Earlier, I read the poetry of the detainees after some impromptu chat. It was too grim to be pleased with the performance. (See Monday for the background details.) But the people present seemed to be affected by what the others and I did. Wayne Kramer wore an orange jump suit. We hugged. Some performers didn't show. I guess fearing an FBI file or something. When all was done I drank in aptly named Dresden. It never changes. I got home and fell asleep in front of Stephen Colbert. I woke, alone with cat -- knowing I would always be alone with the cat -- and wondering if our evening efforts had made an iota of difference. Because, if they didn’t, the only question that remains is do I blow my brains out now, or cultivate a total loathing of humanity first. I'm exhausted by 40 years of fighting the bastards.
Hi, I’m an amphetamine molecule and this is The Who.
Hi, this is the Witch-king of Angmar and I hate to see towers falling down. In this clip it’s the cooling towers at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England, the world's first full-scale nuclear power station, being demolished. (Monty Burns take note.)
Oh, and, as of today, the Iranians claim the Russian specialists working on the construction of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran are not leaving town. (See yesterday’s post, and thanks, Munz.)
Also I have a media column in this week’s LA CityBeat about how Fred Thompson should definitely not be president.
Aeswiren, Doc40’s apocalyptic watchdog, and pessimist emeritus, sends some very disturbing news.
"Iranian and Israeli news outlets are reporting that Russia has evacuated its entire staff of nuclear engineers and experts who were working at the Bushehr nuclear reactor, increasing speculation that the United States is preparing an imminent military attack on Iran. According to the Khorramshar News Agency, which represents ethnic Arabs in opposition to Ahmadinejad's regime who live near the reactor, the Russians packed their bags and left on Friday." (Click for the rest.)
And I can’t help it, but this kind of news makes me resort to Ol’ Bob. Here are not one, but two versions, just shy of half a century apart, of the same very obvious song. This not only shows the artist at extreme phases of his career, but also how, in the 45 years since Cuba Missile Crisis, when the song was written, we have made little headway in negating the fear of nuclear annihilation.
The secret word is Strontium and the secret number is 90
This is a TASER. The TASER seems to be showing up all over the place. Security guards, campus cops, real cops. As far as my research goes, it has yet to appear in the BDSM community, although other electric shock devices like cattle prods are becoming quite the rage, but all levels of quasi-law enforcement, including the security at political events, seem to think they are the equivalent of 21st electric billyclubs and are using them with gleeful abandon on anyone who does or says anything they don’t like. And the New Scientist is concerned.
…I’d be experiencing massive metaphysical concern over the volcano that erupted yesterday on an island in Yemen’s end of the Red Sea. The idea of a volcano spewing lava and flame far too fucking close, in my estimation, to the massive Ghawar oilfield, would make me one worried fundamentalist, except most of the media have chosen to ignore it, and I probably wouldn’t even know about it. In my own, more secular reality, I am far more perturbed about Seymour Hersh's revelations in the current New Yorker about how Bush now totally seems bent on starting a war with Iran. (Do Bush and Cheney think their place in history will be assured by leaving the Middle East and maybe the whole bloody planet charred to a crisp?)
“In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.” Click for the rest of the story
Also, if I were of bible praying kinda guy, this version of “I Got You Babe” might tip me over into total apocalyptic dread.
The secret word is Endtime
"I have knives, boys."
A week ago last Friday (Sept 20th) I posted a video link to David Bowie performing Brecht & Weil’s “Alabama Song.” Since then I’ve come across more of the related same. I don’t know why I find this music of the 1930s so I appealing. (I mean, even I wasn’t born yet.) Maybe it's because there is the same sense of fascist evil I feel today, pushing its way up through the fetid swamp of power – not even a new fascist evil, just the same one as before, but with a different tailor. I have also been running graphics from the Spanish Civil War. I have to suppose that I am really looking at two sides of the same coin. Spain was the briefly shining hope, and Weimar Germany was the doomed hedonism. As modern analogues of the doomed hedonism, here is Nick Cave’s version of Mack the Knife, Mick Jagger performing Streets of Berlin from Bent in full drag, Bob Fosse’s ultimately scary Tomorrow Belongs To Me from Cabaret, and Klaus Nomi’s Falling In Love Again. (pic from Valerie)
The secret word is Marlene
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