How many people recognized Joshua Bell, famous violinist?

Full article and videos:
The Washington Post wanted to see if people would stop and appreciate one of the world's most famous violinists playing as a street violinist. This article tells the entire story of what happened when Joshua Bell played in the Washington Metro Station during morning rush hour. Read and see how many people recognized masterpieces being played on a Stradivarius by a musical genius. Short videos are interspersed throughout the article.

PEARLS BEFORE BREAKFAST: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

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Interesting info. re. electrosensitivity

*Who was the first person to suffer from ElectroSensitivity?* *www.electrosensitivity.org * It's believed that the first case was reported by the inventor, physicist & mechanical engineer Nikola Tesla. Described by many as a 'genius', and recognized as one of the greatest technological scientists of all time, Tesla suffered late on in his life from a very severe illness believed to be due to exposure to high levels of electromagnetic fields throughout his life. The Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography of Tesla, written by his close friend John O'Neill described his extreme sensitivities: "To doctors he appeared at death's door. The strange manifestations he exhibited attracted the attention of a renowned physician, who declared that medical science could do nothing to aid him. One of the symptoms of the illness was an acute sensitivity of all the sense-organs. His senses had always been extremely keen, but this sensitivity was now so tremendously exaggerated that the effects were a form of torture. The ticking of a watch three rooms away sounded like the beat of hammers on an anvil. The vibration of ordinary city traffic, when transmitted through a chair or bench, pounded through his body. It was necessary to place the legs of his bed on rubber pads to eliminate the vibrations. Ordinary speech sounded like thunderous pandemonium. The slightest touch had the mental effect of a tremendous blow. A beam of sunlight shining on him produced the effect of an internal explosion. In the dark he could sense an object at a distance of a dozen feet by a peculiar creepy sensation in his forehead. His whole body was constantly wracked by twitches and tremors. His pulse, he said, would vary from a few feeble throbs per minute to more than a hundred and fifty. Throughout this mysterious illness he was fighting with a powerful desire to recover his normal condition. ".

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Superb Swiss Drum Corps! Video

Talk about Precision!!! These guys are incredible! I wonder how long it takes to practice this and get it perfect?

DRUMS OF SWITZERLAND: http://www.biertijd.com/oudbruin/content.php?article.668

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Hilarious interview of Jon Stewart with Rachel Maddow

on the Daily Show:

See it at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/08/rachel-maddow-on-daily-sh_n_156165.html

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How We Treat Our Vets -- Kick 'em out!

This article from the Army Times tells a new chapter in a very sad story -- not only denial of benefits to our vets, but blaming them for their disorders caused by the terrible conditions they have had to endure. This kind of treatment of our vets has been the norm under the Bush administration -- I hope Obama will be honoring our veterans, instead of booting them out the door! How our troops have been mistreated and ignored during the Bush years is the SHAME of our nation!!! They were sent into an unnecessary war started on lies, were exposed to depleted uranium and other toxic substances which are now causing their illnesses and deaths, suffered PTSD which has been mostly ignored, and now they are being BLAMED and PUNISHED for their illness! More "compassionate conservatism" at work. 79% of our population have had enough of this type of "compassion." Yet there are still 21% dyed-in-the-wool Republicans who actually think Bush & Cheney were representative of Republican principles (neocon-ism is NOT Republicanism in my book!) -- and still continue to defend them. Go figure.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_ptsd_discharge_010709w/

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A story to ponder -- How Much Do We Perceive and Appreciate Beauty?

I think this true story says a great deal about our rushed lifestyle in the U.S. in the 21st century. I heard a man on NPR yesterday -- didn't get his name -- saying that perhaps the economic crisis we are all beginning to experience, with its threats to become another great depression, will eventually bring us back to a quieter, simpler existence in which people actually get to take vacations and work only 40 hours a week and have time to plant gardens and get closer to nature and spend time with their children, instead of rushing pell-mell, running like rats on a wheel, day after weary day.

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, a man leaned against the wall to listen to him, but then the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother hurriedly tagged him along, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pulled hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.

Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were:

In a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:

Do we perceive beauty?

Do we stop to appreciate it?

Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

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IF ONLY DEPARTMENT: a VERY interesting article on Bush from Vanity Fair magazine

IF ONLY MORE PEOPLE HAD READ THIS AT THE TIME!!! HISTORY MIGHT HAVE BEEN CHANGED!!!

THE ACCIDENTAL CANDIDATE: Written in October 2000 by Gail Sheehy, who had done in-depth research on Bush, it gives strong warnings to those who had the ears to hear. Instead, we were given 8 years of hell under the "leadership" of the idiot from Texas. If only the voters had paid attention! Here's the article that could have made all the difference, had enough people read it and listened to what it was saying: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2000/10/bush200010

I remember reading Sheehy's article back then and thinking to myself, "Oh my God, I hope this idiot doesn't get into power. We will be hosed!" (And we Were!) In this past election, I had the same feeling about McCain and Palin (especially Palin!) and am thankful to the gods for not imposing yet another idiot on us. That would have been the death knell for our nation! It's not clear yet whether the death knell has not already been sounded for our country because of the damage done to us by Cheney and Bush. I hope and pray Obama can turn us around, but it is beginning to look like it may be too late. Eight years of the Bush and Cheney poison may have been too toxic for us to recover from. At the very least, it will be a long, uphill battle for recuperation and recovery.

This excerpt alone should have told us the kind of president he would be, and it's exactly the kind he WAS: nothing engages Bush's attention for more than an hour, an hour max—more like 10 or 15 minutes. His workday as governor of Texas is "two hard half-days," as his chief of staff, Clay Johnson, describes it. He puts in the hours from 8 to 11:30 a.m., breaking it up with a series of 15-minute meetings, sometimes 10-minute meetings, but rarely is there a 30-minute meeting, says Johnson. At 11:30 he's "outtahere." He tries everything possible to have at least two hours of what he calls private time in the middle of the day to go over to the University of Texas track or run a hard three to five miles on a concrete path at a pace of 7.5 minutes a mile, then relax and return to the office at 1:30, where he'll play some video golf or computer solitaire until about three, and then it's back to the second "hard half-day" until 5:30.

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The Greatest Greatness of George W. Bush

Another EXCELLENT analysis of the legacy of the Idiot and his puppeteer Cheney!

The Greatest Greatness of George W. Bush
By William Rivers Pitt

http://www.truthout.org/010709J

EXCERPT:
We the people are going to save you from ignominious oblivion. We will remember. You could be the president who doomed America, the worst president of all time, but we must not, will not let that happen. You will be remembered differently, because we will hold the memory of you high, and behold you, and say, "Never, never, never again." We have tasted the soot and smelled the blood on the wind; we have seen how fragile our way of government is when placed in the hands of low men such as you, and because of that, you will be remembered for all time.

Your greatness will be defined by how we rise to overcome and undo what you have done. Your greatness will stand forever if we never, ever forget the hard, bitter lessons you taught us. We are responsible for this republic, for our Constitution, and for each other. We are our brother's keeper. You taught us that by becoming our Cain. You nearly slew us, but here we stand, and we defy the place in history you would relegate us to. We defy you, and by doing so, we rise.

Something like you must never again be allowed to happen to this country, and if we save ourselves by preventing you from ever happening again, your greatness is assured. You are the tallest of all possible warnings, and a promise all of us must solemnly and stalwartly keep. If we can damn you to the past, we will save our own future.

May you live forever, you son of a bitch.

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Blind teen, facing death, has no fear

An inspiring story about an exceptional being who, like dolphins, "sees with sound"!

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1521985.html

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Bush Spins Scandalous Neglect of Vets

The lies coming out of the Bush White House are getting bigger and bigger in a desperate attempt to salvage a reputation that is beyond salvation. Only the most mentally challenged Republicans believe any of it anymore -- and Democrats stopped listening LONG ago.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/010609b.html

EXCERPT:

Last month, trying to change the emerging historical consensus about a failed presidency, the White House published two lengthy reports, “Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush,” and “100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record.”

One of the surprising claims that stood out among the combined 90 pages of so-called accomplishments was the White House’s glowing assessment of Bush’s record on veterans’ issues. Bush claims he “provided unprecedented resources for veterans” over the past eight years and provided “the highest level of support for veterans in American history.”

“The President also increased the benefits available to those who have served our Nation and transformed the veterans health care system to better serve those who have sacrificed for our freedom,” both reports claim, adding that he “instituted reforms for the care of wounded warriors ... and dramatically expanded resources for mental health services.”

The White House made these claims in the face of what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld might have called a “known known” – that the treatment of veterans returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a national disgrace, highlighted most dramatically by the neglect and substandard care given wounded troops at Walter Reed and other military hospitals.

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The Kiss

A very touching story and photo: http://zecster.lbbhost.com/Pics/Kiss.html?41

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Fatuous, condescending Cheney: Olbermann

YEAH, KEITH!!!  Telling the truth, as always!  See video at: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Olbermann_calls_Cheney_fatuous_condescending_lunatic_0106.html

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Obama the Writer

EXCELLENT ARTICLE/INTERVIEW! An Interview with Douglas Wilson: Obama's writing suggests a surprising lesson from Abraham Lincoln: Style matters
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/a_talk_with_douglas_wilson/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6

I am in the midst of reading Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan, and have been thinking of how much Obama reminds me of Lincoln. What a difference from Bush! It's like going from hell to heaven... :-)

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IMPORTANT Article about Chemtrails

All you need to know to get an introductory explanation about them: http://www.rense.com/general4/fre.htm
For photos of chemtrails, go to google and plug in the word "chemtrails" -- you may be amazed at how much there is online on this subject

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Bush Sr. wants Jeb to be president

OH MY GOD!!! PUH-LEEZE!!! Talk about THE HUTZPAH of the BUSHES!!! How can this man even THINK this after what his eldest idiot son has done to our country?! We are limping and dying as a nation because of the Bush family. All we need is yet ANOTHER one to drive in the last nail in the coffin! (Worse yet, we know there are people in our country who would actually vote for another Bush and would no doubt welcome a ticket like Sarah Palin and Jeb Bush and/or Joe the Plumber!!! The blind leading the blind...)

If you can stand it, you can watch the video of this deluded old man at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/04/elder-bush-jeb-should-run_n_155073.html

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The Most Ridiculous Political Quotes of 2008

By Bob Cesca, www.huffingtonpost.com

FOR THOSE REPUBLICANS WHO STILL THINK SARAH PALIN IS INTELLIGENT AND WAS AN EXCELLENT VICE PRESIDENTIAL CHOICE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING. DO YOU REALLY WANT THIS WOMAN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012? PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE NOT SERIOUS! SHE IS A COLOSSAL JOKE! BUT THEN, I REMEMBER THAT MANY OF YOU VOTED FOR BUSH & CHENEY TWICE--AND THAT YOU REVERE JOE THE PLUMBER....(God help us all...)

There was one jaw-droppingly ridiculous quote that went almost entirely overlooked, perhaps because it was one of seemingly hundreds of nincompoopish displays of nincompoopery -- all of which were unforgivingly compressed into a dense, rapid-fire three months of political insanity.

This means only one thing. The quote comes from Governor Sarah Palin.

As I'm sure you'll recall, Sarah Palin had trouble with things like "facts" -- specifically and most shamefully, she had no idea what the Vice President of the United States does. I mean, no clue. Which is fine, I suppose, unless you're actually running to become, you know, the vice president. On several public occasions (I can't even imagine the verbal fumbling during private rehearsals), she was specifically asked to describe the job and I'm reasonably certain she never once got it right. For example:

...a Vice President has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the President agenda, they're like a team member, the team mate to that President. But also, they're in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it's a great job and I look forward to having that job.

Yeah, it sounds like a great job, if she had been running for Senate Majority Leader, that is.

And during the vice presidential debate -- the vice presidential debate! -- she was asked to describe the role of the vice president, and this was one of her two answers:

Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.

What about that agenda and there also? Cooperative with the president's... whah? And yet the post-debate conventional wisdom was that she somehow nailed it. Mark Halperin gave her a "B" and wrote: "...she succeeded enormously. She had a solid 90 minutes of rapid, confident discourse... didn't leave Tina Fey much to work with."

Yeah, she couldn't accurately or coherently describe the job for which she was campaigning, but since she didn't choke on her own tongue, well then, great success! And as for Tina Fey? The vice presidential debate sketch was probably the funniest of the year. Good call, Halperin.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Here now, The Most Ridiculous Political Quote of the Year, courtesy of Sarah Palin on October 4, 2008:

Q: One of the things you talked about last night was the flexibility the vice president has--

PALIN: Yeah.

Q: --Uh. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: Uh. That thankfully our founders were wise enough to say we have this position and it's constitutional -- vice president will be able to be not only the position flexible, but it's gonna be those other duties as assigned by the president. A simple thing.

That last sort-of sentence -- "a simple thing" -- was actually correct, believe it or not. The vice president's job description, according to the Constitution, is an extraordinarily simple thing. Which, consequently, makes it unbelievably difficult to butcher. Like Sarah Palin did. Multiple times. But in this instance, on the FOX News Channel with Carl Cameron, she couldn't even form actual sentences using words that line up to form a coherent thought. In fact, I would love to see the sentence structure for "vice president will be able to be not only the position flexible." Position flexible?

That she wasn't summarily laughed off of the national stage right then and there is a testament to the forgiveness of horny middle-aged white Republican men. Yes, in 2008 the Republicans nominated for vice president a person who on multiple occasions couldn't accurately say: The vice president breaks ties in the Senate, and succeeds the president if he or she is killed or incapacitated. Instead we got something about "position flexible" and a lot of winking.

And she's already being championed as a favorite for the Senate in 2010 -- not to mention as a serious contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. This naturally means we'll get to hear more from Sarah Palin for many years to come as a de facto leader of the Republican Party. We can only hope that she'll be asked to describe these jobs many, many times along the way.

Happy New Year Position Flexible There Also!

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A Necessary Public Laundering--Yer Darn Tootin'!

by Bob Higgins from www.smirkingchimp.com

EXCERPT:
In an opinion piece in today's Washington Post Ruth Marcus poses the question:

"Should Bush administration officials be put on trial for crimes such as authorizing torture?"

The answer to that question is a simple and unequivocal "not yes, but, Hell yes, absolutely, yer darn tootin'!"

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/19488

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A Must-read Essay!

Comparing today's world with the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup comedy:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/010209a.html

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At elephant sanctuary, here are two unlikely friends

We could learn so much from animals...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/02/assignment_america/main4696340.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

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How Low Can We Go? Seems We Haven't Reached Bottom Yet!

Today I received the following e-mail from a Bush supporter: Suppose We Won and No One Told Us. You can read the article at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=300324023809577 and judge it for yourself. My own opinion is as follows:

What a wonderful example Bush has set for future presidents to follow! When you get attacked by one country (most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis), attack another that has done nothing to you (especially if your family is great friends $$$ with the Saudis). Make up lies to justify your attack. Big Lies. GIANT Lies. Talk about mushroom clouds. Amp up the fright in the citizenry -- get 'em really scared by all your lies so they'll approve your ridiculous plan. Then, when millions have died and your own country has been brought to its knees, tell the people you have "won" the war you started on lies! In spite of what is before their very eyes, many of them will believe it.

Hmmm....it seems to me this has been done before. Even in our lifetime....Anyone remember Hitler? And his country wasn't even attacked. Yet the foolish people followed along like lemmings, believing all his huge lies--and praised him. God help us all -- we never learn a damn thing from history. Now the Republicans are trying to make a hero out of Bush, the biggest IDIOT to ever inhabit the White House, bar none! He makes Buchanan look good. Republicans are now giving praise for an administration that approved torture and which, once it was discovered, then blamed the little guys for carrying out their orders. Bush and Cheney and Rice are trying to rewrite history--they're now out on the circuit desperately delivering up more lies for their brainwashed followers to swallow. Yeah, these are great heroes. Marvelous examples of what our country can produce as "leaders."

After eight long years of hellish, evil leadership, our country is dead, probably beyond revivification. The principles on which it was founded have been thrown into the trash. Our Constitution has been shredded. But the Bush-supporting Republicans (thank God their number has been decreasing rapidly as more people awaken to the truth) haven't noticed, they are so busy praising the idiot and his puppet master who have brought us to the end of our "empire." Hoping against hope that their hero Bush's reputation will miraculously be raised from the dead when history has judged him, they go sadly on, praising the dolt in order to justify their votes for him. From Cheney and Bush, lies follow damned lies -- and the bigger those lies are, the wider their followers' mouths (and the smaller their brains) have to be in order to swallow them. Yet they keep doing so, even if their nonsensical behavior should eventually choke them to death.

Praising their "fearless leader," the Republicans now claiming "victory" ignore all of the underhanded tactics that took place during the trillion-dollar war started on Bush and Cheney's lies. In desperation, the Bush administration finally bribed Sunni insurgents, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to get them to change sides. This, more than military tactics, is responsible for the lessening of al Qaeda's influence in Iraq. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2413200.ece and http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-29-3345723750_x.htm

A terrible war of devastation, started on lies against a country that did nothing to us and that led to the killing and maiming of millions, is now being lauded as having been "won," and the liars that started it are being praised. In this defense of Bush and Cheney, we have sunk about as low as we can go. The one thing that could cheer me would be to see them held responsible for their criminal acts -- arrested, indicted, and imprisoned for all the destruction and havoc they have wreaked on the world.

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