ARMING FOR THE GOOGLE WARS?

Maybe it’s just a drab Saturday, lacking in fun and short on energy and finding it hard to maintain the bloom of optimism, but sometimes its seems that fighting the good fight is a matter of just hanging on to what we had rather than gaining any new ground.

“Google stood accused last night of betraying the founding principles of the internet, as it readied a deal that will abandon key parts of its support for "net neutrality", which has guaranteed equal access to the worldwide web since its inception. In what one internet freedom campaigner called a "doomsday scenario" that will change the internet forever, the search engine pioneer is close to agreeing terms with the largest telecoms company in the US that would open the door to special "fast lanes" for favoured internet traffic. Google denied that it will sign any deal to buy fast-lane access for its own traffic, which includes bandwidth-heavy videos from its loss-making YouTube site. It said: "We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic and we remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet." (Click here for more) Thanks Bernard.

But MoveOn.Org at least weighs in with a petition.

"According to news reports, Google is about to cut a deal with Verizon that would end the Internet as we know it by allowing giant corporations to control what websites are load quickly and easily on the Internet and dump everyone else onto an Internet slow lane. I signed a petition urging Google to kill the deal with Verizon. Can you join me at the link below?" (Click here)

And click here for The Shirelles

The secret word is Weary

BUT WE’VE WON ONE FOR THE WOLVES

NRDC brought the good news that maybe those petitions we sign actually do some good.

“Yesterday a federal court ruled in our favor and restored endangered species protection to wolves in Montana and Idaho! The ruling effectively returns ALL wolves in the Northern Rockies to the endangered species list and puts a halt to the wolf hunts that were planned for this fall, starting next month. As you know, the states' management of wolves has taken a terrible toll over the past year and a half. Since the Obama Administration stripped these wolves of federal protection, more than 500 of them have been gunned down by hunters or government agents. In response, NRDC -- in partnership with Earthjustice and 13 other conservation groups -- sued the government in federal court and demanded endangered species protection for all 1,700 wolves across the Northern Rockies until their population is able to fully recover. A federal judge agreed, saying that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted illegally when it removed wolves from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana but left them on the list in Wyoming, splitting the population along political, rather than biological, lines. Now that the courts have called off the guns, you and I can breathe a sigh of great relief that the public hunting of wolves will not resume this fall. Hundreds of wolves that would have been killed will instead be spared.”

Click here for a video wolf fest.

AND I EVEN WIN ONE MYSELF

My pals Peromyscus and Elf Hellion both delivered the news that Vampires Stole My Lunch Money had been voted #2 Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Song or Album That Best Embodies Our Current Cultural/Political Moment!!! by the Powerpop blog.

“Too bad Farren didn't get around to writing a title song for this one. I mean, really -- the album came out in 1978 and it's like he knew AIG was going to happen.” Click here for more.

I guess I might be accused of being far too amused by the small things in life, but that may be the only way to stay sane in this current cultural/political moment.

A SIGN FOR THE TIMES OR A POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE

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GRATUITOUS BARDOT

SOUTH OF THE BORDER, LEGALIZATION MAY BE THE ONLY HOPE TO STOP THE SLAUGHTER

The following story had to come out of the UK before it gained any traction. And I’m running this report of how Latin American leaders are looking to cut loose from the US drug warriors almost in its entirety because it’s so fucking important. In Brazil, Columbia and Mexico, the one hope of stability has long been a blanket “legalize & tax” response to dope, and finally that truth is being acknowledged. Legalization would, by diametrically changing the profit structure, create an overnight transformation, turning drug cartels – whether they like it or not – into farmers and legit businessmen. The impact would not be confined just to Central and South America. All the classic marijuana producing nations are a mess. Legalization could have a radical effect on the cultures and the economies of Afghanistan, Lebanon, Thailand, and Pakistan, to name just four.

“Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, has joined calls for a debate on the legalization of drugs as new figures show thousands of Mexicans every year being slaughtered in cartel wars. "It is a fundamental debate," the president said, belying his traditional reluctance to accept any questioning of the military-focused offensive against the country's drug cartels that he launched in late 2006. "You have to analyze carefully the pros and cons and key arguments on both sides." The president said he personally opposes the idea of legalization. Calderón's new openness comes amid tremendous pressure to justify a strategy that has been accompanied by the spiraling of horrific violence around the country as the cartels fight each other and the government crack down. Official figures released this week put the number of drug war related murders at 28,000.
Until recently the government regularly played down the general impact of the violence by claiming that 90% of the victims were associated with the cartels, with the remainder largely from the security forces. In recent months it has started to acknowledge a growing number of "civilian victims" ranging from toddlers caught in the cross fire to students massacred at parties. Momentum behind the idea that legalization could be part of the solution has been growing since three prominent former Latin American presidents signed a document last year arguing the case. César Gaviria of Colombia, Fernando Cardoso of Brazil and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico urged existing governments to consider legalising marijuana as a way of slashing cartel profits. This year Mexico's national congress began a debate on the possibility that resurfaced again this week during a series of round table discussions between the Calderón, security experts, business leaders and civic groups. The "Dialogue for Security: Evaluation and Strengthening" is part of a new government effort to counter the growing perception in Mexico that the president's drug war strategy is a disaster. "I'm not talking just about legalizing marijuana," analyst and write Hector Aguilar Camin said during the Tuesday session, "rather all drugs in general." After accepting the need to directly address the proposal, Calderón made it clear he did not support it. "It requires a country to take a decision to put several generations of young people at risk," he said, citing a likely increase in consumption triggered by lower prices, greater availability and social acceptability. He added that the predicted "important economic effects by reducing income for criminal groups" would be limited by the integration of Mexican drug trafficking into international markets where drugs remain largely underground. Calderón did not mention current moves to soften drug laws in the US, including a planned vote in California in November on an initiative that would allow marijuana to be sold and taxed. Nor did he address the home grown argument that legalization would remove the roots of the violence raging in the country. "Legalization would render the war pointless as drugs would become just another product like tobacco or alcohol," Jorge Castañeda, a legalization advocate and former foreign minister, told W Radio. He added that even if it did prompt an increase in drug use. "It is worth considering whether this is preferable to having 28,000 deaths." The new death toll, which was not broken down, is significantly higher than the informal counts kept by newspapers. Milenio newspaper put the number of drug-related deaths in July at 1,234. Some leading critics of Calderón's strategy, however, do not believe legalization is the key to reining in the cartels and the violence, preferring to emphasize the need to increase efforts to go after money laundering and political corruption.” © 2010 Guardian/UK

Click here for The Clash

The secret word is Sanity

And if you want more of this reasoning, you could do worse than to pick a copy of up my book Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine. Click here.

SOME, OF COURSE, DO NOT AGREE

YESTERDAY CATS THREATENED OUR SANITY, TODAY DOGS ARE POSSESSED BY SATAN

I post this tale from The Miami Herald with the reservation that a dachshund-Chihuahua cross would seem like a piss-poor devil dog in any of my books.

"GULF BREEZE, Fla. -- A Panhandle man has been charged with killing and skinning his family dog because he believed it was possessed by the devil. The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office reports that deputies responded Sunday to a Gulf Breeze home, where 25-year-old Matthew O. Foote had reportedly killed the dog. Investigators say Foote calmly explained that the 7-year-old dachshund-Chihuahua mix was possessed by Satan. He reportedly showed no emotion while he described how he stabbed the dog several times, skinned it in the backyard, burned the body in a shallow grave and threw the skin and entrails in a nearby wooded area. Foote was charged with a felony count of animal cruelty. He was being held without bail."

Click here for Elvis

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Vidor Frozdick took severing dependency on fossil fuels very seriously.

A NIGHTMARE FROM WASILLA

AND WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS…

Click here for Roy

WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?

You know when Paris Hilton appears to be smoking almost as much dope as Willie Nelson, the shit is no longer a counterculture, drug culture, rastafari, Snoop Dogg, outlaw domain. I guess this coalition is progress. I dunno. Obama made a big mistake when he laughingly dismissed a legalize-&-tax question during his run for the White House, and I think the issue is actually a lot bigger than many suspect. Especially now Mexico is getting desperate. (But more of that tomorrow.) Barney Frank even gave a shout-out to Federal legalization on The Colbert Report while talking up Elizabeth Warren, and ol’ Barney is pretty damned cutting-edge when it comes to knowing which way the political winds blow the smoke. I’m not sure, however, that I trust this coalition. The veteran viper in me senses that the big corporate money is a-coming. Covert at first but increasingly more blatant. Remember you read it here first. But also remember that old-school pot heads are steeped in a noble tradition of ignoring any damn law they don’t like.

“NBC News: An unlikely coalition that includes student activists, police officers, and a former Reagan associate deputy attorney general has launched a national campaign to mobilize 2010 and 2012 voters in support of marijuana legalization. The "Just Say Now" campaign -- a joint effort between the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the progressive blog Firedoglake -- aims to end what they describe as the federal government's failed war on marijuana. "It's a moral issue," Jane Hamsher, founder of Firedoglake, said in a conference call yesterday. "It's been a policy failure at every level." The "Just Say Now" organization plans to circulate a petition online and across college campuses asking President Obama to end the federal ban on marijuana. They will then use this petition to target and mobilize supporters in the five states with marijuana initiatives on the ballot this year-- Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, and South Dakota. "California is going to turn into a turnout election," Hamsher said, noting that the ballot initiative has tremendous support among young voters. Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, mentioned that the campaign had received support from Tea Party activists, as well as liberal and libertarian groups. "On the right and left, it's a very popular issue, and it remains to be seen who will be smart enough to grab it... It's a win-win-win situation and probably the biggest sleeper issue out there right now." He cited nationwide surveys conducted by his grassroots organization and said that if "Just Say Now" can mobilize more young and first-time voters before November, the initiatives could pass in their respective states. Former Reagan associate deputy general Bruce Fein said that marijuana legalization is another "major initiative to bring our government back in line with the Constitution," and that states -- not the federal government -- should have the power to choose how to address this particular issue. Fein stated that the federal government should tax marijuana, but leave the regulation to the states. "Prohibition isn't going to end in November," Hamsher said, adding that they aim to make marijuana legalization an issue in 2012 battleground states. "Young people polled said they'd show up if legalization was on the ballot." Houston, who testified last summer before the House Appropriations Committee in support of clearer guidelines on the Department of Justice's medical marijuana policy, emphasized the importance of educating people about where candidates stand on the issue. "We're going to send a corps of students out [to follow campaigns] with Flip cameras," he added, in order to capture footage of congressional and presidential candidates speaking about legalization.”

Click to see Emily play

The secret word is Reparations

REDEFINING CRAZY CAT

Finn sez, “Schizophrenia isn’t all you need to worry about.”

“Johns Hopkins University scientists trying to determine why people develop serious mental illness are focusing on an unlikely factor: a common parasite spread by cats. The researchers say the microbes, called Toxoplasma gondii, invade the human brain and appear to upset its chemistry — creating, in some people, the psychotic behaviors recognized as schizophrenia. If tackling the parasite can help solve the mystery of schizophrenia, "it's a pretty good opportunity … to relieve a pretty large burden of disease," said Dr. Robert H. Yolken, director of developmental neurobiology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. The cause of schizophrenia is unknown, but both genetic and environmental factors likely play a part, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Yolken is among the researchers worldwide examining whether certain viral infections can increase the risk of developing the illness. Other studies have focused on flu and herpes viruses as possible triggers.” (Click here for the whole story)

Click here for the Lovin’ Spoonful

MORE ON CHINESE SCI-FI

The online version of Foreign Policy has a informative piece on Chinese sci-fi. (See last Friday) But it’s gimmicked so I can’t lift a couple of teaser paragraphs and you’ll just have to click here.

NUTKIN THWARTED

Click here for Bruce (although it’s not about squirrels)

SPACE OPERA

(Image lifted from World of Wonder)

Click here for the Space Aliens Pizza franchise.

ARE YOU READY FOR CORONAL MASS EJECTION?

It’s just another scenario waiting to happen…

“Solar Flare this August 2010 Happens Tonight, Aurora Borealis is Expected – A solar flare causing aurora borealis is scheduled to happen tonight. This will be the second of its kind this August 2010. According to NASA, the first solar flare (a C3-class solar flare), which caused coronal mass ejection (CME) heading towards Earth’s direction happened August 3, 2010 at around 0855 UT. It was identified that the origin of the blast was the Earth-facing sunspot 1092. The impact of this solar flare sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm that lasted nearly 12 hours causing the beautiful aurora borealis or northern lights to appear all the way from Europe to North America. Some of the people who have seen it described it as a fire dancing in the sky. Others said that they have seen a rippling dancing “curtains” of green and red light in the sky.” (Click here for more)

The secret word is Doomwatch

Click here for The Deviants

BRION GYSIN THE MOVIE

Our pal DH draws our attention to a film called Flicker. (Click here.)

“Flicker is a film by Nick Sheehan. It’s a look at artist/writer Brion Gysin who never got much attention during his life. He was born in 1916 in England to Canadian parents may have given Gysin something of an identity problem. Or perhaps he was naturally rootless. He grew up in western Canada and later attended Downside School near Bath, Somerset. In 1934 he moved to Paris where he studied La Civilisation Francaise, an open course at the Sorbonne. Whilst there he became attracted to the Surrealists but he got in a fight with Andre Breton and was expelled from the movement. This event is not given much weight in the film but it must have driven him further in on himself. Then came the legendary meeting with Burroughs in Tangers, the cut-ups, and the years they spent in the Beat Hotel, Paris. The film contains comments from people like Kenneth Anger, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithful, Jean-Jacques Lebel and Genesis P.Orridge. Various intrepid cultural icons record their experiences in front of the machine. They talk about amazing colours etc. but any long-term effects on perception are unclear. Some of the most illuminating comments are hidden between the lines. Gysin comes across as a complex character. Prickly, knowledgeable and obtuse. An outside outsider. Not bitter or anti-social particularly but isolated from the mainstream avante garde. He appears to have genuinely wanted to transcend himself, much more than Gertrude Stein or even Joyce and Beckett ever did. A rose is a rose…I am that I am that. Apart from his collaboration with Burroughs nothing seemed to go right for him He invented a dream machine but failed to interest any companies in the commercial possibilities. It wasn’t seen as a second Lava lamp and he couldn’t get an article about it into Rolling Stone. The lack of success or recognition must have weighed heavily on him.” (Click here for more)

TO NUKE OR NOT TO NUKE

Take the poll from back in the day…

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT POLL ON THE USE OF ATOMIC WEAPONS, JULY 1945.
“This is the straightforward poll of Compton and Daniels which asked 250 scientists at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory arm of the Manhattan Project in pre-Trinity July, 1945. (Originally published as “A Poll of Scientists at Chicago, July 1945,” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 1948, 44, p63. and again published in Compton’s Atomic Quest in 1956.) You can take this test anonymously. Please try and keep in mind the time and place of the events unfolding: the Japanese resistance to the unconditional surrender ultimatum developing at Potsdam; the resistance to massive air raids; the tenacious fighting in the islands at the outreaches of the Empire; the thousands of American POWs; the circulating estimates of the coming Japanese invasion casualties (hundreds of thousands of Americans, far more so Japanese), and so on.” Click here.

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LIZ LATHERS DOG

KEITH SEZ…

"They forgot the roll and they only kept the rock. The roll’s the whole damn thing dude, the rock is nothing, deal with it, the roll is king. Unfortunately most cats don’t get behind the roll." – Keith Richards, 2007

The quote came from Munz, but nobody asked Keith what he wanted on his roll.

Click here for a deeply weird version of “Paint It Black” lifted from Dangerous Minds.

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

Click here for Jimmy Cliff

Bobby Hebb – RIP

MORRIE YOHAI IS DEAD

I once shared a house in New York with a cat generally known as The Wombat who had an unnatural passion for Cheese Doodles. For his sake alone (and it’s also the silly season) I cannot ignore the passing of Mr. Yohai as recorded by the Tri-City Herald.

"Morrie Yohai was present at the creation of the Cheez Doodle. In a 2005 interview with Newsday, Yohai said the cheese-powder-covered baked corn puff was developed at the Old London Melba toast factory in the Bronx, which also made the Cheese Waffie, popcorn, caramel popcorn and other snacks. "We were looking for another snack item," he said. "We were fooling around and found out that there was a machine that extruded cornmeal and it almost popped like popcorn." Yohai and his partners thought of chopping the cornmeal product into pieces and coating it with cheese. "We wanted to make it as healthy as possible," he said, "so it was baked, not fried." And, he said, the name Doodle occurred to him as they sat around a table tasting different kinds of cheese on the snacks. Yohai, who lived in Kings Point, N.Y., died of cancer on July 27. He was 90. He also was an accomplished photographer, poet, professor and businessman whose quiet wisdom left a deep impression on his family and friends. Morrie R. Yohai was born in Harlem on March 4, 1920. He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business, then went to work for the Grumman aircraft company on Long Island. During World War II, Yohai interrupted his career to enlist in the Navy and begin flight training, said Yohai's son, Robbie Yohai of Berkeley, Calif. "He decided since he was making planes, he figured he could fly a plane," Robbie Yohai said of his father, who had never taken an airplane ride before. "The first time he was ever in an airplane, he was the co-pilot."
Morrie Yohai transferred to the Marine Corps and eventually served as a pilot in the South Pacific, shuttling injured troops and cargo back and forth, Robbie Yohai said "He was excited by the experience," his son said. "He was happy to be a Marine and was very proud of it." In 1949, Yohai took over his father's snack-food factory in what would become the beginning of a long career in the food industry. Yohai eventually sold the company to Borden Inc., where he became group vice president in charge of snacks. In the 2005 interview, he said his duties included sitting around a conference table with other executives and choosing the toys for boxes of Cracker Jack. He left the company when Borden relocated to Columbus, Ohio, and soon began teaching at the New York Institute of Technology. He eventually became the associate dean of the school of management, Robbie Yohai said. "It turned out that he loved teaching," Robbie Yohai said. "He could see he was making a difference in a lot of these young people's lives."
In his later years, Yohai turned his attention to Torah study, Jewish mysticism and writing. Robbie Yohai said his father wrote more than 500 poems and published two books of poetry."

Click here for Rilla Noe

The secret words are Mortal and Trivia

TARGET BOYCOTT

Many people across the country have come out publically to criticize Target Corp. for donating $150,000 to help Tom Emmer, a Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate who opposes gay marriage. Target's money went to MN Forward, a group that is running TV ads supporting Emmer. If you want to add your voice to the protests against Target using the new Supreme Court ruling to buy this election, just call (612) 304-6073

Click here for The Nerves

PEELERS, CRUSHERS, AND JENNY DARBIES

I love this stuff (more from our pals at Delancey Place)…

"On 18 September,1837, Jack Whicher became a police constable. The Metropolitan Police, the first such force in the country, was eight years old. London had got so big, so fluid, so mysterious to itself that in 1829 its inhabitants had, reluctantly, accepted the need for a disciplined body of men to patrol the streets. The 3,500 policemen were known as 'bobbies' and 'peelers' (after their founder, Sir Robert Peel), as 'coppers' (they caught, or copped, villains), as 'crushers' (they crushed liberty), as 'Jenny Darbies' (from gendarmes), and as pigs (a term of abuse since the sixteenth century). "In the daytime, a constable covered a seven-and-a-half-mile beat at two-and-a-half miles an hour for two four-hour stints: from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., say, and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. He familiarised himself with every house on his beat, and strove to clear the roads of beggars, tramps, costermongers, drunks and prostitutes. (The city) teemed with tricksters. The police watched out for 'magsmen' (conmen, such as card sharps) who 'gammoned' (fooled) 'flats' (dupes) with the help of 'buttoners' or 'bonnets' (accomplices who drew people in by seeming to win money from the magsmen). A 'screever' (drafter of documents) might sell a 'fakement' to a vagrant 'on the blob' (telling hard-luck stories) - in 1837, fifty Londoners were arrested for producing such documents and eighty-six for bearing them. To 'work the kinchin lay),' was to trick children out of their cash or clothing. To 'work the shallow' was to excite compassion by begging half-naked. To 'shake lurk' was to beg in the guise of a shipwrecked sailor. In November 1837 a magistrate noted that some thieves in the Holborn area were acting as decoys, feigning drunkenness in order to distract police constables while their friends burgled houses." The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale (Walker)

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DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 81

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THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Charity Frozdick firmly believed that practice made perfect.

THE POSSIBLE FOUNDATION OF A PERFECTLY REALIZED LIFE

Lifted from Boing-Boing

Click here for the so totally obvious

A PARDON FOR THE KID?

I must confess that I don’t really get the need for Gov. Bill Richardson – who generally seems fairly well balanced for a politician – to issue a pardon for Billy the Kid after all these years. By most accounts Bill Bonney was a well advanced, left-handed sociopath by the time Pat Garrett shot him dead. And hadn’t he already tuned down a pardon offered by the then Governor Lew Wallace? (Who also wrote Ben Hur.) New Mexico could put up a statue, or open an amusement park, that would be way cool. Billy already has a Sam Peckinpah move about him, and his own website. So why a pardon? I don’t know about you, but I prefer my outlaws unrepentant.

"(AP) The showdown between frontier lawman Pat Garrett and notorious outlaw Billy the Kid has fascinated the American public for nearly 130 years with its classic, Old West storyline. As it turns out, the feud isn't completely over. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering granting a posthumous pardon to Billy the Kid, angering descendants of Garrett who call it an insult to recognize such a violent outlaw. Three of the late lawman's grandchildren sent a letter to Richardson this week that asked him not to pardon the outlaw, saying such an act would represent an "inexcusable defamation" of Garrett. "If Billy the Kid was living amongst us now, would you issue a pardon for someone who made his living as a thief and, more egregiously, who killed four law enforcement officers and numerous others?" the Garrett family wrote. The issue has resurfaced because Richardson asked a New Mexico columnist earlier this year to check with historians to measure their support for issuing a pardon. The governor plans to meet with Garrett family members next week to discuss the issue.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Pekinpah and Bob

The secret word is Alias

A HISTORY LESSON YOU WON’T LEARN AT GLENN BECK UNIVERSITY

I had never heard this story until I read about it on Common Dreams.

"FOX News host Glenn Beck's reportedly German (Catholic) immigrant ancestors would be ashamed. As we learn more about Beck's inciting rhetoric against the Tides Foundation--his latest liberal obsession--and a troubled man's foiled armed assault on the liberal foundation in Oakland, and as the fear-mongering in Arizona against Mexican immigrants by Gov. Jan Brewer reaches absurd levels of "terrorist attacks" and "drug mule" accusations and Neo Nazi border patrols, I can't help but be reminded of the Bloody Monday riots that took the lives of at least two dozen immigrants and Americans in Louisville on August 6, 1855. Beck's German ancestors would have reminded the TV host what happened this week in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1855, when a nationally prominent newspaper editor repeatedly let loose the hounds of hatred and fomented what would become the worst anti-immigrant massacre in US history--of German and Irish Catholics. A Connecticut Yankee turned Louisville Journal newspaper editor, George Prentice was considered the best known commentator in the nation, according to the New York Times, who described him as a "bitter, unrelenting political foe, and several times had street fights." And, as the great editorial voice of the anti-immigrant Know Nothing party, Prentice relished attacking the "foreign hordes" of Germans and Irish that poured into the Midwest. Fearful of an election upset, he penned a series of editorials that would unleash the wrath of hired thugs on Louisville's darkest and bloodiest day.
On the eve of the riots, Prentice declared: "Let the foreigners keep their elbows to themselves to-day at the polls. Americans are you all ready? We think we hear you shout 'ready,' 'well fire!' and may heaven have mercy on the foe."
Fueled by rumors and booze, drunken mobs roamed the German and Irish wards the next day with rifles and muskets and pitchforks and torches, leading to street fights, leaving behind the smoldering remains of destruction, strewn and burned bodies, and at least 22 dead--most historians place the deathtoll much higher. In the process, hundreds, if not thousands of immigrants and sympathizers fled Louisville." (Click here for more.)

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

Click here for the Stones (rolling)
Click here for Jimi (rolling)
Click here for Bob and the Stones (rolling)

SPACE OPERA

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

I think I can handle ice cream with a shot of absinthe.

"For many people, really good ice cream is akin to sex. For the Icecreamists, ice cream IS sex. And fashion. And music. And all things hip. A self-proclaimed revolution in ice cream, the new brand is dripping in trendy imagery, graffiti-like fonts, scantily clad semi-goth models, edgy ice cream accoutrements and witty taglines and quotes. Clever flavor names, trendy graphics, downloadable wallpapers - even t-shirts and a pendant of their logo - are a part of a marking effort that parallels that of a new movie release. At present they are hyping their 'guerilla' or 'pop-up' store event named "God Save The Cream" in the basement of Selfridges this September, with an appropriately alluring flavor called The Sex Pistol (for the 18+ crowd only). The custom creation is an ice cream cocktail served with a shot of Absinthe. It contains such trendy energy and libido-inducing ingredients as ginkgo, biloba, arginine and guarana as well as a bit of Viagra®. Customers are limited to one serving per person, who must be 18 or older." (Click here for more.)

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The secret word is Tutti or maybe Fruiti

MARILYN SEZ...

“Chocolate or vanilla is no longer the binary choice.”

PAUL KRUGMAN LOVES ELIZABETH WARREN

And so do we.

“Why does the Obama administration keep looking for love in all the wrong places? Why does it go out of its way to alienate its friends, while wooing people who will never waver in their hatred? These questions were inspired by the ongoing suspense over whether President Obama will do the obviously right thing and nominate Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer financial protection agency. But the Warren affair is only the latest chapter in an ongoing saga. Mr. Obama rode into office on a vast wave of progressive enthusiasm. This enthusiasm was bound to be followed by disappointment, and not just because the president was always more centrist and conventional than his fervent supporters imagined. Given the facts of politics, and above all the difficulty of getting anything done in the face of lock step Republican opposition, he wasn't going to be the transformational figure some envisioned. And Mr. Obama has delivered in important ways. Above all, he managed (with a lot of help from Nancy Pelosi) to enact a health reform that, imperfect as it is, will greatly improve Americans' lives - unless a Republican Congress manages to sabotage its implementation.” (Click here for more.)

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BUT I’M JUST WAITING FOR A TRAIN TO THE FUTURE

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