In comment #2, Greg Hume, Nick Kertz, Don Chaney, Silbi Stainton, Roberta McGowan, Mark Thomas, Barry Crook, Lanette Smith, Teri Hamilton, Jeff Wertz and a cast of thousands respond to the Con Man's blog on "Glenn Beck's Miracle Cure." The results, as you might expect, are not exactly black and white. "Michael," comments Nick Kertz in this Facebook thread, "it's sad that 47 years after Dr. King's speech, you are still judging people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character as you have above in your comments above. Just because people disagree with you does not make it OK to draw conclusions based on race. I think Dr. King would agree with me there...."
"Ron Paul has some surprising news for the Tea Party: ou’re being taken for a ride. At least this is what many libertarians like Ron Paul believe when they see someone like Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin trying to lead the Tea Party at the “restoring honor” rally this weekend."
"Within a span of 15 years, the industry has gone from 'location, location, location' to 'incentive, incentive, incentive.'"
"Glenn Beck dreams of God," blogs the Con Man. "He prays to God with the door open so his kids will see his subjugation before the Lord. Many of those who love his radio show and came to the Lincoln Memorial Saturday for his “I have a dream” moment have no idea that he worships a false God before them. Sarah Palin dreams of the military and her Presidency and perhaps putting the two together some day. She dreams of serving out her term if the dealio works for her. She comes to Washington, D.C., Sunday with hundreds of thousands of others to “restore honor” to the military—even as she admits our military has never been without honor. She writes nothing on her hand. The rally drew white people like grilled cheese to white bread, all in the name of civil rights that barely got a nod from the madding crowd."
Blogger David Frey reports on Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's visit to the Western Slope in his pursuit of the governor's mansion.
In comment #1, Post blogger Teledog One points to the awkward situation facing News Corp., all because its second largest shareholder funds "radical madrassas all over the world."
In a doubles interview in Parade magazine, tennis star Chris Evert tells how everything changed when she came to visit Martina Navratilova in Aspen: "When my first marriage was ending, I was kind of down, and Martina said, 'Come on up to Aspen' and taught me how to ski. We would ski from 9 to 2, play tennis for two hours, then be in the gym for two hours—and she showed me what she was doing with weights. We did this for a week. Not many people who are No. 1 and No. 2 competitors would do that.... [Andy Mill] was so cute. He woke up and said, 'I can’t believe I slept with Chris Evert in Martina Navratilova’s bedroom!' Martina was responsible for me meeting him, and he and I had a great 20 years, so I feel like I’m not a total failure in life!"
Post blogger Mountaingrown in comment #1: "So non-believers are swine, but I have to buy your DVD to learn how to save the planet....interesting...."
Kevin Costner, Amory Lovins, Hugh McCormack, Edward Troy and other gladiators of the environmental movement have a few things to say.
The first annual Big Aspen Barbecue Block Party kicks off tomorrow at noon at the base of Aspen Mountain. An offshoot of New York City’s long-running Big Apple Barbecue it’s coming West for the first time.
"I’m feeling stunned," writes blogger Richard Long. "Early this morning, Ariane and I spoke at length with two of the pre-eminent doctors in the field of stem cell research out of Boston Children’s Hospital. They not only called into question the theoretical basis of what we had been told about the scientific rationale for the stem cell treatments we gave Emma, but warned us that they had the potential to be 'extremely dangerous.' It is possible that this could be another case of “he said, she said,” and that the doctors who recommended the treatment we have been following are every bit as knowledgeable and experienced as the doctors who were warning us not to undergo another such treatment, but frankly, these particular doctors are so highly credentialed that I have to give their opinions more weight...."
Check in on the Movies section on Aspen Post to see what matters on the big screen to Post bloggers.
"But if you are Sam and Charles Wyly and you want to fight your image as tax-dodging, self-dealing plutocrats," writes Steve Blow, "do you really start by summoning The New York Times to your summer retreat in Aspen? Forgive me if my heart wasn't melted by the Wylys' claim this week that they're just victims of nasty bash-the-rich politics. All I could think while reading the article was – mmm –'August in Aspen.' How nice it must be to have a home in Colorado and a few hundred million dollars sheltered in the Caymans. And if that's a poor attitude, forgive me."
"Related and fellow developers J.E. Robert Cos. and Dubai investment arm Istithmar World this week sued the lenders...."
Think you're a big bad macho type. Then walk in Hem's loafers with blogger David Frey as your guide.
"Slow Food Roaring Fork/Aspen and Chef/Owner Mark Fischer of Restaurant SIX89 are sponsoring the Seventh Annual Summer Harvest Social..."
"Those unafraid to be called 'Islamophobes' for criticizing the Ground Zero mosque now called Park51 have a new weapon: a translation of Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf by a man who claims to be a former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist," blogs the Con Man. "If the translation holds up to linguistic scrutiny, then Imam Rauf’s claims for a mosque near Ground Zero will be seen as nothing more than religious sleight-of-hand, a form of Shariah subterfuge.... Those who see the Park51 mosque formerly known as 'Cordoba' now have evidence that the acclaimed moderate Imam Rauf wants to see Shariah law take hold in the United States...."
Post blogger Teledog One says suspicions about Iman Rauf, he of the Ground Zero mosque, are greatly exaggerated.
Blogger David Frey continues his exhaustive tracking of Ernest Hemingway's world: "Cristina and I step off the Metro at Chateau Rouge and step into the sunlight and into another world. It’s a Saturday, and Saturday is market day. The streets are filled with vendors in bright African clothes...."
"
Cameron: I spent the last five years making one movie to move the needle a little bit. "There’s a limit to its effectiveness because there wasn’t a specific message on specific problems with specific solutions. We spoke to people who were already predisposed to that message. "We need to reach people caught in middle and who think that climate change is a controversial topic.... The message is being framed incorrectly." We need to use media in a smarter way. Use media to calmly, clearly, emotionally and passionately get the message out there that this (care for the environment) is for your good, your children’s good. If you’re a parent and you care about your children, this is what you have to do."
"Conductor Marin Alsop put an exclamation point on the Aspen Music Festival season by whipping up a rip-snorting 'Rite of Spring' in Sunday afternoon's final concert to top off what has been a season of often-exciting and well-played orchestral programs."
"I've said for many years that there's no alternative to peace for the Middle East," writes Richard C. Goodwin of Snowmass. "I attended a symposium on July 15 that espouses an 'alternative to peace.' Simply stated, no peace. After listening to a moderator and speakers rant that peace for Israel will seal its fate and destruction, I asked the moderator if I could make a brief announcement that the founder of 'J Street' was holding a reception in Aspen. I was told not to mention J Street at this meeting. I guess 'diversity' is out of the question. Later in the program, J Street was criticized as a liberal tool to divide Jews in America (even though they have 160,000 supporter e-mails). Obama was slammed for his refusal to give Israel a “free pass” on settlements while guaranteeing its security." 
Rocky Mountain Institute founder Amory Lovins and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman enjoyed many green kumbaya moments at the Seventh Annual American Renewable Energy confab underway in Aspen
In comment #1, Post blogger Teledog One says comedian Jon Stewart owns the Con Man when it comes to the Ground Zero mosque. Check out the video.
Finally, after years of trying, it appears that "Aspen: The Series" is coming to life with some heavyweight sitcom writers.
The Hudson-Reed Ensemble, always full of theatrical surprises, has a new trick up its sleeve: the formidable David Ledingham as the original Tricky Dicky, the Bard's Richard III.
"As host of 'the last of the liberal talk shows,'" blogs the Con Man, "and prognosticator without portfolio, I have been literally gobsmacked by the liberal reaction to the Ground Zero mosque now known so innocuously as Park51—hardly a mosque at all to hear tell from forces on the Left. Liberals to a man, woman, and child have decided that the argument against such a place of worship is “embarrassing” (Chris Hayes over and over again on the Rachel Maddow show). They say nay-sayers are Islamaphobes or worse—as if anything could be worse than being afraid of a religion that stones women.
Confounding the case for this liberal is the brain-dead attacks from the Right, yet another opportunity for conservatives to complain their political opponents are “weak on terror.” When Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich are on your side, it’s time to find a mirror and weep for the poor guy staring you in the face.
In case you missed it, check out Aspen Post's Environment section featuring bloggers Piper Star Foster, Hugh McCormack, Ed Troy, and the Aspen Canary Initiative.
The debate over the Park51 mosque in Gotham is heating up on Michael Conniff's "Con Games" Facebook thread. "It is made quite clear in the article that the Muslim religion accepts no compromise position whatsoever," comments Patricia Hill. "You are either a Muslim or you are 'The Enemy.' It is therefore any Muslim's 'duty' to bring Jihad against all Non-Muslims because they are 'Slaves of Allah' and they must enforce 'Allah's Will' which is to either convert or to destroy anyone and anything that opposes them....." Doug Tucker: "Onward Christian soldiers! I don't see anything in the first amendment about moderation. I never heard any of you saying the Klan doesn't have the right to speak. The Republicans are waging a wedge issue war and the fools are falling for it. First the Hispanics then the Muslims. Any brown people will do."
Blogger David Frey continues tracking his hero throughout Europe with a trip to one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite haunts.
"The fact remains that all of the competing systems--including Communism and Sharia Law--are woefully repressive and not even close to our American standards. It's not that the Chinese are good or bad, or that Muslims don't have hearts of gold, but that whatever good exists is nonetheless trapped within the unfriendly confines of hopelessly repressive systems. There's not an American alive--or at least no one this side of your neighborhood mosque--who would trade places so as to be in societies where thought is repressed and/or women are eggregiously suppressed."
Patrick Holloran will direct ACT's fall musical 1776. Performances will be held at the historic Wheeler Opera House November 4 - 14, 2010.
Here's a sign that summer is fading and winter's no longer far away: the announcement of Aspen/Snowmass ski passes that go on sale August 22, 2010.
Worst weather forecast," writes Post blogger Barbara Floria Orcutt from China, "light smog with a chance of increasing smog. The first
few days we were here the skies were relatively clear and I considered that
perhaps the reports of China's air pollution were overblown. Not so. While we
never developed respiratory problems, most days heavy pollution hid buildings
and on-coming traffic about a quarter mile away, obfuscating promised views of the Forbidden City from our hotel's 13th floor dining room. And it's bound to
get worse--China News reports 50,000 new drivers are added to Beijing's already grid-locked city streets each month."
Aspen local Aron Ralston--who gave up an arm but achieved immortality in the bargain--is the subject of the film that will close out the London Film Festival.
Blogger David Frey continues tracking Ernest Hemingway the way Papa might have tracked a large and elusive animal. This time: Hemingway coming to Hollywood.
"Con-Man," writes Post blogger Star Eagle in comment #1. "Thanks for an excellent post. I only wish to point out at this time how within a very short time this M/I Complex you speak of effectivly pulled a coup within this country by whacking Ike's successor before he could complete his first term.
"The Republican pretenders to the political throne in Colorado remind both wag and wonk of Abbott and Costello, one of the greatest tag teams in American comedic history.Unfortunately for nominees Ken Buck for Senator and Dick Maes for Governor, politics as per usual is no joke in the Rockies, though the pair has long been an embarrassment to regular old Republicans. I know this from Right here in Pitkin County because Righty party types have been bemoaning B&M from the moment it looked as though they might squeegee the Tea leaves hard enough to win their party’s nominations. The word “crazy” has been summoned up by local Republicans more than once—albeit before Buck and Maes won their amazin’ primary victories. The problem for Republicans in Colorado and elsewhere is the party of no instantly became the party of nada in a general election."
Blogger David Frey continues his extraordinary journey in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway: "After seeing my first bullfight, I agree. It’s a tragedy. And I don’t mean that in a good way. I suspect Catalonia is just part of the gradual death of the culture of the bullfight in Spain."
"A wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Denver Wednesday by relatives of a Denver family killed on Thanksgiving Day in 2008 by leaking carbon monoxide in their Aspen vacation home."
"Finally some meat on these bones," writes Post blogger Star Eagle in comment #1. "I need to put two recent post together to get to the essense of what is going on here. While I love Barbara's perspective of the Chinese people and wholeheartedly agree as really, we the people here in the good old USA are right there with the Chinese people as only wanting a good and healthy life for us and our loved ones. If it were only so simple! Now I have to throw in Michael's post 'CON GAMES: Military-Industrial Complex @ 50.' What we are dealing with today is the convergence of this countries 50 year evolution of the M/I Complex and China's monetary birth in a new millenium. The future of this unholy union is the concern for those fine Chinese citizens as well as for those of us here in the U.S. This is the crux before us today. Not whether we should be voting for a liberal or a conservative! Those who wish to remain in the divide and conquer past will find the future a train wreck. As in, most likely they won't know what hit them till its too late and the force...."
"The student singers at the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer rendered the finale of Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” touchingly: 'Pace, pace,' Figaro and Susanna sang: “\'Peace, peace.' The repentant Count pleaded, 'Forgive me.' The Countess responded, 'My answer is yes.' It is one of the greatest, most moving reconciliation scenes in opera, conveying a lesson lost on the real-life characters of the festival high in the Rocky Mountains.
For more than a year bitter disputes involving the musicians, board members and management have festered, leading to a dizzying series of events at one of the nation’s premier classical music festivals and training grounds. Aspen’s president, Alan Fletcher, was ousted, reinstated and given a symbolic vote of no confidence. David Zinman, the festival’s music director and a founder of its respected conducting institute, quit in anger. The board chairman was voted out."
"We spent the morning in the Chinese Military Museum," writes Post blogger Barbara Floria Orcutt, "an immense five-story paean to Chinese military history and might. Although it's barely mentioned in the guidebooks, and very little of the explanatory text was translated into English, I learned more about the Chinese psyche here than anywhere else we've visited."
"Thank you Kevin Costner and Exene Cervenka," writes new Post blogger maxc in comment #4. "Baddaymovie.com was a great little film . Nice to see Kevin when he was young."
The best things in life are free in Aspen but the even better things cost a ton of money. How will a new community biking test fit into the mix?
Lance Armstrong eschewed the Leadville 100 in Colorado and chose instead to stay home in Aspen rehabbing a bum hip.
"Beijing reminds me of a cityscape created with special effects for a movie or video game," Post blogger Barbara Floria Orcutt on her journey through China. "The high-rise hotels and office buildings literally go for for miles in every direction from the geographic center point which is The Forbidden City. There's not an American city that comes even close in terms of scale. To envision the size of the buildings here imagine a city block in New York on 57th street, but instead of 20 or 30 buildings per block as is the norm in Manhattan, there's only one building, and there are hundreds of others the same size up and down the street. It's unimaginably huge."
"Dozens of your listeners wanted you to talk about the real enemy of this country, the Bankers," writes Post blogger infowars.com to the Con Man in comment #1. "You promised and promised you would get to it, but no, you had to talk about some play, or eatery or propaganda from your pal up in DC."
The Aspen Police Department states that: '[Sheen]... explained that he and the daughter share an affinity for both astronomy and the song 'Drops of Jupiter' from the band 'Train.'"
"You are invited to join an entertaining and enlightening program at the Aspen Chapel with a renowned 'mentalist'...." With Ed Bastian on "Con Games" Saturday 10:30 AM Mountain Time on YourRadio.com and 101.1 Aspen, 96.7 Basalt, and 107.7 Glenwood.
"Costner s just incredible," writes Post blogger Chumsley in comment #3. "A portion of the proceeds generated by the movie
'Bad Day' are going to a Gulf Coast aid organization that will help both those people directly affected by this disaster and the precious wetlands of the Gulf coast area."
Barbara Floria Orcutt continues her incredible journey into China with a detailed explanation from a friend about they way things work.
Aspen president and CEO Walter Isaacson is being interviewed about media new and old Sunday night at the Thunder River Theatre by "Con Games" host Michael Conniff. "How can we possibly get out of this disasterous state of media, Mr. Isaacson?" asks Silbi Stainton in this Facebook thread. "Can corporate-owned media produce real news? Can govt.- subsidized media? Can philanthropists save it or will they have an angle they insist is inserted? I us...ed to mock BBC for being owned by govt. but how anyone can really watch/read any major news outlet in the U.S. owned by profit-driven people who are in a race to the bottom of the barrel to appeal to fear in humans is beyond me. Is there any hope to real news ever being reported by a major American journal?"
"Heather and stubby pines cover the shores of Royan, where narrow limestone cliff bands drop into the Atlantic and the mouth of the Gironde opens up to greet it. To me, the seagulls above are a sign of nearby ocean, but for Ernest Hemingway, 19 years old aboard the ship the Chicago, they were a sign of land."
"Without excusing the regime's terror tactics in Tibet for the past 60 years," writes the incomparable travel writer and Post blogger Barbara Floria Orcutt, "or forgetting the inhuman working and living conditions of factory workers and poor farmers in the countryside, I have to say the people of Beijing don't appear to be oppressed. In fact, the people we've met working in hotels and restaurants, playing with their children in public parks, and visiting their nation's historical monuments appear to be living lives quite like ours in the West.
No doubt I'm only seeing the surface, but I expected a populace of unhappy drones. To the contrary, the cafes are filled with young women texting and taking pictures of each other with their smart phones, public spaces are jammed with Chinese families during weekdays--assumably on vacation, the restaurants and shops are filled with Chinese folks--Westerners are few and far between--and enough of an anomaly that several times a day."CON GAMES: Glenn Beck’s Miracle Cure
The rally drew white people like grilled cheese to white bread, all in the name of civil rights that barely got a nod from the madding crowd. Glenn Beck is presented to the public on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “Dream” speech and the March on Washington by marching out on a summer’s day to the bucolic strains of “Appalachian Spring” by Aaron Copland.
Spring, you see, is now summer. A Mormon who cares nothing for the poor declares himself a civil rights leader by accident. His fans worship in Mammon at the feet of a Mormon God and don’t even know it. A Presidential wannabe gives a speech “Restoring Honor” before she admits that no such restoration is possible.
Continue Reading August 29th, 2010 Michael Conniff
