http://billmoyers.com/content/richard-wolff-on-how-raising-the-minimum-wage-lifts-america/

A Movie Review of Moyers and Company interviewing some idiot academic~~

http://billmoyers.com/content/richard-wolff-on-how-raising-the-minimum-wage-lifts-america/

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I say~~Bill Moyers and your little friend Wolf~

~~please stop~~

Playing rude games with the poor~~”OH, Mr. Bill Moyers~~if only we can simply raise the wage the minimum wage”~~ and other pin-head con games~

Oh!! if only we could just raise the minimum wage~~is one of the oldest, best selling, tunes in the Commie Top 40–can you believe that song still gets played~~

Dan–the minimum wage is a definition of not making it~~it is a definition of poverty~~to raise or lower it~~is simply to re-define not making it~~to re-define~~poverty~~

I want to progress past the standard left/right sleepy hallow double talk in this city and actually get something done for the workers before the nation explodes.

Everybody here of this city is too comfortable and academic and nobody here realizes we are sitting on a powder keg~~if I were on the telle~vision with this clown~~I would say “Wolf~~if you are so bone-headed as to think that raising your little academic number will not have an upward push on all wages~~to include your own~~let’s cut out the baby steps and make $5000/hr the minimum wage~~for ease of maths~~that is $10 milllions a year~~whadda think about that plan Wolf~~don’t be a Republican cheap skate–you’re supposed to be helping the poor~help them~~pay them $10 millions the year–you say your schemes have no upper~ward push on anyone else’s wage–

S0~

~~let’s find out–let’s call your bluff–let’s put the Commie top 40 all time great song into practice~~

I think that would send Wolf back to whatever space ship campus he lives on~

John Begg~

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~~Κύριε ἐλέησον~~
Rejoice and Glad!!

Amen~~

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EX LIBRIS

~~THEOS EK MĒCHANĒS~~

JOHN DANIEL BEGG

At

Washington, District of Columbia

United States

Friday, 9th Aout, Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, 2013~

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John Daniel Begg

At

Washington DC

JOHN DANIEL BEGG

PRESIDENT

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpSZ506qNM0

Ramon~~with his quiet confidence~~and ready smile~~calmed his horses and endeared himself to his fellow riders in, what is, a very brutal sport~~

We want you to make note of Ramon riding aboard his best mount of all, the gutsy little Gio Ponti, in the video provided, but more so, to consider this sad news about Ramon that follows here~~and keep him in your prayers~~

We commence now to quote from The Blood Horse of June 14th in full corpus~~
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Jockey Dominguez Retires Due to Injury

By Claire Novak, @BH_CNovak

Updated: Friday, June 14, 2013 1:47 PM
Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 6:39 PM

Jockey Dominguez Retires Due to Injury

Photo: Coady Photography

Ramon Dominguez

Three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Ramon Dominguez has retired due to the severity of injuries sustained in an accident at Aqueduct Racetrack Jan. 18.

The 36-year-old rider was unseated when his mount, Convocation, stumbled and fell while tossing his rider to the inner dirt track in the day’s seventh race. Following the spill at Aqueduct, Dominguez was hospitalized with a fractured skull and spent time in the Intensive Care Unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He was transferred to Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, N.Y. for inpatient brain rehabilitation therapy.

Dominguez initially expected to make a comeback, but was advised by physicians to end his career.

“Riding Thoroughbreds has always been my passion and my calling,” Dominguez said in a press release. “When I was 13 and watched my first horse race in Venezuela, I knew that I would become a jockey, and my riding career has brought happiness and success beyond what I ever expected.

“Thus, it is extremely difficult for me to announce that due to the severity of the injuries I sustained…my professional riding career has come to an end. While I hoped and even expected to be able to return to the saddle, as a result of my injuries and upon the advice of my treating physicians, it has been determined that I will no longer be able to pursue my career as a jockey.”

Dominguez, who has two young sons with his wife Sharon, retires 15 wins shy of 5,000 victories with career earnings of $191,615,698. His mounts won at a 23% rate, finishing in the top three 56% of the time. He rode three Breeders’ Cup winners—Little Mike (2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf), Hansen (2011 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile), and Better Talk Now (2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf).

He was also the regular rider of 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and champion Gio Ponti . Other top mounts included Bluegrass Cat , runner-up in the 2006 Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), 2004 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) runner-up Scrappy T, and 2010 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) third place finisher First Dude .

“Ramon Dominguez leaves an indelible mark on Thoroughbred racing and his profession,” said Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. “His many victories and achievements earned him three consecutive Eclipse Awards as the nation’s leading jockey in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Above all, he epitomizes sportsmanship and professionalism as demonstrated by the respect he earned from his fellow jockeys. He is destined for Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame.”

The jockey enjoyed a banner year in 2012, leading the nation in earnings with $25.6 million to surpass Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey for the single-season record for seasonal North American earnings by a rider. Bailey set his top seasonal earnings mark in 2003 when his North American mounts secured $23.3 million in purse earnings.

Dominguez topped the New York Racing Association riding circuit for the fourth straight year with 322 victories in 2012, and was also the winner of the George Woolf Award, bestowed by his peers for excellent conduct and given by Santa Anita Park.

“It was a shock to hear the announcement today that Ramon was retiring,” said Rick Violette Jr., president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “He has always showcased the very best that New York racing has to offer, not only through his ability as a rider, but also as one of the classiest people in the sport. That he will be sorely missed can’t be overstated, but we wish him much good luck in the future, and sincerely hope that his future includes continued involvement in horse racing. Racing will always need role models like Ramon.”

A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Dominguez came to the United States in 1995 and built his reputation as a kingpin on the Mid-Atlantic circuit. He won multiple titles at Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course, and Delaware Park before moving his tack to New York full time in 2008. He led 20 individual meet titles on the NYRA circuit while dominating the standings from 2009-12. Agent Steve Rushing managed his book.

“All of us at NYRA are saddened to learn that Ramon Dominguez has been forced to end his riding career,” said NYRA vice president and director of racing P.J. Campo. “He won numerous meet riding titles and many of our top races en route to becoming New York’s leading rider for each of the past four years.

“Ramon’s accomplishments… only tell part of the story, though,” Campo continued. “He has epitomized class both on and off the racetrack. Universally respected by his fellow riders and beloved by fans, Ramon has built a towering and well-deserved reputation that serves as a standard for all future jockeys. It has been a true privilege to have him in the NYRA riding colony and we wish him and his family the very best in this new chapter of their lives.”

“I want to personally thank my family, fans, and fellow riders for overwhelming support in the months since my accident,” Dominguez said. “I chose to make this statement to end speculation about my future, but I am not yet ready to speak publicly. I will come forward on my own, but in the meantime I ask that you please respect my privacy as I continue my recovery.”

Read more on BloodHorse.com: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/78862/jockey-dominguez-retires-due-to-injury?&utm_source=DailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130614#ixzz2WEsiYhdN

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We cease to quote from The Blood Horse and ask that you whisper a prayer for Ramon and his family that they will have fortitude and faith in the future at this most trying time~~

~~Κύριε ἐλέησον~~

Rejoice and Glad!!

Amen~~

EX LIBRIS

John Daniel Begg

At

Washington, District of Columbia

United States

Saturday, 15th Juin, Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, 2013

Ramon Dominguez~~a very special lad in a very demanding sport~~will be most terribly missed by all of us in the colony~~

Today, we are entertained by some easily recognizable friends from 1948, who bring us a message, lamentably, easily recognizable to all Americans, 65 years on, in 2013.

In our little movie, we see that Dr. Utopia promises everything in the world you could possibly ever even imagine—if you are simply sophisticated enough to sign over all your freedoms to him in exchange for his New Garden of Eden—called Utopia.

Are you sophisticated enough for utopia? Do know what sophisticated means? I was born at Washington, America’s Babylon on the Potomac, and have lived here full 61 years, during which time I have witnessed a sleepy little southern cow town transformed into the American Mecca of big money, hilarious corruption, equally hilarious sanctimony and, now, in the city’s end-stage hubris, the promise of utopia.

Do know what sophisticated means? Mr. Webster tells us that sophistication means to him:

“The process or result of becoming cultured, knowledgeable, or disillusioned; especially: CULTIVATION, URBANITY or the process or result of becoming more complex, developed, or subtle.”

Fine and well as far as that goes, Mr. Webster, and we thank you, we do. The trouble is that Mr. Webster does not go quite far enough. Because, as we learned at school as wee laddies, all these pretty words ultimately derive from sophistry, a very naughty form of Greek philosophy which, put to the quick, meant winning the argument by whatever means necessary.

So, while the men of Washington today, America’s Babylon on the Potomac, are, beyond dispute, sophisticates in the common lexicon, they are, far, far, more so, sophists, in the classical sense—and that’s not reassuring.

Sophists were Greek travelling teachers hired by rich boys’ families to teach rich boys the art, if that is what the right word is, of sophistry.

Due in large part to the influence of Plato and Aristotle, the term sophistry has come to signify the deliberate use of fallacious reasoning, intellectual charlatanism and moral unscrupulousness. In more modern times, such men are called, by the Catholics, Jesuits, and their art is known as behaving in a manner jesuitical.

The sophisticates at Washington these days employ sophistry to promise the Americans utopia, best illustrated in our little film this day, but the villain of our film from 1948, Dr. Utopia, a sophist himself of top-shelf, fails to tell the unenlightened just what utopia means. Again, attend first to Mr. Webster.

Mr. Webster says that utopia means these things three, somewhat contrary, things:

1.) an imaginary and indefinitely remote place
2.) often capitalized : a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions
3.) an impractical scheme for social improvement

After attending to our Mr. Webster, cast your mind back once again to your prep school studies of the Greek philosophers. In their work we find these, on surface, quixotic and self-contradictory definitions of utopia, somewhat different from that of  our Mr. Webster:

The first recorded societal utopian proposal is Plato’s Republic.  Intended as, part conversation, part fictional depiction and part policy proposal, Plato’s Republic proposes a categorization of citizens into a rigid class structure of “golden,” “silver,” “bronze” and “iron” socioeconomic classes.

The golden citizens are trained in a rigorous 50-year long educational program to be benign oligarchs, the “philosopher-kings.” The wisdom of these rulers will supposedly eliminate poverty and deprivation through fairly distributed resources, though the details on how to do this are unclear. The educational program for the rulers is the central notion of the proposal.

There is a general pacifism or pacifist attitude. However, the people of the Republic are all ready to defend themselves or to compete militarily for resources, most particularly such as land, if necessary. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, but hires mercenaries from among its war-prone neighbors. These mercenaries were deliberately sent into dangerous situations in the hope that the more warlike populations of all surrounding countries would be weeded out, leaving hopefully, only peaceable men behind.

In the sixteenth century, Saint Thomas More’s book Utopia proposed an ideal society of the same name. Some readers, including utopian socialists, have chosen to accept this imaginary society as the realistic blueprint for a working nation, while others have postulated that Saint Thomas More intended nothing of the sort. Some maintain the position that Saint Thomas More’s Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, a work intended to reveal more about the England of his time than about an idealistic society.

This interpretation is bolstered by the title of the book and nation, and its apparent confusion between the Greek for “no place” and “good place”: “utopia” is a compound of the syllable ou-, meaning “no”, and topos, meaning place. However, the Greek prefix eu-, meaning “good,” also resonates in the word, with the implication that the perfectly “good place” is really “no place.”

England was no utopia under the rule of His Majesty, King Henry VIII, who ended Saint Thomas Moore’s pretensions of utopia, and his life, by slicing off Thomas’ head for treason against Henry. Specifically, for Saint Thomas’ not having signed off, with alacrity, on Henry’s planned divorce from His Queen, Catherine of Aragon.  Henry could be very touchy.

As a boy, Henry was very jovial and sportive, but with age and infirmity and very, very much drink and far too many young girls for his own good, he became, as I say, very touchy. I suspect, but can’t prove, it was mostly the drink and the syphilis that made him ticklish with age. At events, Henry has now, in history, a very nasty reputation today.

The Catholics say that Thomas is a Saint in heaven above and is now, at any rate, in a perfect place, the utopia of the New Garden of Eden.

The Americans today are vexed sorely by complexity and have precious little time to attend to Mr. Webster,  Mr. Plato, Mr. Aristotle, His Majesty King Henry VIII, Queen Catherine of Aragon or Saint Thomas More.

To the Americans, one must put things very simply, and comparatively quickly, most particularly in this city of the sophists, Washington on the Potomac.

Outside Washington, America’s Babylon on the Potomac, there is deep depression in the land. The sophists ignore the depression, which deepens ever still as they congratulate themselves that they have won all the arguments, and most cleverly so.

Meanwhile, the young Americans are possessed of spans of attention sorely short.

Outside America Herself, her troops are deployed very thin and face any number of wars on worldwide, with more to come any day now, beyond any doubt.

Back home again, the American educational system and its demands upon the busy young, is today, very, very lax.

For the vexed and the busy, let’s then all agree that utopia means both:

The perfect place and the place that can never be.