“Remember kids – drugs are
the road to nowhere. But at least they take you via the scenic route.”
(Line
supplied by UK Steve)
Monday, August 13, 2012
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
SUNDAY BREAKFAST
But how
long are we going to be able to afford it? Let’s not forget that US food prices
effect us all.
“The record drought gripping half the US will help push food
prices up by 3 per cent to 4 per cent next year, according to the US Department
of Agriculture. "In 2013 as a result of this drought we are looking at
above-normal food price inflation. ... Consumers are certainly going to feel
it," USDA economist Richard Volpe said on Wednesday. The drought has sent
corn, soybean and other commodity prices soaring in recent weeks as fields dry
out and crops wither across much of the country's midsection. Meteorologists
are predicting that conditions behind the drought will continue, putting crops
at risk and raising food prices as well as the specter of a food crisis.
"This drought was a surprise for everybody," Volpe said. "The
USDA was forecasting a record year for the corn crop until this drought
materialized. Now we're not going to get that." "The drought isn't merely bad because the crops are parched.
Climate change has nudged the temperature more than a degree higher than the
previous record-breaking US drought in the 1950s,” says author, economist and
food policy expert Raj Patel.” Click here for more
Click here
for The Band
The secret word is Dire
Friday, July 27, 2012
I DON’T MIND WINDMILLS
The
Olympics start today. Will I turn on the TV and watch what Danny Boyle has been
up to or will I try to think about something else despite the UK media barrage?
One thing that’s grazed my brain of late is the way that I turn on the local
news and find groups of middle-aged folk – seemingly both conservative and
green – protesting the building of windfarms. Frankly I don’t get it. Okay, so
birds do fly into the blades, but I have to figure that there will be a
Darwinian solution to this, and also the number of birds killed by windmills is
a fraction of a percentage point of the number of birds killed by cats. The other
complaint is that they are unsightly – ugly even – but I find them rather
beautiful. When I lived in Los Angeles, the windfarm out along the I10 near
Palm Springs was a joy to behold.
Click here
for All Angels, about the scariest cover of Bob I have ever encountered.
Click here
for the GTOs by way of an antidote.
The secret
word is Gust
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
42 YEARS AGO TODAY...
Russell
emailed me this morning reminding me that today is the 42nd
anniversary of Phun City. I had totally forgotten, but my memory for dates is
nothing compared with his. Above is a shot of Brother Wayne Kramer at full
power on the day.
Click here for MC5 – probably the stars of the show excluding the naked Pink Fairies
The secret
word is Edward
Monday, July 23, 2012
HOWDY NEIGHBOUR
Did you
ever have one of those days when you needed some distance from reality? American
homicide, capitalist corruption, Syrian tyranny – please gents, could I take
the day off? Seemingly we have a new hot nearby planet.
“Scientists have discovered what appears to be an alien
planet just two-thirds the size of Earth, a heat-blasted world perhaps covered
in molten lava, a new study reports.
Astronomers discovered the newfound alien
planet, known as UCF-1.01, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The
diminutive world is just 33 light-years away, making it a near neighbor of
Earth in the cosmic scheme of things. "We have found strong evidence for a
very small, very hot and very near planet with the help of the Spitzer Space
Telescope study lead author Kevin Stevenson, of the University of Central
Florida (UCF) in Orlando, said in a statement. "Identifying nearby small
planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using
future instruments."
Click here
for Scientist
The secret
word is Galaxy
THIS IS MORGAN FREEMAN – HE’S COOL
“Marijuana! Heavens, oh
yeah. It’s just the stupidest law possible, given history. You don’t stop
people from doing what they want to do, so forget about making it unlawful.
You’re just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal
activity. And we’re spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t
win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor.
It’s stupid.”
Friday, July 20, 2012
WTF?
I imagine
the academics will soon be on TV with a whole slew of spurious theories and
explanations. Right now, I wouldn’t hazard a guess at the reality of the madness,
except to note that Aurora and Columbine are both suburbs of Denver,
The secret word is Insanity
Thursday, July 19, 2012
IT’S HAPPENING AND IT’S HAPPENING NOW
While the
oil industry continues to pump millions into climate change denial, our pals at
Common Dreams bring us this bit of scary intelligence.
“A massive iceberg twice the size of Manhattan has broken
off one of Greenland's major glaciers -- a development which scientists say is due to alarming warming in the region.
The iceberg, measuring 46 square miles, is the second of its
nature to break from Greenland in just two years. In 2010 an iceberg twice its
size, one of the largest ever recorded in Greenland, broke free. "It's
dramatic. It's disturbing," said University of Delaware professor Andreas
Muenchow, one of the first researchers to notice the break. "We have data
for 150 years and we see changes that we have not seen before. It's one of the
manifestations that Greenland is changing very fast." "This is not
part of natural variations anymore," said NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot,
referring to the vast changes the glacier has seen in the past three years.
Scientists are concerned about rising sea levels due to melting ice in the
north. The Arctic had the largest sea ice loss on record for June, scientists
reported this week, and Northern Greenland and Canada are warming five times
faster than the average global temperature. "The Greenland ice sheet as a
whole is shrinking, melting and reducing in size as the result of globally
changing air and ocean temperatures and associated changes in circulation
patterns in both the ocean and atmosphere"
Click here for Tiny Tim
The secret
word is Wet
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
WILL I SURVIVE THE OLYMPICS?
They
increasingly encroach on my TV. They delay traffic as their absurd torch passes
through the town. London public transport may collapse under the strain.
Helicopter gunships are promised, cruising overhead like we were still in
Saigon waiting for a mission. Warships are parked in the Thames. Residents’
protests are ignored as SAM missiles are mounted on the roofs of tower blocks. 3,500
squaddies have been recalled from leave to bail out G4S after the security
giant failed to complete a contract with the wholly inept Tory Home Office to
train and deploy the 10,000 security staff. But, on the other side of the
cluster-fuck, corporate goons
in purple uniforms – with the power to enter shops and offices near
Olympic sites and hand out $31,000
fines for the 'misuse' of words such as "gold", "silver"
and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and
"London." – will
prowl the streets of East London protecting
the sponsorship rights of McDonald's, Coca-Cola, BP Oil, General Electric,
Adidas, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble and the rest. These manifestations
of the 2012 Olympic spirit seem just a tad too shamefully reminiscent of 1936 and the picture above. And maybe
I’ll be arrested for writing this under one of the new Olympic laws we don't know about.
Click here for Velvets
The
secret word is Run
Kitty Wells – RIP
Kitty Wells – RIP
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
THE END IS AT HAND ALL OVER AGAIN
A few
months ago archaeologists supposedly laid to rest the idea that time, the
universe, and everything would come to end when the Mayan calendar runs out on
December 21st of this year. Unfortunately we have another set of
researchers who now claim the end may be at hand after all. For my part I’m hoping some of us
might come together to stage some kind of event on the last day, either to go out all together, happy and loaded, or laugh at the stupidity of it all.
“Now, researchers
exploring the Maya ruins of La Corona in Guatemala have unearthed another
reference. On a stairway block carved with hieroglyphs, archaeologists found a
commemoration of a visit by Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, the most
powerful Mayan ruler in his day. The king, also known as Jaguar Paw, suffered a
terrible defeat in battle by the Kingdom of Tikal in 695. [...] In an effort to
tie himself and his reign to the future, the king linked his reign with another
13th cycle — the 13th bak'tun ending on Dec. 21, 2012. David Stuart, a
professor of art history at the University of Texas at Austin, recognized the
reference to the date among 56 glyphs that were carved on the stone block.
"It was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region, and this
king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in
2012," Stuart said in a statement released by UT.”
Click here for Elvis’ opinion on the matter.
The secret words are That’s, All, and Folks
AND WHILE WE’RE WAITING FOR THE END LET’S NOT FORGET…
“The goal of the future is
full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present
politico-economic system.” This may sound like the pronouncement of some
bong-smoking anarchist, but it was actually Arthur C. Clarke, who found time
between scuba diving and pinball games to write “Childhood’s End” and think up
communications satellites.”
AND LET’S ALSO NOT FORGET…
The UK Nation Health Service may not be perfect and is also being
constantly strangled by Conservatives but in comparison to the USA – where socialized
medicine is treated like an abomination of Satan – it’s a near miracle and the
only reason I’m still alive. In the US I would have died along with over
100,000 others without health coverage. Check these figures…
“Just this year, Families USA's report, “Dying for
Coverage,” found that…
26,100 people between the ages of 25 and 64 died prematurely
due to a lack of health coverage in 2010
2,175 people died prematurely every month in 2010
Between 2005 and 2010, the number of people who died
prematurely each year due to a lack of health coverage rose from 20,350 to
26,100
Between 2005 and 2010, the total number of people who died
prematurely due to a lack of health coverage was 134,120.”
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
ART ON THE BARRICADES
As
the fabric of capitalism disintegrates before our very eyes we may have to
move and fast. We have often posted the apt and timely rants of our comrade
Chris Hedges. Here’s another one…
“Cultures that endure carve
out a protected space for those who question and challenge national myths. Artists,
writers, poets, activists, journalists, philosophers, dancers, musicians,
actors, directors and renegades must be tolerated if a culture is to be pulled
back from disaster. Members of this intellectual and artistic class, who are
usually not welcome in the stultifying halls of academia where mediocrity is
triumphant, serve as prophets. They are dismissed, or labeled by the power
elites as subversive, because they do not embrace collective self-worship. They
force us to confront unexamined assumptions, ones that, if not challenged, lead
to destruction. They expose the ruling elites as hollow and corrupt. They
articulate the senselessness of a system built on the ideology of endless
growth, ceaseless exploitation and constant expansion. They warn us about the
poison of careerism and the futility of the search for happiness in the
accumulation of wealth. They make us face ourselves, from the bitter reality of
slavery and Jim Crow to the genocidal slaughter of Native Americans to the
repression of working-class movements to the atrocities carried out in imperial
wars to the assault on the ecosystem. They make us unsure of our virtue. They
challenge the easy clichés we use to describe the nation—the land of the free,
the greatest country on earth, the beacon of liberty—to expose our darkness,
crimes and ignorance. They offer the possibility of a life of meaning and the
capacity for transformation.” (Click here for the rest)
Click here
for Third World War
The secret word is Act
Monday, July 09, 2012
THE CRO MAG GOT A KNIFE
While
Russian punks challenge the system and go to jail, in New York they just stab
each other. (This is from the ever-reliable New York Post.)
“A former
member of the hard-core punk band the Cro-Mags attacked two of the group’s
current members with a hunting knife in a dressing room before a show at
Webster Hall yesterday— biting one and slashing both The band was about to take
the stage about 8:15 p.m. when tattooed rocker Harley Flanagan, 42, barreled
through the East Village venue’s VIP section toward the Cro-Mags’ dressing
room, sending nearly 30 guests on the balcony into a frenzy, law enforcement
sources and witnesses said.
“Someone
was yelling, ‘Get his hands, get his hands, he’s got a knife!’ ” witness Dave
Gustav said. “Everything went nuts.” Several beefy security guards rushed to
contain Flanagan, who seemed about to boil over before he entered the East
Village venue. “I talked to him outside minutes before it happened and I knew
something was going to go down,” a witness said, according to the Horns Up
Rocks website. “He was like a lunatic outside. Next thing I know he’s in the
VIP area stabbing people!” Flanagan, the band’s former bassist and founder,
suffered a broken leg by the time security finally pinned him down, witnesses
said. Cops handcuffed him to a chair and took him out. “People started booing
him and throwing stuff at him,” eyewitness Justin Brannan said. “His hands were
handcuffed but he still gave everyone the finger.”
A comment
adds extra insight...
“The Cro-Mags are a true group of psychopaths founded upon
the principles of the Hare Krishna movement (LOL, it's true... Both Flanagan
and Joseph will tell you about how they're all for Krishna and Vishnu). John
Joseph and Harley Flanagan have hated each other for years. Harley has always
talked a bunch of trash on his Myspace and Facebook accounts about how he wants
to fight certain ex-members of the Cro-Mags in MMA style matches. John Jospeh
is a conspiracy theorist who believes The Illuminati are out to get him and all
this other crap. Harley needs a trip to the insane asylum and John Joseph needs
to quit buying that nasty weed at the ISKCON center.”
Click here for the noise of the nasty bastards
The secret word is Pointless
Ernest Borgnine – RIP
THE FROZDICK FAMILY
Buzz
Frozdick believed most things could be achieved with a bottle of Jack Daniels
and a gun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)
