Remedy du Jour -- November 6, 2010

Source: Decline of the Empire

What a week! The Republicans took over the House of Representives, assuring that no meaningful action will emanate from that august body for at least two years. And the day after that debacle, the Federal Reserve pumped up the biggest Ponzi Scheme (in government bonds) ever conceived.

Let’s start off with David Lindley, because if I had money, I’d tell you what I’d do, I go downtown and buy a Mercury or two, ’cause I’m crazy ’bout a Mercury. And now you can get a car, but unfortunately not a Mercury, with no money down just like back in 2007. Happy days are here again!

But let’s go back to the first, Great Depression of the 1930s. To take their minds off their troubles, regular folks went to the movies, where they could see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers light up the stage. Today’s clip features Fred and Ginger dancing to Cole Porter’s classic Night And Day.

We don’t get movies like The Gay Divorcee anymore. In the 1930s, people wanted to be lifted up out of their troubles, they wanted to vicariously experience, however briefly, a better world. In 2010, dumbed-down Americans whose intelligence may be impossible to underestimate watch Jackass 3D (trailer below). Contrast this contemporary “classic” with the 1970s, when directors still made real movies with real characters in them with adult dialogue. Today’s clip is from Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show.

Read more at Decline of the Empire