Kire Schneider: Anita Ekberg Tribute

Source:Celebrities Team- The Swedish Goddess Anita Ekberg.

Source:The New Democrat

“Tribute to Anita Ekberg (1931 – 2015)”

From Celebrities Team 

"Anita Ekberg Tribute" 

Source:The Queen of The Prom- The Swedish Goddess Anita Ekberg.

From The Queen of The Prom 

As I mentioned last week, Anita Ekberg was like the other Hollywood bombshell Goddess’s of the 1950s, like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, but like Angie Dickinson, Gena Rowlands, Kim Novak, and others she was better. Physically about as adorable as the first group of women that I just mentioned, as well as hot, tall with a great Nordic body, but she was better.

Anita Ekberg wasn’t a 1950s actress, or a fad, flash in the pan, the hot celebrity of the moment like a lot of so-called entertainers today who are only famous in a lot of cases because they either look good in tight designer outfits, or have blunt, filthy, mouths (And I’m thinking of what’s called reality TV) Or they’re married to a famous man with a famous personality.

To have a long successful career in Hollywood or Europe as an actor or actress, you actually have to be able to act. Which I know sounds foreign to people who are only familiar with movies and shows from the last 20 years or so. You have to know what you’re doing, what you’re good at, what roles fit you, what you do best, how to communicate with the media.

If you look at Anita from the last 1950s and then go up 40 years, what’s changed about her other than she’s forty years older? She’s still gorgeous, she’s still very cute, she still has a beautiful body, she’s still sharp, she still has that quick, straightforward wit. And perhaps the most important thing that separates her from Marilyn and Jayne, she’s still working. She grew up but it didn’t take her several marriages and stints in rehab clinics to grow up. Unlike Marilyn and Jayne who never grew up personally and emotionally, Anita did that as a young woman.

I believe two great movies where you really see how good as an actress and not just a comedic or dramatic actress, but as an actress that Anita was, was The Inside Man and 4 For Texas.

The Inside Man where she plays a private detective in search of jewelry that she’s believes is her’s that was stolen from her.

In The Inside Made, she exchanges wisecracks with Jack Palance in that movie, as well as other things. 4 For Texas where she exchanges wisecracks with one of the best smart assess who has ever lived in Frank Sinatra.

Anita Ekberg was a Hollywood Goddess not just because of her Goddess appearance, that was certainly a big part of that. A woman with that body who is also that adorable with those hot baby face features with the eyes, the cheeks, the smile, the voice. But also and just as important she was a hell of an actress as well. I believe born for dramatic comedy and soap operas. 

Archive TV: Anita Ekberg Documentary: The Swedish Goddess

Source:Archive TV- The Swedish Goddess Anita Ekberg.

Source:The New Democrat 

"BBC Four - Arena, 1999." 

From Archive TV

In the 1950s in Hollywood, there was this blonde bombshell trend that was going on there. Directors and producers, studio executives, were looking got the next hot blonde actress. Gorgeous, curvy, sexy women, who also happened to be blonde and of Nordic or Slavic background. Or at least had the physical look of a Nordic Slavic woman. A woman who is tall, curvy, athletic looking, gorgeous and very cute as well. Kim Novak was part of this era, Marilyn Monroe who by herself made this look popular of the hot blonde with the great curves and the baby face. Followed by Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, Kim Novak, Angie Dickinson, Gena Rowlands, Diana Dors, I'm sure I'm leaving some women out, but one woman I'm not leaving out here is Anita Ekberg.

Jayne Mansfield was expected to be the next Marilyn Monroe. Diana Dors was expected to the Marilyn of Britain. Anita Ekberg wasn't the Marilyn of Sweden, but she was better than I believe all of these women at least physically. She was more responsible with her life lived to 82 unlike Marilyn who dies at 36 from probably a drug overdose. Jayne dies at 34 in a car accident, Diana dies at 53 from cancer. The other women that I mentioned are still alive and well and in some cases still working.

Anita Ekberg ( The Swedish Goddess ) was hotter and sexier than I believe all of these women and I believe part of that at least was that as adorable as she was and she was a hot baby like all these women were with the gorgeous baby face and great Swedish voice and accent to match. But she was a Hollywood Goddess because she was a grew up. She managed her life very well and took care of herself. Wasn't immature like Marilyn and Jayne and didn't have a little girl or teenage girl's personality and lack of maturity, to match her adorable baby face. Marilyn and Jayne were both so adorable and came off as childlike a lot of times, because their personalities were as cute and immature as their appearances.

Anita and Diana Dors, didn't have those problems. They knew they were good at least if not great and didn't have identity or self-confidence issues. They didn't burn our because people wanted to work with them and they wanted to keep working. And if you look at this documentary which is from 1999, Anita was 67-68 at this point and lived another 14 years and still looked great. Still gorgeous, still very cute, still very sharp. Still had that great voice.

Anita was a true Hollywood Goddess because as great as she looked and I believe she's one of the best looking woman to ever work in Hollywood at least, she stood the test of time and took care of herself, kept improving herself especially her craft and remained relevant as an actress her entire career. Unlike some of these other Hollywood Goddess's who burned out early in life.

George Carlin: 'Life is Worth Losing- Dumb Americans'

Source:George Carlin- The great comedian George Carlin in 2005.

Source:The New Democrat 

"Life Is Worth Losing - Dumb Americans - George Carlin. From HBO Life Is Worth Losing." 

From George Carlin

Warning! This piece might contain language that may offend people who are still living in the 1950s and forgot to move with the times in America as the rest of country moved forward without them.

Just to say one thing about George Carlin: Goddammit, George Carlin fucking cussed a lot! What the fuck was his fucking problem? What kind of asshole fucking cusses that much? God dammit, he must have been fucking pissed off. 

Not that I would ever tell George C to watch his fucking language, because someone like that who is generally that angry not just at people, but basically an entire country, probably wouldn't like that humor and perhaps not have even understood it. But he might have grasped the hypocrisy from a statement like that.

As far as stupid people in America: not saying we have a monopoly on that compared with the rest of the world. Especially with countries that don't allow women to even drive cars or show themselves in public, who murder people simply for being gay through government force. As well as terrorists who murder people simply for not being Muslim, as well as gay. 

But America might have more than our share of stupid people especially with a region of the country that values their religion over education and knowledge. That alone can create a lot of problems there when people who simply don't respect knowledge and think Jesus or whoever they pray to is all they need. That alone would qualify as stupid thinking, or lack of thinking.

See, people who don't have knowledge tend to be stupid. Knowledgable people tend to be intelligent. The actual definition of intelligent is someone who is having or showing intelligence, especially at a high level. The actually definition of stupid, is having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. Someone who takes America to war over bogus (to be overly generous ) evidence that never existed in the first place, is the classic definition of s stupid decision. Making a decision on no real evidence and information.

Buying stuff (or in many cases junk ) that you simply don't need and are buying it perhaps only because it's a status symbol for you like buying that latest smartphone simply because it's the latest smartphone, even though you bought the latest smartphone last week, would qualify as a stupid decision. Even if it did allow you to be one of the first five people to share that latest purchase on Facebook, Twitter, or perhaps my favorite Google+. Sure! That decision made you look like totally awesome (or whatever ) for an entire five minutes. But now you have two smartphones that you're not using and still paying for both of them.

When you have a country that is as vast and diverse from all sorts of vantage points and not just racially and ethnically, a country that is also as free and individualistic as we are (at least outside of pop culture, where most people look like a clone of the latest hot celebrity ) and then you have an entire population that values their religious and cultural beliefs over knowledge, reason, and science, you're going to have a lot of stupid people. 

America has a lot of people who are literally free to do whatever they want short of hurting innocent people, including deciding to not be educated and not believe evidence and facts. This is why America at times at least can look like a national morons convention where everyone is late, because everyone went to the wrong place for the convention.

Politics & Prose: Bruce Bartlett: 'The Truth Matters'

Source:Politics & Prose- Author & columnist Bruce Bartlett.

Source:The New Democrat

"Bartlett’s handbook for telling real facts from alternative versions is a practical tool for citizens concerned about the quality of the news they consume. Bartlett, who served in both the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and more recently has written for Forbes and The New York Times “Economix” blog, is uniquely positioned to advise readers on how to evaluate sources for accuracy and reliability. Using his inside knowledge of both government and the journalists who cover it, Bartlett offers clear and direct guidelines for assessing  the truth value of what gets reported, how it’s reported, and where." 

From Politics & Prose

I don't want to make this all about Donald Trump, but when I thinking about The Truth Matters I think of that Kellyanne Conway line from February last year I believe when she's on NBC's Meet The Press with Chuck Todd and Todd asks her something about the truth and facts and Kellyanne looking back at it I believe she was somewhat reluctant in saying this because of how bad it would sound and make her look with the mainstream media going after her for about a week on this, but she said: "Well, there are alternative facts." With Todd essentially saying that no, they're aren't alternative facts. There's the truth and then there are falsehoods.

Alternative facts and Martians have one thing in common and even that is only one thing it's a very important thing: they don't exist.

You have facts which is the truth and and how people know what's going on with either themselves or people around them or in society in general.

There are falsehoods things that simply aren't true. And then there's garbage (to be nice) which is a nice way of saying lies.

The truth is what's going on and what's happening what we know to be true. America is a federal republic. That would be one truth.

Falsehoods are things that are simply wrong and people unintentionally say falsehoods all the time thinking what they said is correct not having the right information with them at the time that they said what they said or did what they did. Like the weather report saying that i's going to rain tomorrow and maybe it's an overcast day but the weather is dry the whole day because the storm moved onto another area.

And there's garbage or lies when people are representing things as the truth that simply aren't true. Like Donald Trump claiming he would work all the time and not spend as much time playing golf as President Obama. That was obviously a lie.

There's no such thing as freedom without facts and real hard information that people have to have to make the right decisions. Without the truth, you're a blind person with eyes feeling your way around the world never knowing for sure what's in front of you. But with the truth, as well as a sane, sound, intelligent, sober, experienced mind, you can be as free as a bird and do anything that you're personally capable of doing. 

The truth and always knowing what's going on and always knowing the truth about your self is the most important and effective tool and freedom that anyone can have. And when people especially public officials are caught telling either falsehoods or flat-out lying it's the job of the media and the public especially to always hold those people accountable. To promote this most important tool that people have and discourage the archenemy of the truth which is falsehoods and nonsense.

Politics & Prose: Robert Reich: 'The Common Good'

Source:Politics & Prose- Left-Wing Economist Robert Reich, at Politics & Prose in Washington.

Source:The New Democrat

"Robert B. Reich discusses his book, "The Common Good", at a Politics and Prose event at Sixth and I historic synagogue in Washington, DC on 2/22/18.

Robert B. Reich has been one of America's leading political thinkers since he served as Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. A constant voice for social change, Reich is the author of 14 books, including the best-sellers Saving Capitalism and The Work of Nations. Now, he makes the case for restoring the idea of the common good to the center of our economics, our politics, and our national identity. The Common Good argues that societies undergo both virtuous and vicious cycles, and that the vicious cycle the U.S. is now undergoing can and must be reversed. Reich challenges us to weigh what really matters, and to join forces to save America's soul." 

From Politics & Prose

In this long PBS style fundraiser marathon of a speech that Robert Reich gave in Washington about his book The Common Good, I got the sense that he was talking about what's called the social contract. This idea that Social Democrats/Democratic Socialists, push that government is there to make sure everyone is taken care and has what they need to live well in society. And Reich is probably using the New Deal from the 1930s and the Great Society from the 1960s, as his idea of what the social contract or the common good is.

As a Liberal, I'm all in favor of a public safety net for people who truly need it. And if we're going to continue to have a public safety net for people who are uneducated and under skilled, than that safety net should be used to empower people so they can get a good enough job to become economically self-sufficient and no longer need public assistance at all. Instead of just giving low-skilled workers and non-workers money that is produced by people who work hard for a living and don't qualify for public assistance.

I'm all if favor of requiring people to who are on Welfare to go to work and even take the first job that opens up for them that they're qualified for. As well as giving them child care assistance so they can go to work, if they have kids. As well as education assistance so they can go back to school and further and finish their education, so again they can get themselves a good job. That programs like Medicaid and Food Assistance, (to use as examples) Public Housing, would be another one, would be for low-income workers, instead of non-workers.

My idea of a safety net ( which I prefer over social contract or welfare state ) is a public social insurance system, there for people who can't survive even in the short-term without that financial assistance. But also there to help those people get on their feet economically. Similar to auto insurance, or property insurance. You don't use those insurances to pay your bills. You use them when your car is in an accident, or your house is on fire or gets flooded.

A safety net should be for people who lose their jobs, don't have a good education, can't afford health insurance, don't make enough money to feed themselves, can't afford housing. Not for people who simply don't want to work in America.