Politics According To Krauthammer

Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago to Politics
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I just finished Charles Krauthammer's last book, "Things That Matter." It is so brillian that I literally found over 100 topics to discuss in this forum. But I won't. At the very start of the book he makes the point that no matter how much effort he puts into writing about science,medicine, art, poetry,architecture, chess, space, sports, numbers, in the end they must "bow to the sovereignty of politics."In trying to move the spectre of politics off the table he got into the Voyager probes and whose voice narrated but Kurt Waldheim, a former NAZI. It prompted me to ask the Gulch one simple but extremely profound question: What one thing would you send on Voyager 1 and/or 2? Krauthammer finally winds up saying what biologist and philosopher Lewis Thomas proposed as evidence of human achievement ;the Complete works of Bach.(Personally, I would have chosen Beethoven). So, am asking this forum, if you were allowed to send only one item on Voyager 1 or 2, what would it be? Remember you are representing all of earth from fauna to flora, from philosophy to nonsense, from math to quantum. Just one thing. Music? Science? words? go for it.

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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am 73, so I will be lucky to see much more than The liberals trying to impeach trump. At least it will make my remaining time more pleasant before the real ship hits the fan.

    Obama did us a great disservice by ruining healthcare. Not only did he raise the insurance rates, he made the deductibles so high people cant affort to use it after they pay the high rates.

    To boot, he made medicare the ONLY insurance us old folks can get, and made it so complicated and unprofitable that the really good hospitals like Mayo wont even take new patients.

    I did find a program at mayo that costs $500 a month- like a concierge service- that lets medicare people get some access
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It was more of an emotional reaction. I didnt see him that much on TV, so I didnt really analyze my reaction. He did seem somewhat argumentative with the FOX anchors, and that might have been part of it. I do remember a couple of times I thought he was way off base on his comments, but to be honest I dont remember what he said.

    I was surprised near his end when I saw he was paralyzed. That was hidden a lot, just like it was with FDR. I wouldnt have changed my opinion of him had I seen him paralyzed, in fact probably would have thought more highly of him for overcoming what most of us dont have to battle.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Who knows what evolution has in store for a deaf, or blind creature. What alternate senses would be used instead. As to encounters of the 3rd kind, --not too likely. Think of a Roulette wheelwhose diameter is the size of a galaxy. What appears as a cluster is actually unimaginably distant from one athor. Sort of like shooting a pistol at two targets, a mile apart and expecting to hit both targets.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Too many greats to count. Perhaps a trio of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Not only an illustration of the progression of musical composition but great music that also exists for itself alone. However, the proper order should be, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 8 months ago
    Voyager might be anticlimactic for the aliens since they might have been receiving our radio and tv for many years before finding Voyager - unless they have FTL travel or are harmed by or are unable to grok radio waves.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago
    Looks like my family's ten year reunion. Their ideas are as concretized as those Moeis.
    I always hoped to visit there. Should I initiate a go fund me page. Actually I rather go to Puma Punko in Central America, they have dozens of beautifully rendered giant stone letter "H" beautifully rendered, which are totally impossible.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Fortunately (for me) I will likely be gone by then and so, I leave the land of the ? and the home of the ? to you and hope you all survive.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It's a genius who can make such complex thoughts so accessible.And then, write a column as easy to read as one by Howard Cosell.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It could work on a strictly intellectual basis. One mind to another, possibly via math using binary code.
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  • Posted by rtpetrick 6 years, 8 months ago
    I also read Dr. Krauthammer's last book. I found that I needed to have a dictionary near at hand because he used vocabulary, on almost every page, that I'd never seen before. I made notes in the margins. The man, not unlike William F. Buckley, had a magnificent vocabulary.
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  • Posted by rtpetrick 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Hmmmm. Really ? Why? What reasons do you have for disliking Charles Krauthammer?
    NO fight...just curious.
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago
    I never liked Krauthammer, and used to turn off FOX when he ws on.
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  • Posted by term2 6 years, 8 months ago
    The last gasp of the original american spirit before the socialists take over completely and destroy it. The would be a picture of Donald Trump.

    Once Trump leaves office, it will be occupied by true collectivists, and we will get medicaid for everyone, guaranteed income, a flood of uncontrolled immigration, and the loss of america's economic dominance and world power.

    Despite Ayn Rand and her hope that AS would turn the tide, it hasnt at all.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 6 years, 8 months ago
    I think that one of the reasons they went with music was because it is a basic form of communication with a lower common denominator than the written (or spoken word). Music is harmonic and mathematical at a fundamental level, so for that reason I, too, would include music.

    "Toccata and Fugue" vs "Ode to Joy"? Tough call. I'd probably sent both, along with Mozart's "Requiem", Tchaikovski's ballet "The Nutcracker", Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" (now there's a lengthy one for you), and Wagner's "Ring". And probably John Williams' theme from "Jurassic Park". Just because I love the bass line. ;)
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  • Posted by $ gharkness 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    And ears. Who knows what sort of functionality any other life form would have to even know it was music or to hear it? Not that we shouldn't TRY; I actually think it's a good idea, but they may or may not ever have a clue what we were trying to say.

    We'll never know. More's the pity.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think a montage of civilization. Downtown Manhatten, to illustrate a civilization playing Larry B.,s 3rd symphony in the back ground.
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