JOBLESS TOP 10%

Not much fun for the weekend, but here at Doc40, we take a great deal of notice of the unemployment figures, if for no other reason that a lot of our friends are writers and precious few are working. (Thank heavens I have a book to do.) Thus the news evoked nothing but dismay. The unemployment rate has topped 10% -- the first time since 1983. Per the AP, "The Labor Department says the economy shed a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September." But the unemployment rate increased, from 9.8% in Sept. to 10.2% in Oct. (And that not counting those who can’t claim benefits.) I can only agree with Paul Krugman when he argues the White House hasn't been aggressive enough. "President Obama came into office with a strong mandate and proclaimed the need to take bold action on the economy. His actual actions, however, were cautious rather than bold. They were enough to pull the economy back from the brink, but not enough to bring unemployment down." The sun ain’t yellow, it’s chicken.

The secret word is Dole

GOING POSTAL

John Ratzenberger was the guy who once played the mailman on Cheers. Now he’s a cohort of the ludicrous Michele Bachmann. At her absurd rally in Washington a couple of days ago, he told the crowd that the health care bill advocates were “Woodstock Democrats” like Abbie Hoffman and Wavy Gravy. Gail Collins in The New York Times commented – “The crowd seemed on the old side, but is it really possible that any of them are still worrying about Abbie Hoffman? That any of them knew who Wavy Gravy is? Wasn’t his main claim to fame giving out free granola? Is this a problem we need to deal with at the present moment?” (Story supplied by Munz.)

OUR WHACKY AUNT AYN

Aunt Ayn reacts badly to a quote in The New York Times by Adam Kirsch that reads. “The plotting and characterization in her books may be vulgar and unbelievable, just as one would expect from the middling Holly­wood screenwriter she once was.”

THOSE CRAZY TABLOIDS

FROM BLOCKBUSTER TO OBSCURE

Yesterday my cool was impugned because I expressed mild anticipation regarding John Cameron’s Avatar. So here’s a movie that going to be real hard to find. It’s supposedly a true story, so I can even raise some trepidation that the guys pictured above might be the founders of “the next great American religion.” Don’t we have enough goddamned religions already? There’s a showing of The Object on Sunday at The Cinefamily on Fairfax here in Hollywood, but, otherwise, you’re on your own.

“Between jobs and at loose ends in his hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky, part-time tile layer Todd Walker headed to Nashville for a job, left home late, blew off the job, wandered through a Goodwill store, and for sixty-nine cents purchased an object that he feels is an Old Testament oracle with which he can communicate with God. The Object traces his life-changing experience with what he calls "God's computer chip." Todd and his brothers-in-law, Dale and David, see visions when peering into their find. Sharing their experiences with other seekers, they build a following of believers, ranging from a former "Jeopardy!" champion to a wrestling preacher. This documentary may be the first ever to chronicle the founding of, as one religious professor put it, the next great American religion. Come along on this riotous, often unbelievable, but always thought-provoking spiritual quest. The Object takes us to the intersection where Borat meets Flannery O'Connor, except this is for real!” Click here for a trailer

The secret word is Relic

FANCY PAGEANT GLOATIN’

As you all may have probably realised by now, I have zero tolerance for dumb-as-a-post beauty queens who figure it’s a double-plus, super-ace celeb-making career move to sashay their cute bikini asses into extremist homophobe bigot-rousing. Thus, when the execrable Carrie Prejean’s political career was fatally impaled by a recently surfaced, commercial-porn, masturbation-for-camera video, with Prejean as the solo performer, I couldn’t restrain grinning like a gloating fool. And why not, huh? One day Palin will also fall. Click here for the less salacious but more detailed mainstream account of Prejean’s descent from grace.

DID I EVER TELL YOU I LOVE PAPER AIRPLANES?

No? Well check out the way cool video. Maybe you will too. Click here.

CLICK (Gotcha!)

AVATAR? (No thanks, I’m trying to give them up.)

Up to now I’ve been ignoring it, but, as someone who has the TV perpetually mumbling on the other side of the room, I have now watched a few commercials for James Cameron’s upcoming megaflick Avatar, and they were sufficiently compelling to send me to IMDb to watch the trailers. I don’t have any overflowing sympathy for corporate franchise movies that cost more than the GNP of multiple third world nations. On the other hand, it sure looks like something important. I detect ideas that were mooted in Aliens that seem to have been brought to advanced resolution. And is this a whole new generation of CGI I see before me? It’s been a while since the LOTR trilogy and I’d like to have a massive epic movie to make me an eleven-year old once again. I just hope it’s not a crushing disappointment. Click here for trailers.

OR WOULD YOU RATHER STAY IN A SPACE MOTEL?

Our pal Faux Smoke contributed this story about a planned orbital hotel. I guess smoking a joint in your room might be a problem, and you probably couldn’t order any hookers. (Click here for the whole story.)

MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORD

My mumbling TV just informed me that Wall Street heavies like Goldman Sachs and Citibank have all the N1H1 flu vaccine they need for their employees while regular folk stand in line because New York hospitals, clinics, and private doctors are suffering from major shortages and cannot immunize even all the at-risk patients. Click here for the whole fucking absurd story.

SPACE OPERA (What else?)

The kids down the street capture a live alien. (Image lifted from Tom Sutpen.)

DOLPHINS ARE EVEN SMARTER THAN WE SUSPECTED?

The days seem to be creating an order of their own. Yesterday it was psychdelics. Today it’s animals. Our homeboy Aeswiren sent us this story about revised estimates of dolphin IQ…

“At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean. Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.” (Click here for the whole story.)

The secrey word is Flipper

BUT NOW WE GOTTA SAVE THE PUPPIES

I received an email from the Humane Society US asking me to sign a petition demanding that the pet store chain Petland stop selling live animals. “Thousands of animals across the country are suffering in puppy mills each and every day. This inhumane treatment is unacceptable—and we need your help to put an end to it.” It may surprise many readers to learn that I come from a dog breedin’ family in which petshop pets were an anathema, being generally unwell, ill-nourished, and frequently very messed up in the head. I signed the petition. Click here to do the same.

SOMEBODY CALL PETA

I keep wondering if this image is Photoshopped or real. I suspect the former. I mean, I know the woman’s a dangerous ditz, but could she really be that stupid? (Comments in two words or less.)

And on the subject of Klondike Barbie…
“Yeah, I'm disappointed, too. I thought we were sweeping into power; I thought change meant Change. I believed all that talk about another First 100 Days, a la Roosevelt. Well, that didn't happen. .. That said, I do not forget that if the election had gone the other way, we'd right now have a barter economy and be at war with Honduras.” – Bill Maher

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

FABULOUS NEWS!

The Japanese language version of my autobiography Give The Anarchist A Cigarette will be published in Japan on November 6th. It has been translated by the amazing Yukiko Akagawa. The psychedelic cover art is by Kojima, who also plays guitar with the band Tale Soup. (Click here for information in Japanese)

The secret word is Happy

TRIPPING WAS GOOD FOR US?

Seems to be a day for the psychedelic. Our goodbuddy Arsydd sent us this story how all this acid we used to take might actually have been good for our mental and physical health, although maybe it’s illegality and general lack of overall quality control may have somewhat negated the benefits.

“A growing number of people are taking LSD and other psychedelic drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy to help them cope with a variety of conditions including anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches and chronic anxiety attacks. The emergence of a community that passes the drugs between users on the basis of friendship, support and need – with money rarely involved – comes amid a resurgence of research into the possible therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. This is leading to a growing optimism among those using the drugs that soon they may be able to obtain medicines based on psychedelics from their doctor, rather than risk jail for taking illicit drugs." (Click here for more.)

And while on the subject of acid, I have to register how it pisses me off that The Beatles 1967 anthem "All You Need Is Love" is now being used in a Blackberry commercial. Is this the work of Fab McCartney or the Michael Jackson estate? I was never a huge fan of the tune, but WTF?

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Great Uncle Orson was obsessively homicidal and owned his own Maxim gun.

(Supplied by HCB)

THUGLIFE OF THE WARLORDS

Another rant from the every-forceful Chris Hedges…

“The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine.” (Click here for the whole thing.)

The secret word is Poppy

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY

The following email arrived from our pal Thomas Paine...

"Christopher J. Christie - a former US Attorney in George W. Bush's administration who is running as the Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey in Tuesday's very close election race - has been exposed as a copyright thief - stealing a Monty Python skit for an election commercial. Compounding his theft - after his piracy was exposed in an exclusive news story on Huffington Post - his campaign tried to cover up the crime by scrubbing his campaign website and YouTube. Unfortunately for him - the illicit commercial was captured as evidence for a possible lawsuit. The full story - the pirated TV ad that he tried to bury - and responses from members of Monty Python can all be seen here" (Now click here)

HALLOWEEN AFTERMATH

The glut of horror movies on my TV once again started me reflecting on how shock entertainment can only escalate. The first horror flicks I ever saw were Hammer classics in which Christopher Lee’s bloodshot vampire eyes were enough to set the joint jumping. Now it takes a woman diving into a tub of syringes, and I can only wonder whither we go from there? Richard Holmes in his book The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, illustrates how far we have come since Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein in the company of Lord Byron and her poet husband.

"On the bleak Mer de Glace glacier in the French Alps, the Creature appeals to his creator [Dr.] Frankenstein for sympathy, and for love. 'I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator would not call it murder, if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts ... Oh! My creator, make me happy! Let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of one existing thing. Do not deny me my request!'… "His terrible corrosive and destructive solitude becomes the central theme of the second part of Mary Shelley's novel. Goaded by his misery, the Creature kills and destroys. Yet he also tries to take stock of his own violent actions and contradictory emotions. He concludes that his one hope of happiness lies in sexual companionship. The scene on the Mer de Glace in which he begs Frankenstein to create a wife for him is central to his search for human identity and happiness. The clear implication is that a fully human 'soul' can only be created through friendship and love."

AND FOR A HALLOWEEN HANGOVER HERE’S JERRY LEE…

What better way to follow a drunken spook fest than by clicking here for nine minutes of a magnificently drunken Jerry Lee Lewis? (This is lifted from the splendid Houndblog where they’re running a special on rock-drunk videos.)

The secret word is Shaking

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 67

Ummm…is this not kinda odd?

CLICK (Busted!)