ANOTHER YEAR OLDER

Yesterday was my birthday. Which was a little strange because I never expected to live so long. I sit blinking, avoiding introspection, but not really feeling any different from when I was a troublesome teen. Still tilting at the same windmills and hoping they will go down and life and the world will be as I have always dreamed it might be. But enough of my confusion. The real point is to thank all the people – I haven’t counted, but it looks like well over a hundred – who posted good wishes on Facebook. I am really touched and I promise I’ll keep keeping on come what may.

And Butlincat seems to have posted another of my ancient singles. Click here to grok.

The secret word is Passing

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

STEPHEN HAWKING REJECTS THE HAND OF GOD

All I can say is that that Dr. Hawking comes like a breath of clean air into the current swamp-miasma of ignorant wilful primitivism.

“In his new book, The Grand Design, Britain's most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos. Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings." He adds: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." (Click here for more)

Click here for Iggy with eyeshadow and a shirt.

The secret word is Education

THE COUNTERFORCE EMERGES

A predicted, the opposition to marijuana legalization in the state of California is massing. This can only be a first salvo of propaganda, but what Baca and his mindset fail to realise – I suspect deliberately – is that legalization divorces pot from crime once and for all, just as happened with alcohol in the USA in 1933.

“Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Wednesday took aim at the medical marijuana industry, citing last week's triple murder in West Hollywood as an example of how enterprising criminals have infiltrated some of the dispensaries. Baca said the dispensaries have strayed from their original mission — to aid the seriously ill — and are now the target of criminals who see an easy way to make money and get drugs. "The medicinal marijuana program that voters authorized years ago has been hijacked by underground drug-dealing criminals who are resorting to violence in order to control their piece of the action," Baca said. The sheriff did not provide any specific examples, although there have been several high-profile killings this summer tied to medical marijuana businesses. In addition to the West Hollywood killing, which detectives said was tied to a scheme to buy pot from medical dispensaries and resell it on the streets, workers at dispensaries in Echo Park and Hollywood were killed during robberies in June. There has been much debate about whether the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries has resulted in more crime. But Baca is emerging as a vocal critic of liberalizing pot laws, particularly a state ballot measure that would legalize marijuana use. The campaign to defeat Proposition 19 announced Wednesday that Baca and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will head up the effort against the marijuana legalization measure on the November ballot. Baca said he's concerned that the hundreds of medical marijuana establishments around L.A. County are making it easier for people to access the drug — and that is attracting criminal elements as well as patients with legitimate needs for the drugs.” Click here for more

Click here for Bob Marley

ARMED AND DANGEROUS

This has appeared a few other places, but I couldn't resist the post. I mean, it looks like an arm torn from a steampunk Victorian terminator.

“From the files of the Science Museum’s History of Medicine website comes this impressive prosthetic limb, dated to the 1850-1910 period. Made from steel and brass, this unusual prosthetic arm articulates in a number of ways. The elbow joint can be moved by releasing a spring, whereas the top joint of the wrist allows a degree of rotation and an up-and-down motion. The fingers can also curl up and straighten out. The leather upper arm piece is used to fix the prosthesis to the remaining upper arm. The rather sinister appearance of the hand suggests the wearer may have disguised it with a glove.”

SPACE OPERA

Look at this as one bonus bang.

I HAVE NOT, OF LATE, BEEN READY FOR AN ALIEN INVASION

For the last few days there have been no posts on Doc40. When confronted with even my own demands to continue I have only stared blankly at a choice of screens. You don’t need me to tell you that Glenn Beck is both a fool and a danger, deep drilling new depths of American stupidity, or that the city of New Orleans is still a mess and a disgrace fives years after, or that Pakistan is in unsurpassed and unimaginable breakdown. I have been in what Wordsworth called “vacant or pensive mood”, coupled with an amazing and immobilizing weariness from the internal demands of all that I continually convince myself I have to do or die, and the external strains of summer in the city in this 21st century, as too many around me seem in the grip of a madness even more damaging than my own. When I measure myself the sanest motherfucker in the valley, I have to believe that said valley is in trouble. And thus when I saw this image posted by our fabulous pals at World of Wonder, I knew I had to gather my wits and strap on my guns again, because, if the alien invasion is coming – and I truly hope it is – I not only have to take notice but decide what side I’m on.

The secret word is Stress

HALF PRICE DRINKS

If not my favorite among the songs that I have written, “Half Price Drinks” is certainly one I really like to sing. It was written in a thunderstorm, in 1977, on the night that Elvis died. Now our buddy Butlincat has posted it up on YouTube with a video of the record going round. Click here.

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Vestal Frozdick did not fear the egg.

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

SUNDAY BREAKFAST (In Bed)

I’m tired and I’ve rather taken this weekend off to rest and think. (And how better than with a Russ Meyer fantasy?) Glenn Beck was disporting his Zeppelin-inflated ego in Washington today, making money, and selling his most probably ridiculous book to a multitude of the gullible, but we’ll deal with him later. Right now I need to blur. (Back up to speed on Monday.)

SUNDAY BREAKFAST (Or With A Bunny)

With either companion I’m resting.

Click here for Eminem

MARILYN SEZ...

“We all need a day off now and then.”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Jane, June, and Jennifer Frozdick fell victim to a drive-by hypnotist.