AUSTRALIAN GRAPES OF WRATH

As I sit here in this weeks unnatural heat in bloody Los Angeles, this news flash from down under makes for uncomfortable logic. Climate change isn’t going to be some gradual, uniform process across the globe. It’s going to be incidences of localized weirdness becoming more and more frequent as time passes, and heaven help Europe if the Greenland Pump goes out.

“A dust storm blankets Sydney's iconic Opera House at sunrise September 23, 2009. A huge outback dust storm swept eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, forcing people indoors and stripping thousands of tonnes of valuable farmland topsoil.”

The secret word is Bad

FRIDAY PICTURE SHOW

Twisty Smooch Dolls Cookbook? Click here
Or Star Maidens? Click here
Or, more seriously, Frank Schaeffer – "You cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot" – talking to Rachel Maddow? Click here

EVERYBODY LIKES MY ROCKET '88

"You may have heard of jalopies,
You heard the noise they make,
Let me introduce you to my Rocket '88.
Yes it's great, just won't wait,
Everybody likes my Rocket '88."
(Image lifted from Bedazzled)

PLUGS FOR PALS

Our pal Don (that’s him with his arm in the air) has released a DVD of his once and future band Imperial Dogs. Click here to learn more.

OH NO! AMERICA IS RUNNING OUT OF AMMUNITION!

Yes my friends, the news is dire. Obama becomes president and Middle America buys bullets.

“Bullet-makers are working around the clock, seven days a week, and still can't keep up with the nation's demand for ammunition. Shooting ranges, gun dealers and bullet manufacturers say they have never seen such shortages. Bullets, especially for handguns, have been scarce for months because gun enthusiasts are stocking up on ammo, in part because they fear President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass antigun legislation - even though nothing specific has been proposed and the president last month signed a law allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks.” (Click here for the whole absurd story)

The secret word is Blam!

COULD ANYONE FORGET TIELMAN BROTHERS?

Click here and thank Munz.

TRUTH OR IRONY?

PROLETARIAN PINUP (back by popular demand)

“Stay cool, comrades, and remember what Uncle Joe said, “When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use!”

DAVID LETTERMAN’S APOLOGY TO BILL HICKS

Some of you may have seen this at the time, but for those of you who haven’t – and those of you who might want to watch it again – here’s Letterman’s mea culpa from January of this year for cutting the late Bill Hicks from his show some sixteen years ago. Click here for part one.

AND AFTER BILL HICKS, WHO BETTER THAN CARL JUNG?

Again, some of you may have seen this story from The New York Times, but I found it fascinating so here it is…

“THIS COULD SOUND, I realize, like the start of a spy novel or a Hollywood bank caper, but it is rather a story about genius and madness, as well as possession and obsession, with one object — this old, unusual book — skating among those things. Also, there are a lot of Jungians involved, a species of thinkers who subscribe to the theories of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and author of the big red leather book. And Jungians, almost by definition, tend to get enthused anytime something previously hidden reveals itself, when whatever’s been underground finally makes it to the surface.” Click here for the whole thing.

OUR WHACKY AUNT AYN

Former acolytes recall Aunt Ayn as being paranoid, addicted to amphetamines, and obsessed with her belief that average people were "ugly, stupid and irrational."

HARDLY DRAMATIC BUT PROBABLY IMPORTANT

The following story may well be a victory for the good guys. It also makes a change to see that FCC actually doing something other than levying fines for saying “fuck” on the air.

“The top U.S. communications regulator plans to unveil proposals Monday for ensuring Web traffic is not slowed or blocked based on its content, sources familiar with the contents of the speech said on Friday. The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Julius Genachowski, pictured in June 2009, is expected to outline rules on Monday requiring Internet providers to respect "net neutrality," the principle that all Web traffic should be treated equally.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce plans to ask his fellow commissioners to adopt as a rule net neutrality and four existing principles on Internet access issued by the agency in 2005, one of the sources said.
Net neutrality pits open Internet companies like Google Inc against broadband service providers like AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Comcast Corp, which oppose new rules governing network management.
Advocates of net neutrality say Internet service providers must be barred from blocking or slowing traffic based on its content.
But service providers say the increasing volume of bandwidth-hogging services, like video sharing, requires active management of their networks and some argue that net neutrality could stifle innovation.” (Click here for more)

IF IT NEEDED TO BE SAID…

Some of my friends are much bigger fans of those activist pranksters the Yes Men, but even I have to admit that the environmental protest they pulled this morning with their faux-edition of the New York Post was pretty damned audacious. (Click here to take a look.)

The secret word is Yup

SPACE OPERA

(Lifted from Adam Gorightly)

MO' CHAOS

This gorgeous piece of graffiti is in Barcelona, Spain, and (I believe) photographed by our amazing pal Valerie. In addition to being a great visual, it also provides a perfect if shameless excuse to plug Zones of Chaos, my new anthology of poems and short writing. Scroll back to last Monday (Sept 14th) for details.

AND ON THE SUBJECT OF CHAOS…

Doug the Bass sent over this very disturbing video clip of Glenn Beck’s march on Washington. His response is terse. “It's kind of strange to watch and listen to since I'd always been under the impression that we had universal public education in this country. It's obviously not just children that get left behind...” My own response is rather more Sunday sad. How the hell did these people become so terminal deluded? Especially as many of are probably on Medicare, disability, or otherwise survive because of some legacy of New Deal socialism? It all resembles some hideous twilight of rationality.

Click here for the show.

The secret word is Hefty

DON’T YOU MISS THE OLD TIME MAGAZINES?

I mean, wouldn't you be just fascinated to know why divorced gals become lesbians? I could offer some suggestions, but maybe I'll just leave that with you gentle, Doc40 readers. I gotta get me some dog food.