Rush is at it again. Apparently, he was busted again on prescription drug charges; this time, he was doctor shopping, hopping between four doctors being prescribed drugs from each without telling any of them about the prescriptions from the others. That’s illegal folks.
But I will not be the one to pass judgement. No, I would just like to make a few observations:
1) In 2003, when he was first busted and publically chastized, Rush said he was not a role model, that no one should see him that way. Isn’t that what professional athletes say? Yet we chastise rich young men and not rich old men.
2) Who has heard of a drug charge being postponed for 18 months? Only rock stars and movie stars get that kind of treatment.
3) I think that sometimes, the most obvious points escape us. So, let’s remember just how Rush felt about drugs and drug users.
Come on…his first name is Rush! Either his parents really liked Tom Sawyer or they were shot-gunning Wild Irish Rose with cocaine. I will forgive him, so long as he can forgive himself.
Rush, this is heaven calling. Your prescription will be ready for pickup at 5:30.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Truthiness at the White House Correspondents Dinner
Colbert has some cajones, that's for sure. This is incredible.
Crooks and Liars has the details.
"Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Crooks and Liars has the details.
"Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
"The Tenth Second of Forever"
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!
Blast off to adventure in the amazing year Four Hundred Billion, with Commander Hoëk and his faithful companion, Cadet Stimpy! As they roam the endless uncharted regions of space at speeds so fantastic they boggle the imagination!"
Prepare to surge to sublight speed."("Space Madness")
Two Weeks ago, in a fit of curiosity, I bought Hawkwind Space Ritual. I bought used, in case it sucked. It came yesterday.
I read awhile back in Mojo for Music, a UK music magazine which usually comes with a weird, kick ass compilation, and excellent articles, all for 10 bucks. So, there was an article called "The Beginner's Guide to Hawkwind" and it ranked their records, which to buy, etc. Space Ritual was near the top, and it described a live record of the band in "all their lysergic glory". Generally speaking, I agree with Bill Hicks in that the best rock music is made by people on drugs, so that is definately a plus. Plus the cover is sort of cool, and well, I've just been in a space rock kind of mood lately, so, hey, what the fuck.
The second bottle of Pinot Evil has this thing rattling around my skull cap like comets in a dryer. It's really difficult to describe. There is, of course, the comparison description: This album sounds like Black Sabbath at there most arcane, or maybe if Deep Purple's lead singer was Syd Barrett in the court of the crimson king.. Jupiter and Beyond.
"Heh...heh...heh...they think I'm CRAZY. But I know better. It is not "I" who am crazy. It is not I who am MAD!
Didn'tcha hear 'em? Didn'tcha see the CROWDS?"
Then, there is an attempt at an alternate: Echoplex abounds, turning fat riffs into ancient and menacing technicolor Obelisks on the surface of the Jupiter. Guitar Solos that sound like blaster fire. Two star cruisers toe to toe in the cold of interstellar space. Weird spoken sections which come on like an Archons liturgy, courtesy of Michael Moorcock. Space Madness
The Ritual, at least in this case, is a heavily distorted wah-prayer to Deep Space, the Eight Second of Forever. Into the void...
Imagine tripping on the moon. These guys are the soundtrack for your space helmet. I'll bet a Dolby 5.1 of this would be incredible. But since we're, for the time being, terrestrial...Headphones for sure.
"Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out? How can he possibly resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very existence? Will his tortured mind give in to its uncontrollable desires? Can he resist the temptation to push the button that, even now, beckons him even closer? Will he succumb to the maddening urge to eradicate history? At the MERE...PUSH...of a SINGLE...BUTTON! The beeyootiful SHINY button! The jolly CANDY-LIKE button! Will he hold out, folks? CAN he hold out?"
Turn out the lights. Light a candle. Get comfortable.
Set the controls...
press play.
Erase History.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
The Patriot Act
"WASHINGTON — The FBI issued thousands of subpoenas to banks, phone companies and Internet providers last year, aggressively using a power enhanced under the Patriot Act to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, Justice Department data released late Friday showed.
The report given to members of Congress was the first to detail the government's use of a controversial form of administrative subpoena that has drawn fire because it can be issued by investigators without court oversight.
The Justice Department report also disclosed that its use of electronic surveillance and search warrants in national security investigations jumped 15% in 2005."
Funny. They seem to be using this statute more. One would think, if the Global War on Terror is going so well, why would this be?
One answer, of course, is that this is why there has been no new attacks. Another answer would be that, perhaps, the war in Iraq has made this necessary. At any rate, it is troubling on multiple levels...
The report given to members of Congress was the first to detail the government's use of a controversial form of administrative subpoena that has drawn fire because it can be issued by investigators without court oversight.
The Justice Department report also disclosed that its use of electronic surveillance and search warrants in national security investigations jumped 15% in 2005."
Funny. They seem to be using this statute more. One would think, if the Global War on Terror is going so well, why would this be?
One answer, of course, is that this is why there has been no new attacks. Another answer would be that, perhaps, the war in Iraq has made this necessary. At any rate, it is troubling on multiple levels...
Friday, April 28, 2006
In Honor of the Weekend
"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame . Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams . If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~ Jack Handy
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. " ~Frank Sinatra
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." ~ Stephen Wright
"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!" ~ Brian O'Rourke
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza." ~ Dave Barry
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in a can! ~ Dave Howell
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went: "Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. " ~Frank Sinatra
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." ~ Stephen Wright
"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!" ~ Brian O'Rourke
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza." ~ Dave Barry
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in a can! ~ Dave Howell
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. Here's how it went: "Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
War Ina Babylon/ The Drums...
Oh fuck...
"WAR BY SEPTEMBER?....Rosa Brooks is not exactly a neocon alarmist, a fact that makes her prediction of an Israel-Iran war sometime in the next five months more provocative than it might be coming from, say, Charles Krauthammer or Bill Kristol. From her LA Times column today:
Russian leaders continue to mouth the usual diplomatic platitudes about democracy and global cooperation, but Russia is actually playing a complex double game. On Tuesday, Russia launched a spy satellite for Israel, which the Israelis can use to monitor Iran's nuclear facilities. On the same day, Russian leaders confirmed their opposition to any U.N. Security Council effort to impose sanctions against Iran, and their intention to go through with the lucrative sale of 29 Tor M1 air defense missile systems to Iran.
....The upcoming deployment of Tor missiles around Iranian nuclear sites dramatically changes the calculus in the Middle East, and it significantly increases the risk of a regional war. Once the missile systems are deployed, Iran's air defenses will become far more sophisticated, and Israel will likely lose whatever ability it now has to unilaterally destroy Iran's nuclear facilities."
"WAR BY SEPTEMBER?....Rosa Brooks is not exactly a neocon alarmist, a fact that makes her prediction of an Israel-Iran war sometime in the next five months more provocative than it might be coming from, say, Charles Krauthammer or Bill Kristol. From her LA Times column today:
Russian leaders continue to mouth the usual diplomatic platitudes about democracy and global cooperation, but Russia is actually playing a complex double game. On Tuesday, Russia launched a spy satellite for Israel, which the Israelis can use to monitor Iran's nuclear facilities. On the same day, Russian leaders confirmed their opposition to any U.N. Security Council effort to impose sanctions against Iran, and their intention to go through with the lucrative sale of 29 Tor M1 air defense missile systems to Iran.
....The upcoming deployment of Tor missiles around Iranian nuclear sites dramatically changes the calculus in the Middle East, and it significantly increases the risk of a regional war. Once the missile systems are deployed, Iran's air defenses will become far more sophisticated, and Israel will likely lose whatever ability it now has to unilaterally destroy Iran's nuclear facilities."
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Swift Boat: The Quickening
Great Video, back where it all began.
via Winter Soldier.
Incidentally, does anybody know how I can download this?
via Winter Soldier.
Incidentally, does anybody know how I can download this?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Conspiracy Theory Rock
Crooks and Liars has the link.
I would suggest saving it to your desktop, and watching it that way. It took forever for the download, but it was well worth it.
I would suggest saving it to your desktop, and watching it that way. It took forever for the download, but it was well worth it.
Parker and Stone: Shark Jumpers
I used to love South Park...I really did.
Parker and Stone are responsible for some of the funniest TV in history. Lemmiwinks, Towlie, Mr. Hankey...MechaStreisand, the list goes on and on.
I loved their distinctly anti-PC messages, because they frequently, sharply, and eruditely uncovered the hypocrisy underlying political correctness. I loved their skewering of limoliberals, because I felt it, too, as a working class kid. I loved the film...hell, I loved Team America: World Police.
During the last election cycle, a new demographic emerged, the so called "South Park Republicans", "centrist republicans" who are eschew the Right Wing of the party. This, to me, was a no-brainer-I've known people like this my whole life. Good.
This season, however, they jumped the shark.
The "Cartoon Wars" episodes were first and foremost, unfunny, and I doubt that Mohammed would have saved it, and, for the record, I think that Comedy Central fucked this up to. But it was their special guest star, George W. Bush, that really got me.
For a couple of guys who prided themselves on being "independent", taking on "sacred cows", etc., I think they ultimately know where their bread is buttered, and since the emergence of the "South Park Republicans", they know how to play. Afterall, Parker and Stone "hate liberals". Apparently, for such erudite guys, they are content with straw men, and after everything that has happened in the last six years, they continue to give Bush a pass, in this case on domestic spying, making any questions about it seem like "more liberal bullshit", and worse, playing the "liberal media bias" canard. Naturally, the right wing loves it
Are you kidding me. For a couple of guys who have made a fortune on freedom of speech and the press, they seem to conveniently look the other way when it comes to their mascot mania. With so much at stake, I would have expected more from satirists. But then again, when you support the hegemon, can you really call it satire?
"Screw you guys, I'm going home".
Update: As if to prove my point...
I came home from my Dad's, and while repairing a pair of jeans, I flipped on Comedy Central, and lo and behold, a new South Park...Guess what? It was a smear job on Al Gore and his (ours) environmental concerns. The "monster" Gore fears never materializes, and the point is, get this, is that Gore is a loser and he's doing it for attention.
Is Rove paying you guys or something, you spineless apologists. That's that. Fuck those two yuppie scumbags.
Parker and Stone are responsible for some of the funniest TV in history. Lemmiwinks, Towlie, Mr. Hankey...MechaStreisand, the list goes on and on.
I loved their distinctly anti-PC messages, because they frequently, sharply, and eruditely uncovered the hypocrisy underlying political correctness. I loved their skewering of limoliberals, because I felt it, too, as a working class kid. I loved the film...hell, I loved Team America: World Police.
During the last election cycle, a new demographic emerged, the so called "South Park Republicans", "centrist republicans" who are eschew the Right Wing of the party. This, to me, was a no-brainer-I've known people like this my whole life. Good.
This season, however, they jumped the shark.
The "Cartoon Wars" episodes were first and foremost, unfunny, and I doubt that Mohammed would have saved it, and, for the record, I think that Comedy Central fucked this up to. But it was their special guest star, George W. Bush, that really got me.
For a couple of guys who prided themselves on being "independent", taking on "sacred cows", etc., I think they ultimately know where their bread is buttered, and since the emergence of the "South Park Republicans", they know how to play. Afterall, Parker and Stone "hate liberals". Apparently, for such erudite guys, they are content with straw men, and after everything that has happened in the last six years, they continue to give Bush a pass, in this case on domestic spying, making any questions about it seem like "more liberal bullshit", and worse, playing the "liberal media bias" canard. Naturally, the right wing loves it
Are you kidding me. For a couple of guys who have made a fortune on freedom of speech and the press, they seem to conveniently look the other way when it comes to their mascot mania. With so much at stake, I would have expected more from satirists. But then again, when you support the hegemon, can you really call it satire?
"Screw you guys, I'm going home".
Update: As if to prove my point...
I came home from my Dad's, and while repairing a pair of jeans, I flipped on Comedy Central, and lo and behold, a new South Park...Guess what? It was a smear job on Al Gore and his (ours) environmental concerns. The "monster" Gore fears never materializes, and the point is, get this, is that Gore is a loser and he's doing it for attention.
Is Rove paying you guys or something, you spineless apologists. That's that. Fuck those two yuppie scumbags.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
While we're on the topic of oil...
The end of America's dependence on oil is in sight. I know this is old news, but I keep getting these giddy, good time feelings every time I hear this kind of news.
And now I know why. It reminds me of a scene from Hudson Hawk. Anyone who has seen Hudson Hawk will hopefully remember the scene where Minerva is telling Hudson Hawk about her plan to flood the market with manufactured gold:
"It'll take a couple of years of steady production, but I'll flood the market with so much gold that gold itself, the foundation of all finance, will lose its meaning. Brokers, economists, and fellow entrepreneurs will drown in the saliva of their own nervous breakdowns. Markets will crash-crash. Financial Empires will crumble-crumble."
To see Lee Raymond et al drown in their greedy, oil-glazed, petrol jelly filled insides when they hear that oil is out and clean burning, American made alternatives are in...well, I want to live to be that number.
And now I know why. It reminds me of a scene from Hudson Hawk. Anyone who has seen Hudson Hawk will hopefully remember the scene where Minerva is telling Hudson Hawk about her plan to flood the market with manufactured gold:
"It'll take a couple of years of steady production, but I'll flood the market with so much gold that gold itself, the foundation of all finance, will lose its meaning. Brokers, economists, and fellow entrepreneurs will drown in the saliva of their own nervous breakdowns. Markets will crash-crash. Financial Empires will crumble-crumble."
To see Lee Raymond et al drown in their greedy, oil-glazed, petrol jelly filled insides when they hear that oil is out and clean burning, American made alternatives are in...well, I want to live to be that number.
I want higher gas prices
It gets people out of their cars and onto mass transit. In the long-run we all benefit.
Hit 'em where it hurts--right in the gas tank
That's how you get Bush apologists to turn on the President. Tucker Carlson and Joe Scarborough admit Bush and Cheney are in the oil companies' pockets and bemoan the President's future on The Situation.
SCARBOROUGH: The rest of the country—I did, too. The rest of the country had already turned Reagan off. They‘ve turned George W. Bush off. And I don‘t think there‘s going to be a second act of this American political life.
I think that George Bush is going to have a very rough two years, and nobody is going to believe that he‘s going to—whether you‘re talking about alternative fuel sources or whether you‘re talking about price-gouging investigations, until they see CEOs of corporation doing the perp walks...
CARLSON: That‘s right.
SCARBOROUGH: ... they‘re just not going to believe he‘s sincere.
CARLSON: If he can lower my gas prices on his way out, I‘d be grateful.
SCARBOROUGH: That‘d be awesome.
SCARBOROUGH: The rest of the country—I did, too. The rest of the country had already turned Reagan off. They‘ve turned George W. Bush off. And I don‘t think there‘s going to be a second act of this American political life.
I think that George Bush is going to have a very rough two years, and nobody is going to believe that he‘s going to—whether you‘re talking about alternative fuel sources or whether you‘re talking about price-gouging investigations, until they see CEOs of corporation doing the perp walks...
CARLSON: That‘s right.
SCARBOROUGH: ... they‘re just not going to believe he‘s sincere.
CARLSON: If he can lower my gas prices on his way out, I‘d be grateful.
SCARBOROUGH: That‘d be awesome.
A change in job title, but not description
Tony Snow to accept the WH offer
The Republican War on Reality comes full circle:
On "Anderson Cooper 360," Suzanne Malveaux, CNN's White House correspondent, is reporting that Tony Snow will accept the job to replace Scott McClellan as the new White House press secretary. The announcement might come in a few days or as early as tomorrow.
The Republican War on Reality comes full circle:
On "Anderson Cooper 360," Suzanne Malveaux, CNN's White House correspondent, is reporting that Tony Snow will accept the job to replace Scott McClellan as the new White House press secretary. The announcement might come in a few days or as early as tomorrow.
Save the Internet
Wirecan has the 411. Sign the Petition.
"Telephone and cable companies own 98% of the high-speed broadband networks the public uses to go online for reading news, shopping, listening to music, posting videos or any of the thousands of other uses developed for the Internet. But that isn’t enough. They want to control what you read, see or hear online. The companies say that they will create premium lanes on the Internet for higher fees, and give preferential access to their own services and those who can afford extra charges. The rest of us will be left to use an inferior version of the Internet."
"Telephone and cable companies own 98% of the high-speed broadband networks the public uses to go online for reading news, shopping, listening to music, posting videos or any of the thousands of other uses developed for the Internet. But that isn’t enough. They want to control what you read, see or hear online. The companies say that they will create premium lanes on the Internet for higher fees, and give preferential access to their own services and those who can afford extra charges. The rest of us will be left to use an inferior version of the Internet."
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Ministry of Truth
Remember Chapter 4 in 1984?
"The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy."
Kos gives us a more contemporary example
"The New York Times changed the earlier accurate version of a story on testimony on secret CIA prisons in Europe (a story first reported in depth by Dana Priest and for which she won the Pulitzer Prize) by the EU counterterrorism chief Gijs DeVries, to an inaccurate version that favored the Bush Administration."
Still losing sleep over liberal bias at the New York Times?
"The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy."
Kos gives us a more contemporary example
"The New York Times changed the earlier accurate version of a story on testimony on secret CIA prisons in Europe (a story first reported in depth by Dana Priest and for which she won the Pulitzer Prize) by the EU counterterrorism chief Gijs DeVries, to an inaccurate version that favored the Bush Administration."
Still losing sleep over liberal bias at the New York Times?
Bananas
No, not Woody Allen, but Mike Seaver.
Crazy Little Thing Called Blog tells us to just skip ahead to 3:30, and all evolutionary theory will be refuted, or to quote the blog:
"No longer will you bow before the false god Darwin; now you will worship, as does Curious George, at the altar of the almighty fruit!
In other words: man explains God's existence with banana. This clip is ripe for satire, and not only because Kirk Cameron is in it. "
No, but it helps. If we could get Willie Aames, aka Bibleman, in on it, it would be a perfect storm of stupidity.
But, if you think about it, then I guess Andy Warhol becomes kind of a mystic for prophesizing this all the way back in '66. In this case, I do worship at the alter of the Almighty Fruit.
The Best Man...Lost.
John Kerry writes eloquently on the war.
I supported John Kerry in 2004 because I believed that he was the best person available, which is all anybody has to go on. Unfortunately, we ended up with the Swifties, and Kerry got McCain'd beyond hope. I only wish he had spoken up while they were certifying the election, which it was in his power to do.
I supported John Kerry in 2004 because I believed that he was the best person available, which is all anybody has to go on. Unfortunately, we ended up with the Swifties, and Kerry got McCain'd beyond hope. I only wish he had spoken up while they were certifying the election, which it was in his power to do.
Oh, yer just being negative!
Tbogg has the post. What happened to the ridin' high good vibes after the election? Oh yeah, the booze wore off.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
A Campaign Gore Can't Lose
Because we can't afford for him to lose. Here's Richard Cohen on Gore's potential as a candidate.
You cannot see this film and not think of George W. Bush, the man who beat Gore in 2000. The contrast is stark. Gore -- more at ease in the lecture hall than he ever was on the stump -- summons science to tell a harrowing story and offers science as the antidote. No feat of imagination could have Bush do something similar -- even the sentences are beyond him.
But it is the thought that matters -- the application of intellect to an intellectual problem. Bush has been studiously anti-science, a man of applied ignorance who has undernourished his mind with the empty calories of comfy dogma. For instance, his insistence on abstinence as the preferred method of birth control would be laughable were it not so reckless. It is similar to Bush's initial approach to global warming and his rejection of the Kyoto Protocol -- ideology trumping science. It may be that Gore will do more good for his country and the world with this movie than Bush ever did by beating him in 2000.
You cannot see this film and not think of George W. Bush, the man who beat Gore in 2000. The contrast is stark. Gore -- more at ease in the lecture hall than he ever was on the stump -- summons science to tell a harrowing story and offers science as the antidote. No feat of imagination could have Bush do something similar -- even the sentences are beyond him.
But it is the thought that matters -- the application of intellect to an intellectual problem. Bush has been studiously anti-science, a man of applied ignorance who has undernourished his mind with the empty calories of comfy dogma. For instance, his insistence on abstinence as the preferred method of birth control would be laughable were it not so reckless. It is similar to Bush's initial approach to global warming and his rejection of the Kyoto Protocol -- ideology trumping science. It may be that Gore will do more good for his country and the world with this movie than Bush ever did by beating him in 2000.
Childe Wizzard's Pilgrimage, or: How Iggy Pop found me and saved my life.
James Newell Osterberg, aka Iggy Pop was born this day in 1947.
The first time I heard Iggy Pop was in high school.
I picked up the newest Hit Parader (I think Motley Crue were on the cover), and in it, they had a list of the 100 greatest hard rock/metal/punk albums of all time, and I saw this name "Iggy Pop". I thought Hmmm. Being a unabashed Metal freak at the time, I vowed to get as many of these records as I could.
Later on, I read in an interview W. Axl Rose talking about The Stooges and Iggy, and he mentioned The Stooges first record. You see, being 12 or 13 in Southeastern Indiana meant anything that could not be bought at KMART could not be bought.
Finally, on a trip to the now long gone black light poster long haired cigarette clouded back patch babylon known as Globe Records in the Western Hills Plaza (where my Dad bought his records and, where, incidentally, I saw my first blue mohican-wwwwooowww), I struck paydirt-Sort of. I bought "Appetite for Destruction", I am proud to say, 6 days after its release. Also, I think, I bought "Peace Sells, But Who's Buying", but that's for another time... Up until that point, I had only read about GNR and their furious reputation in, well Hit Parader, and RIP, when I could lay my hands on a copy. What a revelation. So unbelievably real and dirty, taking the best part of the Stones and kicking it up to 11. I loved it so much, I wore out the tape in 2 months.
My thinking went something like this: "If these guys kick so much ass, and they are telling me that these other dudes kick ass...I GOTTA get my hands on that shit post haste". So everytime a member of Guns N Roses namechecked someone in an interview, I'd go find the tape-usually at Globe, but sometimes at a little skate shop in Harrison that also sold tapes. Alice Cooper...check. Aerosmith...Check. Rolling Stones...my dad and uncle were big fans, so I had that already...but Iggy was hard to come by. I grabbed "Instinct" on one of these excursions, and liked the song "Cold Metal", but wondered what the hubbub was all about.
Then I saw Iggy on Letterman, and thought "What the...".
Finally, I had reached an age where I knew folks who were old enough to drive, and weren't ashamed to be seen with my geek ass in public, and we found our way to Wizard's on the corner of Vine and Daniels (where I saw alot more Mohicans). Jackpot. First two Stooges records, on tape, no less. $12 -the best I ever spent. I got them home, closed my bedroom door, and sat in my sanctum of Iron Maiden posters, KISS in Makeup pictures (I used to buy magazines just for KISS in makeup pics) and I think, a Samantha Fox poster, and put the tape in the deck. The wah wah in the opening of "1969" oozed out of the speakers...
BOOM! Hiroshima...
My geneology of GNR came to an abrupt end-these fuckers were realer than GNR, realer than Metal: More deranged, dangerous, out of control. Revelation is the nearest word I can use to describe it, but that doesn't even come close. My mind exploded, and when it was reconstituted, I was a different person-very close to the acid revelations that would come a couple of years later. The world was different, endless possibility. Metal was despair, but despair that, with the exception of Sabbath and a few others, I really didn't relate to. I didn't know anything about foreign policy, aside from thermonuclear anxiety, and, in Indiana, politics constituted whether you were for Reagan or really for Reagan. Nor did I know anything about having a good time or being a rich rock star fucking everything that moved and hoovering up large amounts of chemical enhancements. Couldn't relate one bit-didn't know how to have a goodtime, and drugs and booze? Rrriiighhttt. Shit, I had just really given up on D &D.
Nooow, The Stooges and Iggy were about alienation, which I did know: Used and abused, debased and defaced, I just wanna get laid but I can't talk to anyone long enough to fuck 'em. Ahh, yeah, I knew that.
Previous to this, I had sort of tried to fit in: Yeah I had my Iron Maiden shirt or whatever, and a mullet, because that's as close as Mom would let me get to hair, but I said fuck all that, grew my hair, and gave up trying to fit in, because I never would anyway. Iggy played constantly in my 87 red escort, which ran on 2 cylinders, the other two pumping altenately water or 35%. Driving around my dirty old town, "Ann" or "Loose" blaring from factory speakers...yeah. FUCK YEAH. The geneology of this began. I turned some other folks on, who, in turn, turned me on to other earth shattering things: My brother turned my on to The Velvet Underground, Dan from Mallory turned me on to Bowie and Sonic Youth, etc. etc. etc.
In my Punk years, I searched for the most obnoxious shit I could find, but Iggy and the Stooges never left me. I dreamed of seeing Iggy, but never got to.
Fast Forward 14 years.
I made two trips to Detroit to see the reunited Stooges at the venue formerly known as Pine Knob: The first was defeat: En route, while listening to CD's, we were unaware that we were driving into the largest blackout in US history, and that the show was cancelled. We did, however, say "Hello" to Thurston Moore in the Holiday Inn Parking Lot, as we disembarked for Flint in such of electricity and Cold Beer.
The Second, two weeks later, we made it. Boom-Hiroshima all over again. Two songs in, as I stood, unblinking and fixed, watching him do his thing, vibrating all over like the first time I did acid. I was wearing a Detroit Sucks T Shirt we had made after our iniatial defeat... I ripped the shirt from my body, threw it into the crowd, and stood there, shaking, like I was gonna come. Stone sober. All over again.
Later that year, after a Bengal's game, my girlfriend hooked us up, with her considerable charms, with passes to see Iggy at Jillian's. Amazing.
It's funny, really. Everytime I see the movie SLC PUNK!, I laugh. At the end, when Stevo flashes back to the genesis of his punk identity, we see a kid listening to Rush, D&D books scattered around, talking about getting beaten up at parties, and I know that kid. When Bob puts the punk tape in the deck, I know that feeling. It was the same for me...except, if it were portrayed on film, my head would've exploded.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Iggy. Keep it coming.
Read Lester Bang's take here.
FDA: Tools of the Industry
What kills me about this is really shouldn't, given the FDA's "disavowel" of other drugs which contradrict the policy of the administration, and the willingness to let people needlessly suffer so Pfizer can go on, business as usual.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Rockin' in the Free World
Word of Neil Young's new disc, with "Impeach the President" was good news...
At least to some: I wondered how long it would take for the apologists and the freepers to come out of the wood work...
"My, My, Hey, Hey
Hey Did I miss something? Neil Young now wants to "impeach the President for Lyin'". Is he just a brazen hypocrite or was he too high on dope during Clinton's term to be conscious? As every American who was remotely aware of public discourse during the 90's knows, lying 'doesn't rise to the level of impeachment', according to liberals. I hate to disappoint the 'It's all about sex' crowd, but the actual charges against Clinton were Perjury (Lying under oath), Obstruction of Justice, etc... When did the rules of conduct change? Is Mr. Young saying that liberals can lie but conservatives can't? Does he expect a higher level of conduct from conservatives than he does from liberals? That alone speaks volumes. By the way, how does 'believing' the intelligence produced by national and international agencies of several different countries constitute 'lying', anyway? Shouldn't we be impeaching the President for 'believing', instead? Using that logic the presidents of a dozen other nations should also be impeached, since they all believed the intelligence. Neil Young should stick to entertaining pot-heads that can't think their way out of a bag, and forget about politics.
Thomas L. Shimek
Brigham City, Utah"
Here's some more, uh, insightful commentary from My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, predictably quoting Skynard. A freeper from Alabama who quotes Skynard? The hell, you say.
At least to some: I wondered how long it would take for the apologists and the freepers to come out of the wood work...
"My, My, Hey, Hey
Hey Did I miss something? Neil Young now wants to "impeach the President for Lyin'". Is he just a brazen hypocrite or was he too high on dope during Clinton's term to be conscious? As every American who was remotely aware of public discourse during the 90's knows, lying 'doesn't rise to the level of impeachment', according to liberals. I hate to disappoint the 'It's all about sex' crowd, but the actual charges against Clinton were Perjury (Lying under oath), Obstruction of Justice, etc... When did the rules of conduct change? Is Mr. Young saying that liberals can lie but conservatives can't? Does he expect a higher level of conduct from conservatives than he does from liberals? That alone speaks volumes. By the way, how does 'believing' the intelligence produced by national and international agencies of several different countries constitute 'lying', anyway? Shouldn't we be impeaching the President for 'believing', instead? Using that logic the presidents of a dozen other nations should also be impeached, since they all believed the intelligence. Neil Young should stick to entertaining pot-heads that can't think their way out of a bag, and forget about politics.
Thomas L. Shimek
Brigham City, Utah"
Here's some more, uh, insightful commentary from My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, predictably quoting Skynard. A freeper from Alabama who quotes Skynard? The hell, you say.
Today, of course, is the mythical 420, an underground holiday in which random people giggle into each other's reddened, dilated pupils, happy in the knowledge that they are completely and totally stoned. Snopes has the 411 on the day.
Ironically enough, today is also Adolf Hitler's Birthday, formerly a major holiday in Germany. Wonder what he'd think of his birthday being, if you pardon the pun, the High Holy Holiday of Potheads around the world.
Funny how the march of history goes, no?
Over at Fark...Star Wars vs. Star Trek!
I have to admit, at least where the original is concerned, I give the nod to Star Trek.
via Covington.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
McCain-Perry 2008?
I just heard McCain's considering Texas Gov. Rick "Good Hair" Perry as a running mate. This is a picture of him I clipped out of the JC Penney catalog.
Let's see. Over here we have skyrocketing insurance costs, and over here we have a monopoly on insurance. I wonder if they're related.
Here's an item that sheds some light on the mystery of rising health care costs.
Consolidation among health insurers is creating near-monopolies in virtually all reaches of the United States, according to a study released Monday.
Data from the American Medical Association show that in each of 43 states, a handful of top insurers have gained such a stronghold that their markets are considered "highly concentrated" under U.S. Department of Justice guidelines, often far exceeding the thresholds that trigger antitrust concerns.
The study also shows that in 166 of 294 metropolitan areas, or 56 percent, a single insurer controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting.
…
Critics say that carriers are not only creating monopolies and oligopolies in many regions, they also control the other side of the equation in what is known as monopsony power. That means in addition to having the most enrollees, they're also the biggest purchasers of health care and can dictate prices and coverage terms.
It also makes it harder for new carriers to emerge, as pricing already has been set by the dominant carrier.
Yes, there are many factors contributing to the problem including, profligate use of medical technology, an aging population, and risky behaviors that lead to things like obeisity. But what about this.
The AMA says there have been more than 400 mergers among health-care insurers in the past decade. As they've consolidated and presumably eliminated duplicative functions, they're not passing the savings in personnel and administrative costs on to consumers. Rate increases, though slowing, are higher than ever and growing at a near double-digit pace.
Is this what they call a single payer system?
Consolidation among health insurers is creating near-monopolies in virtually all reaches of the United States, according to a study released Monday.
Data from the American Medical Association show that in each of 43 states, a handful of top insurers have gained such a stronghold that their markets are considered "highly concentrated" under U.S. Department of Justice guidelines, often far exceeding the thresholds that trigger antitrust concerns.
The study also shows that in 166 of 294 metropolitan areas, or 56 percent, a single insurer controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting.
…
Critics say that carriers are not only creating monopolies and oligopolies in many regions, they also control the other side of the equation in what is known as monopsony power. That means in addition to having the most enrollees, they're also the biggest purchasers of health care and can dictate prices and coverage terms.
It also makes it harder for new carriers to emerge, as pricing already has been set by the dominant carrier.
Yes, there are many factors contributing to the problem including, profligate use of medical technology, an aging population, and risky behaviors that lead to things like obeisity. But what about this.
The AMA says there have been more than 400 mergers among health-care insurers in the past decade. As they've consolidated and presumably eliminated duplicative functions, they're not passing the savings in personnel and administrative costs on to consumers. Rate increases, though slowing, are higher than ever and growing at a near double-digit pace.
Is this what they call a single payer system?
Staff Overhaul Continues at White House
WASHINGTON, April 19 — The overhaul of the White House staff continued today as Scott McClellan stepped down as the president's chief spokesman and Karl Rove gave up his portfolio as senior policy coordinator to concentrate more on politics and November's midterm Congressional elections.
NYTimes coverage here.
NYTimes coverage here.
Village Bicycle Project
Help get this documentary on TV. It's about a project to get unwanted bicycles in the US into the hands of people who need them in Ghana, and it's directed by my brother-in-law's sister, Tricia Todd. Go to this link, watch the short, and if you think it's good, 'greenlight' it. Tricia is back in Ghana now to follow up and get the final interviews for the feature length version of the film.
Which Al Gore?
On the late, great Covington Blog, I frequently caught stick for criticizing the manner in which Gore ran in 2000, wondering, where the no B.S. Gore of now was then?
So, it appears that Al Gore (courtesy of Crooks and Liars) may be "getting the band back together".
I would be inclined to support Gore at this point, provided he keeps keeping it real, being the Al Gore of late than the other who stupidly distanced himself from Clinton.
Gore should have won, but didn't, and the problem wasn't entirely his fault. The campaign was a mess, and Bush (in a bit of foreshadowing) demonstrated what amoral pit bulls he had working for him; Rove, Baker, Katherine Harris (down in flames, it seems). Balls are what we needed from Gore, and we got raisins. Al Gore has balls. Let's not get raisins again.
All of this raises some institutional issues: Will the DNC apply what it learned from the Gore and Kerry campaign, that responding to cowardly and scurrilous attacks by GOP operatives in a timely fashion is the key to getting the all important swing voters out of their easy chair malaise and think critically about things? The stakes are high enough, that's for sure.
Will the Democratic Party frame itself as a REAL alternative to the disasterous GOP agenda, as opposed to the republican lite of Joe Lieberman, Diane Feinstein, et al. ?
Will the Democratic Party be vocal to the point of shouting itself hoarse about LABOR as millions of Americans lose pensions and jobs at the hands of merciless Corporatists, and admit that NAFTA, whatever its intent, has been devastating to manufacturing in this country? Will they actually do something for labor, as opposed taking the Unions for granted?
Will the Democratic Party please point out that Values are not the Provence of cynical NeoCons, and the hypocrisy of talking about values while the GOP devalues the life of everybody born?
Will the Democratic Party bring the UN into Iraq so that we may quit losing our children to the Human Being Lawnmower, and quit being the match in that powderkeg?
This is how you win.
I hate to think that only thing standing between us and catastrophe is goddamned Joe Biden, because, in that scenerio...whoops apocalypse!
So, it appears that Al Gore (courtesy of Crooks and Liars) may be "getting the band back together".
I would be inclined to support Gore at this point, provided he keeps keeping it real, being the Al Gore of late than the other who stupidly distanced himself from Clinton.
Gore should have won, but didn't, and the problem wasn't entirely his fault. The campaign was a mess, and Bush (in a bit of foreshadowing) demonstrated what amoral pit bulls he had working for him; Rove, Baker, Katherine Harris (down in flames, it seems). Balls are what we needed from Gore, and we got raisins. Al Gore has balls. Let's not get raisins again.
All of this raises some institutional issues: Will the DNC apply what it learned from the Gore and Kerry campaign, that responding to cowardly and scurrilous attacks by GOP operatives in a timely fashion is the key to getting the all important swing voters out of their easy chair malaise and think critically about things? The stakes are high enough, that's for sure.
Will the Democratic Party frame itself as a REAL alternative to the disasterous GOP agenda, as opposed to the republican lite of Joe Lieberman, Diane Feinstein, et al. ?
Will the Democratic Party be vocal to the point of shouting itself hoarse about LABOR as millions of Americans lose pensions and jobs at the hands of merciless Corporatists, and admit that NAFTA, whatever its intent, has been devastating to manufacturing in this country? Will they actually do something for labor, as opposed taking the Unions for granted?
Will the Democratic Party please point out that Values are not the Provence of cynical NeoCons, and the hypocrisy of talking about values while the GOP devalues the life of everybody born?
Will the Democratic Party bring the UN into Iraq so that we may quit losing our children to the Human Being Lawnmower, and quit being the match in that powderkeg?
This is how you win.
I hate to think that only thing standing between us and catastrophe is goddamned Joe Biden, because, in that scenerio...whoops apocalypse!
Recruiters
"Sedition" she cries.
"Of course" I reply, "That's what NeoCon apologists do".
Apparently, the students of UC Santa Cruz have decided enough is enough with the Recruiters on campus, and while clicking through her links, I have seen that some there are the usual sort of blackblock quasi anarchists, I can't help but think that this kind of political action may be the inevitable result of a Government which is clearly out of control.
I can't help but think, as well, with alot of faces in these pictures not exactly your typical anarchist types, that maybe things have reached a point where average college kids think beyond jagermeister and their genitals, and realize they could be doing something. Maybe not.
What I reject, of course, is the suggestion that this kind of thing is "anti-troop". No, the vile "baby killer" rhetoric of some in the student left of the 60's was "anti-troop". This is "anti-more troops".
Is it an empty, pointless exercise? Perhaps, but again, I can't help but be heartened that students may be pulling their heads out of their asses.
"Of course" I reply, "That's what NeoCon apologists do".
Apparently, the students of UC Santa Cruz have decided enough is enough with the Recruiters on campus, and while clicking through her links, I have seen that some there are the usual sort of blackblock quasi anarchists, I can't help but think that this kind of political action may be the inevitable result of a Government which is clearly out of control.
I can't help but think, as well, with alot of faces in these pictures not exactly your typical anarchist types, that maybe things have reached a point where average college kids think beyond jagermeister and their genitals, and realize they could be doing something. Maybe not.
What I reject, of course, is the suggestion that this kind of thing is "anti-troop". No, the vile "baby killer" rhetoric of some in the student left of the 60's was "anti-troop". This is "anti-more troops".
Is it an empty, pointless exercise? Perhaps, but again, I can't help but be heartened that students may be pulling their heads out of their asses.
B is for Bootlicking/
"In a short Rose Garden news conference, Bush announced that Portman, the U.S. trade representative and a close ally of House GOP leaders, will be promoted to the White House inner circle as head of the Office of Management and Budget. White House advisers said Bush picked Portman, a Republican, in part to send a clear signal that he is serious about working more cooperatively with disgruntled GOP lawmakers.
'We finally have one of our own in the Bush inner circle', said Kyle Downey, spokesman for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. "
Thune's a funny guy. Really.
So Sgt. Rummy stays, which is interesting, since he is political poison right now. Do Bush and Cheney have a blood oath with this guy or what?
'We finally have one of our own in the Bush inner circle', said Kyle Downey, spokesman for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. "
Thune's a funny guy. Really.
So Sgt. Rummy stays, which is interesting, since he is political poison right now. Do Bush and Cheney have a blood oath with this guy or what?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The Sorry State of Health Care in Texas
The American system for providing access to health care is in a state of collapse. That’s not news. But you might be interested to know that the great State of Texas is in worse shape than almost any other.
Last night a task force, made up mostly of the major Texas teaching hospitals, presented its report on the subject titled Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health Care in Texas. The facts illustrating this crisis aren’t breaking news either, but they are worth looking at if only for their pure shock value.
Last night a task force, made up mostly of the major Texas teaching hospitals, presented its report on the subject titled Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health Care in Texas. The facts illustrating this crisis aren’t breaking news either, but they are worth looking at if only for their pure shock value.
Twenty-five percent of Texans are uninsured, compared to the national average of 15%. In the Houston metropolitan area that figure jumps to one-third—about 1,000,000 people.
In 2004, 40% of the state’s Hispanic population was uninsured. New immigrants are largely uninsured, but represent only about 18% of the state’s total uninsured population.
In Texas, 22% of children are uninsured. The national average is 12%.
The average cost of private health insurance for a family of four in 2005 was $9,100—approximately half the annual income of a family at 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). A family making $40,000 a year, which is above the state average, would pay about one-quarter of its annual income for health insurance.
Most employers in Texas have fewer than 50 employees. Only 37% of them can afford to offer their employees health benefits. Worse yet, only 35% of those employees can afford to actually enroll. Seventy-nine percent of uninsured adults in Texas are in the workforce or have one or more working family member. Two out of three have incomes below 200% FPL.
Medicaid is an important source of insurance for poor people, but not in Texas. State legislatures determine eligibility based on income as a percentage of FPL. In the enlightened state of Minnesota that is 275% for a non-working parent. In Texas it’s 14%. That’s $1,300 a year. If you get a good tip and make $1,500 you lose your eligibility.
Limiting Medicaid spending was a short-sighted way for the Texas Legislature to cut costs, but for every dollar the state refuses to spend on Medicaid it is throwing away $1.50 in federal matching funds. This is pretty important because it has a direct affect on the ability of hospitals to offer residency programs and, you guessed it, Texas also has a shortage of doctors. It also limits the viability of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), the clinics that treat many of the uninsured, because they rely for their survival on reimbursements from patients who are covered by Medicaid. Not surprisingly, Texas is also way behind in this category. Chicago, for example, has more than 70 FQHCs. Houston has 10.
Access to health care should be at the top of everybody’s domestic issue list for a number of reasons. I hope to explore many of them in future posts. For now, consider this the next time you pay your premium bill—if you’re lucky enough to be insured: 20% of that payment is going to offset the cost of your uninsured neighbors.
You can read Code Red here.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Sgt. Rummy: Sic et Non
Ronald Dumsfeld (the malaprop courtesy of a wounded G.I., as heard my friend in the same hospital) is catching a lot of flack these days, and deservedly so: While you can argue that he was just implenting policy, the fact is this guy was one of the principle architects of Bush's Folly.
So, let's see what's out there: First, The National Review...
"As a political matter, Rumsfeld’s leaving at this moment, under this kind of fire, would play as an admission that the critics who say the Iraq war was fundamentally botched have been right all along. The White House realizes this, which is one reason President Bush made such a strong statement in support of Rumsfeld on Friday. That retired generals are criticizing a Defense secretary is not, per se, the threat to civil-military relations that some of Rumsfeld’s defenders seem to think. Retired flag officers are citizens after all, and they’re free to say whatever they want. But there is something unseemly about it, especially considering that most of them apparently kept conveniently quiet about their misgivings while in uniform."
A defense, albeit a very weak one. The base is, perhaps, cracking...
Next: The Mercury News:
"The military brass who have spoken out recently have got it right: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should go.
His bold strategy led to a lightning victory in Iraq, but his strategic blunders since have bogged us down in a debilitating occupation. His arrogance and autocratic style have poisoned relations with commanders in the field and undermined military morale."
Also, Wes Clark, via Crooks and Liars, on the "Mutiny".
Curious.
So, let's see what's out there: First, The National Review...
"As a political matter, Rumsfeld’s leaving at this moment, under this kind of fire, would play as an admission that the critics who say the Iraq war was fundamentally botched have been right all along. The White House realizes this, which is one reason President Bush made such a strong statement in support of Rumsfeld on Friday. That retired generals are criticizing a Defense secretary is not, per se, the threat to civil-military relations that some of Rumsfeld’s defenders seem to think. Retired flag officers are citizens after all, and they’re free to say whatever they want. But there is something unseemly about it, especially considering that most of them apparently kept conveniently quiet about their misgivings while in uniform."
A defense, albeit a very weak one. The base is, perhaps, cracking...
Next: The Mercury News:
"The military brass who have spoken out recently have got it right: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should go.
His bold strategy led to a lightning victory in Iraq, but his strategic blunders since have bogged us down in a debilitating occupation. His arrogance and autocratic style have poisoned relations with commanders in the field and undermined military morale."
Also, Wes Clark, via Crooks and Liars, on the "Mutiny".
Curious.
The Ugly American
"Loud and brash, in gawdy garb and baseball caps, more than three million of them flock to our shores every year. Shuffling between tourist sites or preparing to negotiate a business deal, they bemoan the failings of the world outside the United States.
The reputation of the 'Ugly American' abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave."
No shit. You think its bad there? Try living with assholes like this on their own turf. You think we're rude to you? Try going to a restaurant, like, say Cafe Istanbul, and watch some overfed brat brake plates while Mommy and Grandma coo, "oh...isn't that cute", and sit on their fat asses sucking down shitty Pinot Grigio while some poor schmuck has to clean up the mess.
"They" don't hate us for our Freedom. "They" hate us for shit like this. So do I.
from Telegraph.
The reputation of the 'Ugly American' abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave."
No shit. You think its bad there? Try living with assholes like this on their own turf. You think we're rude to you? Try going to a restaurant, like, say Cafe Istanbul, and watch some overfed brat brake plates while Mommy and Grandma coo, "oh...isn't that cute", and sit on their fat asses sucking down shitty Pinot Grigio while some poor schmuck has to clean up the mess.
"They" don't hate us for our Freedom. "They" hate us for shit like this. So do I.
from Telegraph.
Are you Kidding?
"The line 'One life, with each other, sisters, brothers' came top of a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1[...]".
I think what this poll reveals is that 13000 Brits are a bunch of sappy, tasteless morons.
The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" kills this by a ton...."It was Christmas Eve babe/In the Drunk Tank". C'mon! Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited"? Or "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"? Hell, all of "Highway" or "Blonde on Blonde". No Lou Reed? No Leonard Cohen? No fucking John Lennon? Shit, what about The Clash? "Straight to Hell" not worthy of Bono's mastery?
What say you? What would be on your list?
The "N" Word
Interesting piece over at Crooks and Liars on Hitler and Godwin's Law. Greenwald seems to be addressing the NeoCon's insistance on an equivalency between Hitler and whoever they have decided to capriciously take out. In psychology, I think they call this projection, and this is what bothers me about Greenwald's assertion: He makes no distinction between a legitimate comparison of Hitler/Fascism to anything now because the people now have not reached the Hitleriffic peaks of sadism. Godwin's Law, of course, allows for this, but Greenwald's link in defining the law is faulty.
Personally, I'd rather compare and illuminate fascist tendencies now than wait for catastrophic human damage to prove a comparison apt. It is almost as though, in backhanded way, he is silencing the Left on this, and helping the NeoCon agenda by making that comparision fallacious.
Personally, I'd rather compare and illuminate fascist tendencies now than wait for catastrophic human damage to prove a comparison apt. It is almost as though, in backhanded way, he is silencing the Left on this, and helping the NeoCon agenda by making that comparision fallacious.
Why Income Inequality Matters
So what if the rich get richer faster, as long as the bottom of the income scale makes incremental gains? Because the consolidation of wealth translates to consolidation of political power. That's why.
As Anne Krueger of the International Monetary Fund said in 2002, "[I]t seems far better to focus on impoverishment than on inequality." Americans seem to agree; polls suggest that most people in the United States aren't bothered by inequality per se, so long as everyone has a reasonable chance to move up the income ladder through hard luck and a bit of ingenuity.
Not everyone does get that chance, of course—upward mobility in the United States is nothing to brag about—but that's another story. What's interesting is that, to judge by the polls, the only kind of inequality that really bothers Americans is political inequality—that is, if the government isn't representing everyone equally. And over time, the public has increasingly felt that to be the case: Between the 1960s and 1990s the percentage of Americans who felt that "the government is run by a few big special interests looking out only for themselves" doubled to reach 76 percent.
Yet few people seem to consider the connection between economic inequality and political inequality. Why is the government being run by a "few big special interests"? Is it because those interests are particularly tenacious and clever? Or is it because, increasingly, a tiny portion of the population has an inordinate amount of wealth—and therefore influence? Political scientists are converging around the latter view, and in a recent symposium entitled "Inequality and American Democracy," laid out the full array of evidence to support it.
…
Indeed, in the 2000 election, 95 percent of all campaign contributions came from households making over $100,000. With some exceptions, political influence generally isn’t a straightforward matter of slipping across a few hundreds in exchange for a vote; outright bribery is relatively rare. But those who contribute do have a better chance of ensuring that those candidates sympathetic to their concerns will make it into office. Mega-contributors lucky enough to win an audience with a Senator or member of Congress, meanwhile, can't demand specific votes, but they can make sure their concerns are heard—while, say, advocates for the homeless are left picketing outside the gates. That counts for a lot. George W. Bush once reportedly told the Rev. Jim Wallis, "I don't understand how poor people think." Presumably he doesn't hear much on the subject during face time with key donors.
Back in the postwar era, the working classes at least had unions to fight for their concerns, some of the time. But thanks to the decline of manufacturing and the assault on organized labor over the past three decades, union density has shriveled—from 24 percent in 1973 to 12.5 percent today. Meanwhile, in the late 1970s, in response to inflation that was eating away at the wealth of the top 1 percent, "business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperative action in the legislative arena," as the journalist Thomas Edsall wrote in his 1986 book, The New Politics of Inequality. And it worked. The leveling forces of the 1970s were overturned by the Reagan revolution, and the upper classes did very well from there on out.
As Anne Krueger of the International Monetary Fund said in 2002, "[I]t seems far better to focus on impoverishment than on inequality." Americans seem to agree; polls suggest that most people in the United States aren't bothered by inequality per se, so long as everyone has a reasonable chance to move up the income ladder through hard luck and a bit of ingenuity.
Not everyone does get that chance, of course—upward mobility in the United States is nothing to brag about—but that's another story. What's interesting is that, to judge by the polls, the only kind of inequality that really bothers Americans is political inequality—that is, if the government isn't representing everyone equally. And over time, the public has increasingly felt that to be the case: Between the 1960s and 1990s the percentage of Americans who felt that "the government is run by a few big special interests looking out only for themselves" doubled to reach 76 percent.
Yet few people seem to consider the connection between economic inequality and political inequality. Why is the government being run by a "few big special interests"? Is it because those interests are particularly tenacious and clever? Or is it because, increasingly, a tiny portion of the population has an inordinate amount of wealth—and therefore influence? Political scientists are converging around the latter view, and in a recent symposium entitled "Inequality and American Democracy," laid out the full array of evidence to support it.
…
Indeed, in the 2000 election, 95 percent of all campaign contributions came from households making over $100,000. With some exceptions, political influence generally isn’t a straightforward matter of slipping across a few hundreds in exchange for a vote; outright bribery is relatively rare. But those who contribute do have a better chance of ensuring that those candidates sympathetic to their concerns will make it into office. Mega-contributors lucky enough to win an audience with a Senator or member of Congress, meanwhile, can't demand specific votes, but they can make sure their concerns are heard—while, say, advocates for the homeless are left picketing outside the gates. That counts for a lot. George W. Bush once reportedly told the Rev. Jim Wallis, "I don't understand how poor people think." Presumably he doesn't hear much on the subject during face time with key donors.
Back in the postwar era, the working classes at least had unions to fight for their concerns, some of the time. But thanks to the decline of manufacturing and the assault on organized labor over the past three decades, union density has shriveled—from 24 percent in 1973 to 12.5 percent today. Meanwhile, in the late 1970s, in response to inflation that was eating away at the wealth of the top 1 percent, "business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperative action in the legislative arena," as the journalist Thomas Edsall wrote in his 1986 book, The New Politics of Inequality. And it worked. The leveling forces of the 1970s were overturned by the Reagan revolution, and the upper classes did very well from there on out.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Mint Julep.
The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved
"It was Saturday morning, the day of the Big Race, and we were having breakfast in a plastic hamburger palace called the Fish-Meat Village. Our rooms were just across the road in the Brown Suburban Hotel. They had a dining room, but the food was so bad that we couldn't handle it anymore. The waitresses seemed to be suffering from shin splints; they moved around very slowly, moaning and cursing the "darkies" in the kitchen.
Steadman liked the Fish-Meat place because it had fish and chips. I preferred the "French toast," which was really pancake batter, fried to the proper thickness and then chopped out with a sort of cookie cutter to resemble pieces of toast.
Beyond drink and lack of sleep, our only real problem at that point was the question of access to the clubhouse. Finally, we decided to go ahead and steal two passes, if necessary, rather than miss that part of the action. This was the last coherent decision we were able to make for the next forty-eight hours. From that point on--almost from the very moment we started out to the track--we lost all control of events and spent the rest of the weekend churning around in a sea of drunken horrors. My notes and recollections from Derby Day are somewhat scrambled.
But now, looking at the big red notebook I carried all through that scene, I see more or less what happened. The book itself is somewhat mangled and bent; some of the pages are torn, others are shriveled and stained by what appears to be whiskey, but taken as a whole, with sporadic memory flashes, the notes seem to tell the story. To wit: Rain all nite until dawn. No sleep. Christ, here we go, a nightmare of mud and madness...But no. By noon the sun burns through--perfect day, not even humid."
RIP, Doctor.
"It was Saturday morning, the day of the Big Race, and we were having breakfast in a plastic hamburger palace called the Fish-Meat Village. Our rooms were just across the road in the Brown Suburban Hotel. They had a dining room, but the food was so bad that we couldn't handle it anymore. The waitresses seemed to be suffering from shin splints; they moved around very slowly, moaning and cursing the "darkies" in the kitchen.
Steadman liked the Fish-Meat place because it had fish and chips. I preferred the "French toast," which was really pancake batter, fried to the proper thickness and then chopped out with a sort of cookie cutter to resemble pieces of toast.
Beyond drink and lack of sleep, our only real problem at that point was the question of access to the clubhouse. Finally, we decided to go ahead and steal two passes, if necessary, rather than miss that part of the action. This was the last coherent decision we were able to make for the next forty-eight hours. From that point on--almost from the very moment we started out to the track--we lost all control of events and spent the rest of the weekend churning around in a sea of drunken horrors. My notes and recollections from Derby Day are somewhat scrambled.
But now, looking at the big red notebook I carried all through that scene, I see more or less what happened. The book itself is somewhat mangled and bent; some of the pages are torn, others are shriveled and stained by what appears to be whiskey, but taken as a whole, with sporadic memory flashes, the notes seem to tell the story. To wit: Rain all nite until dawn. No sleep. Christ, here we go, a nightmare of mud and madness...But no. By noon the sun burns through--perfect day, not even humid."
RIP, Doctor.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Crosses
When I was at Xavier, the campus Right to Life people used to fill the quad with crosses every so often, though, funny enough, this never happened at Mount St. Joseph...(Jesuits vs. Sisters of Charity...hmm).
At any rate, apparently some Grad Students and their Professor took umbrage, and tore down the display. Cincinnati has the 411, and the usual hilarious tirades, but I want to highlight a particular post:
"Smarter protestors would have hung coat hangers from the crosses to represent the thousand upon thousands of women killed from performing illegal abortions when the christo-fascist zombie brigade has their way.
TB 04.14.06 - 2:15 pm # ".
Hear hear! However, Brian is right: Once the O'Reillys of the press get ahold of this, it'll be like raw steaks in a dog pen. I'm sure Professor Jacobsen will make the Horowitz Hall of Shame, so at least something good will come of it.
At any rate, apparently some Grad Students and their Professor took umbrage, and tore down the display. Cincinnati has the 411, and the usual hilarious tirades, but I want to highlight a particular post:
"Smarter protestors would have hung coat hangers from the crosses to represent the thousand upon thousands of women killed from performing illegal abortions when the christo-fascist zombie brigade has their way.
TB 04.14.06 - 2:15 pm # ".
Hear hear! However, Brian is right: Once the O'Reillys of the press get ahold of this, it'll be like raw steaks in a dog pen. I'm sure Professor Jacobsen will make the Horowitz Hall of Shame, so at least something good will come of it.
"Impeach The President"
This is the title of a new Neil Young song. It's good, of late, Neil tackling some topical subject matter. Good, too, that he has hopefully purged himself of some ridiculous political stances. But hey: It was the 80's...even Dylan went Evangelical.
via Covington
via Covington
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Mike Gravel for President?
Mike Gravel, D-Alaska announced his candidacy.
Who the hell is Gravel?
What does he stand for? More here...
Why doesn't he have a website? Is this an insurgency campaign?
More to come.
Who the hell is Gravel?
What does he stand for? More here...
Why doesn't he have a website? Is this an insurgency campaign?
More to come.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
What the...
I just got done filing my Ohio State income tax. The last section asked whether I wanted to contribute to any of several causes, one of which was "military / armed forces". These people have some fucking nerve. Donate?!! I want a fucking REFUND for the portion of my taxes that already went to this bloody stinking war.
"White House denies report on Iraq WMD"
From Today's Washington Post.
"Reuters Wednesday, April 12, 2006; 2:50 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday angrily denied a newspaper report that suggested President George W. Bush in 2003 declared the existence of biological weapons laboratories in Iraq while knowing it was not true.
On May 29, 2003, Bush hailed the capture of two trailers in Iraq as mobile biological laboratories and declared, 'We have found the weapons of mass destruction'.
The White House on Wednesday angrily denied a newspaper report that suggested President George W. Bush in 2003 declared the existence of biological weapons laboratories in Iraq while knowing it was not true.'
The report in The Washington Post said a Pentagon-sponsored fact-finding mission had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. The newspaper cited government officials and weapons experts who participated in the secret mission or had direct knowledge of it.
The Post said the group's unanimous findings had been sent to the Pentagon in a field report, two days before the president's statement.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the account 'reckless reporting' and said Bush made his statement based on the intelligence assessment of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), an arm of the Pentagon.
Bush cited the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction as the prime justification for invading Iraq. No such weapons were found.
A U.S. intelligence official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirmed the existence of the field report cited by the Post, but said it was a preliminary finding that had to be evaluated.
'You don't change a report that has been coordinated in the (intelligence) community based on a field report', the official said. "It's a preliminary report. No matter how strongly the individual may feel about the subject matter."
McClellan said the Post story was 'nothing more than rehashing an old issue that was resolved long ago', pointing out that an independent commission on Iraq had already determined the intelligence on alleged Iraqi biological weapons was wrong.
'RECKLESS REPORTING'
When an ABC reporter pressed McClellan on the subject at his morning briefing, McClellan upbraided the network for picking up on the report.
'This is reckless reporting and for you all to go on the air this morning and make such a charge is irresponsible, and I hope that ABC would apologize for it and make a correction on the air', he said.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were classified and shelved, the Post reported. It added that for nearly a year after that, the Bush administration continued to publicly assert that the trailers were biological weapons factories.
The authors of the reports -- nine U.S. and British civilian experts -- were sent to Baghdad by the DIA, the newspaper said.
A DIA spokesman told the paper that the team's findings were neither ignored nor suppressed, but were incorporated in the work of the Iraqi Survey Group, which led the official search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The team's work remains classified. But the newspaper said interviews revealed that the team was unequivocal in its conclusion that the trailers were not intended to manufacture biological weapons.
'There was no connection to anything biological', one expert who studied the trailers was quoted as saying."
That's right...keeping telling us that chicken shit is chicken salad. I hope you're not counting on History treating you any better.
"Reuters Wednesday, April 12, 2006; 2:50 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday angrily denied a newspaper report that suggested President George W. Bush in 2003 declared the existence of biological weapons laboratories in Iraq while knowing it was not true.
On May 29, 2003, Bush hailed the capture of two trailers in Iraq as mobile biological laboratories and declared, 'We have found the weapons of mass destruction'.
The White House on Wednesday angrily denied a newspaper report that suggested President George W. Bush in 2003 declared the existence of biological weapons laboratories in Iraq while knowing it was not true.'
The report in The Washington Post said a Pentagon-sponsored fact-finding mission had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. The newspaper cited government officials and weapons experts who participated in the secret mission or had direct knowledge of it.
The Post said the group's unanimous findings had been sent to the Pentagon in a field report, two days before the president's statement.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the account 'reckless reporting' and said Bush made his statement based on the intelligence assessment of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), an arm of the Pentagon.
Bush cited the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction as the prime justification for invading Iraq. No such weapons were found.
A U.S. intelligence official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirmed the existence of the field report cited by the Post, but said it was a preliminary finding that had to be evaluated.
'You don't change a report that has been coordinated in the (intelligence) community based on a field report', the official said. "It's a preliminary report. No matter how strongly the individual may feel about the subject matter."
McClellan said the Post story was 'nothing more than rehashing an old issue that was resolved long ago', pointing out that an independent commission on Iraq had already determined the intelligence on alleged Iraqi biological weapons was wrong.
'RECKLESS REPORTING'
When an ABC reporter pressed McClellan on the subject at his morning briefing, McClellan upbraided the network for picking up on the report.
'This is reckless reporting and for you all to go on the air this morning and make such a charge is irresponsible, and I hope that ABC would apologize for it and make a correction on the air', he said.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were classified and shelved, the Post reported. It added that for nearly a year after that, the Bush administration continued to publicly assert that the trailers were biological weapons factories.
The authors of the reports -- nine U.S. and British civilian experts -- were sent to Baghdad by the DIA, the newspaper said.
A DIA spokesman told the paper that the team's findings were neither ignored nor suppressed, but were incorporated in the work of the Iraqi Survey Group, which led the official search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The team's work remains classified. But the newspaper said interviews revealed that the team was unequivocal in its conclusion that the trailers were not intended to manufacture biological weapons.
'There was no connection to anything biological', one expert who studied the trailers was quoted as saying."
That's right...keeping telling us that chicken shit is chicken salad. I hope you're not counting on History treating you any better.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
In Italy, Fascism Apparently Out of Style
Berlusconi toppled in election yesterday by Romano Prodi and his center-left coalition of Catholics, social democrats, communists, and environmentalists.
However, the margin of victory in the chamber came down to 25,000 votes. Berlusconi himself has not yet commented on the results, but his allies have called for a recount of up to 500,000 spoiled ballots.
A recount could unleash political chaos, evoking the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which ended in a bitter recount battle in Florida. For now, however, all eyes are on the vote count for the upper house, the Senate.
However, the margin of victory in the chamber came down to 25,000 votes. Berlusconi himself has not yet commented on the results, but his allies have called for a recount of up to 500,000 spoiled ballots.
A recount could unleash political chaos, evoking the 2000 U.S. presidential election, which ended in a bitter recount battle in Florida. For now, however, all eyes are on the vote count for the upper house, the Senate.
What's that C.S. Lewis, Jr. song
Something about this plan reminds me of the Mr. Show Episode when they decided to blow up the moon.
Meanies
Francis Fukyama, The End is Nigh The Formerly Anti Science Guy, complains that Krauthammer is being mean. Are you telling me that Frankie just noticed this guy was mean?
Oh, and Karl Rove claims the Democrats disenfranchised Republican voters.
All this fun and more over at Hullabaloo.
Oh, and Karl Rove claims the Democrats disenfranchised Republican voters.
All this fun and more over at Hullabaloo.
"Fletcher Signs 10 Commandments Display Law "
"There's a new law on the books in Kentucky governing displays of the ten commandments.
Governor Ernie Fletcher signed the law on Monday, allowing displays of the commandments at the state capitol as well as other public buildings.
But they can only be displayed in a historical context.
The law was passed after the US Supreme Court ruled last year against displays with obvious religious motivations."
How, exactly, does this "historical context" get displayed? Does "The Communist Manifesto", for example, get displayed because of its historical significance?
Tricksey.
Governor Ernie Fletcher signed the law on Monday, allowing displays of the commandments at the state capitol as well as other public buildings.
But they can only be displayed in a historical context.
The law was passed after the US Supreme Court ruled last year against displays with obvious religious motivations."
How, exactly, does this "historical context" get displayed? Does "The Communist Manifesto", for example, get displayed because of its historical significance?
Tricksey.
Monday, April 10, 2006
War Ina Babylon
The Hersh piece on a possible US invasion of Iran, and the use of Tactical Nukes, is suddenly everywhere. Naturally, there are those who think this is a brilliant idea, and others who think it is stupid. Joshua Frank points out that it maybe moot point, kind of like Iraq, at this point.
I was afraid of this. Covington posted on this chatter awhile ago as well. I'm not setting us up as geniuses, but I'm afraid the warning's been on the wall since before Operation Iraqi Goatfuck.
Consider this: With the boondoggle in Iraq, and pro Iranian agitators in Baghdad, invading Iran would, in effect, erase the partition of these historically connected folks, and the creation of a Persian Fundermentalist Hegemon in the region, controlling a bunch of real estate and resources, in effect, it would be the creation of a blackhole double the size that we already have in the region, not the mention the alienation and antipathy that this would bring our way in the rest of the world. We are unable to secure the peace in Iraq, and it is a considerably smaller country. Imagine trying to control twice that area.
You see, a conventional invasion of Iran would be idiotic: We have neither the money, nor the troops to do this, and, moreover, because of the NeoCon movement, we are unable to rally the necessary support for this sort of thing. To attempt an invasion would be suicide, leaving us totally vulnerable. No one will help us. We, in effect, become the rogue nation. If Iran is developing weapons, then we must, for the sake of sanity, find a diplomatic solution. However, it would seem that BushCo and their sycophants want this Highlander-style Showdown with the rest of the world...There can be only one, right?
Since Bush took office, everytime I hear the great Max Romeo sing his "War Ina Babylon", I can't help but be struck by its power and prescience. The Babylon in this case, is not only the biblical Babylon, an unholy, unjust place, but in the Rastafari faith, it is the corrupt and the oppressive Anglo-Euro-American culture which keeps the original man from the truth. Romeo talks about sitting on a mountain, watching Babylon burn. Embedded, I feel, in the lyric, is the idea that Babylon burns itself to the ground, because:
"When come pride then cometh shame/A man pride shall bring him low, yeah, oh yeah/Honour shall uphold the humble in spirit [...]"
The lesson Romeo is trying to teach us is an essentially Christian one: Hubris brings its own destruction, and the hubris of waging an aggressive war under false pretensions, the hubris of using a national trauma to con people into going along with it, and the hubris of thinking it is our position in the world to create it in its own image, or seemingly to destroy it to bring about the Kingdom, is pride that sticks in the Throat of God, the perversion of his message through his Sons...
Talk about being on the wrong side of history.
Lieberman the Independent
Joe may go indie...from the DNC, sure, go ahead. That way, you can better serve your corporate masters. And then you can finally join the GOP.
What an ass.
What an ass.
Sunday, April 9, 2006
Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
This just in: Penn and Teller declare the Bible "Crapola".
Elvis didn't do no drugs. And Monty Python's Life of Brian is more historically accurate than the New Testament.
Elvis didn't do no drugs. And Monty Python's Life of Brian is more historically accurate than the New Testament.
Saturday, April 8, 2006
The Wizard: Geneology of a Screen Name.
I've always wondered about the geneology of screen names. How do people come up with their Screen Names? Screen names signify things about the person, and I think, to a certain extent, the Screen names become a context specific identity. This isn't to say that its phoney perse, but that in someway, that the person isn't genuine in what they are posting or commenting, but that there is a liberating effect in being someone else, even virtually. So I decided to produce my own geneology...
First Off: I became The Wizard because of a song. Actually, two songs.
There is a song on the first Black Sabbath album called "The Wizard" which I have always loved. The mournful harmonica, the titantic riff, and the idea in the lyric that The Wizard as an agent of justice, as opposed to an agent of evil. There was something very appealing in that. That, and I was feeling rather "magical" at that moment. Egotistical-maybe. But something to strive for.
Misty morning, clouds in the sky,
Without warning a wizard walks by,
Casting his shadow, weaving his spell,
[Funny clothes]/[Funny cloak], twinkling bell* (*b-hell)
Never talking,
Just keeps walking,
Causing his magic
Evil power disappears
Demons worry when the wizard is near
He turns tears into joy,
Ev'ryone's happy when the wizard walks by
Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic
Sun is shining; clouds have gone by,
All the people give a happy sigh,
He has passed by, giving his sign,
Left all the people feeling so fine
Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic
The other song was a cover of an early T-Rex song called "The Wizard" by Johnny Thunders on his "So Alone". While the original is an excellent, trippy Marc Bolan acoustic number, Donovan-esque in some ways, Johnny's is a kind of dirty boulevard, finger snapping, doo-woppish work of genius.
Walking in the woods one day
I met a man who said that he was magic
Wonderful things he said
Pointed hat upon his head
Knew why people laughed and cried
Why they lived and why they died
Shadows followed him around
He walked the woods without a single sound
Golden eagles at his door
Cats and bats played on the floor
Silver sunlight in his eyes
The wizard turned and melted in the sky.
First time I heard it, I was drunk at a party, back in the old pink hair days. It kind of stuck with me. I liked the benevolent image of The Wizard, a kind of idealist dreamer who can really change things.
However, there are two other Wizards that really struck me and stuck with me; One was way back, as a pre-adolescent. In Dungeons and Dragons, I always played a Wizard, though my wizards were always brooding, complex misanthropes who concerned themselves with learning more than anything, accumulating magic as an intellectual excercise as much as with keeping the world at bay. The self identification, then and now, is somewhat obvious. The other Wizard was played by Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver, the streewise provocateur who could get anything, the man with his ear to the ground. This Wizard I found interesting because, in the context of the film, he has figured out how to survive. Though I disagree morally with this character's modus operandi, I have always been somewhat attracted to that.
Finally, and obviously, there's the Emerald City charlatan, the man behind the screen who appears as the uber Jombi, but is just a wise fellow. Outward bombast. Overly Theatrical. Yep.
Thank you for your kind indulgence...After the last post, I needed some fluff. Feel free to construct your own.
First Off: I became The Wizard because of a song. Actually, two songs.
There is a song on the first Black Sabbath album called "The Wizard" which I have always loved. The mournful harmonica, the titantic riff, and the idea in the lyric that The Wizard as an agent of justice, as opposed to an agent of evil. There was something very appealing in that. That, and I was feeling rather "magical" at that moment. Egotistical-maybe. But something to strive for.
Misty morning, clouds in the sky,
Without warning a wizard walks by,
Casting his shadow, weaving his spell,
[Funny clothes]/[Funny cloak], twinkling bell* (*b-hell)
Never talking,
Just keeps walking,
Causing his magic
Evil power disappears
Demons worry when the wizard is near
He turns tears into joy,
Ev'ryone's happy when the wizard walks by
Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic
Sun is shining; clouds have gone by,
All the people give a happy sigh,
He has passed by, giving his sign,
Left all the people feeling so fine
Never talk'n,
Just keeps walk'n,
Spreadin' his magic
The other song was a cover of an early T-Rex song called "The Wizard" by Johnny Thunders on his "So Alone". While the original is an excellent, trippy Marc Bolan acoustic number, Donovan-esque in some ways, Johnny's is a kind of dirty boulevard, finger snapping, doo-woppish work of genius.
Walking in the woods one day
I met a man who said that he was magic
Wonderful things he said
Pointed hat upon his head
Knew why people laughed and cried
Why they lived and why they died
Shadows followed him around
He walked the woods without a single sound
Golden eagles at his door
Cats and bats played on the floor
Silver sunlight in his eyes
The wizard turned and melted in the sky.
First time I heard it, I was drunk at a party, back in the old pink hair days. It kind of stuck with me. I liked the benevolent image of The Wizard, a kind of idealist dreamer who can really change things.
However, there are two other Wizards that really struck me and stuck with me; One was way back, as a pre-adolescent. In Dungeons and Dragons, I always played a Wizard, though my wizards were always brooding, complex misanthropes who concerned themselves with learning more than anything, accumulating magic as an intellectual excercise as much as with keeping the world at bay. The self identification, then and now, is somewhat obvious. The other Wizard was played by Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver, the streewise provocateur who could get anything, the man with his ear to the ground. This Wizard I found interesting because, in the context of the film, he has figured out how to survive. Though I disagree morally with this character's modus operandi, I have always been somewhat attracted to that.
Finally, and obviously, there's the Emerald City charlatan, the man behind the screen who appears as the uber Jombi, but is just a wise fellow. Outward bombast. Overly Theatrical. Yep.
Thank you for your kind indulgence...After the last post, I needed some fluff. Feel free to construct your own.
Transmitting Extremism
Dave over a FireDog Lake discusses the emergence of a "kinder" white supremacy, as opposed to the kind of Klan/Neo Nazi blantant ideological rhetoric.
I couldn't agree more, and it seems a corollary to the NeoCon rhetoric, particularly the talk radio and syndicated columnists. If we understand that the rhetoric of NeoCon commissars is, at its core, right wing to the point of actually being Fascist, then it is the talking heads of the movement that flesh out that crypto-fascist skeleton.
I remember, as a kid in the 80's, after a spate of well intentioned but often empty "USA for..." celebrity charitable records for Africa or whatnot, that Q102, if memory serves, had a "USA for the USA" in full Reagan fury. This struck me as rather odd, because, from what I could see (and can) , it is always "USA for the USA", as though we had nothing to apologize for.
At that time, before Iran-Contra, we certainly had some explaining to do, but apologize? We have lots to apologize for now, that Reagan is reaching its logical end in Bush. This defensive rhetoric is reaching its logical end as well, as an offensive rhetoric. We no longer even deign to apologize. The everyman bombast of Morton Downey Jr. has been replaced by a bombast of patriots, such as Hannity, Michael Savage et al., who claim to be down with everyman, but in reality, see the precariousness of these people as an ideological tool, a rhetorical flourish.
I really dug Neiwart's discussion of this rhetoric, and, not to put too fine a point on it, it is crucial to understand that, this crypto/fascism, on the surface, bears little resemblance, at least rhetorically, to the Fascism of Europe in the Twentieth Century. Why should it? Rhetoric as a transactional act is always tethered to time and place, and Ideology is rhetoric. Moreover, on a linguistic level, we know that tension between the sign and signifier is ambiguous, and as a result, can be exploited for Ideological ends (see Orwell "Freedom is Slavery", or Auschwitz "Work Makes You Free", or even "The Vietnam Conflict" as a "police action").
But even a cursory archeology on the signs contained in the rhetoric reveals its geneology, for the "heartland" and "patriot" reveal themselves as fascist constructs, "blood and soil" and "authentic people (Americans) vs. "decandent city dwellers" and "inauthentic people" (Liberals or Aliens). The antithesis in effect is that those outside are always not to be trusted. The roots of this thinking go back along way, but the tree they spawned is eating up the periphery.
I bring this up to point out, as Neiwart has, that this kind rhetoric is reaching its natural conclusion. If the "heartland patriots" are the authentic people, and the decandent coast people aren't, then it follows that an insular xenophobia should follow. The rhetorical-ideological construct allows for nothing else. Sure, the rhetoric is different, less bombast, and really, less tethered to the hick racism of the Klan, or the ramble rousing of the National Socialists. No this is subtle, more slick: "Niggers", in this discourse, become "Criminals" or "Welfare Moms". "Kikes" become "Media Elites". "Wetbacks" become "Security Problems, Undocumented Aliens, Guest Workers" or, judging by the House Bill that has thankfully stalled, "Criminals". Thus, its not a far stretch to Himmler's "Jews as Rats". Contained in the above signs, of course, is its opposite authentic people as white, or rather, the authentic culture as white.
Though the rhetoric is superficially kinder, the targeting of this image at working men and women is the same as in the Twenthieth Century. The precariousness of our lives, paycheck to paycheck, coupled with world instability, makes the idea that some Other can be blamed for these problems appealing, and as in the Twentieth Century, what is lacking in this discourse reveals that the Other preying upon us is not "Welfare Moms", "Guest Workers" or "Media Elites", but Proponents of these ideas themselves. The divisive bullshit is attempt to keep people from recognizing the common ground we share. Those who control the money in this society want to keep it that way. Otherwise, their hegenomy is threatened, because, once the emperor has no clothes, you find a fascist.
Dave over a FireDog Lake discusses the emergence of a "kinder" white supremacy, as opposed to the kind of Klan/Neo Nazi blantant ideological rhetoric.
I couldn't agree more, and it seems a corollary to the NeoCon rhetoric, particularly the talk radio and syndicated columnists. If we understand that the rhetoric of NeoCon commissars is, at its core, right wing to the point of actually being Fascist, then it is the talking heads of the movement that flesh out that crypto-fascist skeleton.
I remember, as a kid in the 80's, after a spate of well intentioned but often empty "USA for..." celebrity charitable records for Africa or whatnot, that Q102, if memory serves, had a "USA for the USA" in full Reagan fury. This struck me as rather odd, because, from what I could see (and can) , it is always "USA for the USA", as though we had nothing to apologize for.
At that time, before Iran-Contra, we certainly had some explaining to do, but apologize? We have lots to apologize for now, that Reagan is reaching its logical end in Bush. This defensive rhetoric is reaching its logical end as well, as an offensive rhetoric. We no longer even deign to apologize. The everyman bombast of Morton Downey Jr. has been replaced by a bombast of patriots, such as Hannity, Michael Savage et al., who claim to be down with everyman, but in reality, see the precariousness of these people as an ideological tool, a rhetorical flourish.
I really dug Neiwart's discussion of this rhetoric, and, not to put too fine a point on it, it is crucial to understand that, this crypto/fascism, on the surface, bears little resemblance, at least rhetorically, to the Fascism of Europe in the Twentieth Century. Why should it? Rhetoric as a transactional act is always tethered to time and place, and Ideology is rhetoric. Moreover, on a linguistic level, we know that tension between the sign and signifier is ambiguous, and as a result, can be exploited for Ideological ends (see Orwell "Freedom is Slavery", or Auschwitz "Work Makes You Free", or even "The Vietnam Conflict" as a "police action").
But even a cursory archeology on the signs contained in the rhetoric reveals its geneology, for the "heartland" and "patriot" reveal themselves as fascist constructs, "blood and soil" and "authentic people (Americans) vs. "decandent city dwellers" and "inauthentic people" (Liberals or Aliens). The antithesis in effect is that those outside are always not to be trusted. The roots of this thinking go back along way, but the tree they spawned is eating up the periphery.
I bring this up to point out, as Neiwart has, that this kind rhetoric is reaching its natural conclusion. If the "heartland patriots" are the authentic people, and the decandent coast people aren't, then it follows that an insular xenophobia should follow. The rhetorical-ideological construct allows for nothing else. Sure, the rhetoric is different, less bombast, and really, less tethered to the hick racism of the Klan, or the ramble rousing of the National Socialists. No this is subtle, more slick: "Niggers", in this discourse, become "Criminals" or "Welfare Moms". "Kikes" become "Media Elites". "Wetbacks" become "Security Problems, Undocumented Aliens, Guest Workers" or, judging by the House Bill that has thankfully stalled, "Criminals". Thus, its not a far stretch to Himmler's "Jews as Rats". Contained in the above signs, of course, is its opposite authentic people as white, or rather, the authentic culture as white.
Though the rhetoric is superficially kinder, the targeting of this image at working men and women is the same as in the Twenthieth Century. The precariousness of our lives, paycheck to paycheck, coupled with world instability, makes the idea that some Other can be blamed for these problems appealing, and as in the Twentieth Century, what is lacking in this discourse reveals that the Other preying upon us is not "Welfare Moms", "Guest Workers" or "Media Elites", but Proponents of these ideas themselves. The divisive bullshit is attempt to keep people from recognizing the common ground we share. Those who control the money in this society want to keep it that way. Otherwise, their hegenomy is threatened, because, once the emperor has no clothes, you find a fascist.
Friday, April 7, 2006
From the Vault
Value, not Values...
"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but at the same time as an end" (Kant 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals')
I am a leftist. I make no bones about it. I believe that Marx correctly identified the problem, if not offering a workable solution. The solution in the form of Communism in praxis resulted in horror and carnage. You see, the left and the right do not exist in a continuum. They exist in a circle, and in both, at their most extreme, end in dictatorship.
Having said that, the left has been derided by many for awhile for pointing out that our Republic, the Land of the Free, is sliding into a Fascism of our own invention, and the substance of this derision has been the equation that the left=Stalinism. The leftists of the sixties, in their "do your own thing" credo failed to set a logical boundary to this, the essential responsibility Sartre and De Beauvoir elucidated; You have a responsibility in your freedom to liberate others. Moreover, all that talk of the student left being the "intelligensia" was and is tantamount to Politburo-ism: A dictatorship of the masses, of course, controlled by the party leadership. The liberation of the "do your own thing"in the 60's morphed into Jerry Rubins hocking motivational tapes in the "me" 80's, and David Horowitz becoming a mouth piece for the extreme right in this century, and the intelligensia of the student movement sixties are revealed for what they were and are; Careering demogogues and bourgois white kids playing revolutionary left. Antithetically though not suprising given the insistence on "do your own thing", they became as they are. Remember: Mussolini started out a Communist. Now, the 80's, a horrifying decade, returns as a crueler simulacra.
People exist in a fin de siecle malaise: The country gets attacked, our government's Machiavellian hypocrisy exposed. People lament that their "things" no longer fullfill them; They turn to snake-oil preachers, and crass nationalism. The media becomes the singular personification of corporatism; No longer pretending at report facts, or serving the public good, they become another Ideological State Apparatus, another brick in the wall of the American Panopticon, if you like. Reinforcing values antithetical to the interests of the people, they replace value with values; God, Country, Money, Democracy as shallow and soulless as the choice between Budweiser and Miller. Ideas replaced with Ideology.
I see this everyday: The Young are without hope. They gave up, alienated by the sheer magnitude of empty ostensible choices. They only want to survive, get by, and this is the real tragedy; They either submit, and mouth the slogans, or shut up, and get what they can, as they watch the degrees they work for become useless dues paying into the machine the "Do your own Thing" created...The Thing.
The Thing, which Allen Ginsberg, in his call to arms "Howl" called Moloch, the Babylonian monster which eats the young. Moloch sings the song of Fascism, which Terry Eagleton, in his discussion of Heidegger (a brilliant but problematic thinker to say the least) cites as "[...] a desperate, last ditch attempt on the part of monopoly capitalism to abolish contradictions which have become intolerable; and does so in part by offering a whole alternative history, a narrative of blood, soil, the 'authentic' race, the sublimity of death and self-abnegation, the Reich will endure for a thousand years."
Now we sit on a precipice, and our Reich will not be called as such; It will be Brand America, or the hege-demonically named New American Century. Can anybody wonder about the deliberate use of the word "heartland" in reference to the so-called red states, full of red blooded Americans as opposed to the blue states, full of blue blooded decandents pushing their decadence on the good and godly Red Blooded-States. Our Reich will not be of an 'authentic' race in the strict sense, but certainly of an 'authentic' people, who are tied to the soil in farms and small towns, the soil they buried their family in, the soil they will die on themselves, the soil by proxy their fathers died on in foreign wars, perhaps even fighting Fascism. The other symbolic details of this, exemplified eruditely in the 14 points of fascism in the US, are as evident as anyone would care to look, eyes and mind open.
But this gambit on the part of the forces of NeoConservatism, the former Cryptofascists that are getting less "crypto" by the day, is tautological, for in their attacks on the far left, which, in their estimation, I am proudly part of, both professional and as a matter of political thinking, they reveal themselves as Moloch.
Augustine died, famously enough, during the last sack of Rome, and he believed that the world was ending. The question is: Do we as a nation recognize this bloodbeast as Imperial, as a Reich, and turn it back? Do we recognize that, in fact, to borrow F.A. Hayek's title, the road to serfdom is Corporatist Domination, a New American Hegenomy? Do we finally recognize that the Free Market and Monopoly Capitalism are antithetical,.with the latter creating value in debt for a yoked consumer class who neither control fiscal nor cultural capital, life, death, humanity in easy monthly payments, pay your way to become "free". The culture of life, as defined by the NeoCons, is an a priori negation of the conception of life; People are means, and not ends unto themselves. The culture of life negates the possibility of justice, reducing everything to a rochambeau of semi constitutional shell games.
Or does the New American Century end in further blood shed, the Old World vs The New World. Does the hubris of empire end in a devastated whimper? Is this our fate? Suicide before we can become an old country, before we can have accumulated wisdom?
What becomes of the future?
originally posted at Covington 17 May 2005
"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but at the same time as an end" (Kant 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals')
I am a leftist. I make no bones about it. I believe that Marx correctly identified the problem, if not offering a workable solution. The solution in the form of Communism in praxis resulted in horror and carnage. You see, the left and the right do not exist in a continuum. They exist in a circle, and in both, at their most extreme, end in dictatorship.
Having said that, the left has been derided by many for awhile for pointing out that our Republic, the Land of the Free, is sliding into a Fascism of our own invention, and the substance of this derision has been the equation that the left=Stalinism. The leftists of the sixties, in their "do your own thing" credo failed to set a logical boundary to this, the essential responsibility Sartre and De Beauvoir elucidated; You have a responsibility in your freedom to liberate others. Moreover, all that talk of the student left being the "intelligensia" was and is tantamount to Politburo-ism: A dictatorship of the masses, of course, controlled by the party leadership. The liberation of the "do your own thing"in the 60's morphed into Jerry Rubins hocking motivational tapes in the "me" 80's, and David Horowitz becoming a mouth piece for the extreme right in this century, and the intelligensia of the student movement sixties are revealed for what they were and are; Careering demogogues and bourgois white kids playing revolutionary left. Antithetically though not suprising given the insistence on "do your own thing", they became as they are. Remember: Mussolini started out a Communist. Now, the 80's, a horrifying decade, returns as a crueler simulacra.
People exist in a fin de siecle malaise: The country gets attacked, our government's Machiavellian hypocrisy exposed. People lament that their "things" no longer fullfill them; They turn to snake-oil preachers, and crass nationalism. The media becomes the singular personification of corporatism; No longer pretending at report facts, or serving the public good, they become another Ideological State Apparatus, another brick in the wall of the American Panopticon, if you like. Reinforcing values antithetical to the interests of the people, they replace value with values; God, Country, Money, Democracy as shallow and soulless as the choice between Budweiser and Miller. Ideas replaced with Ideology.
I see this everyday: The Young are without hope. They gave up, alienated by the sheer magnitude of empty ostensible choices. They only want to survive, get by, and this is the real tragedy; They either submit, and mouth the slogans, or shut up, and get what they can, as they watch the degrees they work for become useless dues paying into the machine the "Do your own Thing" created...The Thing.
The Thing, which Allen Ginsberg, in his call to arms "Howl" called Moloch, the Babylonian monster which eats the young. Moloch sings the song of Fascism, which Terry Eagleton, in his discussion of Heidegger (a brilliant but problematic thinker to say the least) cites as "[...] a desperate, last ditch attempt on the part of monopoly capitalism to abolish contradictions which have become intolerable; and does so in part by offering a whole alternative history, a narrative of blood, soil, the 'authentic' race, the sublimity of death and self-abnegation, the Reich will endure for a thousand years."
Now we sit on a precipice, and our Reich will not be called as such; It will be Brand America, or the hege-demonically named New American Century. Can anybody wonder about the deliberate use of the word "heartland" in reference to the so-called red states, full of red blooded Americans as opposed to the blue states, full of blue blooded decandents pushing their decadence on the good and godly Red Blooded-States. Our Reich will not be of an 'authentic' race in the strict sense, but certainly of an 'authentic' people, who are tied to the soil in farms and small towns, the soil they buried their family in, the soil they will die on themselves, the soil by proxy their fathers died on in foreign wars, perhaps even fighting Fascism. The other symbolic details of this, exemplified eruditely in the 14 points of fascism in the US, are as evident as anyone would care to look, eyes and mind open.
But this gambit on the part of the forces of NeoConservatism, the former Cryptofascists that are getting less "crypto" by the day, is tautological, for in their attacks on the far left, which, in their estimation, I am proudly part of, both professional and as a matter of political thinking, they reveal themselves as Moloch.
Augustine died, famously enough, during the last sack of Rome, and he believed that the world was ending. The question is: Do we as a nation recognize this bloodbeast as Imperial, as a Reich, and turn it back? Do we recognize that, in fact, to borrow F.A. Hayek's title, the road to serfdom is Corporatist Domination, a New American Hegenomy? Do we finally recognize that the Free Market and Monopoly Capitalism are antithetical,.with the latter creating value in debt for a yoked consumer class who neither control fiscal nor cultural capital, life, death, humanity in easy monthly payments, pay your way to become "free". The culture of life, as defined by the NeoCons, is an a priori negation of the conception of life; People are means, and not ends unto themselves. The culture of life negates the possibility of justice, reducing everything to a rochambeau of semi constitutional shell games.
Or does the New American Century end in further blood shed, the Old World vs The New World. Does the hubris of empire end in a devastated whimper? Is this our fate? Suicide before we can become an old country, before we can have accumulated wisdom?
What becomes of the future?
originally posted at Covington 17 May 2005
Thursday, April 6, 2006
"What's he building in there"
A new blog. Some new voices. The possibility of a new title-who knows. Hopefully, we can have it done soon.
Thanks a bunch for stopping in, and please come back.
Thanks a bunch for stopping in, and please come back.
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