Text 20680, 117 rader
Skriven 2008-09-12 15:52:00 av Lee Lofaso (3:800/432.0)
  Kommentar till text 20651 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Bubble burst?
=====================
Hello Robert,

>BF>Of course you (as usual) did your best to ridicule me then, and tell
>BF>everyone that I was wrong because you were right, so maybe you've
>BF>decided (or your unconscious you did) to block it all out of your
>BF>memory?

RB>My memory is apparently better than yours, as I only
RB>ridiculed the polemics, saying that what goes up generally
RB>also goes down.

And what goes down generally also goes up.  Barfing comes to mind.
On a more serious note, the best investors know all about this axiom.
As well as political economists.  Buy low, sell high.  That is the
secret for success.

RB>And now it appears I actually was right.

We are all right, within the confines of our own minds.

RB>A considered opinion is always better than wild swings based on
RB>emotional reactions.

Au contraire.  A musician seeks to evoke an immediate emotional
response from his/her audience.  If a musician fails to do this,
that musician is doing a very poor job.

Of course, a musician is a performing artist, much like an actor.
And a politician (at least the best of them) has to be an actor.
Ronald Reagan was both an actor and a politician.  What made
Reagan such a great politician?  He knew how to act, given his
profession as an actor (he did it so well).  Reagan used his acting
ability to evoke an immediate emotional response from his audience.
On both radio and television.

When you think about it, that is exactly what John McCain is
trying to do today in his bid for the presidency.  Be an actor,
trying to evoke an immediate emotional response from the audience.
You see, John McCain is an emotional guy.  A real Navy guy.  One
with a temper.  And yes, John McCain is also a song and dance man,
as he performed on Saturday Night Live for all to see.

That does not mean that musicians make the best actors or politicians,
or that politicians make the best actors or musicians.  Only that they
do have something in common, being performing artists.

The best actors are comedians, or former comedians.  All comedy
is based on tragedy, as William Shakespeare knew so well.  That is
why we find it funny when somebody slips on a banana peel and falls
to the floor.  John McCain often jokes about his advanced age, the
audience laughing with him as a result.  Of course, the youngster
Sarah Palin will have to settle for different kinds of jokes if
she wants to succeed.

Hurricane Gustav swept through this area last week causing power
outages everywhere.  But there is humor in such tragedy -

A few days ago I saw a policeman drive his police car on the sidewalk
by the parking lot at Wal-Mart, which then ran over a garbage can, and
which blew up the front end of the police car.  Everybody in the parking
lot laughed their heads off at what they saw, except for the cop sitting
in his busted up police car.  I stopped by the next day, and there were
no garbage cans anywhere on the grounds of Wal-Mart, probably on orders
from the police department.

A caller to a radio station on the day the storm made landfall -

"I'm blind!  I can't see!  The lights are out!"

Another caller to a radio station -

"What do I do with the old batteries?  Who should I call?"

The dj told the caller to call the mayor.

Several other callers were just as stupid, if not moreso.

In a sense, the poor fellow who slipped on a banana peel was a
performing artist.  In a sense, the cop who blew up his police car
was a performing artist.  Both were comedians, having performed a
tragic act.  Both managed to evoke an immediate emotional response
from their audience.  In a sense, callers to radio stations were
also actors, providing entertainment for others affected by the
storm.

Not all artists are performing artists.

An artist (visual artist), such as a painter or a sculptor, seeks to
generate a considered opinion from his/her audience.  IOW, the audience
has to actually think about what it sees before that audience can form
an opinion.  Not sure of any president who was a visual artist, with
the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln (who was really a woman in
drag).

A writer or novelist is another kind of artist (literary artist),
the audience having to think or reflect upon what it has read before
it can form an opinion.  John F. Kennedy, in his "Profiles of Courage",
was such an artist.  Jimmy Carter, author of several books, including
one work of fiction, is such an artist.  Barack Obama, in his two books,
is also such an artist.

Bill Clinton is a performing artist (played sax on the Arsenio Hall
Show and in the French Quarter in New Orleans), as well as a literary
artist.  Not sure if he has any other talents, aside from working
out crossword puzzles while using an ink pen.

Hillary Clinton might pretend to be a culinary artist, but is a
terrible cook.  I have her recipe for chicken and rice.  Truly awful.
If you don't believe me, I'll post it here so there will be no doubt.

--Lee


 * SLMR 2.1a * "Desire is irrelevant.  I am a machine." - Terminator

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Xaragmata / Adelaide SA telnet://xaragmata.thebbs.org (3:800/432)