from the far reaching corners of the police state we called Gitmo
nation. It's time for your weekly quest to ask not what you
can do for your country but what your government is doing to you.
from Gitmo nation West in southwest London in the curry
terrace. I'm Adam curry,
and the West version. I'm John C. Dvorak here in Silicon Valley
north. I think that's your new catchphrase. You're gonna use
that from now on. I've got
to I've got the I like the Ask not what your government is
doing a NASA not what you can do for your country, what your
government is doing for you and I have a new one, which is not
not an original, but I love it. Capitalism without bankruptcy is
like religion without hell.
No, that's a good one. No, it's got to do with the show. But not
that. That's why I didn't use it. But it's a new catchphrase.
That's for sure.
Hey, John, how are ya?
Good. It's been raining.
No, really? Well, you deserve some out there.
I guess. Well, yeah. I suppose it's probably true. We needed it
actually, as if it was going to be long. Hot January. I mean, it
was like 75 for about 10 days in a row.
It's been cold here, dude. It's we had a it's actually it's been
all over the map we had all of a sudden we had a day when we had
or like two days of 10 to 12 degrees centigrade. And now it's
back down. It's really chilly. And
New York has similar weather. I've been watching I've been
watching the news on WPI XO sling box. Now it turns out the
Dish Network
isn't a channel 11 WpX Yeah, I used to watch that all the time.
We lived in New York. It's one of the I think it's is it still
an independent station? Or is it
you know, no, how they stay alive.
Independent Television is a ghost show going down the tubes
here in the in the United Kingdom we have so have BBC One
and two and there's also three but the main ones are one and
two. And then we have Channel Four, which has a very
interesting business model. It's public service broadcasting yet
they have commercials. It's crazy. And and they are losing
100 million pounds a year.
And so it's just stop the commercials that might help.
And so now there's kind of like this race going on because we
have one other real full blown terrestrial I think it's
terrestrial broadcast or channel five, or five, as they call it,
which is owned by RTL. And so let's
go let's Tim's
that's it. I thought Thames Television was more like a
production. I know. I don't know. Honestly.
What's ITN? Well,
we have ITV. Okay, what's,
what's sky?
Well sky is is is dish, I'm talking really about terrestrial
broadcast. And so they've been talking about merging the
commercial channel five with the half assed half commercial half
state run channel four. But I think what's going to happen is
they're going to be assimilated by the BBC, BBC Worldwide. It's
crazy manage. Everyone's just doing whatever they can.
What's BBC Three?
That's also that's a that's a full fledged BBC I,
what did they do, though? Actually, they
have the most interesting programme. That's really the
kind of the alternative channel that's where you'll find things
like the Mighty Boosh and real alternative off the wall comedy.
That's about it. They don't have a full 24 hour broadcast
schedule, they go off the air, and they don't come on until six
or seven in the evening.
So I don't know if it's the six or seven in the evening.
Yes. Yeah, they have no daytime programming, as far as I know.
And he has it, but it's great. You know, we're getting all
these new digital channels. Yeah, I don't know what we're
gonna fill them with. But they're coming
American crap.
Well, channel four is already filled with, you know, that's
the station that does the Big Brother shows and I'm a
Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and all that. And they still lose
100 million pounds here. How do you do it?
I don't think the market is big enough to sustain all those
channels. They're not the maybe people don't listen, to watch
the TV. You have to pay you have to have a licence. You know, I
think I guess some of our listeners know this and all the
British do. But you actually have to have a licence to own a
TV. It's like owning a gun.
Yeah, you when you go into a store, even if you go into the
Sainsbury's supermarket and buy a television or a radio, you
immediately have to fill out all of your details. And they have
commercials running about this too, which I'll tell you in a
second, but you fill out all your details. And you have to
pay I believe it's 157 pounds a year. It's less if you only have
a radio and you don't have a television and what they they
run these commercials all the time, which are really scary.
Like, don't think you can get away without paying for your TV
licence because it's in the data base.
Seriously, it's in the database, we know where you live, you
cannot get away from it.
You have to pay for every team. Well, if you have two TVs, you
have to pay twice as much. Now
you only have to pay for for one just if you have a TV and then
you can have as many as you want in, in the house, TV and radio.
Now they have these I know they used to do this years ago, but
they still do this where they had these these trucks with
these giant kind of dish dishes on the top that can aim at your
house and tell if you have a television. Yeah. Oh,
yeah, they have they have those. That's what they Well, I think
they used to use those now it's in the database, so you can't
get away from it.
But how is it going to be in the database if you're just you
know, if you got it, let's say I have a bootleg television set
somehow that I had a licence up in northern England and then I
come down and I just cancelled it and
moved well, I've had the benefit of moving a couple times. And
you have to go online and transfer your licence to a new
address. But already you know before I'd even done that I was
getting a mail at the new address saying you have to have
a licence you know we'll come and check you know all this kind
of semi threatening language so I don't know if they probably
just will go by any house and knock on the door and say do you
have a television if you don't if you don't have a licence for
it? According to
the sawed off
yeah, dude you know that repo guys even have the have the
right now to break and enter into your house and take away
your any shit they do. They call it a bailiff here, but it's
basically the repo man. They're allowed to break and enter and
take away your shit. So I'm sure that you can try the sawed off
the
wall won't fly.
Can you just have a TV? And there's a look at but yeah, but
it's not on? I don't use?
No, no, you have to have a licence if you own one. So this
is just
you know, it's onerous. But at the same time, it seems like
it's just a tax.
Well, yeah, but it's a voluntary tax because you don't have to
have a television. The thing that's stupid because it's, it's
a separate bill, which I like, but what's lame is that people
don't utilise and there's there's no real recourse, you
know, you should be able to say, hey, you know what, it's not the
value for money, fuck you, I'm not going to pay it. Or, you
know, or people should should organise and say, Let's just
stop paying the BBC. But they don't do that. Because I figured
something out. John, it's hit me. 12 years ago, we had a very
similar situation in the network. There was a similar
situation the United Kingdom as to the United States is going
through right now we had this fresh young guy come in, and he
was gonna save everything and New Labour and it's gonna be
fantastic. And yeah, you know, sure. He's gonna hang a couple
cameras up, but it's all for our protection and the place has
become a complete police state. And people have no way out of
it. You can't protest legally, there's all kinds of stuff. And
and that's what well, you can look forward to that in, in the
United States in the next at least in the next four years.
It'll get started.
Well, apparently Obama's already like, snapped at the reporters
who asked him a question when it wasn't allowed to yell. Dude,
I've been watching the live coverage. C span is my new
favourite channel used to be CNBC. Now it's C span. And I saw
the first press conference with the new press. What is this
press secretary, I guess, Robert Gibbs, oh, man, the press are
going to eat this guy a lot. I hope they're going to eat this
guy alive. Because you know, all of this freedom, the first the
first press conference, he didn't have it under control. He
really didn't. And you can see him searching and trying because
he has to be very careful, right? He's got to he's all
every word, he says has to be chosen so carefully and he's
letting people ask three follow up questions. And you know that
he just digs himself into a hole. And this whole Freedom of
Information Act, which is not a an executive order, but it's a
memorandum that that Obama put into place. Like oh, yeah, we're
gonna honour the Freedom of Information Act now. And so
everyone's drilling down to what does that mean? You know, can we
really get answers and I if the precedent is any good, which is
questionable, which is questionable, but you know, also
they're refusing to to allow pictures that haven't been taken
by the White House staff photographer, and there's
background information and the press is not allowed to release
the names of the people who are telling it we're giving the
background information to reporters it's already secrecy
is started transparency my ass.
Well, the thing is Obama's kind of a newbie, lightweight it can
almost an amateur he doesn't know how to deal with
depression, depressed except during this During that period
where they were all on his side, yeah, exactly. And now it's
like, oh, hi, I thought you guys were my friends.
Well, he did his first his weekly addressing of the
president typically does a radio address and so he's doing his
YouTube address. God, man, it's, it's sad. So not only is he
reading, which people are gonna catch on to this, I hope one
event and say, you know, the guy's just reading but he's,
they don't have a teleprompter on these, at least not yet on
this weekly thing. So he's looking to the left of the
camera. And you know, they're even cutting it because he
clearly fucked up and you know, it's like, Oh, whoops,
let's just do a little zoom cut there.
This is addressed to the to the, to the national address, and
he's, he's not looking into the camera.
No, he's looking off to the side, go to whitehouse.gov. You
can see it, he's looking off to the
side. What's he looking at? He's supposed to be looking at the
public. Oh, he's looking at a cue card. Well, obviously he's
gonna have to learn how to read off of a sheet of paper in front
of him. How
about saying some words that actually come from his heart and
he's sincere about it's just an idea.
Or a concept, you know, just just a bulb? You know, just just
a thought, you know, once you sit there and just say what you
actually think do Yeah,
we're gonna get no to all you guys are bashing Obama. Yes, I
am. That's correct. Absolutely. Hey, by the way, I,
you know, question on my mind is which Obama? Are we talking
about? Are we talking about the first president they swore in or
the second Obama that they swore and secretly, I was a different
guy,
you know, different guy. Oh, I hadn't heard that one yet.
That's good. John, is a different guy.
How do you figure he's a different guy? Why would you
have to swear him in a second time
when when I saw the inauguration and I and the first first I
think I sent you a text message, I'm laughing my ass. I'm like,
the one time the guy has to do something without a prompter. He
had to memorise eight lines. He messed it up. And because he
messed it up it because he messed it up because he didn't
know he couldn't repeat the second line of of the oath. And
then Justice Roberts, then then he that he got that he totally
fell apart. And, and I was like, Oh, my God. And I was like, No,
that's definitely gonna hound the guy. But the thing is, and
this, this is what's bugging a lot of people is then he got
sworn in again. There were no video crews, only a staff
photographer, and no Bible. I don't know if there's a
significance there. But he was he did not have his hand on a
Bible.
Well, my guess is that they he wanted to do that Lincoln Bible
thing. Yeah. They took the Bible back after he did the thing,
because it's a valuable document that's owned by one of the
museum's or some board. Yeah, they couldn't get it out
Congress. I don't know who has the thing. But anyway, they
obviously he's not taking it home. And so that thing
disappeared. So they had to go do this again, because Robert
was freaked out that it would become some sort of an issue and
he'd be embarrassed. So they went and although they could
have just brought into the second Obama, and then sworn him
in and he's actually going to be the president second Obama.
Wonder how many Obama doubles we got in here?
It's like a young king, young Kim Young ill. It's like, a
whole slew of them. The real Obama was That's a good one,
John.
Thank you. I like that. But I was looking at the first Obama
being sworn in that Lincoln Bible doesn't look like it was
used very much. Did you notice that? If you're a novice
seriously, it looked like
it was new. Yeah,
it did. If you look at that, not not the the binding, but the
pages itself. look completely fresh cotton certainly didn't
look over 150 years old.
Well, obviously what has happened, I'm guessing I'm sure
there's a story to be told about the Bible. Lincoln swore in on
that Bible. And then they made it immediately made a
collectible. Put it aside. It hasn't been found that has been
used.
Yeah. What is the significance of the swearing in on the Bible?
Is that Is that necessary? Has there ever been a president who
has not been sworn in on the Bible?
I think they've all been sworn in on a Bible. But I don't think
it's necessary doesn't make I don't think there's any there's
no mention the constitution of being sworn in on a Bible. They
just had to make the oath. Right. I was reminded of these
people who that was in a couple of I used to, when I used to
work for the government. We used to have these cases, and you put
these juries together, and there'd always be some, usually
some foppish weirdo, that would refuse to be sworn in. And the
jury that you said, Would you like to be they said I'd rather
be affirmed. And so there's one guy we always knew is going to
be troubled to. This was his character. We were it was an air
pollution case against some somebody. And it was like this
guy, one guy. He was a music teacher who call himself a
singer and he when he came in, he was a skinny guy. He was like
one of the petite male as my wife likes to describe him. came
into the courtroom wearing these kind of Bermuda shorts. And a
suit and tie girl jacket and tie. So you have to imagine
jacket and tie, router shorts, socks and regular shoes, and
very thin. And he comes in. And then when he was asked what he
does, he goes, I'm a singer. So we're going, Oh God, this guy's
gonna be a problem. So anyway, but so and so when it came to
being sworn in this guy had couldn't be sworn in, he had to
be affirmed. Because you have to be sworn in or affirmed. And he
had to interrupt everything. So this guy can guess you be the
one guy being affirmed?
Is it just me or was the oath for the vice president twice as
long as the oath for the President?
I didn't see it at all. You didn't watch the inauguration?
I only watch the speech, which was written by a 27 year old
punk in a Starbucks.
You know, I don't know whether they I think they guys must have
run out of material that speech writer he had his his 27 year
old guy, kid. Yeah. Who gave Obama some of his best speeches.
I think Obama wrote that thing. I think
there was a whole article he said that he wrote it, but that
Obama gave him kind of the direction and, and then he I
think he's lost it then. Yeah, well, what I didn't what I took
huge offence to was the line that said basically, it's all
our fault. It's everybody's fault. I'm like, no, no, it's
not our fault. The you know, the state of the economy.
Yeah, I agree. Like everybody's fault. We don't use credit cards
we've been very responsible. I have a small
to medium business you know, we don't go to the government for
handouts we we work
on been abusing anything I wish I would have. Well, you know, in
hindsight, you know, we got screwed
you just wait until they start reducing people's principal on
their mortgages. That's when the shit will hit the fan. I do want
to I do want to I want you to take a look at a link for a
second here because this will freak you out. on that. I'm
going to Skype it to you this is from CNN. Hold on where's my
Where's Skype? Here we go.
So the while you're doing that so I guess the big news in
England from our perspective is a woman over there letting her
three year old smoke
Yeah, I've seen the story but it's not dominating the news at
all. But take a look at this link. John this video and eight
seconds into it I want you to see the UFO that flies from
right to the blog this is really your blog it is that looks like
an actual UFO. It looks like a scratch
on the camera lens.
When I freeze frame this thing man it's not a scratch it's a
flying object that goes right in front halfway down the What the
What do you call the
Washington
Washington Monument sorry on the on the camera side and it flies
right by and I don't know man, but that look at that it was
some incredibly fast stealth military aircraft. It was not a
bird. I don't think it was not
a bird but I think it was an anomaly Well, I don't know I
mean, how come nobody
saw it? Well, they made this video and where's the other
videos of it? And it's only a spot now like it has legs or
anything
it's like a fast flying disc. So hold on we got our jingles John
they finally came in
jingles I'm not hearing any jingles
Hold on a play the other could
be at this defining moment. Change has come through America.
A government of the people by the people and for the people
has not perish from the earth. This is your mystery. We are and
always will be yeah I've
already heard this. Yeah, yeah, they're floating around all over
the place. Well, I have loved this
welcome to Obama FM everybody I'm at the sea here in London
town and we got JC D over there in California yay Johnny Boy
Bama town Yeah, I know they got these guys we gotta back off.
These you know these freelancers that are doing this stuff. It's
gonna be embarrassing eventually.
Well, I've been showing as many of those crazy clips as possible
on me vo daily of those of the celebrity pledges.
I pledge I pledge at 100 Like these guys who like to see me
feel even turn off their lights those clowns. I mean, you're
talking about multimillionaires, like Ashton Kutcher and his
wife. Yeah. You know, and they're gonna they're gonna do
this and that they're not going to do anything. Well, no,
they would pledge like to conserve on use of plastic by
drinking less water
will less work play which by the way he's got a con. I was we
just went to the gourmet food show that was in San Francisco,
the Fancy Food Show. And I'm sure that the people who this
is, this year, there's a number of themes that people can expect
to see one thing the salt thing has fallen off the face of the
earth. That's not happening as much as it was. They tried.
They tried that right. It just didn't really catch, did it? It
had a peak, it had a peak,
it's gone. There wasn't any salt vendors. But there was like
tonnes and tonnes and tonnes and tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of
chocolate. I mean, it's like everybody who can heat a pot is
making chocolate so it was that was a little annoying cocoa.
It's funny you say that because cocoa the price of cocoa has
exploded. I was just reading that today
to find it. And you'll wonder why.
Well, so that's the question. Is it because everyone wants it?
Because they're using it?
Because all these chocolate companies my wife, excuse it as
well you know when you have financial when you have a
financial downturn, people need chocolate.
A lot of choco prices at
24 year high above 2000 pounds per tonne.
There you go. That's pretty easy. It was obvious to me that
the rationale for that is this show indicate as a trend I mean
the show indicates trends I go to there and look at trends and
this trend was chocolate. So everybody in Nvidia has all
these different chocolate companies and they're just you
know, yeah sounds good. So image how much chocolate Can you can
you stomach there's tea flavoured chocolate was there's
one company to specialise in flavour weird flavoured
chocolates you know hot chilies you know green tea, you know
things in the chocolate and you need to chocolate, you know, and
tea was the other thing that was hot, which has been a trend for
a number of years but
but laboured teas right not not just traditional good old
fashioned
flavoured tea sparkling tea there's some company called
White Star making a spark by the way which is tasty but way too
expensive. And there's just a lot of different kinds of tea
tea flavour distante flavour that and a lot but anyway so
there's a lot but didn't again one of the biggest thing is
flavoured waters in these plastic bottles, which is one of
the other big trends and there's all kinds of you know, just one
company after another with I think like one of them called
hint there's the name of the water company and the end the
thing is is regular water but it's got some it's got like a
drop of some weird flavour in it and you have another once you
get a hint of mint you know kind of thing so anyway but but I'm
watching that video that you were talking about which was on
the blog and we could probably we set it yeah and and they go
on and on about the you know not using these plastic bottles and
meanwhile there's one company came out and the name of the
water is called a help and it's like it they donate almost all
their profits to charities. And so they're obviously you know,
they're just like there's the conflict for the for the for
people out there's like we just see somebody shorting out trying
to decide where they can buy this water since it's in a
plastic bottle anyway show
but that was it there was a chocolate is the trend and salt
and water chocolate tea, water and salt well the other trends
that I was pointed out to me by the PR woman was the there's a
downsizing of of like chocolate bars they have these big giant
bars and now they're going to make smaller ones bars. Yeah.
And and kids
How about peanut butter that must have been really popular at
the show
there's never been a there's never really been salmonella in
a Can everybody you're but the other thing was they have these
kids like Water for Kids T for kids. They're trying to
introduce T to kids and but they're just gonna be
decaffeinated they say well no, I don't think it makes any
difference. So they're trying to make kit get kids children in
hooked onto Yeah,
well you know, in the UK they're just they're a little easier
just teach your kid to smoke sounds like a bogus story by the
way. That's not that's just it's just a bogus not I'm not really
not really buying it.
We liked the story we blogged it.
Well of course. Big story which only got as far as I can tell
only got press on CNBC Who broke it about John Thain is attain or
thing. The Merrill Lynch CEO just got kicked out. You know, I
don't never heard his name pronounced.
I think those were saying tain So, only a few days after
Merrill Lynch received their first billions in bailout money,
he redecorated his office. All right, for $1.2 million
including a $32,000 toilet
yeah but the killer these guys thinking well the kicker is that
the what are these guys brought down the economy these guys are
idiots course.
And but that was with our money which is kind of upsetting but
the kicker of the story is that the designer, the interior
decorator, who did this is the same guy who just redecorated
for the Obamas in the White House. Huh? Who is this guy? Oh,
let me look up his name. By the way. Let me see, Papa bah.
I wonder what the why. What? Nothing. Go ahead said now.
Now you've got me intrigued.
I'm just wondering what the what what calls are going to make in
the White House to to personalise it for Michelle's
taste.
Michael S. Smith, known amongst society's higher echelon for his
makeover of Bel Air estates in Malibu beach houses and the
client list that includes Dustin Hoffman and Rupert Murdoch was
chosen just last week to redesign the Obama's private
quarters at the White House. The Obamas got a deal 100 grand
versus the 800 Grand paid by Mr. Taine. Van did well, is it gonna
be 15,000? Oh, why?
Why are they paying 100 grand of the taxpayers money here. I just
want to just first gets an office and we're trying to cut
back on this sort of thing. Can't they just make do and you
know, maybe spend the money later.
It's part of the perks that you know, they they're comparing
Obama to FDR, but you know, FDR, when he was inaugurated, he had
a plate of cold chicken you know, to be for solidarity and
the Obamas I think they had a really nice you know, five
course meal at the at Blair House. You know, it's but of
course that was the other Obama
Yeah, you don't know which Obama is anymore.
And doubles and Asha schleps here around the world, certainly
in Europe can be happy to know that McDonald's is expanding
with 240 new restaurants 12,000 new jobs. They're totally in the
Lift
Yeah, well, they would be in during these kinds of economic
times when people need to eat one buck hamburgers Yeah. For
dinner it's sad Yeah, FDR was pretty good at staying on the
course. Was he truly what are we talking about? I was watching
listen to some the other day and they're talking about why I
think this would be just before he got inaugurated or ninth
grade before he got sworn in the above Obama deserving already
without spending one minute in office already should be on
Mount Rushmore.
Does that mean we have to retool someone and we just make a new
head? How does that
retaining Roosevelt cool him right? Cuz he's got the big fat
head and he could be pounded down to Obama.
Uncle Fester just twittered. The Lincoln Bible was procured new,
I guess from new and says for Abe's inauguration his family by
dipo was unavailable. It was archived and not used again
until the 20th of January 2009. So that's our answer you
go Yeah, you're right we got people out there helping highly
resource the public so resource certainly. Especially when we
have no material
well, I got plenty of material.
I'm okay. Well, what was
That's it was done. It was great talking to you, John. 28 minutes
shorter show we've ever done.
Well, it seems like there's so much but you know, everything
would come down to
well, we just can't sit here bitching about Obama. Exactly.
That's that's the problem. I will say this one thing she gets
an office the next thing you know, two missiles go into
Pakistan. Yeah. And
kill 13 people. Yeah, no, that's well, but but the whole thing is
complacency on the on the part of the press. I mean, right now,
if you go on the street and you say to the American public, what
is Obama Donald so he closed Gitmo? We're no longer torturing
you know, please please I urge you go read the please go read
it because that's not true. You know, he's he's put out a task
force which is in all business. I hate task force because
nothing ever comes to them. It's like a steering committee. Let's
all grab the steering wheel and drive off the road.
Well, this reminds me of when Ronald Reagan first ran for
president. This was during our president for Governor of the
State of California. I'll never forget this. He was us a big
Sabre rattler in in the same time he had a lot you know, he
was used to be a union Oregon. nizer and a hard, you know,
Franklin Roosevelt Democrat. So you know, you can never quite
eliminate some of these aspects of people's personalities if
you've been on both sides of the political spectrum. And so I
always thought a lot of stuff was bluster. And so I remember I
distinctly remember him coming in to California and then in
threatening all his students were rioting all over the place.
And he's, I'm going to put a Blu Ray, remember this blue ribbon
committee, headed by John mckown, who I guess is some CIA
guy at the time. And he kept talking about this blue ribbon
committee headed by John McCone to investigate this, you know,
student unrest. He got elected and that was the end of it. I
was never
there was no blue ribbon committee. Right. John McMullen.
I
don't think ever showed up.
I would like to revisit flight 1549, which I am, oh, yeah,
caught up last week. And because I showed that
remember to like the first part of the week before they pulled
up the the engine, they showed a piece of metal with a hole in it
on one of the news shows
and said, Look, there's a feather stuck on it. That's the
report that we found a feather bird strike totally clear. But
I'm sure you know that this exact aircraft had engine
problems in flight two days before this. Right. Everybody
reported that? Okay. And I have to just say again, why is there
no audio available of the so called distress call this whole
conversation you had which is just it's not there? It doesn't
it does not exist? There is no recording of him of the of the
pilot saying we had a double bird strike. We're in trouble.
There's none of it. It's just not there. So I'm not saying
it's a government conspiracy, but it's just it stinks. It
absolutely stinks. And, of course, the Sullenberger the
captain was at the inauguration, the press asked him question he
said, No, I can't say anything. I'm not allowed to say anything.
And I won't say anything.
Well, he's going to be interviewed on 60 minutes on
Sunday. Oh, okay. So
here comes the spin. There you go. So they set him up they've
put they've put the chip in me knows what to say. Now. I just
I'm just not buying this bird strike. You know?
What do you think it is? I mean, it's F two just to intimidate
those bankers that are on board.
Well, that's uh, that
would be a very deep conspiracy but there's a number of reasons
why people would not want to have the thought that someone
else was responsible for a plane crashing anywhere near New York
you know that I'm sure that if that if that was the story that
that could have blown up the markets it could have done a
whole bunch of things. So I can see where they'd want to spin
that yeah, of course. Please particularly with with bankers
on board
whatever I don't know they don't come out in the yo yo probably
in about 50 years when they released the files another one
you know still there's still that TWA Flight you know that
that was hit by a missile
I mean, that's an I'm the conspiracy theorists job.
Well, you know that that's actually more of an interesting
story not because there was a missile that hit it it's because
of the number of people that have come forward that were that
that volunteered to testify to the FBI or whoever was
investigating the the accident to say what they'd seen and they
would never call back nobody cared about they had to hold
their minds were made up from the get go and that was the end
it was a tank that heated up and blew up I mean, never happened
before they ever happened since but you know, it was obviously
it was a problem with the plane.
Right? You mean kind of like buildings collapsing and
freefall from jet fuel that never happened before
into a perfect mess? Well, whatever that one I'm not you
know, who knows I mean, that one they just head shaker but
whatever the case, whatever the case is, there's the we just
don't get good information and nobody does any follow ups. And
you know, as soon as somebody comes up with you know,
something, I mean, they've they tried to find someone to
ridicule, like, during that that was that fi thing. 700 Whatever
that TWA Flight was 700 Now what was that remember? Yeah, I think
so. Yeah. And and I remember the what's his name did Pierre
Salinger Pierre Salinger apparently came out you know,
they don't nobody needs this. So they piercing was 800 by the
way, I'll fight 800 Right. Okay, whatever. So Pierre Salinger
comes on, he says, you know, it was struck by a missile and
there was pictures and there's this and there's that of course,
he got it all from some crackpots website. And so they,
you know, he comes forward and they get he gets a bunch it gets
a head of steam with people getting interested in it, and
then they, they just go after him and with such a vengeance.
He was like they humiliate Hit him to death. He's an idiot for
reading, you know, these kinds of websites and they didn't have
the facts. And I never seen a guy hounded to oblivion as much
as they did because he was the highest profile guy came on set
and
who is he? Because I've never heard his name before he was the
press secretary for John
Kennedy. Ah, okay. Okay. He's a pretty famous guy. He was
actually very interesting press secretary while he was there,
and Pierre Salinger. And so he they just slammed the door on
him. And it was pretty interesting to watch how they
can do that. Whoever they are. Yeah.
Well, the the real problem, of course, is that there's the only
real investigative journalism that was done, I guess, is
really newspapers and the newspapers are in so much
trouble. Now they're now being bought up by rich dudes
everywhere was the guy who just put $200 million into the New
York Times.
Yeah, who was that?
I can find it there's also the Evening Standard the the last
for pay where they saw for $1 one no pound,
pound, oh, I should have
done it for a Euro really
would have been more symbolic.
See, there was an article about that today.
So some Russian guy, right. Ex KGB
actually, and he says he wants to use it to expose Moscow,
which is a sure way to get killed.
Yeah, that is a sure way to get killed here. I got
it here. Alexander Lebedev, the nominal sum of one pound the
Russian oligarch and former KGB lieutenant colonel said he would
pump 10s of millions of pounds into the London Daily, which has
struggled with falling circulation and competition from
free sheets. Mr. Lebedev also co owns and Russian thing. I'm
looking for the New York Times I don't know where it is. But is
that yeah, it's like all the isn't isn't. So what how does
that work? I mean, rich dudes just buy this up to promote
their own agenda, or do they actually care? I mean, there's
there's this
isn't that the way newspapers always have been? Or at least
has since the turn of the century? I think.
I need to get me a column in a newspaper here in the UK. I bet
you I could get one too. Um, but you can get really easy. And
just yeah, just crazy. Just do my crazy shit, right? Yeah,
that'll be
good. But way off the deep end like they do it. The reason they
throw you off the station in Holland. No, remember,
if you ever read Adam curry death by suicide by cop suicide.
It's not true. It's not true. I found a copy of the wave.
Hey, by the way before you go there, let's stick with this for
a second. Sure. Because we were talking about pure Salinger and
all the Kennedy boys that were wiped out. Oh, you want to talk
about Carolyn? I think it's interesting. During the right
during the inauguration, Ted Kennedy has had a heart attack
like you went into convulsions. So they give him the you know,
they gave him okay, Ted, this is your special glass of wine.
Seven toast. That's horrible. It's just it seems like they're
trying to you know, they're I mean, the Kennedys have been,
you know, essentially two things happen. One, Ted Kennedy has his
heart attack. And the other one is Carolyn Kennedy was going to
who was a kind of a dingbat anyway, but she seems, you know,
well, meaning I've met her she's
not a dingbat. I met her. She's quite nice, actually. She looks
like she's nice. She has a really pleasant quality about
it's hard to describe. And she up bales out on this thing for
some unknown reason. I won't say why and nobody can figure it
out. It's not about Ted. I think the Kennedys are, you know, I
hate to know, I don't want to sound like you kind of know, God
forbid,
that would ruin the show. It would, but
go ahead. But I remember once when I was a student at the
University of California and they and the Pacific Film
Archives, it just opened up and they were showing the weirdest
movies. And there's just one movie I couldn't actually sit
through the whole thing because it was like it was such an eye
roller but now I'm now I regret not having seen the whole thing
or finding access to it to this day. And it was a crazy crazy
movie about how all the different presidents of the
United States represented heads of various criminal
organisations, specifically mob organisations, and the Kennedys
in particular, were part of the wasn't I don't know if it's
Genova AC or Costello I don't know which family it was but
they named the fan and said who were on the outs because they
because it stemmed up from my they went back to the history of
how you know, the family was a bunch of rum runners. I mean,
they were they were in
that's what Joe Kennedy made his money right from fried noodle or
running bootleg like booze. Yeah.
And he was big. So he had to have he had to be connected. And
so then so the apparently the so the Kennedys had to be You know,
taken out of the picture completely because they
remember the name of this film, I wish.
Because I'm sure you know this kind of shit is. Of course I
would. Carlos, Carlos Slim is the guy who invested in the
times. Thank you fandom.
So anyway, so the so I've always in the back of my mind ever
since the Kennedy started getting you know, pushed aside,
women let me connect those dots were second. So essentially, the
Kennedys had had to have to be eliminated and they've done
quite a reasonable job so far looking at the family history.
And Carolyn Kennedy is ready ready to ascend to the Senate,
Steve seat, and they say, oh, yeah, watch this. Here, Ted have
a glass of wine. That's the way I'd connect those dots. You just
gave me baby. And then she's like, Shit, I don't want to
suicide by cop. I'm not gonna do this. But who is this woman that
they that and now has been brought in.
She's interesting because she's like, kind of a a Democrat or a
Republican and Democrat clothing. She's pretty much
politically a, an old fashioned Republican that has that is only
interested in conservative monetary policies. She's an NRA
member, you know, big time gun user, which pisses off almost
all the Democrats. I don't know why they're so adamant about
this. And but she's, you know, for gay marriage. She's kind of
like, you know, there are a lot of Republicans that don't give a
crap about gay marriage one way or the other. And those are I
still consider the more mainstream old fashioned
Republicans that wouldn't let what happened during the Bush
administration actually happened you know, they don't think that
the earth was made 6000 years ago and that kind of thing like
these conservatives you know, all believe or something, or too
many of them believe that and that's what she is and so she's
kind of a little bit of a off the wall and that you know, that
guy I don't know why, why she was chosen. She did use a lot of
Republicans or Democrats in the state that are to the nth about
this.
No, no kid No kidding. Because she's a Republican. That's the
first thing that's interesting about it.
Well, there was two things one, she's a witch she's a Democrat
and but she's a Republican in her philosophies. And the worst
part is she she won as a Democrat in a highly Republican
area in the middle of nowhere new upstate New York. And and
that means they're not going to be able to get another person in
a short Republican will probably end up with that seat. Because
the Democrat, there's no Democrat That has to hurt types
of politics to win up there.
Well, so let's trace it back. One more step back to the
Kennedys.
Wait, wait one more thing. What about Andrew Cuomo that he was
get that he was a shoo in?
who also was related to the Kennedys? Cuomo by marriage?
Yeah, he wasn't he married to someone from the Kennedy clan.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, me. And of course, John John, Jr.
was killed by biplane sabotage. Right. No, seriously, John, that
was not a spatial disorientation issue. The conditions were just
not not there for that. It's just I I'm just not buying that
one. As an aviator, I'm not buying it. Hold on Andrew Cuomo.
I'm pretty sure he was married to someone in the Kennedy clan.
New. Carry can Kennedy Cuomo. Really? Yes. But I think he's
divorced, wasn't he?
Kerry Kennedy, once you're in, you're in. Alright.
So this sounds like maybe there's a lot more to it.
Particularly because Caroline just won't say anything. That's,
you know. That's kind of weird.
Yeah, I just think the thing, it's just an interesting thing
to think about. You know, Ted's gonna be out of the picture
shortly. Yeah. So all you got now is Robert Kennedy, Jr. and a
few of the other kids who are lying low.
How about the kid? The raper, the ex rapist or the
Yeah, I don't think he was part of the real family. Me just a
relative. So I'm sorry.
What was that was some didn't someone get killed with a golf
club? What was that a member that? We don't remember that
one? Yeah. That was maybe 10 years ago. There was something
with someone got their head beaten in. I thought that I
thought that was a Kennedy kid who was
done. No, no, there was a lot of Kennedy kids, that's for sure.
But how many of you were part of the inner circle, as you know,
remains to be seen. But I think that explains one of the reasons
that Ted Kennedy is he had become from the you know, he was
like the third brother who was kind of or the fourth actually
because the first brother was killed off a meat you know
during the war. And that which was Joe Kennedy senior, he was
the one who's supposed to be the shoo in to be the politician.
And so then John, and then you so you have these four brothers,
with only 10. Left. And Ted became a, something of an
outrageous left wing, almost an anti government style of
Democrat with, you know, promoting old line socialist
concepts. mean, he's basically a socialist.
Well, that's pretty much the administration. We just voted
into office, isn't it?
Where he was the from the Kennedy? Kennedy did get when
Kennedy took sides, he took Obama side. Right?
Instead of instead of Hillary side,
right, which, you know, which is another thing because, you know,
there's all this, you know, the kind of mean spiritedness of the
Clintons. And but and by the way, that was a pretty good
move, they got Hillary out of the picture by making her
secretary of state. And, you know, there's one couple of guys
are gonna argue about it. And I think somebody went actually,
look, Hillary's more dangerous as a senator and she's ever
going to be a secretary of state, get her out of there, put
in somebody else, you know, this Republican Woman who was a
Democrat, and now she's not going to be able to run for that
office again. No, she's because it's idiotic, and she's gonna
have a good retirement because you get a good one if you're a
Secretary of State, and she can go off float around the world
had be a big shot, and that's the end of her.
So she's out of the picture. Another memorandum from our new
president, remember, I think memorandum Does that have any
legal standing a memoranda? I
don't know, maybe a lawyer can and or did had to be a
constitutional lawyer? Probably not.
Because he's got a lot of memorandums that he's passing
out and the press is of course, reporting that as Oh, yeah. It's
all fixed. Basically turning back a bush memorandum not
Bush, me. Yeah, this is the what Yeah, I read the laundry list of
these things. But most of those were like, put in play by you
know, something was put in play by Carter. Reagan reversed it.
Clinton reverse that. Bush reverses back. And now he will
Obama's got, basically we're looking at Carter administration
policy.
No kidding. Brzezinski? No kidding. I can remember no
agenda, I think is like 16 or 17. And you're like, What? Are
you talking about Brzezinski Shut up.
I ever said that. Oh, don't
make me go into the archives. Don't make me go into the reason
why I'm bringing it up is because do you not find it
strange? Because Because now the anti abortion versus pro choice
or pro life? I'd forget what the politically correct term is. Now
that's heating up again. Is it Is there something weird about
people anti abortion is people who are against abortion,
throwing eggs at clinics?
That doesn't sit right with me? Maybe they're not fertilised,
but still, it's a weird thing to do you know what I'm saying?
They should be throwing shoes. So
I like the shoe thing. Well, you know,
that, that, that issue crops up and it just, it just detracts
from anything, you know, that affects people's day to day
lives. I mean, it doesn't make any difference to me one way or
the other. But the fact that the economy's in the tank does mean
something to me daily. Yeah.
Yeah. But that's not what that's not what people in, in the
hypnotised States of America are talking about. You know, you go
on telling you go on the street and you say what is the bomb?
He's closed Gitmo, we're no longer torturing. I'm just like
that is that is exactly what the press is reporting, but it's
just not factually true. And it's sad. So please, tell a
friend to listen to this show. Because we'll give you at least
some fact.
Some, some pieces of Yeah, lots of opinion. In fact.
Thoughtful opinion though. That's the difference.
I posted a Google Video of the wave on curry.com you familiar
with this? The wave?
Yeah. I don't know am I Yeah, it
was a book based upon a true experiment that a
wave the wave Yeah, that a hotshot as I call it? colour
scheme, a colour scheme on the cover of the one of the books
that is exactly the same as Obama's that art artsy pickles
blue
red with grey stuff out. And a lot of people really responded
very interestingly to that because they know You can get
like an ABC after school movie. It's horribly acted. It's really
it's a piece of shit. But it is the story. And I remember my mom
telling me this story I don't I must have been seven I was
in the Bay Area when that happened. And remember that the
reports in the news about it Cubberley High was where it
actually took place.
Well, played back, let tell people what it is because not
everyone has failed. What
it was is what some guy wanted to wanted to teach the class
about the about bigotry, and how dictatorships can evolve and how
things net will come naturally, if encouraged, can naturally
turn into sort of a fascist environment. And so he set up a
classroom experiment where people had to, you know, there's
one group that was some one way and another group would have to
be there. That's actually incorrect,
that that's what I thought the story was, but it's not they
were studying the Holocaust. And the kids were like, Well, how
could you know, all these millions of Germans not know
that they were killing millions of Jews? And you know, they just
they just didn't believe it. They didn't understand it. And
He then started very, very simple. It wasn't two groups,
but he said, Okay, let's, let's put this into practice. Why
don't we do it start understanding that by with
commute, what he said was community dedication, I have as
a community dedication, something else you know, that's
how you get things done in the head, a little salute, we kind
of like pound your chest and hold your fist up. And everyone
really got into it. And then it just it just caught fire almost
immediately. And the the quietest kid in the class, of
course, wanted to be bodyguard and essentially like an SS
agent. And, and the wave it spread, and they were doing
meetings. And then at the crescendo of this whole story is
he holds a meeting and he says, All right, kids, as you know,
there are groups all over the country now who are a part of
the wave and they all want a new way of, of, of community and
being together with hope and change. And, and then he shows
this big you said, Okay, here's your leader, and then he flips
up a video of Hitler. And of course, all the kids then
realise that, you know, they've been sucked into fascism. And
what I
you know, I think that's a dramatised version of what
actually went on. But it was something like that, possibly
but but if people let you know, that's probably something worth
reading the guy by the way that teachers still around he says,
he refuses to talk about it real is it big? Yeah. He's just
refuses to talk about it. He just doesn't want to talk about
it because I guess there was some it was just frightening the
way it unfolded. But you know, if you want to read the a good
piece of fiction that's about this phenomenon, and I think
it's, it's very believable is Sinclair Lewis's classic. It
can't happen here.
Yes. Someone's been you sent me a copy. I think it's been it's
being distributed. People are emailing this out on the net.
Well, what's interesting about Sinclair Lewis was he was a, you
know, a Nobel Prize winning Pulitzer Prize winning, you
know, one of our greatest writers, and adored by the by
the left to literati, and he did this book it can happen here,
which was about, you know, essentially a, how the left wing
could take over in a fascist way. And of course, then he was
on the outs ever since then same thing happened to John Dos
Passos, who would wrote some, you know, essentially
conservative perspective book once. So anyway, the but a real
life story if you want to read which is a little harder to come
by. It's called life and death in Shanghai, which talks about
the Communist takeover of the city and how people were just
like you described, you know, the weak little wimp that had no
power somehow becomes the boss right? And it turns into a
despotic little jerk off and it's a very interesting story.
So it actually it's much more frightening than the way this
woman wrote this book killer but it was banned in China. Life and
death in Shanghai extremely popular in Hong Kong, just
before the turnover made like in the mid 90s Because everyone was
reading this all freak you know, there were freaked out in Hong
Kong when they figured it out the Chinese I mean, I was there
a couple of times before the turnover and everyone's just
freak so was that 2000 The turnover? Yeah, well no, it's at
9797 I'm
sorry Jesus that long ago Yeah,
yeah, and everybody was gonna rock Roman Ross Oh, there's
we've noticed there's a lot more people speaking Mandarin you
know, this is not this is their as their spies everywhere. And
it was a
really it was a really easy use handover not much change that I
know it's a joke of it. Yeah. Is that
is the it can't happen here. Is that public domain Do you think?
No, it can't be it was written about 1933.
Because I was considering turning that into an audio book.
I've been wanting to record an audio book for a long time and
I've been considering that would be one to do.
You could probably get rights to it for next to nothing.
Why don't want to make money on it. Just want to do it, you
know, just just just do it. Yeah. Yeah.
You know how long it takes to read a book out loud? Yes,
long time. I think it takes a long time to do it properly.
Yeah. And you probably have to redo a couple of things once in
a while, and is to be edited a little bit. I think it should
have sound effects.
Well, you know, I've done Oh, dude, have you seen? Go to me
veoh.com And turn up your sound, I want you to see this.
My browser is now working into that shit. Sorry.
I can if I reboot
them, if I reboot the router, I can do it. But I don't do that.
Do
it later. Do it later. I think I think because I put a good
comedic effect in there for a reason. I don't want to give it
away. But if you look at it right now, you might get a
chuckle to one of my best pieces of work. I did a couple of audio
books. You know which ones I did? Which I have never released
because I wasn't happy with them. But Tom Swift Tom Swift
you don't know the Tom Swift series? You did all of them. No,
no, no, no, no, no, I did I think is hydro flying machine I
did with the PRI when I was a kid I read to I read all of them
as a kid. And I didn't know that they were from like, 1850 these
things are incredibly old. And it's all the stuff that we now
have. And the reason why I've never released them is because I
couldn't quite get it. And you know, they had this black guy
who I would have to say served Tom Swift and his dad who of
course was also a famous inventor in the in the books.
And he and when you read these original texts, it's like, yes,
Massa, I could be doing that right away, Massa. And I'm like,
How can you read that without reading like that? And I'm like,
Yeah, they really struggling.
Yeah, well, it's Mark Twain. All His books were written in
dialect and it was very popular to write in dialect. And it
didn't that just wasn't just black people in dialect. People,
everybody was written dials, like everyone
always talks. Everyone always talks about Tom Sawyer, but my
favourite book was Huckleberry Finn was much more compelling
adventure that he went on. And, and that was major because he
was with the Uncle Tom was an Uncle Tom, who was with him on
the raft. Could be Yeah, but you know, so I've always struggled
like, I, I have a feeling that if you don't read it the way it
was written in dialect, then it misses a lot. And if you do, you
know, I, honestly people call him
window. Yeah, exactly. Because there's too many people don't
understand that it was written that way. I mean, there are
people I would swear, right? I mean, you could if you did a
survey and use then you did you say I'm going to quote Mark
Twain doing this reading from this character? And you didn't
you talk like that? Nobody would believe that it was actually
written that way. In today's world, because we don't have we
can't do that. It's not politically correct. to even
think about it.
Apparently, it can't happen here is in public domain and
unavailable on Project Gutenberg. Oh, really? Yeah.
Although I although I'm not sure that's true. Because a lot of
books that are on Gutenberg are still to come into public
domain, you have to be real careful. Because they, they're
up there, but they have specific disclaimers. But
well, I there's there's one clearing house that does art.
Like I don't have their name offhand. But there's the big
ones, there's, there's the copyright clearing house, you
could probably contact them, and they would help you in this
regard. I'll get there.
I'm really considering that, because that's the kind of
project but um, another thing I'm worried about, and this is
what I write to a
great, it's a great book and thing by Sinclair Lewis fan. So
is if you do this over a number of weeks, and I ran into this
with the Tom Swift experiment, you get so many differences in
your intonation, and it's really hard. It's, it's tough, it's
really hard to do to read an audio book. And if you, if you
want to get induction, it's even harder.
I think you have to read it in one seat sitting. There's my
guess I don't know somebody's gonna who probably does this for
a living, maybe listens in. But I would think you could get away
with it. If you did it in one sitting and then you did the
production stuff afterwards,
or the alternative. And this has been done by many people, is to
do it as a podcast and then do a chapter at a time. Yeah, I could
do that. Well, I you know, but I've never gotten into that. I
just want to listen to the whole thing and stop it in my own near
my own tempo.
But I'll tell you, I think it'd be a good. I'm sorry. It'd be a
good book to do.
Some of the audio books that I've that I've purchased are so
poorly read. Just shit.
There's not that many people that do it. Well. Would you do
one? It's not easy to do. Could I do one? Well, would you? Can
you imagine somebody having to listen to my screechy voice for
more than an hour you have a very Nice voice, John. I
disagree. No, I don't know if I could let me read something from
the news here and
do it with the do it with the Uncle Tom dialogue.
I don't know what that how that dialect works.
Yes, sure you lived in that era, man. What are you talking about?
Well, I just those days are over. So I could do it as an as
Deepak Chopra. Okay,
that'll work. Oh, I
could talk like
Ross horrible, you know, good at it. Thanks
so good at it.
Here's what I can't do the voice. Not since the
inauguration of President John F. Kennedy half a century ago.
As a new administration coming into office with such a
reservoir of expectations. It is unprecedented that all the
principal actors on the world stage are vowing their desire to
undertake the transformation imposed on supposed to be this
is my Kissinger. Oh, it's terrible. Terrible. Here's
the line, then I
actually can do a perfect Kissinger. Yeah, if I take I
have this. There's this one. There's a there's a cough syrup
called Ventolin. Seriously, it's a cough syrup called Ventolin.
And I don't know what I have an allergic reaction. And my voice
begins to Henry Kissinger. And there's nothing I can do. All
right,
read read that read this middle paragraph.
The extraordinary impact of the president elect on the
imagination of humanity. What? Yeah, that one? in shaping the
New World Order. That is the opportunity, not a policy. What
is this?
This is Kissinger, man. He just said this. He's calling for New
World Order.
He just said this now. Yeah, this is from
January 12. The extraordinary
impact of the president elect on the imagination of humanity is
an important element in shaping a new world order. But it
defines an opportunity, not a policy. You go What is that
supposed to mean?
Oh, one world government. This is Gordon.
Brown is one of those One World Government guys. You know,
Obama's, I think in that crowd, but you think you know what I
wonder? Maybe
Brzezinski is and he's there. He's a part of it, please. This
is Gordon Brown is literally having wet dreams. He is
ejaculating over the fact that Obama is now president can't
wait for Obama to come to the United Kingdom for the G 20.
Summit, which is coming up in a few weeks. Everything he's every
speech every time he's on television. Well, President
Barack and then never say brackets, Barack Obama. Hey, you
England. It's Barak.
Not Barry. Colin Barraca. Barack Obama,
Barack Obama. It's Barack. Barack Obama. Barack Obama is
coming Yes, Barack Obama because we can't do this alone. All we
have to have bit bad banks together, we have to have all
the creating a bad bank here a bad bank in the US will have one
big badass bank, and it's going to control everything. And
surely, surely, surely you see that? John?
Yeah, you know, these these schemes, you know, have little
chance of success. That's the way I see it.
Now, of course, it has little chance of success, but what it's
going to succeed succeed at is bankrupting the countries that,
you know, so the UK has what they've set up and this is very
controversial, or should I say, controversial? The United
Kingdom will underwrite the banks as so kind of like AIG as
an insurance company. So the banks will have to pay these
huge premiums to guarantee their business. And if they go
bankrupt, then the Bank of England essentially will cover
the loss. Well, you know, just have one or two of these banks
go belly up and there's no more money they're already talking
about David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives is already
saying oh, we're gonna have to go to the IMF we're gonna have
to get bailed out by the IMF. It's this place has gone down
the tubes of usable if you've followed the pound or the euro
for that matter, versus the Dollar
Yeah. News
Well, good news for me good news for you not good news for the
United Kingdom.
Yeah, well, you know they had their day so I got you I
recorded for you the marijuana Inc. Special that was done by
Trish Regan at CNBC.
Thank you. I requested that have you did you watch it or do you
only record watch part of it? It's you
know, it's mostly judge Trish who used to work for
MarketWatch. I've met her and I've been on a couple of shows
with her too, and it's always good to see you again. Like
we've seen each other averages in New York. work, but she was I
gotta send her an email. She was like kind of it she did this
thing and she's like sitting standing in a field of about a
million dollars with 20 foot high marijuana plants with all
you mean heaven.
And she is giddy. Then I'm thinking, you know, I think this
girl smoked once in a while. I mean, that's what the the
impression you have to you should introduce
me to her. She sounds like my kind of people.
She's pretty hot looking. So, voila. So I only watched part of
it. And it's just a bunch of she's roaming around the, you
know, they did they do have a lot of numbers, you know, the
kind of billions of dollars that it produces for places like
Mendocino County that would otherwise be just broke. And
there was an argument for legalisation. I thought it was
pretty valid. And, you know, just, you'll like it. I didn't
couldn't watch the whole thing. It's bored me stiff.
You know, there's a in Surrey where we used to live in
Guilford, there's a Research Park. Nokia has a big facility
there, even a helipad, in fact. And there's a whole bunch of
nondescript buildings, and the movers who move who have moved
us every single time in the UK and had our stuff in storage. I
know these guys, you know, pretty small outfit. And so, you
know, I'm talking to them, they said, you know, because they,
you know, they were up in my office when they were cleaning
out the old house. And, of course, you know, how can you
avoid hearing my hearing my, my work when you're in my office
for two days, and you turn your fan back on? No. And I said, you
know, that's kind of interesting. This stuff I hear
you're talking about, because we were at one of these research
facilities over at Surry Research Park and the guy had a
whole room full of screens. And there were all these red dots.
And he's saying, you know, so what are these red dots, and the
guy apparently was quite friendly. So oh, these are all
of the this is where all the troops are in Afghanistan. We're
monitoring these live satellites. And, you know, we
pass it on to the Ministry of Defence, he was clearly saying
stuff he shouldn't have. And then the guy says, you know,
what's interesting is all these red dots, they're all around the
poppy fields. People have no idea. I've asked my knows what,
yeah, I've asked my daily source code audience to go out on the
street and record people and ask them two questions. One, what
kind of government do we have in the United States? And the
second question is, what are we doing in Afghanistan? And I
can't wait to hear the answers when they come back.
Now, they'll just be a bunch of dumb answers.
Well, I think the answer to the first question will be
democracy. That's pretty much what what everyone has been led
to believe. Which is wrong.
Yes, a representative Republic.
Thank you. And started by the French. Was it a French guys
idea? A republic?
I don't I think didn't grill a seed that the Greeks and the
Romans one of them had some. The Romans
had a similar structure. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
And the Senate and the whole thing. So the Afghanistan thing
still fascinates me that it means that two missiles come
flying in to blow up a camp and a house and P N. And well, you
know, those people in there usually. And
well, what happens I saw nobody's
watching. Right then this was under Obama's watch Obama's
watch. He was very he was threatening. If you remember
that he's going to blow up said I'm sorry. It's Pakistan. Right.
We're all
Pakistan. You're right. You're well, the border. The Afghan
Pakistan border. Yes. Right.
There's Pakistan. misspoke. And but he was threatening them from
the get go. Yeah. And then it kind of went under the, you
know, went under the radar, but he seems to be you don't seem to
be a pro Pakistan type of guy.
No, because the US has a deal with India. India hates
Pakistan. They've had this whole thing in this whole argument for
four decades about Kashmir. And as far as I understand, India
wants to get rid of Pakistan if this they've always hated each
other.
I don't know. I think the whole thing Well, I don't know if they
want to get rid of Pakistan. I think they just want to get
Pakistan out of their hair.
To missile attacks from suspected us drones have killed
14 People in northwestern Pakistan official say at least
one missile hit a house in a village near the town of Nirali.
In North. Why resist Stan? A stay, of course, a stronghold of
al Qaeda and Taliban militants, of course. So I did see a
documentary they was channelled was it maybe it was Channel
Four, interestingly enough, and that is because because they
can't you know, it's just like in Gaza, you know, you can't
just the press is not allowed to go anywhere anymore. And of
course they don't do it. But these guys had given their
African Any cameraman, you know, all the gear and he said, Yeah,
Okay sit in the hospital. And he shot for a week in the hospital.
And he interviewed all these people. And essentially what's
happening is militants, combatants, whatever, come into
a village, they hide in the village, they love some shit at
the US troops, then they run away, then the troops come in
and then kill everybody in the village. It's like Vietnam all
over again. It's like it seriously, you know, towards
the experts, most of the experts that are familiar with the
region, say that we should just get out?
Well, of course, we should just get out, find out what
just went white. And these are academics. We're not talking
about, you know, just a bunch of policy walks that are here. And
there. You people who are genuinely concerned with the
area, say we should get on I've never wondered, I've always
wondered about this idea for you know, and I think it would have
worked in Iraq to kind of George W. George W. Bush, or George W.
Bush, the older one, kind of maybe had 41, as we say, in 41,
he had kind of maybe had a little bit of the right idea
when he invaded Iraq and then left. I thought it was because
of his deal with the Saudis. That was all about Kuwait. You
know, that was, that was a visibility. That was a big
deal he had these great quotes about and how you can use, you
know, getting involved would be bad and bad. And anyway, it's
really, really bad. So when they started shock and awe, you know,
that one or two days of just blowing the place to
smithereens, I thought it would be like, you know, something,
you know, you get into a beef with the United States. We just
shock and awe them for a couple of days and then
split. Well, you know, my stance on as I totally disagree, we
should get that. You don't like the idea of just throwing
missiles at does anybody
know at anybody? I'm against children, but it's,
it seems to me to be a more interesting way of approaching
this than going in and just dragging these things out
forever.
Well, of course, but Lockhart Karzai, who was a Unocal guy was
an oil guy who pretends like he's some hotshot by wearing you
know, these this cape and this fucking hat made of, you know,
foetus. Calves foetus. His brother is a known drugs are
known. It can't be anything but a huge scam. There's no other
reason to be there. Now, from Huffington Post. This is one of
these people you're talking about. I don't know if she if
Malu innocent, great name. Mulu. Innocent, posted yesterday,
during his campaign for presidency, Barack Obama pledged
to deploy more troops to Afghanistan and to take the
fight into Pakistan. I guess he did. During the second
presidential debate. He said if we have Osama bin Laden in our
sights, and the Pakistani government is unable or
unwilling to take them out, then I think we should have to act
and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden, we will
crush al Qaeda that is our biggest national security
priority. And as he goes on to say, no one should be surprised
that missile strikes had been launched under the new
president's watch President Obama was unequivocal in his
commitment to go after Al Qaeda hiding in the hills between
Afghanistan and Pakistan. And then of course, he says, Is
there a better approach? Oh, yeah. But he's also said, and
I've read this somewhere, it's like, well, you know, the guy is
holed up, you know, he clearly has no control anymore. So we
don't have to go after him now.
No, that's the When did he say that?
Not long ago,
I could find is this you know, this is what the Bush did this?
Oh, you know, wanted dead or alive. You know, bah, blah,
blah. Sky's like the, you know, the tallest man in this in the
region, you know, and he's floating around doing videos.
And so they're gonna go after him dead or alive. And then what
eight years go by and they did they ever get close to them? And
they don't you know, I don't know. I find the whole thing
disturbing from Times
Online January 15. Of course, it's the time so Barraco but I
guess I can't stop saying it. Now. Barack Obama suggested last
night that removing Osama bin Laden from the battlefield was
no longer essential, and that America's security goals could
be achieved merely by keeping al Qaeda on the run. Here's the
quote. My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him,
he said, but if we have so tightened the noose that he's in
a cave somewhere and can't even communicate with his operatives,
then we will meet our goal of protecting America. So we're
done. I guess we can leave now. He's in a cave. It's all set.
If they've tightened the noose and he's in a cave, they at
least know where he is. Why don't they go get him? This
makes no sense. The logic of this is, is ridiculous. But
this is this is the state of our fucking press corps dude. As
recently as October 7, in a presidential debate, Mr. Obama
said we will kill bin Laden, we will crush al Qaeda that has to
be our biggest national security priority. Yesterday, the
President Elect adopted far less aggressive language saying he's
now number one priority was to protect America from further
attack. Well look at the CNN video and look out for them
fucking flying saucers barrack? Because that's the shit I'd be
worried about.
So in other words, you should yeah, we're gonna get tough in
the NASS not that important. Yeah. I think the whole thing is
a scam?
Well, from what I understand it was actually Robert Gates, the
Defence Secretary who was staying on who actually came up
with al Qaeda, even with the name.
Well, there's that that special that was done by that great
documentary terian that the BBC uses every so often it does. You
know, these? Oh, yes. I know. You mean, to fear document I
friend of mine knows the guy. He I can think of his name. knows
the guy. So if I go to London, we can go out and have dinner
with him.
Really? Oh, I'd love to. But we have to know his name that would
help. Like, hey, nice to meet you. Or, hey, if
I get my browser up, I could find his name. But anyway, he's,
yeah, it's I think it's I think it's all Loski at the register,
who's pals with him?
It's like an S.
African might come here. Anyway, he's wanted us to voice the
voice for those documentaries, too. And he's, I think he's got
three or four sets of them. And they're, they're fantastic.
Yeah. And we'll log it or talk about it next week. And let me
make a note. And so people can watch
it coming up. Now is the time to co come over, by the way,
because, you know, the Germans are coming to the United Kingdom
to buy BMWs.
Wow, thanks for that. Screw it. Yeah.
Because of the pound has just collapsed. And you get the VA
the value added tax, you get that back? You can you can claim
that back when you take it back to the to the continent. Now, of
course, you have a left hand drive, but who cares?
Well, they could sell the right hand drive ones in England.
Yeah. But that by that, I think then you kind of lose your
benefit, because they are significantly more expensive.
And they don't they don't really sell them here. And in fact,
they may have the right the right hand dryers may be
manufactured elsewhere. I don't think there will in fact,
they're not manufacturing anything anymore. All the car
companies have just closed just saying,
No, you're not gonna, you know, I see people floating around the
United States with one of these right hand drive cars, you know,
from England, like old Rolls Royce to get them cheap. That
thing is the wisdom most dangerous thing in the world to
drive around, you can pass people on the open road because
you can't see that they actually stick your whole car out.
That's not true. Because when we moved here, I still had my Audi
eight with a right hand drive. And honestly, I'm very happy
that the first year that we lived here, we had that because
I only had to get used to one thing which was driving on the
correct side of the road, apparently. Because once you get
into the car, and particularly a manual because my daughter has a
manual stick shift, and it's and it's left hand drive, and you
have to shift with your left hand that takes a little getting
used to
I don't know You know, I've driven over there a lot and I've
had the shifters has never bothered me. Well then
concentrate. You just have to concentrate. Yeah, pretty soon
it's second nature. I think it's kind of sporty. You're on the
wrong side of the car with a with a left hand shifter you
think you're in like the Grand Prix of some place? Just feel
sporty? I don't know why
technically, it's the correct side of the road.
Yeah, okay. You know why? Tell me
because it dates back to the days of the horse. If you were
Sundering along the road, you would want to be on the left
hand side because if an adversary came from the opposite
direction, you want to be able to draw your sword with your
right hand.
Oh, I thought it was so when you were going on the horse but past
one of your buddies you can give them a high five which
I think is actually easier for the drive thru
so whatever I know they have that people drive on this side
of the road in Hong Kong and Korea, not in China
but with but with the boy the right hand drive car. So they
have the right cars open in Jamaica and in in Africa. They
drive on the left hand side but they have right hand drive cars,
most of the
apps they have been there they have the wheel and they're on
the right proper side. And they also in Japan again because a
lot of the cars come from Japan where they drive on the wrong
side of the road too. And all the Japanese cars are coming out
of Japan are ones that are floating around you know Hong
Kong and places like that. So they're just not like a big deal
to get a car with it with the with the steering wheel on that
side of the of the car. So and there's Sweden used to have be
the I think they switched over. And it was quite it was a
problem. You know, the story goes in Sweden they had to make
the transition slowly so they for some For when they switched
over from the right to the left day, they did the trucks do it
the first week and then the cars started the next week after
that. Last night Jonathan Ross returned like a joke. You don't
get to know
I didn't get it.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, that's not my preview. Right now
you have my proof.
You know what I was just wasn't listening to you. Ah, ha, I'll
cop to you. You lie, but at least I'll admit it. Lie.
You never know, when you're not listening to me. You just play
it off. Like it's just you don't care, but you just weren't
listening. Say it again. So I can listen to it. Please,
please. They had to
transition from the right hand to the left hand side of the
road. So they they wanted to do it in an orderly fashion. So for
the first week that trucks switched over, and then the
second week,
very funny. Bada bing, Robin Williams. Stephen Fry was on
Jonathan Ross last night, who reappeared after a 12 week
forced absence for being naughty on the radio. You know, that guy
is Yeah,
right. That was a big scandal. The guys make it $4 million a
year or something like that. The BBC off the taxpayers back.
Well, at the time he was I think he was making more I think it
was more like 6 million pounds. But of course now that's
probably $4 million. So anyway, his guests Tom Cruise was on was
interesting. But Stephen Fry, who does, and I like him even
more than I already liked him for a number of reasons to this,
you know, this was a highly anticipated showed. A lot of
people watched, I'm sure. And he does documentaries. But he's
done some very famous ones about America. And it was so nice to
finally hear an Englishman say something nice about America.
And it was it was really great. He was like, in America. And
this was the this was the point that he hammered home, which I
really liked. He said in America, they have a saying,
which is only in America, when someone comes up with some crazy
invention or some fantastic idea, or something that's just
while you know, whoever would have thought of that than
American say, yep, like Don King, of course, only in
America, he says, but in Britain, whenever something's
fucked up, when you have to stand in line when the weather
is shit. People always say only in Britain. Like that is indeed
the essence. And he said one more thing, which was great. He
promoted Twitter on the show, which was really it came out all
wrong, because of course, when you try to explain Twitter to
someone, no one gets it. And he is on Twitter, and he has been
tweeting his his travels. But that was kind of cool to see. To
see that big, big plug for for Twitter. That was pretty
awesome.
Yeah, did for him, you should watch
this document and deal with some of his documentaries that are
really, really quite good, particularly about the US.
There's another one called, uh huh. It was on the other night
called America unchained. And this guy, his idea was was to
drive from the west coast to the east coast without eating or
getting gas at a chain outfit. And it was a very challenging
journey. Let me tell you,
what is on the main drags. That's true. Well, if you get
off of those, you know, that I've driven across the country.
And if you get off the interstates, and you go on the
old US Highway System, which is still intact, mostly, which is
what he did, absolutely, yeah, there's plenty of places to eat.
And there's tonnes of places that are not necessarily
changed. Now it is a little bit more difficult with the gasoline
exhaust. Yeah,
the gasoline was the hardest part finding diners and stuff
like that was relatively easy.
Ya know, the gasoline? Yeah. Because it's like, what's not a
chain? And how do you have a gas station? That's not a chain? And
you know, and if you go to Costco as part of a chain, I
mean, I don't know how you can be honest about how you can make
it. He did it.
He, I'm sorry. He there was one one time when he had to fill up
at at a chain. Because he literally ran out of gas. But
yeah, he did it. He did. He went all the way from In fact, he
drove I think 6000 miles because he wanted to also go to every
end of every town named independence in America. And
there's quite a few particularly in the Midwest. So we drove a
lot more and a lot longer. But it was beautiful to see you
know, when you see what I believe is real America. With
mom and pop stores. It was just a beautiful doll. I'll get your
copy because I recorded it. I think it can spin it off onto a
disk somehow.
Yeah, bring it over if you'd like it. Yeah. In an office,
you're gonna bring over you're coming over to this. You come in
and go to this site Monday.
Yeah. Where are we my bra?
Well, the trend right now and I think we're going to explore
these things is these Peruvian restaurants that are the trendy
San Francisco thing. It is about four of them. Or five, and I
think it'd be worth checking out I went to one or during Macworld
I'm with Kelly Lewis and her husband. Oh, how was that? It
was good. And
they're nice, aren't they? Yeah, they're very,
very. I know.
I'm looking for confirmation basically. No, no, they're very,
they're very extremely pleasant people. Yeah. And can you know
and they're into what they're doing and they're doing fine
job. But anyway, so we went to this place of which is one of
the trendier of the Peruvian places. And you know, it's a lot
of savich a Me with all kinds of fish and ever had, you know,
ever thought of that they would make it that way and it's called
something else and they have a lot of these dishes that are one
thing and called another I was in Peru and I never noticed this
kind of food at all. It must be resort food or some I don't know
what, what the Genesis we're
not gonna go to the restaurant you already went to will go to a
new one, I hope. Yeah, sure. Okay, so but I don't just want
to do let's not just do, because we certainly should have dinner
twice because I'm leaving. I made a mistake in my email. I'm
leaving Saturday, not Sunday. Yeah. Okay. So I can do Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night.
So the problem with you is like, is on Tuesday. There's a
lot of there's a lot of problems with new John, but feel free to
point one or two out.
You're you're kind of fagged out. For the first two or three
days that you're here and you're like, if we go to dinner at
five, it's too late. No, that's
only the first day I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'm well rested.
I'm into it. I'm good. I can't wait to hear that. Yeah, no, I
know. I'll be good. I can't wait for you to come over here. I
want you to come over here man. I'm a Londoner now I've got all
the I've got all the fresh places all these small little
the butcher there's the fish guy. There's the vegetable guy.
It's always independent stores that have been around for 40
years. You love this area by the way. You know Samuel Pepys,
Pepe. Oh, yeah.
He lived he thought was peeps. Well, it's pee pee wise. I
thought it was Pepe. Whatever has peeps, but he lived here in
your house that no not in this house. I do know that a very
famous person lived in this house. I'm not going to mention
it on the air because I don't want people to know where I
live. I'll tell you off the air. Very famous. In fact, some of
what he did he has done in this house which is we've not you
love this story. I'm sorry. Just I'm not going to tell it on the
air. You will love the story when I tell it to because he has
he's he has done his work in this house. And no one fucking
knew it. This is like a landmark and it's not recommended Jagger.
No, but I will tell you that right in front of our door in
1970. Maybe it was 69. The Who? There a van was stolen with
their equipment. And it showed up right near the house here
with all the equipment gone. Five 5000 pounds worth of gear.
So there's some rock and roll history. But no, this guy is
from the 1800s and late 1800s. But this is Jagger, yes. But a
boom but this entire area of Clapham Battersea and to certain
extent Brixton in the 1960s when the Black Death was in London,
everyone fled London if they could, because eventually it's
at a certain point around 6263 They locked up London, you
couldn't get across the Thames and everyone fled out here to be
saved from the Black Plague. It's very interesting history. I
have to think I think you'll enjoy it if you come over.
Yeah, no, I get over there. Sure. No, I will because
actually now there's no the sound was
down just gone didn't call. Hey, I got miles on Hello. I can give
you miles on my Virgin Atlantic.
The I take them you probably got lots of miles by now.
Yeah, in fact, to to help with the credit crunch. I'm now
buying coach and upgrading with miles.
Let's same thing.
Well, what do you mean? It's the same thing?
I missed you still in first class,
right? Yeah. But what I'm saying is I'm no longer paying for
a you're actually buying first class tickets for class. Miles.
Yes, I've got
well. Back in the day when everyone had tonnes of money. It
was okay, you know, but now we've all got to be careful.
Right. Except Obama redecorating his place for 100 grand. Yeah.
And the 100 and $70 million inauguration. Sure. Except for
except for those minor points.
Was it 170 million to do that?
That's what I heard 150 to 170. Someone even calculated the
carbon footprint which is like bigger than a whole coal, coal
installation.
The carbon footprint are like
five and 525 million tonnes of co2 Whatever.
So I don't think we got to any good topics today.
What are you talking about? Well, first of all, you came to
the party with nothing. I think I've been I've been driving the
ship. So yeah, what do you mean no good topics.
I just get the feeling that compared to last week's show
which I think we're we were pounding the ball out of the
park. You know we got like this kind of a boring show. I think
we should start it over
country Obama, everybody welcome to the Obama station of the
nation. It's a sea to the sea here in South Westland. The JCD
How're you doing, buddy? Hey, buddy,
come on in. By the way, I've got I've recorded a family guy for
you. Were the were Brian becomes a DJ. Oh, awesome. Great. Have
you ever seen this one? Oh, I haven't. Oh, that's great. Oh,
this is the funniest one because they got these two boneheads
that are just a all they do is play Jenga. Oh, awesome. You
would love this particular episode because it's just it
shows the it has all this stuff that you like you think is
funny.
Well, it's like, I saw Wayne's World to the other day. Have you
ever did you probably have never seen Wayne's World?
I never even knew it existed? Oh, yeah. Oh, no, I that's not
what Kim Basinger, isn't it?
That was one I don't know if she was in two because I only saw a
little bit of it. But basically Wayne and Garth go to promote
their concert? Maybe it was one? I don't know. I don't know.
Maybe it was one. And they go to a radio station. And the guy. So
he's interviewing them. And it's exactly the way it works. And so
they're talking and the guy is is basically turning around.
He's fiddling with the carts. You know, that's an old
fashioned jingle system, basically a track cartridges.
And he's going Yeah, so they're talking and it just makes these
listen noises. Yeah. He'll just rambling. Oh, yeah. And then all
of a sudden, it's like pure gunshot Oh, yeah. That coming
closer. Yeah. Okay, god. It's so spot it is so Exactly, exactly
what top 40 used to be. Because of course, now we don't even
have that sad type of radio anymore. Now that it's all clear
channel, all the radio companies, all these big ones,
you can buy them now for 18 cents a share so bankrupt. It's
all it's all gonna go away. I
think we Yeah, I know. I talked to you before about the fact
that we should own a radio station. But you thought it was
a bad idea?
Yeah. Because it's people just don't tune in that way anymore.
That's why I think I think the newspaper column I think, you
know, I think I want to do that here in the UK, because that's
still kind of where people get their info from. And I could
plug this show I could put I didn't want the show in I was in
the Financial Times a couple of weeks back
in the morning. Play the show. Yeah. Yeah. Daily source
code, no agenda. The guy didn't really report. Nice guy is the
guy he does a weekly podcast The Financial Times Mike is shows
like beer mat radio or something. And he's kind of he's
not really a typical Financial Times type guy, but he wrote it
wrote a nice column little interview, you know, about what
I'm doing. But zero. I heard no one say anything about it.
Nothing, not an email, nothing.
Yeah, I'm always that's actually something that, you know, I
don't know if the public understands completely, but if
you do a lot of this kind of stuff, you know, whether it's
writing or TV or radio, you get, you get, you'll get some
feedback from the public at large. Sometimes, and it's
always usually sometimes it's surprising. And then other times
you do something you think is gonna get a lot of attention and
you get nothing Correct. Nobody. Oh, you were on that? I didn't
know. I think well, I was gonna say like Leola ports. Twit is
like a good example of somebody has a huge wide audience. In
fact, I use that platform occasionally to solicit
clothing. And right I know it sounds silly, but it's but what
I'm talking about is football. Like a football team wins a
championship I put the word recordings and I'll get I'll get
I'm gonna get like buddies. And, and other things you do you get
nothing in fact that when I was doing when I was we were still
do this, but not as much as I used to. But at Market Watch.
When they were owned by CBS, they used to have this show
called the money something or other. And it was on and he had
a huge audience huge. And I would do the show once in a
while. And there was only one person ever saw me do it. And it
was my pharmacist who was like 90, and it was outside on
Wednesday because they showed it at weird hours. And so then they
got sold to Dow Jones and I'd started doing CNBC, which which
and by comparisons, it was like talking to an audience of 5
million to an audience of 45,000. But the CNBC audience is
like, guys watching 24/7 They're all in the you know, they're all
in the stock market thing. They're all I got more feedback.
Yeah, I got like, Oh, you were on there. You were on there. I
get from guy after guy after guy. And I'm thinking this is
the this is interesting because sometimes the biggest, what you
think is a big effect is just enough that
died. Yeah. Well, I've seen this throughout my entire career, the
duds. But you know, when, in the early days in the Netherlands
when we only had two television stations state run, and I would
do my show on if it was Thursday, later was Sunday.
First, it was Sunday evening, I think, you know, the, it was
literally it was 35% market share, you know, like, huge
audience, so just millions and millions of people. And nine
times out of 10, you know, you think this is Oh, man, people
are gonna love this show and nothing. The numbers were there,
people watched it, we just nothing and then you do
something. And typically when the numbers, the ratings will be
lower, and you get all kinds of feedback. It's you can't pin
anything down on it, you have no idea how it works.
I think it's the targeting. I think if you got the right
person targeted to the right audience, you'll get a lot of
feedback. And it doesn't have to be a large audience just has to
be the right audience. It's like, right, targeting, it's
like this is you know, about narrow casting. And I think the
I think you have a bigger effect. That's just my guess.
But I mean, it seems to be the case. I mean, it's like, like
with the twit thing. Leo's got, you know, not I mean, there's
nobody that listened would possibly listen to that show at
all, unless they were interested in one thing only. It's not like
it's not like broadcasting in any way. And I think too, with
our show, it's a little bit like that, except we're more of a of
a general interest podcast. So I think I'll do I get a lot of
feedback from this. I mean, we have enough people now even
though people should help us get a bigger audience. Yes, you
should.
And get me more followers on Twitter, I think I need more.
I've got only got seven or seven and a half 1000 or something. I
need more, because I am starting to use it more and really does
work.
Well. That's the complaint about you. What? You don't use it that
much. I
use it all the time. Now.
I'm okay. Well, you're using it more. I'm tweeting. So anyway,
the point is, is that I get people coming up to me, I still
find this peculiar since I've been writing for PC Magazine for
25 years. And within at some point, the audience was two or 3
million people. I still have people that just discover me
only from these podcasts. I love that. I love you on twit and no
agenda. That's fantastic. And, you know, they don't know me
from anything else. It's like it's a complete, you know, like
I just show
you, you know, my theory about that is that you have this
audience that essentially stems from the Tech TV days, which was
a very rabid community.
Yeah. Very small. But rabid?
Yeah. Well, I, you know, so 250,000 is, yeah, it's large for
us. But it I think that's probably what the audience was,
if at Tech TV, it was smaller than that. 50 50,000 Yeah. But
it's also it's about a topic that a lot of people are in
your, in general, this week in tech is supposed to be about
tech. And you know, like, when you so when you have a great
episode, by the way with Geordi LaForge, we used to have the
same agent
seems like a nice guy,
very nice guy. And, and he does a lot of stuff, man, you know,
not just the Star Trek stuff. But he you know, the Reading
Rainbow. He's been doing that for a long time. You know, but
it's interesting for you look at how many iPhones are out there
anyone with an iPhone who likes iPhone apps is going to be
interested in twit because eventually something will fly by
you know, it's that that makes total sense. To me. I think the
audience is limited. And I think the impact that you have on the
world in general is zero. You know, it's chewing gum, but it's
great. You know, it's
not like there's no no impact whatsoever. In fact, the impact
you get from print media has always been it's always been
more noticeable. I used to be I used to be able to, to monitor
it, and I'd never monetize it for my own benefit. But in the
heyday, I could write some just two or three sentence thing,
plugging a specific product and inside track, and I would get a
hold of the vendor and I'd want to track sales. The sales bumped
it yet. And the heyday half a million Wow. Half a million
dollar sales bump instantly. is actually quite interesting.
Dave Weiner was harping on you yesterday, which was kind of
interesting. What did he say? Well, I saw these he was because
I follow him on Twitter and I saw these Twitter's I guess some
journalist or someone said something nasty about him, you
know, typical day and of course, he won't write about who said
what he won't point to it. The God knows what it was. But he
was saying there are two types of actually I should read the
blog post to be factual. There are two types of journalists,
actors and non actors I'll read it you probably looking at it
right now, but read it in journalism. There's a big
difference between the actors and the non actors. The actors
are trying to create an effect. You're not hearing what they
really think you're hearing what they want you to think. They're
thinking non actors try to play it straight. They want to
communicate their ideas accurately and persuasively and
try and strive to find better and better ways to do that. It
is true in journalism and equally true in blogging. To
explain the idea to a journalist friend, I thought of two people
who are who he would be likely to know to extreme example,
extreme examples, Scott Rosenberg and John Dvorak. So I
continue reading. Yeah, I
did. I don't like I said, my browser's not up so I can't read
this. Rosenberg
is the former managing editor of Salon film critic at the SF
examiner Dvorak is a longtime tech columnist. I read him 30
years ago and info world then PC mag. Now he's a blogger and
podcaster, which is incorrect, because you're still right.
Rosenberg and Dwaraka. Very different sorts of reporters in
person. Check it out, John, in person. The Vortech is a
gentleman and really nice, thoughtful guy on the web. And
in his podcast, I guess is this one or maybe it's tech five,
he's an actor playing the role of a cranky thoughtless clown.
In this video, thoughtful Dvorak explains Dvorak the actor and
you know what video that is, right? Yeah, I've crazy video
that about the Mac about Apple? Yeah. And then he goes on to say
Rosenberg, on the other hand, if you met him in person would be
the same and say the same things in his online persona. I
disagree with that, because well, maybe I'm just seeing John
the actor, but you act the same around me in person as you do on
the show.
Yeah. Now he's you what he's doing. He's just he's basing
that entire theory on that one. Macintosh, goading, the
Macintosh community incident is generally speaking the formula
for
the audience to shitty anyway, sorry.
It's a very there was a we had a cheap camera is this really
should we shoot that? But anyway, the
reacted please, John. That's the point.
Is that, you know, is that you know, there's the element that
the way he expresses it is that you do some I hate when I do
cranky geeks and I'm getting worked about something I'm not.
I'm not not irked. I mean, there's a lot of things that
really work me. And you've heard me go on these rants. And it's
not really an acting job as very sincere about these rants. Now,
when I'm kidding around about that Macintosh thing. That's a
different story. But that's like a lot of my body of work. It's
so minor that I can't, you know, I don't whiners generalising in
a funny way, but at least he gave me a compliment for being a
gentleman.
Yeah. Well, you know, the stuff you see you're
right. No, you're right. He's doesn't know that's just Weiner
doing doing his thing. You can I'm not, I'm not going to
paraphrase you. It's okay. All right. Well, but yes. About what
paraphrased me about what
know what you said the other day. That doesn't matter. It
wasn't it was private conversation. People hate it
when I do.
Yeah, they do. Um, you're gonna get letters. But uh, oh, I
hope it would be nice to get one. You know, at MTV, I used to
actually get letters before email. And they were sacks and
sacks of mail in my dressing room.
They used to be a lot more mail. I mean, during the like, just
before the email thing became super popular, which I would
kind of pin down around the year 2000. I get lots of press
release, I'd be loaded with mail and then it one day just
disappeared. I don't get a press release in the mail now. No, I
think I've seen one
progress. I think that's kind of progress. I really miss the old
days when you go on MTV and say, hey, send me a naked picture.
And lo and behold, they would show up. The audio guy Rick
Kalman was a good friend of mine. So you know, sometimes he
say hey, man, could you just do audio and I can go take a shit
because I had the only dress room nearby with a with a
toilet. And so I'd be doing audio in the booth and then he'd
go and open up my mail and literally 1012 postal sacks full
and it was just amazing to see the stuff that people would send
and I still had I kept some of it. And cakes and brownies and
other things I would not eat.
Yeah, you don't want to eat stuff. That's not a
good idea. I didn't think it was boring. John. I thought it was a
really good show personally. Okay,
well, we'll have to we'll let the duty to the readers decide.
But you might you might want to prepare for next week.
We have no agenda. I got the one note that I made. Where is it?
What is your one note that I can find out who the guy that BBC
documentarian is a guy with a voice that he it's I'll get it I
get it.
But he is great. He's he's done. Many good documentaries that I
would say. Even David Icke quotes him a lot for the work he
does.
My favourite like your friend, we should go have lunch with
him. I'm sure he'd
love to. Maybe we can get them we can have
he asked him why he uses the the pin name dick d.ic K E. I don't
know. All right. All right. All right. So coming to you from the
curry terrorists. Famous for its escape route out of death ridden
London and Gitmo nation east. I'm Adam curry.
John C. Dvorak here in Northern Silicon Valley, also known as
get more on nation West, at least for the moment until Obama
changes it.
We'll talk again next week right here on no agenda.