Stacy Blog: Site running as normal now

Stacy Summary:  Site is back up on running.  Sorry you have been unable to leave comments for the past few hours.  I moved the site to another server at Dreamhost and, apparently, there was a problem with transferring all the code over . . . but it is back!  If you ever have a problem accessing the site, email me or email our server host at support at dreamhost.com with our website address in the title line.  They usually get it back up within seconds.

By the way, just watched Syriana for the third or fourth time.  Learn more and more every time I watch it.  Really interesting to watch in light of twitter spam-olution and the Butcher of Beirut.  Really interesting.  Would love to hear your thoughts on the movie.

Also, just found this article Robert Baer wrote for Time

51 thoughts on “Stacy Blog: Site running as normal now”

  2. Richard@lattitude30N

    @Stacy: that movie ( Syriana)was that the one starring George Clooney and Mat Damon?? Damon has some great quotes about how the “western businessmen” look down on the oil Sheiks who were herding sheep/goats a hundred years ago and because they hoard all the oil revenue and refuse to build an infrastructure for their people they will once more become in the next 50 years hence broke herders in the desert when the oil glut ends!!!Very appropriate that now their trillions are cut in half…I remember one of this site’s bloggers posted a comment that Dubai RE development is stalled; Barclays Capital Equity is a third owned by the Arab Emerates, and Qatar; that Citi has had Sheik wali al sheed as a major stockholder since the 1990′s near default…and then again more so last year; and obviously the Saudi’s( and OPEC) have been manipulating the oil futures market so that the crude price is now $70 instead of $35 so that they prevent an uprising in their country as the shelves are emptied and the wages are reduced and the immigrant workers are deported…Oh yes there are many good dialog…and very close to reality…

  3. Grant in oz

    Excellent movie, I’m not so sure the CIA are intelligent enough to take out a target like that. It is a movie though.

  6. jon in montana

    Yep, sadly the cia/big oil can do all sorts of things with all the military hardware they have now. After all. They want to control everything.

  10. rokw4petrocollapse

    Syriana:

    Google “Creative Screenwriting Podcast Syriana” and listen to the interview with writer/director Stephen Gaghan.

    The interview is over 2 hours long, and it’s fantastic. You won’t believe the stories about the making of that film. Highlights: Gaghan was kidnapped by Hamas and taken to meet a Hamas bigwig who wanted to talk with him about U.S. filmmaking. Also, Gaghan was “granted an audience” with P.O.D. Richard Perle, whose dog “Reagan” features in an amusing anecdote.

    Listen to the entire interview — you won’t be sorry.

  14. Youri Carma

    Been to the coiffeur for a change, been reading some of those tabloids. Angelina Jolie has sights set on the White House http://tinyurl.com/nfcohb

    This reminds me of my favorite movie in that genre is Back to the Future (1985) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/ Remember the scene in which Christopher Lloyd in 1955 asks Michael J. Fox “Who is President in 1985″. Fox says, “Ronald Reagan.” Lloyd replies, “Ronald Reagan. The actor? Hah!” The scientist at first believes that Marty is a lunatic, and considers it hilarious that the then-actor Ronald Reagan will be President in 1985.

    Reagan was reported to have loved that scene so much he had the projectionist go back to that scene. He had laughed his head off according to sources. Reagan quoted a scene from the end of the first “Back to the Future” movie “We are taking America back to the future, and where we are going, we won’t need roads.”

    It seems that Reagan had a forseeing eye cause “where we are going, we won’t need roads” cause we all be riding the Ol head mule again.

  15. Blondy@Tokyo

    Oh, Syriana! How excellent !

    It’s one of the best socio-political movies I ‘ve ever seen before.

    Oil business and International politics, Bureaucracy and Power straggles in U.S.

    It would make a very good learning material for students in the courses of international studies in the schools.

    By the way, you may like this funny tragicomedy, as it describes well the masochistic humor of U.S. people over their troubles by the gigantic government organizations.

    Burn After Reading:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hluA554q_fE

  16. gb

    HEY rokw4petrocollapse!
    can’t find
    “Creative Screenwriting Podcast Syriana”

    did find
    Stephen Gaghan (December 9, 2005)

  18. Mother Earth

    That camel herders quote sounds familiar, but I can’t remeber where it came from. Its not new..It grossly underestimates the fact arabians have been international treades for many centuries, selling nubian slaves to india before the first westeners discovered the idea. Mister Livingstone (‘I presume’) was living as a beggar in an arabian slave trader camp at the time the famous words where spoken to him..

    As I look into it I find the dependence on oil is for the most part a myth kept alive by the oil companies. The MENA region is facing acute water shortages and will have to cut a deal with whoever enforces the patents..

  21. Mike/Liverpool

    Question for Max:-
    Would buying into the Iceland crowrna be a good move………………i mean its been killed & it paying a good rate i hear?
    Mike

  23. gb

    thanks!

    2 frontmen candidates for special interests,
    votes that may or may not be counted – sounds like…
    most elections in most countries. how incredibly sad.

    time to watch the film Network again. and re-read 1984.

  27. max keiser

    i’m trying to find the youtube clips that are the most damning of ben bernanke from his testimony last week in congress… what is your opinion on this.. i need it for this week’s On The Edge show.

    thanks

  29. Scott from Oregon

    There are also great clips of bernanke claiming ‘the economy is fine” up until the very edge of the precipice…

    You could weave those into his claim that Congress will ruin the economy if they know what is going on… it makes for great theatre…

  36. Youri Carma

    BETTER LINKS (Reuters)

    (Reuters Vid) Bernanke on the hot seat Report

    Jun. 25 – Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill as lawmakers pressed him on the Central Bank’s role in the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch merger.

    http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/popup?videoId=106852&videoChannel=75&pos=4.832

    (Reuters Vid) Business Update: Recession revised Report

    June 25. – The U.S. economy shrank at a slightly slower pace at the start of the year than first thought.

    http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/popup?videoId=106850&videoChannel=75&pos=65.776

  37. Youri Carma

    Congressmen Connolly & Duncan Questions Ben Bernanke (Round 1)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGgueDdTK98

    Congressman Kucinich Questions Ben Bernanke (Round 1)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOb2nMb7Io

    Congresswoman Kaptur Questions Ben Bernanke (Round 2)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5qa2Vhm2s4

    Congressman Kucinich Questions Ben Bernanke (Round 2)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1aPeARj3JQ

    For more vids “Bernanke June 25, 2009″ QUERY:
    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bernanke+June+25%2C+2009+&search_type=&aq=f

  39. pedro

    Watch THE INTERNATIONAL and you will find it equally close to reality but this time the banking industry is the one being “a bit” exposed. Remember the philanthropic and benevolent Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)? If you do then you will most likely enjoy this film…

    pedro

  40. Palantíri

    @gb – network is an interesting film, with Howard Beale having some explosive monologs which should not be taken as fiction anymore.

    When it comes to the Orwellian 1984 book I keep comparing it to the Huxley’s Brave New World book and wonder which path of those we are heading at. Maybe a mixture of both at the same time?

    Anyway since fear is such a big part of our life I would recommend a book by Lars Fr. H. Svendsen – A Philosophy of Fear (Frykt) and maybe it could help us rethink about the irrational fear we all have.

    To post a review by Guardian: “Not so long ago people lived with the real fear that at any moment a nuclear apocalypse could end life on earth. Today we are afraid of global warming. And financial meltdown. Oh yes, and terrorism, too. Then there’s the flu pandemic, not to mention cancer-causing chemicals in our food, street crime and pedophile teachers. In the UK we’re so afraid of each other that we have one CCTV camera for every 14 people. But ironically, we are safer and healthier now than at any time in our history. According to Lars Svendsen, a Norwegian philosopher, ”our fear is a by-product of luxury.” The mass media, pressure groups and the nanny state are all guilty of stoking the current climate of paranoia. Fear is a powerful emotion. It can save lives. But it also ”robs us of our freedom” and undermines that essential social glue: trust. Bertrand Russell once said that ”to conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” Svendsen agrees. In this brief yet wide-ranging and insightful book, he argues convincingly that we need to replace the risk society with a culture of hope and trust.”–Guardian (UK) (Guardian)

    Syriana – and the west (United States) are still clueless of why the Arabs hate “us”?
    They hate us for our freedom you fool!!! right? blah.

  42. Palantíri

    @gb – thanks for the link, I just spent an hour watching it, he had some very interesting things to say. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in all those situations/meetings

  43. Richard@lattitude30N

    @Max: I feel all tingling inside now that you formally recognized one of my least intelligent comments…thanx Max

  45. Mr Supergeek

    Yeah I hadn’t seen syriana…I remeber when it came out I didn’t see any great reviews and none of my friends recommended it…can see why the msm weren’t able to deal with it …no resolution, no easy answers and quite a complicated political script…oh and no guns fired or no sexy women…well anyway cheers Stacy was good…glad I watched it right now perfect timing really…informative for sure.

  46. Phil

    @Mr Supergeek .. Syriana

    I bought the DVD after Catherine Austin-Fitts recommended watching it ( in her 2008 IRTA presentation ).
    I had never heard of the film until then !

  47. BLINK

    Syriana would have been a much better film with subtitles. Half the film its impossible to work out whats happening ;(

  48. Marilyn Waring Fan

    The GDP formula was invented by John Maynard Keynes who wrote a pamphlet during World War II entitled: The British National Income and How to Pay for the War. In 1953 that Keynesian set of rules was imposed on everybody. The rules are called The United Nations System of National Accounts. All countries must use them or they will not be allowed to be a member of the UN, or deal with the World Bank and IMF. These unquestioned rules have been used to make public policy for the last 56 years.

    Marilyn Waring says that the GDP system counts only cash transactions in the market. In other words it recognizes no value other than money. This means there is no value to peace to the preservation of the environment, and no value to unpaid work. This system leaves out half the population of the planet and the planet itself.

    http://tucradio.org/090318Waring_ONE.mp3

    http://tucradio.org/090325Waring_TWO.mp3

  50. Ken Belke

    Stacey/Max,

    Regarding the Air New Zealand commercial where everyone is body painted….. actually the CEO of Air New Zealand, Rob Fife, is in the advert briefly as a baggage handler.

    Funny.

Comments are closed.