more than a 1 hour drive to Antwerpen. Now I live in the north of the country and I'd have to drive 3.5 hours to the same destination. For me now for example the German cities Bremen and Hamburg are much closer (1.5 and 2.5 hours). And I prefer the German beer, my favorite is Jever Pilsener, in my opinion the best beer in the world...

[9thdoctor]

ND,

I think Rand's allegation that bilingual countries don't produce a lot of creative thinkers was in her main talk on "Global Balkanization." I'll have to check the recording of the talk to be sure, because it's been a long time. But the damaged audio of the Q&A (the first half of it, maybe a little more) that can be heard on atlashrugged.com doesn't include any questions like this.

I kind of doubt that she checked any statistics on the matter. Belgium didn't become a country until 1830, so who knows whether she was counting anyone from old Flanders and Wallonia, such as Johannes Ockeghem or Peter Paul Rubens?

Also, Switzerland, where they put four languages on the currency, would have to be a land of highly diminished creativity by her lights. Hmm, well, OK, in psychology both Jean Piaget and Carl Jung were Swiss.

Robert Campbell

Alrighty, I looked it up, and it was in the body of the Global Balkanization talk. For some reason I felt compelled to retype it to share with all and sundry:

I want to mention a hypothesis of mine, which is only a hypothesis because I have given no special study to subject of bilingual countries, i.e., countries that have two official languages. But I have observed the fact that bilingual countries tend to be culturally impoverished by comparison to the major countries whose language they share in part. Bilingual countries do not produce many great, first-rate achievements in any intellectual line of endeavour, whether in science, philosophy, literature, or art. Consider the record of Belgium (which is French speaking in part) as against the record of France-or the record of Switzerland (a trilingual country) as against the record of France, of Germany, of Italy-or the record of Canada as against the record of the United States.

The cause of the poor records may lie in the comparative territorial smallness of those countries-but this does not apply to Canada versus the United States. The cause may lie in the fact that the best, most talented citizens of the bilingual countries tend to emigrate to the major countries-but this still leaves the question: Why do they?

My hypothesis is as follows: the policy of bilingual rule (which spares some citizens the necessity to learn another language) is a concession to, and a perpetuation of, a strong ethnic-tribalist element within a country. It is an element of anti-intellectuality, conformity, and stagnation. The best minds would run from such countries: they would sense, if not know it consciously, that tribalism leaves them no chance.

Ayn Rand, Global Balkanization

Given the qualifications she makes at the outset, she's not totally off the rails, but this still isn't one of her fine moments. I'd like to hear someone from the Orthodoxy address what she actually said about homosexuality, the psychological immorality formulation. And plainly state the conclusion: she was dead wrong, off her game, bowling a gutter ball that night.

And I prefer the German beer, my favorite is Jever Pilsener, in my opinion the best beer in the world...

Argh! Never heard of it, where's it from? I can get decent Belgian beer here, Hoeggarden and Leffe for instance, and various Bavarian ones. Beck's is from Bremen, you can get that anywhere in the US. I can't find a Kolsch though to save my life, or an Altbier.

EDIT: never mind DF, I googled it, looks like it's from Hamburg, and is available in the US, though I've never seen it. I'll be on the lookout.

Edited December 9, 2009 by Ninth Doctor