Questions of the day

1)  Where is midtown miscreant?

2)  When will he be back?

3)  WILL he be back?

4)  Is he okay?  (We assume he is. Naturally, we hope he is).

Inquiring minds want to know.



Midtown?

You out there, buddy?

I'm so old...

(Taken from a link from Midtown Miscreant's blog--The American Digest, to be open about it). Have a great holiday weekend, y'all.

Price Development: Yet more corporate blackmail

There's a story in last week's Pitch Magazine ("Unhappy Meals", see link below), telling of one Price Development Group that wants to build a 4-story retail, commercial building at the corner of 39th Street and Stateline Road but to do it, they'll need "a tax break of $2.76 million." Sound familiar? It should. It's just one more example of a development group who hands out their hat to some local government--in this case, the suckers over at KCMO City Hall--wanting a handout so they can build what will likely be a profitable building anyway. As I've written here before, it's just corporate blackmail and there's far too much of it. Forget that it's near KU Med Center and that a big development of yet more offices and business is already being put in, as we speak. Forget that they bought the building in 2007, boarded it up, didn't get a tenant in and then let the building go to heck. Forget all that. All that's important now is that they need the city's tax money to make yet more money. They say they need the handout help. You know what's additionally sick--really sick--about this, too? Two things. First, they'll likely get it and second? I bet all the bigwigs at this company--Price Development--are "Conservatives" and Republicans--maybe even Libertarians--who are all for "small government" and not giving handouts to people who need it. Wanna' bet? How long are we going to let people and groups do this stuff to us? Let's stop being suckers for this nonsense. Let's give them the "free market Capitalism" they're always bitching about. Whaddya' say? Link: http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2011/09/07/request-for-tax-break-comes-with-threat-of-french-fries

Local's take on the bin Laden takedown that shouldn't be missed

"I hear over and over that Islam is a religion based on love, peace, and saffron grease. Muslims, real Muslims, refute violence and jihads, and flying planes into buildings full of secretaries and stock brokers. At least that's the story we get. If in fact that is the case, then Bin Laden shouldn't be considered a good Muslim in the eyes on non extremist regular Muslims.  As for the radical types. These clowns have decapitated Allah knows how many reporters and contractors, on video, which they posted proudly on Jihadtube, or whatever passes for it. We don't owe this particular group of cave men any courtesy or consideration. We do owe them the same thing that Osama got, which was one to the face and one to the chest. As for pissing them off, I think we accomplished that mission when we raided what passes for a mansion in the middle of nowhere and killed their poster boy."  --Midtown Miscreant 


Link to original post:  http://midtownmiscreant.blogspot.com/2011/05/ill-have-hypocrisy-special-and-glass-of.html?showComment=1304534051799#c6952682258885250411

(Great) Quote of the Day

"Prisons are full of former abused, molested, and neglected children."  --Mark Smith, aka "Midtown Miscreant"

But we always want to be angry at people.  We don't want to know how they got to where they got.  We don't want information, we want judgement.

And too frequently, condemnation.

Links:  http://www.pitch.com/2008-12-25/news/midtown-miscreant-blogger-mark-smith-finds-cheer-in-kansas-city-s-most-depressing-places/
http://midtownmiscreant.blogspot.com/

On cynicism

Having gone over this morning to Midtown Miscreant's blog for another reliable good read (If you haven't seen it, you might want to as it's good, he's funny and he's right, I think:  http://midtownmiscreant.blogspot.com/2011/01/fast-eddie-friday-house-cat-with.html)

It got me to thinking about cynics and cynicism so I looked up a formal definition of cynicism.  I found this on Wikipedia:

Cynicism (Greek: κυνισμός), in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics (Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici). Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a simple life free from all possessions. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for humans. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society. Many of these thoughts were later absorbed into Stoicism.


Check that out:  "the purpose of life" is "to live a life of virtue in agreement with nature."  


Zounds.  


That doesn't sound very cynical, at least not by our current usage of the word, does it?  And "rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health" (I don't understand that last one) "and fame, and by living a simple life free from all possessions."  "...happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which" is "natural for humans."  "...the world belonging equally to everyone..." and "...suffering...caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society."


Far from our current ideas of cynicism, this sounds positively virtuous, positive, supportive and democratic (in the bigger, older form of the word, having nothing to do with any political party).


How did this word turn in usage?


Or, to be more specific, how did we get so cynical?


Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism

Great insights

If you haven't read Midtown Miscreant's latest post , you need to.

Go.

Do it.

Now.

Then, read his Part 1 of this thought process from yesterday .

And thank him.

This from a "liberal" who's supposed to want people to "get off easy", right?