THE DOC’S DILEMMA
In LA it’s hot as a motherfucker – 90 degrees and unnaturally humid, and I’m wondering what the hell I’m doing here. Maybe Doc40 should have made like a New York Italian bakery and just closed up shop until September. Not that I’m exactly on vacation, quite the reverse, in fact. The truth is – to quote the good Captain Willard who I’ve quoted many times before – the shit is piling up so fast that I need wings to stay above it. Not that the shit is bad. My no means. It’s just that it keeps coming at me and I find myself slipping back, leaving mail unanswered, and all the other things that people complain about, plus the technological overhaul that I’ve been promising myself for months only advances in fits and starts and is still in phase where it continues to prove an inconvenience and I have yet to reap many labor-saving benefits.
At the root of the dilemma are books. (Although yesterday I taped a segment for a TV show about Motorhead.)
First problem is that I’ve once again started writing one. And not just any book, part two of the whole big-ass alternate-history fantasy epic called Conflagration, that is the sequel to Kindling (see Funtopia) and Kindling is just about published in the USA (Tor Books). Thus a large portion of what brain I have left is taken up with breaking the creative inertia and getting that monster underway. I even reached the point of having to stop scaring the shit out of myself that the reelection of George Bush will mean hideous apocalypse. Of course, I still believe that, but I had to cool the obsession, and, anyway, Michael Moore is holding down the fort pretty damn well.
If you had all read Kindling, the blog prospect would be much easier to handle. I could write sidebar blogs all about plot points and the creative process, and you’d all know what i was talking about, but since most of you haven’t, you won’t and I can’t. And such insight is lost to world. Ah well. Do I now make myself completely clear?
And Kindling isn’t the only book being published. The UK, sometime about now, the Do Not Press are publishing a small format monogram o’mine called Gene Vincent – There’s One in Every Town. And I feel I have to spend a whole lot of time worrying about the response to these two items, and whether I’ll have a career or die in Van Gogh-style poverty.
So what do I do?
If Doc40 merely suspends operations for a while you’ll all hate me worse than you do now and never come back. If we had a proper bulletin board you could probably fight among yourselves until well into the fall, but we don’t, so again we’re screwed.
My best shot, neighbors, let me leave you with a check list.
Buy a copy of Kindling.
Buy a copy of Gene Vincent.
Keep on visiting Doc40, because the shit will be there, but maybe not everyday. But if their ain't nothing new, puruse the achives or read Slide On The Run on Funtopia.
Keep those letters and cards coming.
Keep beating on Bush until the bastard goes away.
Give the Anarchist a valium.
But, meanwhile, the current LA, I have some comments on John Kerry...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1061&IssueNum=58
And here's a funny/scary Jon Stewart breakdown of the Way It Works that comes via some girl
THE PROCESS
Thursday, July 15, 2004 - Jon Stewart - The Daily Show - Comedy Central
Talking Points: Keeping up with current events
Jon Stewart: "It's not easy keeping up with current events. As soon as you catch up, more happens. That's where conventional wisdom fits in. Conventional wisdom is the agreed upon understanding of an event or person. John Kerry is a flip flopper. George Bush has sincere heartland values and is stupid. What matters is not that the designation be true just that it be agreed upon by the media so that no further thought has to be put into it. So how is conventional wisdom arrived at? For instance, let's take the example of the addition of John Edwards to the Democratic ticket. I don't know how to feel about that. I don't know what it means. Here's how I will."
CNN: "This is 28 pages from the Republican National Committee. It says, "Who is Edwards? It starts off by saying a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal." We also saw from the Bush-Cheney camp they released talking points to their supporters."
Jon Stewart: "Talking points. That's how we learn things. But how will I absorb a talking point like "Edwards and Kerry are out of the mainstream" unless I get it jack hammered into my skull? That's where television lends a hand."
Fox News: "He stands way out of the main stream."
CNN - Terry Holt, Spokesman for Bush Camp: "way out of the main stream."
CNN - Communication Director, Bush-Cheney: "He stands so far out of the main stream."
CNN - Lynn Cheney: "He's so out of the main stream."
CNN - Terry Holt: "They're out of the main stream."
CNN - Frank Donatelli, GOP Strategist: "well out of the main stream.
Jon Stewart: I'm getting a feeling. I think, I think they're out of the main stream. But, what if I wonder why?
CNN - Frank Donatelli: "two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate."
CNN - Crossfire: "two of the four most liberal senators of the US Senate."
MSNBC - Ed Gillespie: "the most liberal rated senator in the US Senate."
Hardball - Lynn Cheney: "the most liberal senator of the Senate."
Fox News: "who was rated as the number 1 liberal in the US Senate."
Fox News - Elizabeth Dole: "the number 1 most liberal senator in the US Senate."
Jon Stewart: Wow! Those guys are liberals!! In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say they're the first and fourth most liberal in the whole Senate. Wow! And while we don't have any idea what that means and where those rankings come from and how they were arrived at or whether it's even true, I don't like the sounds of it. And it's certainly not something for the media to question. As a matter of fact, I would imagine people like that, liberal and out of the main stream, hang out in some pretty extreme places.
ABC - This Week - Lindsey Graham: "talking about the hatefest."
CNN: "Hollywood hatefest."
Fox News: "last Thursday night's hatefest."
Pat Boone: "Radio City Music Hall hatefest"
Jon Stewart: "Yeah. See, out of the main stream, liberals, and hatefest. Keeping up with current events is easier than you thing. Talking points – they're true because they're said a lot."
CRYPTIQUE – It should be, but it ain’t.
Monday, July 12, 2004
STRAIGHT, NO CHASER
The following came straight off the wire from kaymo. If it’s true, it so serious, it scarcely bears thinking about. This I’m posting it just as it came by email...
Off the Beeb (BBC) this morning..
.US 'may delay vote if attacked'
The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility
of postponing the presidential election in the event of a terror attack.
US counter-terrorism officials are examining what steps would be needed
to permit a delay, Newsweek reports.
Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge last week warned al-Qaeda was planning
to attack the US to disrupt the poll but conceded he had no precise
information.
A senior Democrat in Congress has said talk of postponement is
"excessive".
Doomsday scenarios
In its latest edition, Newsweek reports that Mr Ridge has asked the
Justice Department to examine what legal steps would be needed to permit
the postponement of the 2 November election.
This follows a letter from the chairman of the new Election Assistance
Commission, DeForest Soaries, who urged Mr Ridge to seek emergency
legislation from Congress that would allow his agency to reschedule the
vote in the event of an attack.
If they do this, boy, my God, they're extremely desperate
Ciro Rodriguez Democrat Congressman Mr Soaries noted that while New York's board of elections suspended primary elections on 11 September 2001, "the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told Newsweek,
"We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to
secure the election."
Republican Representative Christopher Cox, who chairs the House Homeland
Security Committee, told CNN that it was prudent to prepare for a
postponement.
"These are doomsday scenarios. We don't have any intelligence to suggest
that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these
contingencies now."
Old information
But Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives
Intelligence Committee, said proposing a postponement would be
"excessive based on what we know".
She also criticised Mr Ridge's suggestion that al-Qaeda was planning to
disrupt the election, saying the warning was based on old information.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the Democrats' unspoken fear is
that the White House will play on the nerves of Americans as the
election nears, hoping to gain support from a nation fearful of any
change in course.
It is a difficult strategy for the Democrats to counter.
If they appeared complacent and terrorists did strike, they would be
politically destroyed, he says.
CRYPTIQUE -- Bad? As opposed to what?
The following came straight off the wire from kaymo. If it’s true, it so serious, it scarcely bears thinking about. This I’m posting it just as it came by email...
Off the Beeb (BBC) this morning..
.US 'may delay vote if attacked'
The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility
of postponing the presidential election in the event of a terror attack.
US counter-terrorism officials are examining what steps would be needed
to permit a delay, Newsweek reports.
Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge last week warned al-Qaeda was planning
to attack the US to disrupt the poll but conceded he had no precise
information.
A senior Democrat in Congress has said talk of postponement is
"excessive".
Doomsday scenarios
In its latest edition, Newsweek reports that Mr Ridge has asked the
Justice Department to examine what legal steps would be needed to permit
the postponement of the 2 November election.
This follows a letter from the chairman of the new Election Assistance
Commission, DeForest Soaries, who urged Mr Ridge to seek emergency
legislation from Congress that would allow his agency to reschedule the
vote in the event of an attack.
If they do this, boy, my God, they're extremely desperate
Ciro Rodriguez Democrat Congressman Mr Soaries noted that while New York's board of elections suspended primary elections on 11 September 2001, "the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told Newsweek,
"We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to
secure the election."
Republican Representative Christopher Cox, who chairs the House Homeland
Security Committee, told CNN that it was prudent to prepare for a
postponement.
"These are doomsday scenarios. We don't have any intelligence to suggest
that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these
contingencies now."
Old information
But Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives
Intelligence Committee, said proposing a postponement would be
"excessive based on what we know".
She also criticised Mr Ridge's suggestion that al-Qaeda was planning to
disrupt the election, saying the warning was based on old information.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the Democrats' unspoken fear is
that the White House will play on the nerves of Americans as the
election nears, hoping to gain support from a nation fearful of any
change in course.
It is a difficult strategy for the Democrats to counter.
If they appeared complacent and terrorists did strike, they would be
politically destroyed, he says.
CRYPTIQUE -- Bad? As opposed to what?
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
I’M EXCEEDINGLY TIRED OF CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Save me dear lord from those who pimp opinions to the rich and stupid. I am growing exceedingly bored with the mindlessly over-inflated prose and faux-alcoholism of the writer Christopher Hitchens. The man has to be called if only on his substandard drunk pose, the ease of which I know all too well. I guess it was inevitable that, with the Coulter genre mercifully sinking under the weight of its own implausibility, some former radical should figure to slime their way into becoming the up market Bill O’Reilly. Last week Hitchens excelled himself with a blast of absurdist pomposity against Michael Moore...
To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental... Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.
Yeah right.
There’s an adapted saying round the old guard. “If you can remember Hitchens in the 1960s, you probably weren’t there.” I thus I only kinda recall seeing the fool as through an hallucination darkly, at parties at Jonathon Green’s house, busy being some kind of upper class Trot, accompanied by thick-ear Stalinist malchicks who probably wanted to hang me from a lamppost. I suppose I could go on at length, but, yet again, why the fuck bother? Go on picking up those cheques from Vanity Fair, boyo. But let’s not pretend any philosophy is being molded, except to flatter the demands of the market. Like just another dog act, son. And also consider that the tide may be turning. Michael Moore has a hit. Folks are responding. Nothing succeeds like success, and the transaction may be entering a new cycle. In times of transition, the flight from sell-out to has-been can be a short hop with no beverage service.
Cue Positively Fourth Street
MONKEY BUSINESS
I maybe bored with Hitchens, but some worthy primates are vexed and more than a little put out by being constantly compared to G.W. Bush. (Hit the link, it’s worth it for the smile.)
http://www.bushisnotachimp.org/
CRYPTIQUE – Seeing you makes me grateful I’m me.
Save me dear lord from those who pimp opinions to the rich and stupid. I am growing exceedingly bored with the mindlessly over-inflated prose and faux-alcoholism of the writer Christopher Hitchens. The man has to be called if only on his substandard drunk pose, the ease of which I know all too well. I guess it was inevitable that, with the Coulter genre mercifully sinking under the weight of its own implausibility, some former radical should figure to slime their way into becoming the up market Bill O’Reilly. Last week Hitchens excelled himself with a blast of absurdist pomposity against Michael Moore...
To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental... Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.
Yeah right.
There’s an adapted saying round the old guard. “If you can remember Hitchens in the 1960s, you probably weren’t there.” I thus I only kinda recall seeing the fool as through an hallucination darkly, at parties at Jonathon Green’s house, busy being some kind of upper class Trot, accompanied by thick-ear Stalinist malchicks who probably wanted to hang me from a lamppost. I suppose I could go on at length, but, yet again, why the fuck bother? Go on picking up those cheques from Vanity Fair, boyo. But let’s not pretend any philosophy is being molded, except to flatter the demands of the market. Like just another dog act, son. And also consider that the tide may be turning. Michael Moore has a hit. Folks are responding. Nothing succeeds like success, and the transaction may be entering a new cycle. In times of transition, the flight from sell-out to has-been can be a short hop with no beverage service.
Cue Positively Fourth Street
MONKEY BUSINESS
I maybe bored with Hitchens, but some worthy primates are vexed and more than a little put out by being constantly compared to G.W. Bush. (Hit the link, it’s worth it for the smile.)
http://www.bushisnotachimp.org/
CRYPTIQUE – Seeing you makes me grateful I’m me.
Monday, July 05, 2004
LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN (What’ve you got?)
So seemingly Marlon Brando couldn’t take another July 4 weekend. But his passing was sobering. For me, Brando was the first. Before James Dean and Elvis, before I’d heard of Allen Ginsberg, or Kerouac, Marlon cut the shape. He was, in every sense, the Godfather of 20th century hipster bohemia in the characters of Stanley Kowalski, Terry Moloy, Johnny the Wild One, and later Vito Corleone, Jor El, and Kurtz at the Heart of Darkness. All the others have gone before, and now Marlon is dead, it’s starting to feel lonely in the upper age bracket.
The tabloids are already rehashing his mess of a private life while smart-ass broadsheets harp on how, at the end, he became totally bored with the process of acting. My only indirect contact with the man was when we made the TV documentary Black Leather Jacket, and Marlon caused us no trouble whatsoever over the use of the image. That’s my only story.
FOOTNOTE
Maybe Marlon is well out of world where the CIA has banned Furbies – the stuffed toys that can repeat phrases – from the headquarters in Langley. Seemingly they pose too much of a security threat.
CRYPTIQUE – Grapes explode in the microwave.
So seemingly Marlon Brando couldn’t take another July 4 weekend. But his passing was sobering. For me, Brando was the first. Before James Dean and Elvis, before I’d heard of Allen Ginsberg, or Kerouac, Marlon cut the shape. He was, in every sense, the Godfather of 20th century hipster bohemia in the characters of Stanley Kowalski, Terry Moloy, Johnny the Wild One, and later Vito Corleone, Jor El, and Kurtz at the Heart of Darkness. All the others have gone before, and now Marlon is dead, it’s starting to feel lonely in the upper age bracket.
The tabloids are already rehashing his mess of a private life while smart-ass broadsheets harp on how, at the end, he became totally bored with the process of acting. My only indirect contact with the man was when we made the TV documentary Black Leather Jacket, and Marlon caused us no trouble whatsoever over the use of the image. That’s my only story.
FOOTNOTE
Maybe Marlon is well out of world where the CIA has banned Furbies – the stuffed toys that can repeat phrases – from the headquarters in Langley. Seemingly they pose too much of a security threat.
CRYPTIQUE – Grapes explode in the microwave.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
COMPUTER D’ETAT
The joy of watching Bush and his boys scuttle the fuck out of Iraq, leaving the poor bloody grunts to sort the mess out for Haliburton is kinda diminished because I keep worrying about those computer voting machines. Yet another exposure provided by the excellent Molly Ivins (sent by fidicen) follows below, but a bad press never deterred those sons of bitches in the White House, and I wonder just what the hell we do when the polls roll around and whole areas still have the things. Does America protest, riot, spring into instant civil disobedience, or counter-hack? Or do we merely bleat in compliant complaint. Political corruption has a recreational sport in the USA since Boss Tweed and Tammany, (I mean, they learned it off the English) but this bullshit is beyond all bounds. When corruption was simply a matter of cash, intimidation, sex, violence, racism, and alcohol, it could at least be fought in kind, but this shit is the Matrix; nothing more than coup d’etat by computer, ushering in a cyber-Orwellian perma-state, where the populace pushes the unattached button believing it to be democracy, and spreads wide for dictatorship. The more I think about it, the more I come to fear that, if Bush is elected (note: I didn’t say re-elected) it will be the Last Election and the only option will become out and out revolution. Which is where I think I came in.
The magnificent Rumor provides some excellent computer voting graphics at...
http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm
AND HERE’S MOLLY
AUSTIN, Texas -- Heads up, team, the voting machine situation requires sustained attention, but not panic or paranoia. There is time to act, but act we must.
Yes, it is high time to "view with alarm" (an editorial page cliché rivaled only by "point with pride"), and with bipartisan alarm at that. It's in everyone's interest to have the cleanest, fairest elections possible -- that's one of those things you can watch even the most partisan politicians serving on legislative elections committees figure out in no time. The only way to make sure nobody's ox gets gored is to keep it clean. If you don't think there are just as many bright, 14-year-old hackers who would rig a vote in favor of Democrats as there are who would rig it for Republicans, you've been neglecting the 14-year-old hacker set.
I suppose I've been calmer about the possibility/probability that electronic voting machines can be rigged than some others who are now looking at the bad news because it's an old story to me. Ronnie Dugger, a veteran Texas journalist (despite the fact that he's taken to living in, of all places, Cambridge, Mass.), has been on this case for years. I suppose I mentally assigned it to some "Ronnie's taking care of that" category.
But as Dugger's questions and predictions keep turning out to be more and more eerily prescient, it's clear this is something about which the general public needs be aroused and even plenty upset. The problems with electronic voting machines are numerous and grave, starting with the fact that the software which runs them is considered "proprietary information" by the companies that make them. In other words, they won't tell anyone what it is, how it works or anything else about the systems, meaning we have no way of knowing if they're clean, reliable or even functional.
That uncomfortable situation was rather dramatically underlined when Walden (Wally) O'Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold Election Systems and a Bush campaign "Pioneer" (meaning he raised at least $100,000), wrote in a 2003 fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." At the time, Diebold was trying to get on Ohio's "favored vendor" list and is now on it. Elections Systems and Software, the country's largest maker of the machines, also has a Republican pedigree.
It's a shame Diebold isn't a big Democratic fund-raiser who said he was committed to delivering Ohio for Kerry, so the Republicans could see how they like that. But I'm sure there are enough Republican conspiracy theorists to contemplate the happy proposition that, while chairmen and CEOs may lean Republican, there are any number of partisan Democrats lurking in engineering departments and liberal moles in software-writing offices.
Last July, a team of computer scientists from Johns Hopkins and Rice universities studied the Diebold machines and concluded they are "a threat to democracy." Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century," reports electronic voting machines are "designed for fraud." Apparently, you can rig these things so that Osama bin Ladin can win an election. One experiment in how long it took to open one up and swipe its software produced a record of 10 seconds.
Making the software for voting machines both bug-less and hacker-proof simply may not be possible, but as many have observed, the things as they stand are an open invitation to voter fraud. As The New York Times pointed out, slot machines in Las Vegas are held to far higher standards of transparency and inspection.
The simplest way to make sure the machines aren't miscounting is to require a paper trail on each ballot. In California, the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended the machines be shelved, and then Secretary of State Kevin Shelley revoked certification of Diebold's paperless electronic voting machines.
Eight other states now require a paper trail, something that is not difficult to design or install, despite Diebold's initial protests that it is oh-so-hard. Florida, scene of so many painful voting memories in 2000, had a single race election in January in Palm Beach where the victory margin was 12, but the machines registered more than 130 blank ballots. You think 130 people came to the polls to not vote? There was no recount because the machines had no paper records.
There are bills in both the U.S. Senate and House to require paper trails in time for the 2004 election, but they're stuck in committee. Take pen in hand and write (or email, or petition) your elected representative, ASAP. Then bask in the benign glow of civic rectitude that follows. Well done.
Molly Ivins is the former editor of the liberal monthly The Texas Observer. She is the bestselling author of several books including Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She?
© 2004 Working Assets.
Reprinted from Working For Change:
CRYPTIQUE – Make the world go away.
CRYPTIQUE 2 -- When's the fun begin?
The joy of watching Bush and his boys scuttle the fuck out of Iraq, leaving the poor bloody grunts to sort the mess out for Haliburton is kinda diminished because I keep worrying about those computer voting machines. Yet another exposure provided by the excellent Molly Ivins (sent by fidicen) follows below, but a bad press never deterred those sons of bitches in the White House, and I wonder just what the hell we do when the polls roll around and whole areas still have the things. Does America protest, riot, spring into instant civil disobedience, or counter-hack? Or do we merely bleat in compliant complaint. Political corruption has a recreational sport in the USA since Boss Tweed and Tammany, (I mean, they learned it off the English) but this bullshit is beyond all bounds. When corruption was simply a matter of cash, intimidation, sex, violence, racism, and alcohol, it could at least be fought in kind, but this shit is the Matrix; nothing more than coup d’etat by computer, ushering in a cyber-Orwellian perma-state, where the populace pushes the unattached button believing it to be democracy, and spreads wide for dictatorship. The more I think about it, the more I come to fear that, if Bush is elected (note: I didn’t say re-elected) it will be the Last Election and the only option will become out and out revolution. Which is where I think I came in.
The magnificent Rumor provides some excellent computer voting graphics at...
http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm
AND HERE’S MOLLY
AUSTIN, Texas -- Heads up, team, the voting machine situation requires sustained attention, but not panic or paranoia. There is time to act, but act we must.
Yes, it is high time to "view with alarm" (an editorial page cliché rivaled only by "point with pride"), and with bipartisan alarm at that. It's in everyone's interest to have the cleanest, fairest elections possible -- that's one of those things you can watch even the most partisan politicians serving on legislative elections committees figure out in no time. The only way to make sure nobody's ox gets gored is to keep it clean. If you don't think there are just as many bright, 14-year-old hackers who would rig a vote in favor of Democrats as there are who would rig it for Republicans, you've been neglecting the 14-year-old hacker set.
I suppose I've been calmer about the possibility/probability that electronic voting machines can be rigged than some others who are now looking at the bad news because it's an old story to me. Ronnie Dugger, a veteran Texas journalist (despite the fact that he's taken to living in, of all places, Cambridge, Mass.), has been on this case for years. I suppose I mentally assigned it to some "Ronnie's taking care of that" category.
But as Dugger's questions and predictions keep turning out to be more and more eerily prescient, it's clear this is something about which the general public needs be aroused and even plenty upset. The problems with electronic voting machines are numerous and grave, starting with the fact that the software which runs them is considered "proprietary information" by the companies that make them. In other words, they won't tell anyone what it is, how it works or anything else about the systems, meaning we have no way of knowing if they're clean, reliable or even functional.
That uncomfortable situation was rather dramatically underlined when Walden (Wally) O'Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold Election Systems and a Bush campaign "Pioneer" (meaning he raised at least $100,000), wrote in a 2003 fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president." At the time, Diebold was trying to get on Ohio's "favored vendor" list and is now on it. Elections Systems and Software, the country's largest maker of the machines, also has a Republican pedigree.
It's a shame Diebold isn't a big Democratic fund-raiser who said he was committed to delivering Ohio for Kerry, so the Republicans could see how they like that. But I'm sure there are enough Republican conspiracy theorists to contemplate the happy proposition that, while chairmen and CEOs may lean Republican, there are any number of partisan Democrats lurking in engineering departments and liberal moles in software-writing offices.
Last July, a team of computer scientists from Johns Hopkins and Rice universities studied the Diebold machines and concluded they are "a threat to democracy." Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century," reports electronic voting machines are "designed for fraud." Apparently, you can rig these things so that Osama bin Ladin can win an election. One experiment in how long it took to open one up and swipe its software produced a record of 10 seconds.
Making the software for voting machines both bug-less and hacker-proof simply may not be possible, but as many have observed, the things as they stand are an open invitation to voter fraud. As The New York Times pointed out, slot machines in Las Vegas are held to far higher standards of transparency and inspection.
The simplest way to make sure the machines aren't miscounting is to require a paper trail on each ballot. In California, the Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended the machines be shelved, and then Secretary of State Kevin Shelley revoked certification of Diebold's paperless electronic voting machines.
Eight other states now require a paper trail, something that is not difficult to design or install, despite Diebold's initial protests that it is oh-so-hard. Florida, scene of so many painful voting memories in 2000, had a single race election in January in Palm Beach where the victory margin was 12, but the machines registered more than 130 blank ballots. You think 130 people came to the polls to not vote? There was no recount because the machines had no paper records.
There are bills in both the U.S. Senate and House to require paper trails in time for the 2004 election, but they're stuck in committee. Take pen in hand and write (or email, or petition) your elected representative, ASAP. Then bask in the benign glow of civic rectitude that follows. Well done.
Molly Ivins is the former editor of the liberal monthly The Texas Observer. She is the bestselling author of several books including Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She?
© 2004 Working Assets.
Reprinted from Working For Change:
CRYPTIQUE – Make the world go away.
CRYPTIQUE 2 -- When's the fun begin?
Monday, June 28, 2004
SLIDE IS BACK
Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of Anton Princip shooting Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and starting the whole mess that was WW1. Bearing that in mind, and working on the principle that you can’t be too careful, instead of ranting or pontificating, I would direct everyone’s attention over to Funtopia, where Rich has posted episode 12 of the online serial Slide On The Run after a totally conscionable delay on my part. (Find it by going to Funtopia News once you've hit the site.) Yeah, I sat down and I thought I could write an episode every two to three weeks, but then all the other dozens of things I think I can do intervened, and...but here it is now, so enjoy.
WE’RE HISTORY
Seems like there’s some dispute about history going up on the now totally surreal comments board. Should I sort it out? Maybe, but not today. I need to get some sleep.
CRYPTIQUE – The charge of the light machines?
Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of Anton Princip shooting Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and starting the whole mess that was WW1. Bearing that in mind, and working on the principle that you can’t be too careful, instead of ranting or pontificating, I would direct everyone’s attention over to Funtopia, where Rich has posted episode 12 of the online serial Slide On The Run after a totally conscionable delay on my part. (Find it by going to Funtopia News once you've hit the site.) Yeah, I sat down and I thought I could write an episode every two to three weeks, but then all the other dozens of things I think I can do intervened, and...but here it is now, so enjoy.
WE’RE HISTORY
Seems like there’s some dispute about history going up on the now totally surreal comments board. Should I sort it out? Maybe, but not today. I need to get some sleep.
CRYPTIQUE – The charge of the light machines?
Thursday, June 24, 2004
DID YOU MISS ME? II
Eight straight days and not a word? What the fuck was going on? Well, quite a lot and most of it got in the way of the weblog, but everyone seems to have been having a real good time will I was away, but, like Fast Eddie Felson says at the end of The Color of Money. “I’m back.”
So what happened? Well, the old Doc kinda ran into the wall and was as sick as a dog for a couple if days, and at the same time was inundated by all manner of stuff, some exciting, and some just too tediously depressing to mention. Much email has gone unanswered and there are folks who are probably mad at me. As far as bashing Bush is concerned, Michael Moore seems to be holding the fort. And since I doubt any of you want to hear about my health, inefficiency, or depression, let’s just leave it that I took a few days off, without prior notice, from doing battle with the corporate agents of chaos.
All the good stuff? Well, that may have to wait a few days until all the ducks and details are in a row. (Tease.) But count on it that it’ll be good. For me at least. The Doc40 service may take a little while to rebuild itself bigger and better, but if I should go missing again over the next few days, this time it will be because I’m finally making the switch from dialup to DSL, and not because of any dashingly romantic disaster.
And, oh yeah, just a note that I never wore loon pants, even in 1971, and rarely carry a gun while I’m drinking, or drink when I’m packing. I long ago discovered that, unlike in the movies, whisky and firearms don’t mix. Any questions?
SERIOUS READIN’
And maybe to demonstrate that I am more than an unpredictable drunk as seems to be widely assumed I have a column in the new LA CityBeat about Bill Clinton.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1020&IssueNum=55
Since I wrote the piece, I’ve seen Bill talking with everyone from Oprah to Charlie Rose, and I seem to be liking the guy all over again, even if his position on the War on Drugs was indefensible. With Charlie Rose (by far the most sensible interview) he very seriously warned never to underestimate George Bush by dismissing him as a cartoon clown.
STOP PRESS
I also see a new coordinated uprising has broken out in Iraq this morning. The mire deepens.
CRYPTIQUE – He who waits usually just waits.
Eight straight days and not a word? What the fuck was going on? Well, quite a lot and most of it got in the way of the weblog, but everyone seems to have been having a real good time will I was away, but, like Fast Eddie Felson says at the end of The Color of Money. “I’m back.”
So what happened? Well, the old Doc kinda ran into the wall and was as sick as a dog for a couple if days, and at the same time was inundated by all manner of stuff, some exciting, and some just too tediously depressing to mention. Much email has gone unanswered and there are folks who are probably mad at me. As far as bashing Bush is concerned, Michael Moore seems to be holding the fort. And since I doubt any of you want to hear about my health, inefficiency, or depression, let’s just leave it that I took a few days off, without prior notice, from doing battle with the corporate agents of chaos.
All the good stuff? Well, that may have to wait a few days until all the ducks and details are in a row. (Tease.) But count on it that it’ll be good. For me at least. The Doc40 service may take a little while to rebuild itself bigger and better, but if I should go missing again over the next few days, this time it will be because I’m finally making the switch from dialup to DSL, and not because of any dashingly romantic disaster.
And, oh yeah, just a note that I never wore loon pants, even in 1971, and rarely carry a gun while I’m drinking, or drink when I’m packing. I long ago discovered that, unlike in the movies, whisky and firearms don’t mix. Any questions?
SERIOUS READIN’
And maybe to demonstrate that I am more than an unpredictable drunk as seems to be widely assumed I have a column in the new LA CityBeat about Bill Clinton.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1020&IssueNum=55
Since I wrote the piece, I’ve seen Bill talking with everyone from Oprah to Charlie Rose, and I seem to be liking the guy all over again, even if his position on the War on Drugs was indefensible. With Charlie Rose (by far the most sensible interview) he very seriously warned never to underestimate George Bush by dismissing him as a cartoon clown.
STOP PRESS
I also see a new coordinated uprising has broken out in Iraq this morning. The mire deepens.
CRYPTIQUE – He who waits usually just waits.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
BURN OUT OR BURN?
With some four and a half months remaining until we see if America can come to its senses and remove George Bush from the White House, and his constant intrusions on my TV set, I still feel that I’m morally obliged and honor bound to keep pounding away at the sinister sons of bitches with the few and modest communications tools, but the dawn-dark moments do occur when I start to fear that not only is the deck too stacked, but that I’m losing sight what even might be possible in best of all worlds. Then, a light-ray reminder like the following quote from Ken Kesey, arrives from fidecen, and I start thinking again.
As I've often told Ginsberg, you can't blame the President for the state of the country, it's always the poets' fault. You can't expect politicians to come up with a vision, they don't have it in them. Poets have to come up with the vision and they have to turn it on so it sparks and catches hold.
--Ken Kesey
WORDPOWER
Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women
CRYPTIQUE – The bullshit piles up so fast you need wings to stay above it.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Remember there’s a new email address – byron4d@msn.com
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
With some four and a half months remaining until we see if America can come to its senses and remove George Bush from the White House, and his constant intrusions on my TV set, I still feel that I’m morally obliged and honor bound to keep pounding away at the sinister sons of bitches with the few and modest communications tools, but the dawn-dark moments do occur when I start to fear that not only is the deck too stacked, but that I’m losing sight what even might be possible in best of all worlds. Then, a light-ray reminder like the following quote from Ken Kesey, arrives from fidecen, and I start thinking again.
As I've often told Ginsberg, you can't blame the President for the state of the country, it's always the poets' fault. You can't expect politicians to come up with a vision, they don't have it in them. Poets have to come up with the vision and they have to turn it on so it sparks and catches hold.
--Ken Kesey
WORDPOWER
Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women
CRYPTIQUE – The bullshit piles up so fast you need wings to stay above it.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Remember there’s a new email address – byron4d@msn.com
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Monday, June 14, 2004
FROM THE E MAIL
THE POLICE STATE OF THE ABSURD
Finding myself in kinda of a holding pattern this Monday after, I turn over the show to Jett for a laudably Doc40-style report of the G8 summit...
I thought you might get a kick out of hearing about the last five days of my life spent down at President Bush's Giant Stoke-a-Thon (aka: the G8 Summit). I didn't really get all that close to the summit itself, just close enough to marvel at the INSANE amount of security present. It was like a 'friendly' occupation of a small Georgia island; despite all of the automatic weapons and high tech killing gear, the assembled security forces still smiled, waved and tipped their hats.
We-that is the missus and I and our 7-month-old son-spent a few days down on St. Simons Island, GA to care for the wife's mother-who is mobility impaired-while her regular caregivers took a brief vacation. The G8 Summit was on Sea Island, a small chunk of land off the other end of St. Simons with a giant, ultra-swank resort/conference center and a few acres of multi-million dollar homes for the very, very rich. The only way, other than by chopper, to reach Sea Island is over the causeway to St. Simons and then another, smaller, causeway across to Sea Island.
I guess the Powers That Be were expecting the same sort of protests and rioting that Seattle saw a few years back when they hosted this jamboree. The level of paranoia was un-fucking-believable. I have never seen so many cops or heavily-armed military in my entire life. Just getting to the mother-in-law's house we had to go through three police checkpoints. At the first checkpoint on the causeway leading to St. Simons we were stopped and asked a barrage of dumb ass questions from a cop who was flanked by three Army (or Marine, or National Guard)... guards in jungle fatigues and body armor with M-16s at the ready. My ass cheeks were clenched tight in terrified anticipation of a possible body cavity search. We had to tell them what business we had on the island, who we were going to see, their street address, our names, where we were from, etc. I was surprised and relived the cop didn't ask the baby any questions; to the right ears his favorite saying "goo gooli gaha ummm" could possibly sound like Arabic or Farsi. They looked in the windows of our minivan and shined flashlights at our collection of overnight bags and baby stuff. I was really surprised they didn't ask to dig through our stuff...the baby's bright plastic walker with it's flashing lights and music could easily have disguised a bomb.
I had joked before we left Charleston that I was going to wear a turban and a fake beard just to fuck with 'the man'. I'm glad I wisely chose not to engage in that sort of tomfoolery. I have no doubt the assembled cops and soldier-types would have beaten me to a bloody pulp and asked questions later. My alternate joke disguise of a tie-dye Grateful Dead t-shirt and a general purpose cardboard protest sign would doubtless have provoked a similar ass-whuppin'.
Once we got ON the island, there were cops everywhere and still more military. Every available public parking area was filled with cop cars from all over the state of Georgia, state trooper cars, state park ranger vehicles and military HumVees. A large anti-aircraft gun placement and tons of military hardware were on the green space near the tarmac in the wee little St. Simons Island Airport (small Cessnas and other prop planes only; not enough landing strip for even the tiniest of jets). There were military and police foot patrols roaming all over the place, even back into the residential areas. I spotted several flights of three or four military choppers buzzing around in the sky over the island at regular intervals.
We drove down to the beach, noticing cops and soldiers set up in tents at every intersection, to see if our state and federal authorities were protecting us from an ocean-based attack as well. There were easily a dozen small military gunboats cruising around as well as patrol boats from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (affectionately referred to as 'Fletsey' by the locals) over on the mainland in Brunswick. A gentleman with binoculars mentioned that an aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, and it's battlegroup were anchored off the coast, just beyond the horizon. There's a tale that was circulating, most likely just a new urban myth, about a man on the public fishing pier accidentally dropping his camera into the water. As the assembled tourists watched the camera sink down to Davy Jones' locker, a Navy Seal in a full wetsuit surfaced with with it in hand and tossed it back to the guy. True? Maybe.
At one point we stopped for a red light and I rolled down the window, leaned out and pointed my camera at a group of soldiers sitting in canvas chairs on the sidewalk. One of 'em shook his head and waggled his index finger in an unmistakable 'no-no' gesture. The camera went back into the case and any of the shots I took later in the week were done quickly through the van's windows.
Few things look more surreal than seeing an white-haired, old retired couple wearing their bright, colorful islandwear pedaling their bicycles past a group of three heavily-armed, camoflauge-clad military guys. The old couple waved as they passed the soldiers, and the soldiers, to their credit, waved back and smiled. Nice, well-mannered kids, but still fucking weird.
We went down to Neptune Park, where rumor had it that a huge number of protesters had gotten a permit to march. We were diappointed when, instead of hundreds of angry young anarchists full of sound and righteous fury, we saw about ten dejected-looking hippie wannabes. Only about half of 'em even had signs. For each individual protester there had to have been at least a dozen cops and soldiers. We found out later that most of the protesters had been forced to stay on the mainland. There were only about 50-60 of them, anyway.
On the last day of the summit, Friday, the group of protesters decided to march across the causeway and make their grievances known to Dubya and the assembled world leaders. I'm still not sure exactly what their grievances were; the few I saw interviewed on TV railed against everything from globalization to eating animals to the environment to exploitation of third-world labor. Huh? The protesters formed a line, linked arms and proceeded to march. You have to give 'em credit for having a sizable amount of collective balls; it was over 90 degrees and Sea Island is an easy 6-8 miles away. The police, holding plexiglass riot shields, formed a line facing them and would take a step back each time the protesters would take a step forward. At one point one of the cops stumbled and fell backward, bruising his ass and causing a huge wound to his dignity. That was the only real injury. Once the protesters made it to the road that lead to the Sea Island Causeway from St. Simons, they were stopped. Sea Island is private property and the police arrested 14-or so of the 'angry militants' for misdemeanor charges of obstructing traffic or some such; the rest were all loaded on a bus and taken back to the mainland.
By Saturday evening the whole thing was over. All the police and military pulled out and the island was back to normal. It was the closest I've ever been to a military occupation or seeing martial law declared.
That's about for now. Vaya Con Tequila,
Jett
CRYPTIQUE – Bambi was German
THE POLICE STATE OF THE ABSURD
Finding myself in kinda of a holding pattern this Monday after, I turn over the show to Jett for a laudably Doc40-style report of the G8 summit...
I thought you might get a kick out of hearing about the last five days of my life spent down at President Bush's Giant Stoke-a-Thon (aka: the G8 Summit). I didn't really get all that close to the summit itself, just close enough to marvel at the INSANE amount of security present. It was like a 'friendly' occupation of a small Georgia island; despite all of the automatic weapons and high tech killing gear, the assembled security forces still smiled, waved and tipped their hats.
We-that is the missus and I and our 7-month-old son-spent a few days down on St. Simons Island, GA to care for the wife's mother-who is mobility impaired-while her regular caregivers took a brief vacation. The G8 Summit was on Sea Island, a small chunk of land off the other end of St. Simons with a giant, ultra-swank resort/conference center and a few acres of multi-million dollar homes for the very, very rich. The only way, other than by chopper, to reach Sea Island is over the causeway to St. Simons and then another, smaller, causeway across to Sea Island.
I guess the Powers That Be were expecting the same sort of protests and rioting that Seattle saw a few years back when they hosted this jamboree. The level of paranoia was un-fucking-believable. I have never seen so many cops or heavily-armed military in my entire life. Just getting to the mother-in-law's house we had to go through three police checkpoints. At the first checkpoint on the causeway leading to St. Simons we were stopped and asked a barrage of dumb ass questions from a cop who was flanked by three Army (or Marine, or National Guard)... guards in jungle fatigues and body armor with M-16s at the ready. My ass cheeks were clenched tight in terrified anticipation of a possible body cavity search. We had to tell them what business we had on the island, who we were going to see, their street address, our names, where we were from, etc. I was surprised and relived the cop didn't ask the baby any questions; to the right ears his favorite saying "goo gooli gaha ummm" could possibly sound like Arabic or Farsi. They looked in the windows of our minivan and shined flashlights at our collection of overnight bags and baby stuff. I was really surprised they didn't ask to dig through our stuff...the baby's bright plastic walker with it's flashing lights and music could easily have disguised a bomb.
I had joked before we left Charleston that I was going to wear a turban and a fake beard just to fuck with 'the man'. I'm glad I wisely chose not to engage in that sort of tomfoolery. I have no doubt the assembled cops and soldier-types would have beaten me to a bloody pulp and asked questions later. My alternate joke disguise of a tie-dye Grateful Dead t-shirt and a general purpose cardboard protest sign would doubtless have provoked a similar ass-whuppin'.
Once we got ON the island, there were cops everywhere and still more military. Every available public parking area was filled with cop cars from all over the state of Georgia, state trooper cars, state park ranger vehicles and military HumVees. A large anti-aircraft gun placement and tons of military hardware were on the green space near the tarmac in the wee little St. Simons Island Airport (small Cessnas and other prop planes only; not enough landing strip for even the tiniest of jets). There were military and police foot patrols roaming all over the place, even back into the residential areas. I spotted several flights of three or four military choppers buzzing around in the sky over the island at regular intervals.
We drove down to the beach, noticing cops and soldiers set up in tents at every intersection, to see if our state and federal authorities were protecting us from an ocean-based attack as well. There were easily a dozen small military gunboats cruising around as well as patrol boats from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (affectionately referred to as 'Fletsey' by the locals) over on the mainland in Brunswick. A gentleman with binoculars mentioned that an aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, and it's battlegroup were anchored off the coast, just beyond the horizon. There's a tale that was circulating, most likely just a new urban myth, about a man on the public fishing pier accidentally dropping his camera into the water. As the assembled tourists watched the camera sink down to Davy Jones' locker, a Navy Seal in a full wetsuit surfaced with with it in hand and tossed it back to the guy. True? Maybe.
At one point we stopped for a red light and I rolled down the window, leaned out and pointed my camera at a group of soldiers sitting in canvas chairs on the sidewalk. One of 'em shook his head and waggled his index finger in an unmistakable 'no-no' gesture. The camera went back into the case and any of the shots I took later in the week were done quickly through the van's windows.
Few things look more surreal than seeing an white-haired, old retired couple wearing their bright, colorful islandwear pedaling their bicycles past a group of three heavily-armed, camoflauge-clad military guys. The old couple waved as they passed the soldiers, and the soldiers, to their credit, waved back and smiled. Nice, well-mannered kids, but still fucking weird.
We went down to Neptune Park, where rumor had it that a huge number of protesters had gotten a permit to march. We were diappointed when, instead of hundreds of angry young anarchists full of sound and righteous fury, we saw about ten dejected-looking hippie wannabes. Only about half of 'em even had signs. For each individual protester there had to have been at least a dozen cops and soldiers. We found out later that most of the protesters had been forced to stay on the mainland. There were only about 50-60 of them, anyway.
On the last day of the summit, Friday, the group of protesters decided to march across the causeway and make their grievances known to Dubya and the assembled world leaders. I'm still not sure exactly what their grievances were; the few I saw interviewed on TV railed against everything from globalization to eating animals to the environment to exploitation of third-world labor. Huh? The protesters formed a line, linked arms and proceeded to march. You have to give 'em credit for having a sizable amount of collective balls; it was over 90 degrees and Sea Island is an easy 6-8 miles away. The police, holding plexiglass riot shields, formed a line facing them and would take a step back each time the protesters would take a step forward. At one point one of the cops stumbled and fell backward, bruising his ass and causing a huge wound to his dignity. That was the only real injury. Once the protesters made it to the road that lead to the Sea Island Causeway from St. Simons, they were stopped. Sea Island is private property and the police arrested 14-or so of the 'angry militants' for misdemeanor charges of obstructing traffic or some such; the rest were all loaded on a bus and taken back to the mainland.
By Saturday evening the whole thing was over. All the police and military pulled out and the island was back to normal. It was the closest I've ever been to a military occupation or seeing martial law declared.
That's about for now. Vaya Con Tequila,
Jett
CRYPTIQUE – Bambi was German
Sunday, June 13, 2004
MORE RUBBER TIRED HEARSES
You might have thought that the lurid canonization of Ronald Wilson Reagan in the Simi Valley sunset with Margaret Thatcher and Bo Derrick among the mourners was enough big media death for one week, but death don’t have no mercy in this land, (as the Grateful Dead once remarked.) Ray Charles liver burned out of seventy three years of intense usage, and guitarist Bob Quine gave up the fight. Ray will eulogized elsewhere, but Doc40 seemed the kind of place to make note of Quine’s passing. The obituary comes from the Artrocker online newsletter...
From the inauspicious beginnings file: In 1975 Quine got a job at Cinemabilia, a movie poster and book shop in New York City, where he worked with Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. So, no surprise that they end up forming a band with Quine on guitar in the form of Richard Hell and the Voidoids(the seminal "Blank Generation" from '77 and "Destiny Street" in '82). Watch out for those clerk types behind the counter or the bar - you could be seeing members of the next great band before your eyes.
Quine wasn't someone who evidently came to rock and roll by slacker default. He went to law school and passed the bar (to stay outta Vietnam), although he eventually gave this up for a life of rock and roll. And of course we can't forget to thank him for the "Velvet Underground Bootleg Series: The Quine Tapes" from San Fran in 1969 - an ardent fan's labor of love that allows those of use not able to be there at the time experience it as if we were (Quine: "They had shows on some weeknights with two or three people in the club. I was one of the people").
So it must have been a dream come true for other Lou Reed philes when a fan of The Man joined his band. Quine played on "The Blue Mask" in '82 ("There was no rehearsing, no overdubs, no punch-in's for mistakes. The exact opposite of the Voidoids"), "Legendary Hearts" in '83 (On tour "[Lou] had to teach 'Sister Ray' and 'Heroin' to the other members of the band ... but I knew it already"), and "New Sensations" in '84.
He's also played with Brian Eno, Tom Waits ("Rain Dogs"), Marianne Faithfull, and others. Playing with the greats, however, didn't always come easy ("From '69 til '76, I never played in public. I would play by myself at home"). Around early 2002 Quine was still at it, even if the rest of the world wouldn't pay as much attention as when he was dead ("Recording session work has slowed down considerably, to say the least. There's not much to report. But I almost always get in at least three to four hours a day practicing, and I think I'm still improving").
Reading old interviews with him one picks up the musicians musician sensibility (In answer to the question "Are your solos usually improvised, or do you compose your solos in advance? Quine answered "98% improvised.
Once in a while with Richard Hell, I'd hear a cassette of a good solo I'd improvised live (e.g.: 'The Plan') and copy it. But it's never as good as the first time around"). This was a guy who was around when it all started, tho' he complained that it was hard to get a good guitar lesson in 1958 in the early years of rock and roll. We're probably all better off that he had to figure it out on his own - throwing out the template = original style. On the flip side how many people can count seeing Buddy Holly in concert as a rock and roll influence? And Coltrane.
Hopefully we can expect to see posthumous reissues and unreleased material coming out soon. Word has it that Quine recorded with Judah Bauer of John Spencer a year or two before his death, so we'll have to keep an eye open for that one.
So it was, the New York Times reported that Quine, 61, "had been despondent over the recent death of his wife," and "died of a heroin overdose."
Robert Quine, R.I.P.
CRYPTIQUE – There’s one kind favor I’ll ask of you...
You might have thought that the lurid canonization of Ronald Wilson Reagan in the Simi Valley sunset with Margaret Thatcher and Bo Derrick among the mourners was enough big media death for one week, but death don’t have no mercy in this land, (as the Grateful Dead once remarked.) Ray Charles liver burned out of seventy three years of intense usage, and guitarist Bob Quine gave up the fight. Ray will eulogized elsewhere, but Doc40 seemed the kind of place to make note of Quine’s passing. The obituary comes from the Artrocker online newsletter...
From the inauspicious beginnings file: In 1975 Quine got a job at Cinemabilia, a movie poster and book shop in New York City, where he worked with Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. So, no surprise that they end up forming a band with Quine on guitar in the form of Richard Hell and the Voidoids(the seminal "Blank Generation" from '77 and "Destiny Street" in '82). Watch out for those clerk types behind the counter or the bar - you could be seeing members of the next great band before your eyes.
Quine wasn't someone who evidently came to rock and roll by slacker default. He went to law school and passed the bar (to stay outta Vietnam), although he eventually gave this up for a life of rock and roll. And of course we can't forget to thank him for the "Velvet Underground Bootleg Series: The Quine Tapes" from San Fran in 1969 - an ardent fan's labor of love that allows those of use not able to be there at the time experience it as if we were (Quine: "They had shows on some weeknights with two or three people in the club. I was one of the people").
So it must have been a dream come true for other Lou Reed philes when a fan of The Man joined his band. Quine played on "The Blue Mask" in '82 ("There was no rehearsing, no overdubs, no punch-in's for mistakes. The exact opposite of the Voidoids"), "Legendary Hearts" in '83 (On tour "[Lou] had to teach 'Sister Ray' and 'Heroin' to the other members of the band ... but I knew it already"), and "New Sensations" in '84.
He's also played with Brian Eno, Tom Waits ("Rain Dogs"), Marianne Faithfull, and others. Playing with the greats, however, didn't always come easy ("From '69 til '76, I never played in public. I would play by myself at home"). Around early 2002 Quine was still at it, even if the rest of the world wouldn't pay as much attention as when he was dead ("Recording session work has slowed down considerably, to say the least. There's not much to report. But I almost always get in at least three to four hours a day practicing, and I think I'm still improving").
Reading old interviews with him one picks up the musicians musician sensibility (In answer to the question "Are your solos usually improvised, or do you compose your solos in advance? Quine answered "98% improvised.
Once in a while with Richard Hell, I'd hear a cassette of a good solo I'd improvised live (e.g.: 'The Plan') and copy it. But it's never as good as the first time around"). This was a guy who was around when it all started, tho' he complained that it was hard to get a good guitar lesson in 1958 in the early years of rock and roll. We're probably all better off that he had to figure it out on his own - throwing out the template = original style. On the flip side how many people can count seeing Buddy Holly in concert as a rock and roll influence? And Coltrane.
Hopefully we can expect to see posthumous reissues and unreleased material coming out soon. Word has it that Quine recorded with Judah Bauer of John Spencer a year or two before his death, so we'll have to keep an eye open for that one.
So it was, the New York Times reported that Quine, 61, "had been despondent over the recent death of his wife," and "died of a heroin overdose."
Robert Quine, R.I.P.
CRYPTIQUE – There’s one kind favor I’ll ask of you...
Thursday, June 10, 2004
I LOVE A COUP D’ETAT
As fantasies go, nothing can compare. Tanks in the streets, delicious tension, rich folks fleeing town, the usual suspects waiting to be rounded up, the President and his cabinet seeking asylum in Albania, mysterious white horses galloping through the riderless night. But that can’t happen in America, right? Well, yes, at least according to Michael C. Ruppert writing on fromthewilderness.com. He seems to think that it’s about to happen, and the CIA will shortly take down the GWB White House.
Way cool.
The piece seems plausible and well researched, and its on another new-to-me Bush-hater attack site forwarded by fidicen. I watch with interest, and, of course, I would be delighted to see it happen. It would be the first CIA sponsored coupe d’etat I ever rooted for. The story starts...
JUNE 8, 2004 1600 PDT (FTW) - Why did DCI George Tenet suddenly resign on June 3rd, only to be followed a day later by James Pavitt, the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations (DDO)?
The real reasons, contrary to the saturation spin being put out by major news outlets, have nothing to do with Tenet's role as taking the fall for alleged 9/11 and Iraqi intelligence "failures" before the upcoming presidential election. Both resignations, perhaps soon to be followed by resignations from Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, are about the imminent and extremely messy demise of George W. Bush and his Neocon administration in a coup d'etat being executed by the Central Intelligence Agency. The coup, in the planning for at least two years, has apparently become an urgent priority as a number of deepening crises threaten a global meltdown.
And the rest is on...
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060804_coup_detat.html
MEANWHILE ON THE CITYBEAT
My riff on Reagan is out in LA CityBeat. I was really pleased with it 48 hours ago, and felt good to have written it, but now I’m fucking Reaganed out after today’s relentless whorship.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=974&IssueNum=53
But I also have a fine TV column on the state of cable news...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=983&IssueNum=53
CRYPTIQUE – Rubber tired hearses?
As fantasies go, nothing can compare. Tanks in the streets, delicious tension, rich folks fleeing town, the usual suspects waiting to be rounded up, the President and his cabinet seeking asylum in Albania, mysterious white horses galloping through the riderless night. But that can’t happen in America, right? Well, yes, at least according to Michael C. Ruppert writing on fromthewilderness.com. He seems to think that it’s about to happen, and the CIA will shortly take down the GWB White House.
Way cool.
The piece seems plausible and well researched, and its on another new-to-me Bush-hater attack site forwarded by fidicen. I watch with interest, and, of course, I would be delighted to see it happen. It would be the first CIA sponsored coupe d’etat I ever rooted for. The story starts...
JUNE 8, 2004 1600 PDT (FTW) - Why did DCI George Tenet suddenly resign on June 3rd, only to be followed a day later by James Pavitt, the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations (DDO)?
The real reasons, contrary to the saturation spin being put out by major news outlets, have nothing to do with Tenet's role as taking the fall for alleged 9/11 and Iraqi intelligence "failures" before the upcoming presidential election. Both resignations, perhaps soon to be followed by resignations from Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, are about the imminent and extremely messy demise of George W. Bush and his Neocon administration in a coup d'etat being executed by the Central Intelligence Agency. The coup, in the planning for at least two years, has apparently become an urgent priority as a number of deepening crises threaten a global meltdown.
And the rest is on...
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060804_coup_detat.html
MEANWHILE ON THE CITYBEAT
My riff on Reagan is out in LA CityBeat. I was really pleased with it 48 hours ago, and felt good to have written it, but now I’m fucking Reaganed out after today’s relentless whorship.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=974&IssueNum=53
But I also have a fine TV column on the state of cable news...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=983&IssueNum=53
CRYPTIQUE – Rubber tired hearses?
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
REAGAN STILL DEAD
Yeah, I know it’s an old Saturday Night Live joke from the 1970s Belushi era, but what the hell, it’s vintage. I never really expected all this. Like I said in the last post (funereal pun?) CityBeat are running my best take on the Reagan mortality circus on Thursday, but here in the meantime is a handy antidote to all the sentimentality oozing from the TV by Charles Idelson. It seems to have been circling the internet, but it was forwarded by some girl...
25 REASONS TO NOT MOURN REAGAN (in no particular order, add your own)
1- Nicaraguan contras. Reagan called them the "moral equivalent of our founding fathers." U.S. created terror army in Nicaragua murdered tens of thousands of people and destroyed a social revolution; today majority of Nicaraguans live in poverty in the 2nd poorest country in the hemisphere after Haiti.
2- PATCO. 11,000 union air traffic controllers fired by Reagan, opened and encouraged a new era of union busting by employers and anti-union policies.
3- Reganomics, as Papa Bush called it "voodoo economics," how to carry out the biggest tax cut for the rich and biggest military buildup in decades while maintaining a balanced budget. It didn't work.
4- Afghanistan. CIA created, trained, funded, and armed "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, to fight the Soviets.
5- "Trees Cause Pollution". Said Reagan, removing thousands of acres of public land to hand them over to timber, oil and mining corporations.
6- Star Wars, MX "peacekeeper" missile, B-1 bomber. And other destabilizing weapons systems intended to foster a new arms race with the Soviets and create a new U.S.-first strike capability.
7- Bitburg. Reagan's pays homage to Hitler's most elite military group while visiting an SS cemetery, calls the SS victims of Nazism "just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."
8- Antonin Scalia. Appointed by Reagan to the Supreme Court.
9- Angola. CIA funds and arms a terror guerilla army that kills millions in a two-decade war, with an ongoing legacy of the world's most land mines.
10- Civil Rights. Justice Department slashes funding for civil rights enforcement.
11- "Aristocratic Movement". As one historian put it. Ron and Nancy become patrons of aristocratic culture in fashion, communications, etc. "Dynasty" and "Lives of the Rich and Famous" become major TV shows.
12- Iran Contra Affair. Secret White House cabal sells arms to Iran to fund contras, subverting the Constitution and avoiding Congressional oversight.
13- Guatemala. Rightwing, evangelist dictatorship funded and armed, with frequent massacres of the indigenous population, and 1/8 of population displaced. Dictator Rios Montt says on national TV he had "declared a state of siege so we could kill legally." Regan says Rios Montt had a "bum rap" on human rights abuses.
14- "Ketchup is a vegetable." Dept. of Agriculture says ketchup can be counted as a vegetable for calculating nutritional value in school lunches to facilitate major cuts in public school lunch funding.
15- William Rehnquist. Appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Reagan.
16- Savings and Loan Scandal. Created by banking industry deregulation, costs U.S. taxpayers billions to bail out failed S&Ls.
17- Homelessness. Grows by the millions as "Reaganville" homeless camps are created across U.S. Regan says many are "homeless by choice."
18- Conspicuous consumption. "Yachting," "Gourmet," "Architectural Digest," and "Wine Spectator" are the fastest growing U.S. magazines, with the aid of the biggest tax cut for the rich in U.S. history.
19- Industrial wastelands. Mass shift of high-wage industrial jobs overseas, creating ghost lands in the industrial heartland.
20- South Africa. U.S. opposes divestiture and continues to back white rule in Pretoria defying growing worldwide anti-apartheid movement.
21- CIA drug running. CIA supports drug empires in Latin America, including Manuel Noriega in Panama and drug kingpins in Colombia to support U.S. policies in region, fostering growth of crack and drug crisis in U.S.
22- Ferdinand Marcos. VP George Bush salutes Marcos' "commitment to democracy" as U.S. continues to prop up his dictatorship in the Philippines.
23- James Watt, Earl Butz, Ed Meese. Reagan cabinet members.
24- El Salvador. U.S. funded and trained death-squads and their government sponsors kill tens of thousands of Salvadorans, plus an archbishop and U.S. nuns.
25- Income gap. Richest 10% hold 73% of country's net worth following the Reagan years. Ratio of executive pay to factory worker pay goes from 42:1 in 1980 to 419:1.
MEANWHILE, NOAM SAYS,
Fidicen forwards an analysis by Noam Chomsky on Z Mag. It’s real long, there’s some encouraging stuff at the end that makes clear that world opinion, particularly when demonstrated en masse can put a partial brake even on the likes of George Bush.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5660
CRYPTIQUE – Still trapped in the devil’s bargain.
Yeah, I know it’s an old Saturday Night Live joke from the 1970s Belushi era, but what the hell, it’s vintage. I never really expected all this. Like I said in the last post (funereal pun?) CityBeat are running my best take on the Reagan mortality circus on Thursday, but here in the meantime is a handy antidote to all the sentimentality oozing from the TV by Charles Idelson. It seems to have been circling the internet, but it was forwarded by some girl...
25 REASONS TO NOT MOURN REAGAN (in no particular order, add your own)
1- Nicaraguan contras. Reagan called them the "moral equivalent of our founding fathers." U.S. created terror army in Nicaragua murdered tens of thousands of people and destroyed a social revolution; today majority of Nicaraguans live in poverty in the 2nd poorest country in the hemisphere after Haiti.
2- PATCO. 11,000 union air traffic controllers fired by Reagan, opened and encouraged a new era of union busting by employers and anti-union policies.
3- Reganomics, as Papa Bush called it "voodoo economics," how to carry out the biggest tax cut for the rich and biggest military buildup in decades while maintaining a balanced budget. It didn't work.
4- Afghanistan. CIA created, trained, funded, and armed "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, to fight the Soviets.
5- "Trees Cause Pollution". Said Reagan, removing thousands of acres of public land to hand them over to timber, oil and mining corporations.
6- Star Wars, MX "peacekeeper" missile, B-1 bomber. And other destabilizing weapons systems intended to foster a new arms race with the Soviets and create a new U.S.-first strike capability.
7- Bitburg. Reagan's pays homage to Hitler's most elite military group while visiting an SS cemetery, calls the SS victims of Nazism "just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."
8- Antonin Scalia. Appointed by Reagan to the Supreme Court.
9- Angola. CIA funds and arms a terror guerilla army that kills millions in a two-decade war, with an ongoing legacy of the world's most land mines.
10- Civil Rights. Justice Department slashes funding for civil rights enforcement.
11- "Aristocratic Movement". As one historian put it. Ron and Nancy become patrons of aristocratic culture in fashion, communications, etc. "Dynasty" and "Lives of the Rich and Famous" become major TV shows.
12- Iran Contra Affair. Secret White House cabal sells arms to Iran to fund contras, subverting the Constitution and avoiding Congressional oversight.
13- Guatemala. Rightwing, evangelist dictatorship funded and armed, with frequent massacres of the indigenous population, and 1/8 of population displaced. Dictator Rios Montt says on national TV he had "declared a state of siege so we could kill legally." Regan says Rios Montt had a "bum rap" on human rights abuses.
14- "Ketchup is a vegetable." Dept. of Agriculture says ketchup can be counted as a vegetable for calculating nutritional value in school lunches to facilitate major cuts in public school lunch funding.
15- William Rehnquist. Appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Reagan.
16- Savings and Loan Scandal. Created by banking industry deregulation, costs U.S. taxpayers billions to bail out failed S&Ls.
17- Homelessness. Grows by the millions as "Reaganville" homeless camps are created across U.S. Regan says many are "homeless by choice."
18- Conspicuous consumption. "Yachting," "Gourmet," "Architectural Digest," and "Wine Spectator" are the fastest growing U.S. magazines, with the aid of the biggest tax cut for the rich in U.S. history.
19- Industrial wastelands. Mass shift of high-wage industrial jobs overseas, creating ghost lands in the industrial heartland.
20- South Africa. U.S. opposes divestiture and continues to back white rule in Pretoria defying growing worldwide anti-apartheid movement.
21- CIA drug running. CIA supports drug empires in Latin America, including Manuel Noriega in Panama and drug kingpins in Colombia to support U.S. policies in region, fostering growth of crack and drug crisis in U.S.
22- Ferdinand Marcos. VP George Bush salutes Marcos' "commitment to democracy" as U.S. continues to prop up his dictatorship in the Philippines.
23- James Watt, Earl Butz, Ed Meese. Reagan cabinet members.
24- El Salvador. U.S. funded and trained death-squads and their government sponsors kill tens of thousands of Salvadorans, plus an archbishop and U.S. nuns.
25- Income gap. Richest 10% hold 73% of country's net worth following the Reagan years. Ratio of executive pay to factory worker pay goes from 42:1 in 1980 to 419:1.
MEANWHILE, NOAM SAYS,
Fidicen forwards an analysis by Noam Chomsky on Z Mag. It’s real long, there’s some encouraging stuff at the end that makes clear that world opinion, particularly when demonstrated en masse can put a partial brake even on the likes of George Bush.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5660
CRYPTIQUE – Still trapped in the devil’s bargain.
Monday, June 07, 2004
THE LONGEST DAY REVISITED
I just finished committing my thoughts on the death of Ronald Reagan to a dubious posterity, and if all goes well, they will appear in LA CityBeat this coming Thursday, and you’ll find a link right here on Doc40. Until then I can have little more to say without preempting what I’ve already written, and that wouldn’t be right.
And talking of preempting, the passing of the old TV patriarch rather did it to yesterday's big 60th aniversary if D-Day, but kaymo sends the following as an antidote to any excess of posthumous military self-congratulation.
Self deception seems to be the flavor of the hour this weekend. Reagan's death has brought all kinds of right wing blowhard hypocrites back onto TV, with scarcely a mention of Iran/Contra, or the sale of nerve gas to a certain Iraqi "strongman" named Saddam Hussein. And over in Normandy we have the Western self-congratulations club talking up D-Day as the "event that turned the tide" back in 1944. Which, of course, is self-serving rubbish. Without taking anything away from the 50,000 or so Allied soldiers who died in the battle for Normandy, we need to put their achievement in perspective. While the British and Canadian armies were fighting tooth and nail to dislodge the 12th SS Panzer Division from the town of Caen, a struggle that went on for more than a month, and American forces were capturing the Cotentin peninsula and opening up the western end of the Normandy front, on the other side of Europe, in Byelorussia, the Soviet Red Army was smashing the entire Wehrmacht Army Group Center. 1.4 million Russians, equipped with 5,200 tanks, supported by 5,000 aircraft, were unleashed on 23 June against the 1.2 million strong Axis forces, with 900 tanks and 1350 aircraft of Army Group Center that were marshalled in a deeply echeloned defensive position. By the time the Hitlerjugend fanatics of the SS had been pried out of Caen, around July 20th, the Red Army had blasted its way through many miles of German defenses and hurried westwards, capturing hundreds of thousands of troops and territory equal to that of France in its entirety. We will not see any commemoration of the Byelorussian Campaign of the summer of 44 on our TVs this year. Nor will we hear a whisper of these truths.
1/ If the Nazis had not been engaged in a struggle to the death with the Soviet Union there would not have been any D-Day in Normandy. In fact, atomic weapons would have been the only way to
break Hitler's grip on Europe, and the use of atomic weapons on European cities would have posed a very different political challenge from their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2/ The drive behind D-Day and the Anglo-US invasion of France was the very strong fear that the
Soviet Union would defeat Nazi Germany single handed sometime in 1945 and liberate France itself not long after. This would have provided the ultimate in nightmarish outcomes to British weakness and American isolationism in the 1920s and 30s, a Soviet Europe encompassing everything north of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
MEANWHILE...
Davinian sends the link to following sample on online Jesus merch that has to be seen to be believed especially the martial arts figurine.
http://www.boricreligious.com/JesusSportsDetail.htm
While capitolhillblue is making itself the hottest new Bush-hater gossip site, with stories like this one that I devoutly hope are true
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
CRYPTIQUE – Dee plus one.
I just finished committing my thoughts on the death of Ronald Reagan to a dubious posterity, and if all goes well, they will appear in LA CityBeat this coming Thursday, and you’ll find a link right here on Doc40. Until then I can have little more to say without preempting what I’ve already written, and that wouldn’t be right.
And talking of preempting, the passing of the old TV patriarch rather did it to yesterday's big 60th aniversary if D-Day, but kaymo sends the following as an antidote to any excess of posthumous military self-congratulation.
Self deception seems to be the flavor of the hour this weekend. Reagan's death has brought all kinds of right wing blowhard hypocrites back onto TV, with scarcely a mention of Iran/Contra, or the sale of nerve gas to a certain Iraqi "strongman" named Saddam Hussein. And over in Normandy we have the Western self-congratulations club talking up D-Day as the "event that turned the tide" back in 1944. Which, of course, is self-serving rubbish. Without taking anything away from the 50,000 or so Allied soldiers who died in the battle for Normandy, we need to put their achievement in perspective. While the British and Canadian armies were fighting tooth and nail to dislodge the 12th SS Panzer Division from the town of Caen, a struggle that went on for more than a month, and American forces were capturing the Cotentin peninsula and opening up the western end of the Normandy front, on the other side of Europe, in Byelorussia, the Soviet Red Army was smashing the entire Wehrmacht Army Group Center. 1.4 million Russians, equipped with 5,200 tanks, supported by 5,000 aircraft, were unleashed on 23 June against the 1.2 million strong Axis forces, with 900 tanks and 1350 aircraft of Army Group Center that were marshalled in a deeply echeloned defensive position. By the time the Hitlerjugend fanatics of the SS had been pried out of Caen, around July 20th, the Red Army had blasted its way through many miles of German defenses and hurried westwards, capturing hundreds of thousands of troops and territory equal to that of France in its entirety. We will not see any commemoration of the Byelorussian Campaign of the summer of 44 on our TVs this year. Nor will we hear a whisper of these truths.
1/ If the Nazis had not been engaged in a struggle to the death with the Soviet Union there would not have been any D-Day in Normandy. In fact, atomic weapons would have been the only way to
break Hitler's grip on Europe, and the use of atomic weapons on European cities would have posed a very different political challenge from their use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
2/ The drive behind D-Day and the Anglo-US invasion of France was the very strong fear that the
Soviet Union would defeat Nazi Germany single handed sometime in 1945 and liberate France itself not long after. This would have provided the ultimate in nightmarish outcomes to British weakness and American isolationism in the 1920s and 30s, a Soviet Europe encompassing everything north of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
MEANWHILE...
Davinian sends the link to following sample on online Jesus merch that has to be seen to be believed especially the martial arts figurine.
http://www.boricreligious.com/JesusSportsDetail.htm
While capitolhillblue is making itself the hottest new Bush-hater gossip site, with stories like this one that I devoutly hope are true
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
CRYPTIQUE – Dee plus one.
Friday, June 04, 2004
FRIDAY FUNNIES
Some girl forwards the following...
President Bush gets out of his helicopter in front of the White House carrying a baby pig under each arm. The Marine guard snaps to attention, salutes, and says: "Nice pigs, sir."
Bush replies: "These are not pigs, these are Texan Razorback Hogs. I got one for Vice-President Cheney, and I got one for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld."
The Marine again snaps to attention, salutes, and says, "Nice trade, sir.”
Yesterday were touched on the subject of fetishes. Now check this out from MSNBC...
A London man, unemployed and apparently left with nothing better to do, has been harassing hospitals with repeated visits. His ailment: nothing, really, other than a fetish for medical items. He has hit up area hospitals more than 40 times since January, feigning illness in pursuit of hospital garb. He has even claimed to need masks and gowns for a dress rehearsal of a play. Now his fetishistic behavior has landed him in a fine mess. Banned from every hospital in England and Wales. If he ever becomes ill he will be allowed into a hospital only with prior written consent. Playing doctor can simply go too far.
AND A LITTLE MORE SERIOUSLY
Some girl (again, and thanx)...
Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq...
for the rest of the story go to...
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4629.shtml
CRYPTIQUE – Pigs coming home to roost?
Some girl forwards the following...
President Bush gets out of his helicopter in front of the White House carrying a baby pig under each arm. The Marine guard snaps to attention, salutes, and says: "Nice pigs, sir."
Bush replies: "These are not pigs, these are Texan Razorback Hogs. I got one for Vice-President Cheney, and I got one for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld."
The Marine again snaps to attention, salutes, and says, "Nice trade, sir.”
Yesterday were touched on the subject of fetishes. Now check this out from MSNBC...
A London man, unemployed and apparently left with nothing better to do, has been harassing hospitals with repeated visits. His ailment: nothing, really, other than a fetish for medical items. He has hit up area hospitals more than 40 times since January, feigning illness in pursuit of hospital garb. He has even claimed to need masks and gowns for a dress rehearsal of a play. Now his fetishistic behavior has landed him in a fine mess. Banned from every hospital in England and Wales. If he ever becomes ill he will be allowed into a hospital only with prior written consent. Playing doctor can simply go too far.
AND A LITTLE MORE SERIOUSLY
Some girl (again, and thanx)...
Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq...
for the rest of the story go to...
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4629.shtml
CRYPTIQUE – Pigs coming home to roost?
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
THE DIVINE MARQUIS OF ABU GHARIB
Mind-altering drugs, bondage, nudity, sodomy, dog leashes, humiliation, sensory deprivation, electric shock, video cameras, women in combat boots – in another context it would all add up to one hell of a party. Not of course one that I would care to attend. (Well, maybe I would, depending very much on who was in attendance and engaging in all of the above. But isn’t that the way of it with most parties?) But this isn’t a fun context. Even aside from the macro-context of oil, interrogation, war, and global domination, the horrors of Abu Gee are what come about when two highly repressive and sexually challenged, patriarchal belief systems become locked in a major league, holy pissing contest.
Ron Garmon has already written an excellent piece on how the Iraqi Freedom Torture Tapes have already begun to circulate on the atrocity-porn underground, (http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=914&IssueNum=50)
and I think that I’ve also speculated in passing how the camouflage dominatrix/interrogatrix might – well before the current scandal – have established her place in the universal s&m dogleash fantasy beside the more conventional whip kittens in sculpted, lace-up leather and whatever.
I have often been accused of having difficulty in differentiating between fantasy and reality, but I have always maintained this is not me problem. I actually have a highly tuned grasp – give or take a semi-tone or two – of what is fanciful and what might be plausible in some strange realm of complicity. I have also long been well aware that the control of fantasy is the key to the Jungian masterlock and fundamentalists, both Islamic and Christian, are well aware of this too. That is why they strive so hard to censor, and contain. They suppress the essential question “what if” and the seductive “just suppose”, and cloak sexuality in the shroud of guilt, hoping to make the subject mind incapable of anything but the angry lockstep of fear-ridden, God-worshiping rage.
Although the cosmic waitress has yet to present the check, a price is going to have to be paid for all this over and above the purely temporal condemnation of a government caught resorting to the torture manual. The well of psycho-sexual misery is deep enough already. This time, Bush’s America may lose its bucket.
The Buggers in Holland have just emailed me Position #6 in which they delve into exactly this abyss...
The sexually dominant women and pseudo-homosexual acts in the Abu Ghraib photographs have been interpreted worldwide as a deliberate cruelty against Muslims. We don't question that. After all, the most widespread and consistent criticism of Islam in the West concerns its inequality of men and women and rejection of homosexuality. There's nothing like a good kick in the groin to teach the Muslim buggers the meaning of freedom, is there? This interpretation, however, concentrates solely on the effect that the photographs have on Muslims, and ignores the effect they have on Western societies. An effect that hasn't been overlooked by military expert Elaine Donnelly* as can be concluded from her cynical remark that Lynndie England's portrait with a Muslim on a leash "is exactly what feminists have dreamed of for years." We are sure that this remark says more about Donnelly's fears and desires than it does about Western feminism, and denounce this attempt to criminate Western feminists in the sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib.
It isn't the first time that conservatives hide behind gay and feminist causes to justify their attacks on Islam. Finding common ground with gays and feminists against Islam has already proved a successful strategy, notably in Western societies with large numbers of Muslim immigrants. As examples of such occasional coalitions we mention the attacks on headscarves and on imams, mosques and Islamic publications that condemn homosexuality. Attacks that endanger all sorts of fundamental rights in democratic societies and go to the heart of Western constitutions. In their attempts to gain control over Islam and over their own societies conservative politicians, parties and administrations shamelessly deploy any social and moral cause, even the causes of known political adversaries.
In many feminist protests against the Abu Ghraib torture practices embarrassment was heard at the fact that women were actively involved in sexual abuse. Embarrassment sometimes to the extent that not Lynndie England was held responsible for her acts but her boyfriend, the macho military system, male-centred pornography, etc. Gay rights organisations have raised protests varying from disgust at the discovery that US intelligence services use forced homosexual acts as an instrument of torture to indignant statements that this kind of torture has nothing to do with homosexuality at all. We feel that these reactions concentrate too much on the rejection of
responsibility and underestimate the message of the photographs. After all, the gross and degrading caricatures of liberated women and gay men starring in the Abu Ghraib photographs reveal the true motives behind conservatives' concern with gay rights and women's liberation. Gay and feminist stereotypes are used as weapons in the war on Islam. As kinky roles in state
pornography.
Although it looks like the Pentagon has miscalculated the effects that the photographs would have in the West, it's hard to say what the effects will be on an unconscious level. Elaine Donnelly unwittingly hints at this with her remarks that Lynndie England's portrait "has a powerful influence on young women" and that "these women may not have been aware of it." Military
experts, we must admit, show little naivety when it comes to the power of pornography. Abu Ghraib as a real place of torture has served its purpose and can be demolished; as the filmset for military pornography, however, it will have longer and wider range of effect. As an example of this
long-lasting power of pornography we mention De Sade's La Nouvelle Justine, written in the Bastille in 1788, in which Monsieur Rodin shouts "By all fucked Gods of Christianity, nothing is better than fucking this way", as he stacks the naked body of his daughter on top of that of the virtuous Justine and sodomises them alternately with his friend while his governess beats the
two men. La Nouvelle Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu** has had a long history of prohibition and censorship in Christian countries. Let's get it out and pitch the Bastille against Abu Ghraib.
MEANWHILE...
Some girl forwards a link to the Great Diebolt Cybervote Swindle...
http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm
CRYPTIQUE – On your feet or on your knees.
Mind-altering drugs, bondage, nudity, sodomy, dog leashes, humiliation, sensory deprivation, electric shock, video cameras, women in combat boots – in another context it would all add up to one hell of a party. Not of course one that I would care to attend. (Well, maybe I would, depending very much on who was in attendance and engaging in all of the above. But isn’t that the way of it with most parties?) But this isn’t a fun context. Even aside from the macro-context of oil, interrogation, war, and global domination, the horrors of Abu Gee are what come about when two highly repressive and sexually challenged, patriarchal belief systems become locked in a major league, holy pissing contest.
Ron Garmon has already written an excellent piece on how the Iraqi Freedom Torture Tapes have already begun to circulate on the atrocity-porn underground, (http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=914&IssueNum=50)
and I think that I’ve also speculated in passing how the camouflage dominatrix/interrogatrix might – well before the current scandal – have established her place in the universal s&m dogleash fantasy beside the more conventional whip kittens in sculpted, lace-up leather and whatever.
I have often been accused of having difficulty in differentiating between fantasy and reality, but I have always maintained this is not me problem. I actually have a highly tuned grasp – give or take a semi-tone or two – of what is fanciful and what might be plausible in some strange realm of complicity. I have also long been well aware that the control of fantasy is the key to the Jungian masterlock and fundamentalists, both Islamic and Christian, are well aware of this too. That is why they strive so hard to censor, and contain. They suppress the essential question “what if” and the seductive “just suppose”, and cloak sexuality in the shroud of guilt, hoping to make the subject mind incapable of anything but the angry lockstep of fear-ridden, God-worshiping rage.
Although the cosmic waitress has yet to present the check, a price is going to have to be paid for all this over and above the purely temporal condemnation of a government caught resorting to the torture manual. The well of psycho-sexual misery is deep enough already. This time, Bush’s America may lose its bucket.
The Buggers in Holland have just emailed me Position #6 in which they delve into exactly this abyss...
The sexually dominant women and pseudo-homosexual acts in the Abu Ghraib photographs have been interpreted worldwide as a deliberate cruelty against Muslims. We don't question that. After all, the most widespread and consistent criticism of Islam in the West concerns its inequality of men and women and rejection of homosexuality. There's nothing like a good kick in the groin to teach the Muslim buggers the meaning of freedom, is there? This interpretation, however, concentrates solely on the effect that the photographs have on Muslims, and ignores the effect they have on Western societies. An effect that hasn't been overlooked by military expert Elaine Donnelly* as can be concluded from her cynical remark that Lynndie England's portrait with a Muslim on a leash "is exactly what feminists have dreamed of for years." We are sure that this remark says more about Donnelly's fears and desires than it does about Western feminism, and denounce this attempt to criminate Western feminists in the sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib.
It isn't the first time that conservatives hide behind gay and feminist causes to justify their attacks on Islam. Finding common ground with gays and feminists against Islam has already proved a successful strategy, notably in Western societies with large numbers of Muslim immigrants. As examples of such occasional coalitions we mention the attacks on headscarves and on imams, mosques and Islamic publications that condemn homosexuality. Attacks that endanger all sorts of fundamental rights in democratic societies and go to the heart of Western constitutions. In their attempts to gain control over Islam and over their own societies conservative politicians, parties and administrations shamelessly deploy any social and moral cause, even the causes of known political adversaries.
In many feminist protests against the Abu Ghraib torture practices embarrassment was heard at the fact that women were actively involved in sexual abuse. Embarrassment sometimes to the extent that not Lynndie England was held responsible for her acts but her boyfriend, the macho military system, male-centred pornography, etc. Gay rights organisations have raised protests varying from disgust at the discovery that US intelligence services use forced homosexual acts as an instrument of torture to indignant statements that this kind of torture has nothing to do with homosexuality at all. We feel that these reactions concentrate too much on the rejection of
responsibility and underestimate the message of the photographs. After all, the gross and degrading caricatures of liberated women and gay men starring in the Abu Ghraib photographs reveal the true motives behind conservatives' concern with gay rights and women's liberation. Gay and feminist stereotypes are used as weapons in the war on Islam. As kinky roles in state
pornography.
Although it looks like the Pentagon has miscalculated the effects that the photographs would have in the West, it's hard to say what the effects will be on an unconscious level. Elaine Donnelly unwittingly hints at this with her remarks that Lynndie England's portrait "has a powerful influence on young women" and that "these women may not have been aware of it." Military
experts, we must admit, show little naivety when it comes to the power of pornography. Abu Ghraib as a real place of torture has served its purpose and can be demolished; as the filmset for military pornography, however, it will have longer and wider range of effect. As an example of this
long-lasting power of pornography we mention De Sade's La Nouvelle Justine, written in the Bastille in 1788, in which Monsieur Rodin shouts "By all fucked Gods of Christianity, nothing is better than fucking this way", as he stacks the naked body of his daughter on top of that of the virtuous Justine and sodomises them alternately with his friend while his governess beats the
two men. La Nouvelle Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu** has had a long history of prohibition and censorship in Christian countries. Let's get it out and pitch the Bastille against Abu Ghraib.
MEANWHILE...
Some girl forwards a link to the Great Diebolt Cybervote Swindle...
http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm
CRYPTIQUE – On your feet or on your knees.
Monday, May 31, 2004
HOLIDAY WEEKEND
Memorial Day in the USA, remembering the fallen, or at least paying lip service, nothing in TV except war movie marathons, and no traditional orgy of eating or drinking to soak up the time, so I actually decided to take a day or so off, and so, before this moment, I had not opened the lid of the laptop for almost thirty-six hours. I kinda felt I was entitled. Recent recall has, to say the least, been hectic, and, except for one or two highly notable pinnacles, it has been that worst of all possible hectics – the relentless pressure of the mundane.
I did, however, finally manage to see The Return of the King, and, as Larry Wallis might put it, was mightily impressed. “Now this”, I muttered, as Aragon cut his deal with the Army of the Dead, “is what you fucking call an epic.” Gollum just gets better and better and in a perfect world would have his own TV show. I was kinda choked up by the fate of the pachyderms of Mordor. I mean, it wasn’t their fault they were on the wrong side.
I’ve also pretty much burned out on CGI battlefields, and grow nostalgic for the days when epics like Waterloo or Lawrence of Arabia made use of the entire Yugoslav or Moroccan Army. They had a real tactical ebb and flow.
I knew up front that the Hobbits’ final encounter with Wormtongue – and what the ever-reactionary Tolkien made sound a whole lot like post-World War II Brit socialism – had been cut, but I still hope it will show up on the extended DVD that will undoubtedly be released in time for Christmas. All in all, however, I was well pleased, and will avidly watch it all again before the disc goes back to Blockbuster.
It’ll probably be months before I get round to seeing the big weekend movie, The Day After Tomorrow, and get to liken it to the way George Pal drowned New York in When Worlds Collide, but I have been catching all the Republican indignation that anyone dare suggest that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is anything but the best possible way to treat the planet. I also discovered that we who are not flocking to Kerry, but are determined to see Bush out of office, have been given a name. We are the Bush-Haters. Hardly slick or original, but it does give a boy a sense of identity.
FROM THE EMAIL
Yukiko sends a climatic note for the other side of the Pacific, indicating I am not alone in my unease over global weather patterns...
We had the second typhoon of this year last week and about 40+ are expected by the end of October. As in L.A., the temperature keeps going up in Tokyo as well. The scientists have discovered recently that, if the buildings in Tokyo have a garden with trees on the roof, it will effectively lower the temperature in the city by 2-3C. Accordingly, some new enterprises have begun to develop the soil that weighs less, new plants that need less water, new watering system, etc. and more buildings have rooftop gardens now. A few years ago in a rural area, some toxic tropical mushrooms grew up in the forest due to the unusually hot weather. Since they looked exactly like the harmless ones that the locals usually eat, a man picked it up, ate it at home, and died. It's amazing how creative the nature can be to take its revenge on the human being.
CRYPTIQUE – Gojiro!
Memorial Day in the USA, remembering the fallen, or at least paying lip service, nothing in TV except war movie marathons, and no traditional orgy of eating or drinking to soak up the time, so I actually decided to take a day or so off, and so, before this moment, I had not opened the lid of the laptop for almost thirty-six hours. I kinda felt I was entitled. Recent recall has, to say the least, been hectic, and, except for one or two highly notable pinnacles, it has been that worst of all possible hectics – the relentless pressure of the mundane.
I did, however, finally manage to see The Return of the King, and, as Larry Wallis might put it, was mightily impressed. “Now this”, I muttered, as Aragon cut his deal with the Army of the Dead, “is what you fucking call an epic.” Gollum just gets better and better and in a perfect world would have his own TV show. I was kinda choked up by the fate of the pachyderms of Mordor. I mean, it wasn’t their fault they were on the wrong side.
I’ve also pretty much burned out on CGI battlefields, and grow nostalgic for the days when epics like Waterloo or Lawrence of Arabia made use of the entire Yugoslav or Moroccan Army. They had a real tactical ebb and flow.
I knew up front that the Hobbits’ final encounter with Wormtongue – and what the ever-reactionary Tolkien made sound a whole lot like post-World War II Brit socialism – had been cut, but I still hope it will show up on the extended DVD that will undoubtedly be released in time for Christmas. All in all, however, I was well pleased, and will avidly watch it all again before the disc goes back to Blockbuster.
It’ll probably be months before I get round to seeing the big weekend movie, The Day After Tomorrow, and get to liken it to the way George Pal drowned New York in When Worlds Collide, but I have been catching all the Republican indignation that anyone dare suggest that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is anything but the best possible way to treat the planet. I also discovered that we who are not flocking to Kerry, but are determined to see Bush out of office, have been given a name. We are the Bush-Haters. Hardly slick or original, but it does give a boy a sense of identity.
FROM THE EMAIL
Yukiko sends a climatic note for the other side of the Pacific, indicating I am not alone in my unease over global weather patterns...
We had the second typhoon of this year last week and about 40+ are expected by the end of October. As in L.A., the temperature keeps going up in Tokyo as well. The scientists have discovered recently that, if the buildings in Tokyo have a garden with trees on the roof, it will effectively lower the temperature in the city by 2-3C. Accordingly, some new enterprises have begun to develop the soil that weighs less, new plants that need less water, new watering system, etc. and more buildings have rooftop gardens now. A few years ago in a rural area, some toxic tropical mushrooms grew up in the forest due to the unusually hot weather. Since they looked exactly like the harmless ones that the locals usually eat, a man picked it up, ate it at home, and died. It's amazing how creative the nature can be to take its revenge on the human being.
CRYPTIQUE – Gojiro!
Thursday, May 27, 2004
THIS MAY EXPLAIN EVERYTHING
The following list was forwarded by Bassmaster Doug. It was created by combining Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices of Average IQ with each state's election results from the 2000 presidential election.
State Avg. IQ and who they voted for in 2000
1 Connecticut 113 Gore
2 Massachusetts 111 Gore
3 New Jersey 111 Gore
4 New York 109 Gore
5 Rhode Island 107 Gore
6 Hawaii 106 Gore
7 Maryland 105 Gore
8 New Hampshire 105 Bush
9 Illinois 104 Gore
10 Delaware 103 Gore
11 Minnesota 102 Gore
12 Vermont 102 Gore
13 Washington 102 Gore
14 California 101 Gore
15 Pennsylvania 101 Gore
16 Maine 100 Gore
17 Virginia 100 Bush
18 Wisconsin 100 Gore
19 Colorado 99 Bush
20 Iowa 99 Gore
21 Michigan 99 Gore
22 Nevada 99 Bush
23 Ohio 99 Bush
24 Oregon 99 Gore
25 Alaska 98 Bush
26 Florida 98 Bush
27 Missouri 98 Bush
28 Kansas 96 Bush
29 Nebraska 95 Bush
30 Arizona 94 Bush
31 Indiana 94 Bush
32 Tennessee 94 Bush
33 North Carolina 93 Bush
34 West Virginia 93 Bush
35 Arkansas 92 Bush
36 Georgia 92 Bush
37 Kentucky 92 Bush
38 New Mexico 92 Gore
39 North Dakota 92 Bush
40 Texas 92 Bush
41 Alabama 90 Bush
42 Louisiana 90 Bush
43 Montana 90 Bush
44 Oklahoma 90 Bush
45 South Dakota 90 Bush
46 South Carolina 89 Bush
47 Wyoming 89 Bush
48 Idaho 87 Bush
49 Utah 87 Bush
50 Mississippi 85 Bush
Note to Republicans: This chart is not as bad as it looks. The correlation of electoral votes to IQ is a loose one. There are many variable that are obviously not included. Connecticut, for example, probably has a significantly higher rating now that George Bush lives in Texas. Though the pattern is a bit striking, this chart was posted to be somewhat amusing. What isn't amusing is the study showing a significant percentage of Americans are factually incorrect about very important issues. These include whether we found WMDs in Iraq, Iraq's ties to 9/11, and Iraq's ties to al Queda and terrorism in general. What's more striking is that of those who hold factual misperceptions of one or more of these issues, a vast majority support Bush. Bush's support is directly proportional to misperceptions of facts.
DO WE BELIEVE THIS?
An individual who says he’s Andy Kaufman has surfaced in New York City, claiming he faked his own death. Check it out for yourself.
http://andykaufmanreturns.blogspot.com/
AS WE KNOW IT
The following spam hit my inbox today...
Secretly read other people's E-Mails! Click here!
a.. Now you can easily ready anyone's e-mails on your pc!
b.. Use it to find out if your special someone cheats on you!
c.. Act now and save big on the amazing EMAIL SPY!
(No, I’m not giving the link.)
CRYPTIQUE – Replace the dilithium crystals.
The following list was forwarded by Bassmaster Doug. It was created by combining Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices of Average IQ with each state's election results from the 2000 presidential election.
State Avg. IQ and who they voted for in 2000
1 Connecticut 113 Gore
2 Massachusetts 111 Gore
3 New Jersey 111 Gore
4 New York 109 Gore
5 Rhode Island 107 Gore
6 Hawaii 106 Gore
7 Maryland 105 Gore
8 New Hampshire 105 Bush
9 Illinois 104 Gore
10 Delaware 103 Gore
11 Minnesota 102 Gore
12 Vermont 102 Gore
13 Washington 102 Gore
14 California 101 Gore
15 Pennsylvania 101 Gore
16 Maine 100 Gore
17 Virginia 100 Bush
18 Wisconsin 100 Gore
19 Colorado 99 Bush
20 Iowa 99 Gore
21 Michigan 99 Gore
22 Nevada 99 Bush
23 Ohio 99 Bush
24 Oregon 99 Gore
25 Alaska 98 Bush
26 Florida 98 Bush
27 Missouri 98 Bush
28 Kansas 96 Bush
29 Nebraska 95 Bush
30 Arizona 94 Bush
31 Indiana 94 Bush
32 Tennessee 94 Bush
33 North Carolina 93 Bush
34 West Virginia 93 Bush
35 Arkansas 92 Bush
36 Georgia 92 Bush
37 Kentucky 92 Bush
38 New Mexico 92 Gore
39 North Dakota 92 Bush
40 Texas 92 Bush
41 Alabama 90 Bush
42 Louisiana 90 Bush
43 Montana 90 Bush
44 Oklahoma 90 Bush
45 South Dakota 90 Bush
46 South Carolina 89 Bush
47 Wyoming 89 Bush
48 Idaho 87 Bush
49 Utah 87 Bush
50 Mississippi 85 Bush
Note to Republicans: This chart is not as bad as it looks. The correlation of electoral votes to IQ is a loose one. There are many variable that are obviously not included. Connecticut, for example, probably has a significantly higher rating now that George Bush lives in Texas. Though the pattern is a bit striking, this chart was posted to be somewhat amusing. What isn't amusing is the study showing a significant percentage of Americans are factually incorrect about very important issues. These include whether we found WMDs in Iraq, Iraq's ties to 9/11, and Iraq's ties to al Queda and terrorism in general. What's more striking is that of those who hold factual misperceptions of one or more of these issues, a vast majority support Bush. Bush's support is directly proportional to misperceptions of facts.
DO WE BELIEVE THIS?
An individual who says he’s Andy Kaufman has surfaced in New York City, claiming he faked his own death. Check it out for yourself.
http://andykaufmanreturns.blogspot.com/
AS WE KNOW IT
The following spam hit my inbox today...
Secretly read other people's E-Mails! Click here!
a.. Now you can easily ready anyone's e-mails on your pc!
b.. Use it to find out if your special someone cheats on you!
c.. Act now and save big on the amazing EMAIL SPY!
(No, I’m not giving the link.)
CRYPTIQUE – Replace the dilithium crystals.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
IN HIDING
Days occur when I feel like I should be in hiding. The surrealism that streams from the inescapable screens seems to suck all the air from the life support. (To the point, in this instance, that Doc40 almost, but not quite called in sick.) But then – while watching finally watching Matrix Revolution on ppv, that wasn’t quite as bad as I’d been led to believe – a thought occurred to me. Could it be that the forty something percentile for whom GWB can do no wrong (and probably find Jay Leno entertaining) are really protecting a desperate-deep and bovine emotional investment? Could it be that, in the dire aftermath of the Al Qaeda attack on New York, some were so consumed by fear of the out-there that they cleaved to the bullshit of the Bush Gang and now are too far-gone stubborn, even when there’s the pointless fucking crusade being lost to the Saracens, and the generals are turning against their fatuous hero, to admit, even to themselves, they made a dreadful mistake? Can we offer them some dignified, face-saving way out by which middle America can disengage from the greedy simian clutches?
But what constitutes a way out to people who believe in the imminent arrival of the Rapture?
Earlier, on PBS, Gore Vidal remarked that Hitler simply lacked the Bush charm. He smiled regally, but wasn't joking.
CRYPTIQUE – I’ve got a bike, you can ride if you like.
Days occur when I feel like I should be in hiding. The surrealism that streams from the inescapable screens seems to suck all the air from the life support. (To the point, in this instance, that Doc40 almost, but not quite called in sick.) But then – while watching finally watching Matrix Revolution on ppv, that wasn’t quite as bad as I’d been led to believe – a thought occurred to me. Could it be that the forty something percentile for whom GWB can do no wrong (and probably find Jay Leno entertaining) are really protecting a desperate-deep and bovine emotional investment? Could it be that, in the dire aftermath of the Al Qaeda attack on New York, some were so consumed by fear of the out-there that they cleaved to the bullshit of the Bush Gang and now are too far-gone stubborn, even when there’s the pointless fucking crusade being lost to the Saracens, and the generals are turning against their fatuous hero, to admit, even to themselves, they made a dreadful mistake? Can we offer them some dignified, face-saving way out by which middle America can disengage from the greedy simian clutches?
But what constitutes a way out to people who believe in the imminent arrival of the Rapture?
Earlier, on PBS, Gore Vidal remarked that Hitler simply lacked the Bush charm. He smiled regally, but wasn't joking.
CRYPTIQUE – I’ve got a bike, you can ride if you like.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
I THOUGH I WAS FINISHED WITH ALL THIS
I started collecting the poetry composed to beat spam blockers, and folks like munz and HCB (who incidently has an irrate letter printed in this months edition the Brit rock mag Mojo) sent me examples. But it all fast became repetitive and I grew bored, deciding that enough was a enough, and mail stuffers with computers were not going to write Howl no matter how long I waited. But then this one came over the electronic transom, and being of such size and determination, and also so totally lacking in typography, I couldn’t restrain myself from posting it (if only on the principal of waddaya-want-ona-Sunday?) Are we supposed to conclude the first word is a statement of influence? The last word is “octant.”
zimmerman efficient stockholder continuant question dominate thither bursty cyanide tap freedman inventor invincible aaa clausius corset sidewall asteroid wilsonian abram aarhus blomberg glimpse married repetition merry convince anatomic expatiate andean boorish rotogravure checklist bessel it requisite everglades antiperspirant ardent dragonfly nightcap profess diverge consequential mangle oedipus digram kerry diffractometer repent arizona perversion tv forgiven liable griffin competition monadic chamfer chlorinate conceptual alexander peal seismography spate elite converse lethargy preference ana flash coco eucre banbury timon estes radium pundit sent brendan claret chicken vengeful amerada ceramic cleanup climatology beecham abstain ketosis snare altogether coincide twice alexis impeach divert plump blockade plutonium slope bennett cos three dutchman inertance conspicuous scrooge militate kazoo caveman avocet kruse whitcomb newbold adulate angstrom courage churchwomen detach pyongyang atavism desiderata coolheaded uniprocessor manor there'll anonymity discomfit cleavage automata algorithm anglophobia fischer mussel arid tack twine illusive snakelike skylight firehouse revocable bedevil gentry bitt knurl hesperus berea angular buchanan crowberry beginner attache ambassador often harrow bmw maya cheney fete shatterproof mullen cravat domingo armour economic result curtain workmanlike teamster cryptanalyst emplace fang bookshelves cola ampersand ameslan apprehensive friedman cinema umbra excavate ark curdle conciliatory dossier crankcase babyhood papa reserpine roam lundquist lethe pant embryo datum scribble arty apparatus clomp o'connell convex unbidden ocean dixie loretta comprehend catatonic tamarack teen anneal chair mayst admix conscience presage opossum midweek hoot coupon biddable snow strangle trianon carlton allspice campus congestive lounge judicature teensy verity innocent depress antarctic dunlap dihedral entropy dextrose cabinetry eggshell blackout lobule project czech sleight saturate seeable boldface etymology culpa bicker dust modicum loy alga sorrowful beefy definitive census pierson consul regimen angora slim pantheism bauhaus warehouse anton uhf butterfly colby footstool antonio jibe tribal teenage faculty insouciant pomp bellyache matthews citron eyed dreamy edwina homology pintail captious sputnik tactile klein sooth aquarius desire ukraine raw sheriff bespeak graze blocky appraise blanchard bandage bluejacket besiege detonable chicory aphrodite prescriptive broglie herpetology cooky shoal fete longhand let playtime cavil washy duff mustang staff ashmolean agony floor boolean resistive polytechnic eigenvector disseminate enfant husky linda load remark bead contestant coda why maltose oratorical custom brassiere snipe walt latinate anita differentiable lifelike garibaldi holt annoy echidna dispelling refugee coercible mortem board balkan cupric troika chain tintype concatenate coliseum cluj simonson deception harold bookseller contaminant fogging clearwater billy muslin sagebrush eke statesmen gab formidable nazism oriental standpoint beam coquina carey wabash infatuate campaign jeremiah manifest puffin harmonica colorimeter tansy don chickadee east thirteenth dive finery dandy allis highest assessor pulverable zagging dragon booth contingent seidel gog tension armchair cabin deciduous strive dater octant
CRYPTIQUE – Who needs a cryptique after all that gibberish?
I started collecting the poetry composed to beat spam blockers, and folks like munz and HCB (who incidently has an irrate letter printed in this months edition the Brit rock mag Mojo) sent me examples. But it all fast became repetitive and I grew bored, deciding that enough was a enough, and mail stuffers with computers were not going to write Howl no matter how long I waited. But then this one came over the electronic transom, and being of such size and determination, and also so totally lacking in typography, I couldn’t restrain myself from posting it (if only on the principal of waddaya-want-ona-Sunday?) Are we supposed to conclude the first word is a statement of influence? The last word is “octant.”
zimmerman efficient stockholder continuant question dominate thither bursty cyanide tap freedman inventor invincible aaa clausius corset sidewall asteroid wilsonian abram aarhus blomberg glimpse married repetition merry convince anatomic expatiate andean boorish rotogravure checklist bessel it requisite everglades antiperspirant ardent dragonfly nightcap profess diverge consequential mangle oedipus digram kerry diffractometer repent arizona perversion tv forgiven liable griffin competition monadic chamfer chlorinate conceptual alexander peal seismography spate elite converse lethargy preference ana flash coco eucre banbury timon estes radium pundit sent brendan claret chicken vengeful amerada ceramic cleanup climatology beecham abstain ketosis snare altogether coincide twice alexis impeach divert plump blockade plutonium slope bennett cos three dutchman inertance conspicuous scrooge militate kazoo caveman avocet kruse whitcomb newbold adulate angstrom courage churchwomen detach pyongyang atavism desiderata coolheaded uniprocessor manor there'll anonymity discomfit cleavage automata algorithm anglophobia fischer mussel arid tack twine illusive snakelike skylight firehouse revocable bedevil gentry bitt knurl hesperus berea angular buchanan crowberry beginner attache ambassador often harrow bmw maya cheney fete shatterproof mullen cravat domingo armour economic result curtain workmanlike teamster cryptanalyst emplace fang bookshelves cola ampersand ameslan apprehensive friedman cinema umbra excavate ark curdle conciliatory dossier crankcase babyhood papa reserpine roam lundquist lethe pant embryo datum scribble arty apparatus clomp o'connell convex unbidden ocean dixie loretta comprehend catatonic tamarack teen anneal chair mayst admix conscience presage opossum midweek hoot coupon biddable snow strangle trianon carlton allspice campus congestive lounge judicature teensy verity innocent depress antarctic dunlap dihedral entropy dextrose cabinetry eggshell blackout lobule project czech sleight saturate seeable boldface etymology culpa bicker dust modicum loy alga sorrowful beefy definitive census pierson consul regimen angora slim pantheism bauhaus warehouse anton uhf butterfly colby footstool antonio jibe tribal teenage faculty insouciant pomp bellyache matthews citron eyed dreamy edwina homology pintail captious sputnik tactile klein sooth aquarius desire ukraine raw sheriff bespeak graze blocky appraise blanchard bandage bluejacket besiege detonable chicory aphrodite prescriptive broglie herpetology cooky shoal fete longhand let playtime cavil washy duff mustang staff ashmolean agony floor boolean resistive polytechnic eigenvector disseminate enfant husky linda load remark bead contestant coda why maltose oratorical custom brassiere snipe walt latinate anita differentiable lifelike garibaldi holt annoy echidna dispelling refugee coercible mortem board balkan cupric troika chain tintype concatenate coliseum cluj simonson deception harold bookseller contaminant fogging clearwater billy muslin sagebrush eke statesmen gab formidable nazism oriental standpoint beam coquina carey wabash infatuate campaign jeremiah manifest puffin harmonica colorimeter tansy don chickadee east thirteenth dive finery dandy allis highest assessor pulverable zagging dragon booth contingent seidel gog tension armchair cabin deciduous strive dater octant
CRYPTIQUE – Who needs a cryptique after all that gibberish?
Friday, May 21, 2004
WHEN DOES THE SHIT STOP?
Now Ahmad Chalabi is screwed, and might take Rummy down with him. How long, I keep asking myself, can this administration last? It’s unreal. Even Nixon would have been drinking heavy by now.
WE DON’T KNOW SHIT
This is real long, but I couldn’t resist it. The piece is by Jonathan Isbit and forwarded by our favorite southern belle.
The term "appendicitis" was coined in 1886 by a Harvard anatomy professor named Reginald Heber Fitz. Most people assume that the disease has always afflicted humanity. But actually, it's only been around for about 150 years - and only in the western world. Why did it suddenly appear? And why only in the West? And what causes appendicitis? Ask any gastroenterologist these questions and you'll get the same answer: "Nobody knows." A number of other colon and pelvic diseases also got their start toward the end of the nineteenth century - including diverticulosis, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and prostate and uterine disorders. The medical profession responded by devising ever more sophisticated surgical techniques to remove the diseased organs. Once again, having no inkling of the cause, they ruled out any means of prevention.In the 1970s, a British surgeon named Denis Burkitt, who had practiced medicine in Ugandafor twenty years, reported a remarkable absence of these ailments among the people of Africa. The same diseases that afflict African-Americans in large numbers were curiously absent in the land of their ancestors. Further research by epidemiologists showed a similar immunity in Asian countries, especially the rural areas. And once again, on moving to the West, these ethnic groups quickly became just as prone to western diseases as the rest of the population. Dr. Burkitt believed that two aspects of the Africans' lifestyle protected them from colon ailments. First, their diet contained higher levels of fiber. And second, they used the natural squatting posture for bowel movements. Western researchers immediately latched onto the first factor, preferring to ignore the second one...that the true culprit may actually be the modern commode. Diet may have little or nothing to do with these diseases.
Historically, human beings have always squatted for bodily functions. Every infant instinctively uses this method until he is forced to sit on a potty. Most of the adults in the world continue to use squat toilets all their lives. It was only about 150 years ago that the "porcelain throne" came into widespread use. It was basically a fad that started in England and quickly spread throughout the western world. No country wanted to appear backward and uncivilized, and no one at the time realized what the medical consequences might be. Even if they happened to be aware of the drawbacks of this new, contrived method of evacuation, they were unwilling or unable to break the Victorian taboo surrounding the subject. As the fad continued to spread, doctors noticed a mysterious upsurge in colon, bladder, and reproductive diseases. The medical profession was caught in a conflict of interest. Since treatment was becoming so lucrative, they had little motivation to explore the cause or to find means of prevention. How does the modern commode contribute to these diseases? There are two basic kinds of damage. The first comes from pressure on the pelvic floor from chronic straining in the sitting position. Over time, the pelvic floor "descends," stretching and injuring the nerves that supply the bladder, the prostate and the uterus. The result is that these organs become dysfunctional and prone to disease. The second type of damage is caused by fecal stagnation, from incomplete evacuation. A polluted colon is prone to cancer, diverticulosis, appendicitis, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. The following explanation of appendicitis answers the questions with which this article began: The appendix is attached to the cecum, at the beginning of the colon. When fecal matter gets lodged in the appendix, it hardens, causing the appendix to suffocate and die. This only happens to users of the modern commode, for two reasons: The cecum cannot be fully evacuated in the sitting position. It needs to be squeezed empty by the right thigh while squatting. Pushing down with the diaphragm in the sitting position can force waste matter into the appendix. On a squat toilet, you don't hold your breath or push downwards. The posture itself effortlessly generates the required pressure for expulsion. The appendix was not "poorly designed" - contrary to what is taught in medical schools. Like the rest of the colon, it was designed with squatting in mind.
http://naturesplatform.com
And while we’re in the bathroom, the following comes from both some girl and Keith Oberman
A toilet to keep men in line. Or rather, a gadget that attaches to the toilet. The ghost-shaped device (why a ghost?) sits under the toilet rim and if the seat is lifted, chastises in a stern female voice. "Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up”... The device has sold 1.6 million units in Germany. (The land that gave us Zyklon B)
OUTSOURCING
I have a pleasant piece of fluff in this weeks LA CityBeat with a fab illustration.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=933&IssueNum=50
CRYPTIQUE – U bend.
Now Ahmad Chalabi is screwed, and might take Rummy down with him. How long, I keep asking myself, can this administration last? It’s unreal. Even Nixon would have been drinking heavy by now.
WE DON’T KNOW SHIT
This is real long, but I couldn’t resist it. The piece is by Jonathan Isbit and forwarded by our favorite southern belle.
The term "appendicitis" was coined in 1886 by a Harvard anatomy professor named Reginald Heber Fitz. Most people assume that the disease has always afflicted humanity. But actually, it's only been around for about 150 years - and only in the western world. Why did it suddenly appear? And why only in the West? And what causes appendicitis? Ask any gastroenterologist these questions and you'll get the same answer: "Nobody knows." A number of other colon and pelvic diseases also got their start toward the end of the nineteenth century - including diverticulosis, colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and prostate and uterine disorders. The medical profession responded by devising ever more sophisticated surgical techniques to remove the diseased organs. Once again, having no inkling of the cause, they ruled out any means of prevention.In the 1970s, a British surgeon named Denis Burkitt, who had practiced medicine in Ugandafor twenty years, reported a remarkable absence of these ailments among the people of Africa. The same diseases that afflict African-Americans in large numbers were curiously absent in the land of their ancestors. Further research by epidemiologists showed a similar immunity in Asian countries, especially the rural areas. And once again, on moving to the West, these ethnic groups quickly became just as prone to western diseases as the rest of the population. Dr. Burkitt believed that two aspects of the Africans' lifestyle protected them from colon ailments. First, their diet contained higher levels of fiber. And second, they used the natural squatting posture for bowel movements. Western researchers immediately latched onto the first factor, preferring to ignore the second one...that the true culprit may actually be the modern commode. Diet may have little or nothing to do with these diseases.
Historically, human beings have always squatted for bodily functions. Every infant instinctively uses this method until he is forced to sit on a potty. Most of the adults in the world continue to use squat toilets all their lives. It was only about 150 years ago that the "porcelain throne" came into widespread use. It was basically a fad that started in England and quickly spread throughout the western world. No country wanted to appear backward and uncivilized, and no one at the time realized what the medical consequences might be. Even if they happened to be aware of the drawbacks of this new, contrived method of evacuation, they were unwilling or unable to break the Victorian taboo surrounding the subject. As the fad continued to spread, doctors noticed a mysterious upsurge in colon, bladder, and reproductive diseases. The medical profession was caught in a conflict of interest. Since treatment was becoming so lucrative, they had little motivation to explore the cause or to find means of prevention. How does the modern commode contribute to these diseases? There are two basic kinds of damage. The first comes from pressure on the pelvic floor from chronic straining in the sitting position. Over time, the pelvic floor "descends," stretching and injuring the nerves that supply the bladder, the prostate and the uterus. The result is that these organs become dysfunctional and prone to disease. The second type of damage is caused by fecal stagnation, from incomplete evacuation. A polluted colon is prone to cancer, diverticulosis, appendicitis, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome. The following explanation of appendicitis answers the questions with which this article began: The appendix is attached to the cecum, at the beginning of the colon. When fecal matter gets lodged in the appendix, it hardens, causing the appendix to suffocate and die. This only happens to users of the modern commode, for two reasons: The cecum cannot be fully evacuated in the sitting position. It needs to be squeezed empty by the right thigh while squatting. Pushing down with the diaphragm in the sitting position can force waste matter into the appendix. On a squat toilet, you don't hold your breath or push downwards. The posture itself effortlessly generates the required pressure for expulsion. The appendix was not "poorly designed" - contrary to what is taught in medical schools. Like the rest of the colon, it was designed with squatting in mind.
http://naturesplatform.com
And while we’re in the bathroom, the following comes from both some girl and Keith Oberman
A toilet to keep men in line. Or rather, a gadget that attaches to the toilet. The ghost-shaped device (why a ghost?) sits under the toilet rim and if the seat is lifted, chastises in a stern female voice. "Hello, what are you up to then? Put the seat back down right away, you are definitely not to pee standing up”... The device has sold 1.6 million units in Germany. (The land that gave us Zyklon B)
OUTSOURCING
I have a pleasant piece of fluff in this weeks LA CityBeat with a fab illustration.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=933&IssueNum=50
CRYPTIQUE – U bend.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
WATCH OUT FOR JIM BATH
Sometime around soon you’ll be getting a tad tired of the excuse that there ain’t much of a blog because I’ve had a large hard day tending the obscene science fiction or the paid diatribing, and my resources are depleted. Unfortunately that’s the story today. And the truth. It’s 2.30 in the LA AM and I’m going to do this, and then fall into the couch and watch The Hulk which I understand is crap, but haven’t seen it and I figure that’s all I’m fit for. I would complain how Belle de Jour seems to fix renounced her pornographic content since she got a book deal, but I think I’ll leave that until tomorrow.
For those of you to whom this is meaningless...
http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com
Fortunately kaymo has a major heads ups for us all on a new player from the toxic murk of our presidents past...
It seems that James R. Bath is coming back into the spotlight. Google his name for a refresher if you need. Try this url for some good pointers..
http://www.bulatlat.com
Jim Bath and Dubya were coke snorting, Texan drinking buddies back in their National Air Guard days, flying in that champagne unit... It seems that Bath's name was airbrushed out of the info Bush released to the 9/11 comish. Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 911 charges this was because Bath was Bush's connection to the Bin Laden family and their money. They invested in Arbusto etc.
Do you notice, though, how much time and effort is being expended on getting GW fucking B out of office, when we could be doing so many, much nicer things?
AND...
Oh yeah, and the new email address is – byron4d@msn.com. I kinda like MSN except for the damned butterfly that flaps when anything is going on. It’s starting to irritate me. Unfortunately MSN won’t let me garbage their corporate logo.
CRYTIQUE – Sanders the Chicken is dead.
Sometime around soon you’ll be getting a tad tired of the excuse that there ain’t much of a blog because I’ve had a large hard day tending the obscene science fiction or the paid diatribing, and my resources are depleted. Unfortunately that’s the story today. And the truth. It’s 2.30 in the LA AM and I’m going to do this, and then fall into the couch and watch The Hulk which I understand is crap, but haven’t seen it and I figure that’s all I’m fit for. I would complain how Belle de Jour seems to fix renounced her pornographic content since she got a book deal, but I think I’ll leave that until tomorrow.
For those of you to whom this is meaningless...
http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com
Fortunately kaymo has a major heads ups for us all on a new player from the toxic murk of our presidents past...
It seems that James R. Bath is coming back into the spotlight. Google his name for a refresher if you need. Try this url for some good pointers..
http://www.bulatlat.com
Jim Bath and Dubya were coke snorting, Texan drinking buddies back in their National Air Guard days, flying in that champagne unit... It seems that Bath's name was airbrushed out of the info Bush released to the 9/11 comish. Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 911 charges this was because Bath was Bush's connection to the Bin Laden family and their money. They invested in Arbusto etc.
Do you notice, though, how much time and effort is being expended on getting GW fucking B out of office, when we could be doing so many, much nicer things?
AND...
Oh yeah, and the new email address is – byron4d@msn.com. I kinda like MSN except for the damned butterfly that flaps when anything is going on. It’s starting to irritate me. Unfortunately MSN won’t let me garbage their corporate logo.
CRYTIQUE – Sanders the Chicken is dead.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
GLIMPSE THE PROCESS
Okay, so here’s the truth. I don’t have a single thought in my mind except those that are essential to survival. (That’s for the benefit of my varied editors.) The reason is that, as I think I’ve already mentioned, I am totally submerged in Slide On The Run #11, and am attempting to create the best inter-galactic, inter-species, inter-entity, pirate rape and pillage orgy that has ever been committed to the page. Okay? And it is not as easy as it sounds, if I am to shun all porn cliches with the possible exception of fluid mess. Can I do for literature what S. Clay Wilson did for comics? Do I want to? And also I wonder about introducing mugwumps. And then I realize that I’ve stated all this publically, so now I’m under even more pressure to excel.
(Or is this all just a degenerate’s tease?)
FROM THE EMAIL
munz sends a link to the Top Ten Alternet Conspiracy Theories. (I must confess, though, I have given up all conspiracy theories for the 21st century. (Except of course my own,)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18735
CRYPTIQUE – I do, however, like to pop packing bubbles until people get irritated and ask me to stop.
Okay, so here’s the truth. I don’t have a single thought in my mind except those that are essential to survival. (That’s for the benefit of my varied editors.) The reason is that, as I think I’ve already mentioned, I am totally submerged in Slide On The Run #11, and am attempting to create the best inter-galactic, inter-species, inter-entity, pirate rape and pillage orgy that has ever been committed to the page. Okay? And it is not as easy as it sounds, if I am to shun all porn cliches with the possible exception of fluid mess. Can I do for literature what S. Clay Wilson did for comics? Do I want to? And also I wonder about introducing mugwumps. And then I realize that I’ve stated all this publically, so now I’m under even more pressure to excel.
(Or is this all just a degenerate’s tease?)
FROM THE EMAIL
munz sends a link to the Top Ten Alternet Conspiracy Theories. (I must confess, though, I have given up all conspiracy theories for the 21st century. (Except of course my own,)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18735
CRYPTIQUE – I do, however, like to pop packing bubbles until people get irritated and ask me to stop.
Monday, May 17, 2004
MONDAY, MONDAY...
And really not a great deal to say since I'm working on the long overdue episode of Slide On The Run, and still trying to work out the ramifications of what went down with Colin Powell on TV yesterday. Are the bastards actually fighting among themselves to the knife?
(And if you haven't seen Slide On The Run, just slide over to Funtopia on the right and check it out.)
CRYPTIQUE -- Big T's dream?
And really not a great deal to say since I'm working on the long overdue episode of Slide On The Run, and still trying to work out the ramifications of what went down with Colin Powell on TV yesterday. Are the bastards actually fighting among themselves to the knife?
(And if you haven't seen Slide On The Run, just slide over to Funtopia on the right and check it out.)
CRYPTIQUE -- Big T's dream?
Saturday, May 15, 2004
WUSSUP WI’ FUCKING KERRY?
(Ask a science fiction writer.)
‘Tis the weekend and the Doc is tired, okay? But I’ll pose y’all a question, and damn the typos. Is the Kerry campaign stone blind to the parallel Dump Bush (LEB) movement, or just staying above any embarrassing agitprop? Either way it sucks. United we stand, even if the next guy is an asshole or Howard Stern. I like that Kerry is ex-VVAW. Why the soft pedal? It’s playing totally by the Republican rules. Kerry has to take over the poker game. Go ask the Duke of Wellington about defining the battle even though out-numbered and out-gunned. And ask the dead Duke now, while there’s still time to whistle up Bucher. (And if you don’t know the history, shame on you. Without Wellington, we’d all be eating soufles and fucking in the afternoon. Look it up.)
And while on a relevant history jag. Let’s not forget that, had Bobby Kennedy not been shot, the Yippies would almost certainly have been backing Bobby as the anti-War candidate. In the last month of his life, Bobby was down. He’d lost his tie and suit coat, and was doing soundbites in the fields with Caesar Chavez, quoting Bob Dylan, with poll numbers building to beat Nixon (and thus shot dead). In this parallel universe we would have seen Mayor Daley’s cops beating on Kennedy supporters, for chrissakes. I suspect the so-called pros around Kerry are Havard schmucks who failed to make it onto The Simpsons writing team, and they just don’t fucking get it.
And where is the Kerry cyber-kommando? Doc40 is on a million mailing lists. I get shit from Arriana and Nader and even Wes Clarke, but not a damn thing from Kerry. And don’t tell me there’s no money. There’s no money over here, either. Know what I mean? We depend on the kindness of strangers. It just requires work, ingenuity, elves, and hackers
Let’s not forget, if we can’t get Bush out of office this November, that’s democracy in the toilet, and the only other option will become riot and revolution. Bringing it all back home, so to speak.
PORNO-PROP
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
http://usemycomputer.com/indeximages/2004/April/ashcroft.jpg
Sent by some girl. All I can say is that it takes a long time to load on dial up, but it’s so worth it. And be warned, it isn’t what you initially think. (Adult content.) The folks who labored so long don’t need lives. They’re already demented. You also probably need to save it to some place of graphic tools to reduced the whole thing in size. Or blow it up. And check out the Heinken bottle 4 squares down and 8,9, and 10, across (l-er)
HASTA LA VICTORIA CHARLIE
If you want fine-slick cultural cross-crafting about Che Guevara and Charlie Manson, try my piece in LA CityBeat...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=906&IssueNum=49
And our pal hipspinster blogs in horror after watching the Berg beheading...
http://hipspinster.blogspot.com/
FLATTERING BUGGERS
We’ve been getting a lot of stuff from the Buggers. Now they shamelessly stroke my ego to the point that I groan aloud, “Fuck false modesty. I’ll post it.” (And yes, Phun City did look like VC free zone.)
BUGGER!
When in 1970 Mick Farren, Edward Barker and David Goodman named the festival
that they were organising Phun City, they condensed much of the commitment
of the Western counterculture of that time in just those two words. Phun
City: it reminds of a North-Vietnamese free zone in the middle of England. A
hotbed of revolt and dangerous fun.
The three-day Opeople's festival near Worthing brought together drug-fuelled rebels like The MC5, William Burroughs, The Pretty Things, The Pink Fairies, Farren himself, and combined music, radical politics, literature, graphic design, and visual arts. It was one of the last large multicultural events that successfully mixed politics, arts, and fun before the music industry commercialised these events and pulled their teeth. Musician, writer, editor, and anarchist Mick Farren, at that time the spearhead of the London underground, was one of the few Europeans who joined forces with the Detroit based White Panthers. The White Panther Party was infact an artists' collective founded by John and Leni Sinclair that modelled and named itself after the militant Black Panther Party. In 1968 this collective dedicated all their creativity to cultural revolution through a total assault on the culture which makes use of every tool, every energy and every media we can get our collective hands on. Because of their strategic
use of various art forms we regard Mick Farren and John & Leni Sinclair as
pivotal figures in Western revolutionary art.
When multi-disciplinarity serves no other purpose than crossing nominal barriers between art disciplines or between various fields of research, it is no more than tame artistic play. We, The Buggers, feel that multidisciplinarity is only vital when it leads to dangerous or genuinely
innovative mixes. In our view the drive to cross barriers in art should also be a drive to tear down conventions in thought. Farren and the Sinclairs demonstrated that multidisciplinarity is as much an artistic as a revolutionary tool and that it can be fun at the same time. Mick Farren and John Sinclair would probably have been rebels in any society. But much of their revolt resulted directly from moral rejection of the repressive and racist Anglo-Amercian societies of those days and the
American war against the people of Vietnam. Farren and Sinclair are romantic revolutionaries. They take as much inspiration from political revolutionaries as from literary heroes or musicians. Ho Chi Min plays drums with Bo Diddley. Music is revolution.
In the 60s and 70s Farren and Sinclair reclaimed public space through riotous multidisciplinary events but also through self-created media: records, magazines, writings, photographs, posters, pamphlets. Part of their program was taking fun sex, drugs, music out into the streets. Their assault on official culture consisted of vandalism of public space (in its broadest sense) and the creation of free zones, Phun Cities, strategies that evoked serious repression before they were adopted and used for commercial ends by capitalist industries.
The Buggers repeat their call to reclaim public space and to develop contemporary strategies against the occupation of public space by capitalist industries. In our previous pamphlets we already mentioned vandalistic strategies like self-destructive art, hostile modifications, desexualisation and sexualisation as circumstances or times require, and now we add to that the creation of free zones. Bugger the sham!
The Buggers.
http://www.sea-urchin.net/radiobaghdad/
And if you want to know more about all this, buy a book, dadnabit, buy two. Buy my own Give The Anarchist A Cigarette, or pick up a copy John’s Guitar Armies. Or both, and give them to friends. We elders of the tribe have bills to pay.
PETS CORNER
Vegetarian cat food? Who is kidding whom?
CRYPTIQUE – I‘m just a patsy.
(Ask a science fiction writer.)
‘Tis the weekend and the Doc is tired, okay? But I’ll pose y’all a question, and damn the typos. Is the Kerry campaign stone blind to the parallel Dump Bush (LEB) movement, or just staying above any embarrassing agitprop? Either way it sucks. United we stand, even if the next guy is an asshole or Howard Stern. I like that Kerry is ex-VVAW. Why the soft pedal? It’s playing totally by the Republican rules. Kerry has to take over the poker game. Go ask the Duke of Wellington about defining the battle even though out-numbered and out-gunned. And ask the dead Duke now, while there’s still time to whistle up Bucher. (And if you don’t know the history, shame on you. Without Wellington, we’d all be eating soufles and fucking in the afternoon. Look it up.)
And while on a relevant history jag. Let’s not forget that, had Bobby Kennedy not been shot, the Yippies would almost certainly have been backing Bobby as the anti-War candidate. In the last month of his life, Bobby was down. He’d lost his tie and suit coat, and was doing soundbites in the fields with Caesar Chavez, quoting Bob Dylan, with poll numbers building to beat Nixon (and thus shot dead). In this parallel universe we would have seen Mayor Daley’s cops beating on Kennedy supporters, for chrissakes. I suspect the so-called pros around Kerry are Havard schmucks who failed to make it onto The Simpsons writing team, and they just don’t fucking get it.
And where is the Kerry cyber-kommando? Doc40 is on a million mailing lists. I get shit from Arriana and Nader and even Wes Clarke, but not a damn thing from Kerry. And don’t tell me there’s no money. There’s no money over here, either. Know what I mean? We depend on the kindness of strangers. It just requires work, ingenuity, elves, and hackers
Let’s not forget, if we can’t get Bush out of office this November, that’s democracy in the toilet, and the only other option will become riot and revolution. Bringing it all back home, so to speak.
PORNO-PROP
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
http://usemycomputer.com/indeximages/2004/April/ashcroft.jpg
Sent by some girl. All I can say is that it takes a long time to load on dial up, but it’s so worth it. And be warned, it isn’t what you initially think. (Adult content.) The folks who labored so long don’t need lives. They’re already demented. You also probably need to save it to some place of graphic tools to reduced the whole thing in size. Or blow it up. And check out the Heinken bottle 4 squares down and 8,9, and 10, across (l-er)
HASTA LA VICTORIA CHARLIE
If you want fine-slick cultural cross-crafting about Che Guevara and Charlie Manson, try my piece in LA CityBeat...
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=906&IssueNum=49
And our pal hipspinster blogs in horror after watching the Berg beheading...
http://hipspinster.blogspot.com/
FLATTERING BUGGERS
We’ve been getting a lot of stuff from the Buggers. Now they shamelessly stroke my ego to the point that I groan aloud, “Fuck false modesty. I’ll post it.” (And yes, Phun City did look like VC free zone.)
BUGGER!
When in 1970 Mick Farren, Edward Barker and David Goodman named the festival
that they were organising Phun City, they condensed much of the commitment
of the Western counterculture of that time in just those two words. Phun
City: it reminds of a North-Vietnamese free zone in the middle of England. A
hotbed of revolt and dangerous fun.
The three-day Opeople's festival near Worthing brought together drug-fuelled rebels like The MC5, William Burroughs, The Pretty Things, The Pink Fairies, Farren himself, and combined music, radical politics, literature, graphic design, and visual arts. It was one of the last large multicultural events that successfully mixed politics, arts, and fun before the music industry commercialised these events and pulled their teeth. Musician, writer, editor, and anarchist Mick Farren, at that time the spearhead of the London underground, was one of the few Europeans who joined forces with the Detroit based White Panthers. The White Panther Party was infact an artists' collective founded by John and Leni Sinclair that modelled and named itself after the militant Black Panther Party. In 1968 this collective dedicated all their creativity to cultural revolution through a total assault on the culture which makes use of every tool, every energy and every media we can get our collective hands on. Because of their strategic
use of various art forms we regard Mick Farren and John & Leni Sinclair as
pivotal figures in Western revolutionary art.
When multi-disciplinarity serves no other purpose than crossing nominal barriers between art disciplines or between various fields of research, it is no more than tame artistic play. We, The Buggers, feel that multidisciplinarity is only vital when it leads to dangerous or genuinely
innovative mixes. In our view the drive to cross barriers in art should also be a drive to tear down conventions in thought. Farren and the Sinclairs demonstrated that multidisciplinarity is as much an artistic as a revolutionary tool and that it can be fun at the same time. Mick Farren and John Sinclair would probably have been rebels in any society. But much of their revolt resulted directly from moral rejection of the repressive and racist Anglo-Amercian societies of those days and the
American war against the people of Vietnam. Farren and Sinclair are romantic revolutionaries. They take as much inspiration from political revolutionaries as from literary heroes or musicians. Ho Chi Min plays drums with Bo Diddley. Music is revolution.
In the 60s and 70s Farren and Sinclair reclaimed public space through riotous multidisciplinary events but also through self-created media: records, magazines, writings, photographs, posters, pamphlets. Part of their program was taking fun sex, drugs, music out into the streets. Their assault on official culture consisted of vandalism of public space (in its broadest sense) and the creation of free zones, Phun Cities, strategies that evoked serious repression before they were adopted and used for commercial ends by capitalist industries.
The Buggers repeat their call to reclaim public space and to develop contemporary strategies against the occupation of public space by capitalist industries. In our previous pamphlets we already mentioned vandalistic strategies like self-destructive art, hostile modifications, desexualisation and sexualisation as circumstances or times require, and now we add to that the creation of free zones. Bugger the sham!
The Buggers.
http://www.sea-urchin.net/radiobaghdad/
And if you want to know more about all this, buy a book, dadnabit, buy two. Buy my own Give The Anarchist A Cigarette, or pick up a copy John’s Guitar Armies. Or both, and give them to friends. We elders of the tribe have bills to pay.
PETS CORNER
Vegetarian cat food? Who is kidding whom?
CRYPTIQUE – I‘m just a patsy.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
LANDMARK
The Funtopia site (to the right) just logged its 20,000th hit. Which makes me irrationally happy. It almost happened once before, but then the counter malfunctioned and ran it back to 14,000. I know porno sites do the same traffic in a day, but what the hell?
NEW EMAIL
I have a new email address that is good for now and the future – byron4d@msn
Note it if you need it. The old on will die around Tuesday.
YOU WANT ICE 9 IN THAT?
Munz forwarded the lengthy thoughts of Kurt Vonnegut from In These Times. I ran a couple of chunks yesterday and here are two more tomorrow. http://www.inthesetimes.com/
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, 500 years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.
The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.But back to people, like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, who’ve said how we could behave more humanely, and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favorites is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana. Get a load of this:
Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was only 4, ran 5 times as the Socialist Party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes, 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot. He had this to say while campaigning:
As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
As long as there is a criminal element, I’m of it.
As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all?
How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …
And so on.
Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.
Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
SCAREY
And here’s one fearsomely fucked up web-site courtesy if some girl.
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
CRYPTIQUE – Smile when...
The Funtopia site (to the right) just logged its 20,000th hit. Which makes me irrationally happy. It almost happened once before, but then the counter malfunctioned and ran it back to 14,000. I know porno sites do the same traffic in a day, but what the hell?
NEW EMAIL
I have a new email address that is good for now and the future – byron4d@msn
Note it if you need it. The old on will die around Tuesday.
YOU WANT ICE 9 IN THAT?
Munz forwarded the lengthy thoughts of Kurt Vonnegut from In These Times. I ran a couple of chunks yesterday and here are two more tomorrow. http://www.inthesetimes.com/
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, 500 years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.
The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.But back to people, like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, who’ve said how we could behave more humanely, and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favorites is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana. Get a load of this:
Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was only 4, ran 5 times as the Socialist Party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes, 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot. He had this to say while campaigning:
As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
As long as there is a criminal element, I’m of it.
As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all?
How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …
And so on.
Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.
Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
SCAREY
And here’s one fearsomely fucked up web-site courtesy if some girl.
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
CRYPTIQUE – Smile when...
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
THEY’RE BACK!
I believe I’ve already mentioned my concern at how the aliens, grey or otherwise, seem to have been totally out of the picture since G. Bush took over. You can therefore imagine my delight when a whole formation of UFOs showed up over Mexico City as detailed in this report from Sky News...
Mexico's largest television network has broadcast film taken by air force pilots of what they claim are unidentified flying objects. The film shows bright lights with "movements and characteristics that do not have - up to now - a scientific explanation," according to the Televisa network. The air force pilots are heard expressing amazement on the tape. A frame-by-frame analysis shows 16 UFOs, according to the network. Televisa said the film was taken with an infra-red camera and there are no alterations. "It is one of the most important film documents we have been able to access, especially because it comes from an official source," said Jaime Mausan, a journalist who has been tracking the UFO phenomenon for more than 25 years.
Leaving aside dumb and racist comments like “who knew Mexico had an air force”, I’m damn pleased to see them, even if they’ve only arrived to retrieve the Chupacabra, the nasty-fanged goat-sucker frequently sighed in Mexico when The X-Files was still on the air. I always figured, the Chupacabra had to be some kind of grey alien pet that had somehow escaped it’s alien masters’ flying suacer. I mean, what species that can supposedly cross galaxies and circumnavigate the infinite wants to suck goat? (Don’t all answer at once.)
PETS CORNER
Since we already seem to be discussing pets, some girl forwards a link for The Infinite Cat Project that needs to be seen and not described. Suffice to say the Newton finds it silly and undignified.
http://www.privatehand.com/infinite/
Meanwhile HCBeck contributed a link to curly fries and heroine on Johnny Lehman’s Spot – http://blogs.indiewire.com/jonny/archives/000473.html
YOU WANT ICE 9 IN THAT?
Munz forwarded the lengthy thoughts of Kurt Vonnegut from In These Times. I present a couple of chunks (and maybe some more tomorrow.) http://www.inthesetimes.com/
Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace. But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
My government’s got a war on drugs. But get this: The two most widely abused and addictive and destructive of all substances are both perfectly legal. One, of course, is ethyl alcohol. And President George W. Bush, no less, and by his own admission, was smashed or tiddleypoo or four sheets to the wind a good deal of the time from when he was 16 until he was 41. When he was 41, he says, Jesus appeared to him and made him knock off the sauce, stop gargling nose paint.
Other drunks have seen pink elephants. And do you know why I think he is so pissed off at Arabs? They invented algebra. Arabs also invented the numbers we use, including a symbol for nothing, which nobody else had ever had before. You think Arabs are dumb? Try doing long division with Roman numerals. We’re spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians, what we now call “Native Americans.” How ungrateful they were! How ungrateful are the people of Baghdad today.So let’s give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That’ll teach bin Laden a lesson he won’t soon forget. Hail to the Chief.
BRING ME THE HEAD OF NICK BERG
On the comments board, agahastgrl wants to know what happened to Nick Berg’s head. I don’t have a clue. I’m still looking for the head of Ralphie Cifferetto. And, to be frank, I’m not that shocked. Okay, decapitation is a bummer. Jayne Mansfield taught us that. But the execution is being used yet another smokescreen to cover that systematic torture of suspects has been okayed from the top in the Iraq occupation. It’s sad the dude died, but he was hanging round in a war zone, in their country, trying to hire on as a low level merc.
And when is everyone going to listen to the low echelon spooks and Theorists of the Obvious like Doc40 and realise that Al Qe’ida is a get-America open franchise, not an octopus command structure?
CRYPTIQUE – Suck my goat, monkey boy!
I believe I’ve already mentioned my concern at how the aliens, grey or otherwise, seem to have been totally out of the picture since G. Bush took over. You can therefore imagine my delight when a whole formation of UFOs showed up over Mexico City as detailed in this report from Sky News...
Mexico's largest television network has broadcast film taken by air force pilots of what they claim are unidentified flying objects. The film shows bright lights with "movements and characteristics that do not have - up to now - a scientific explanation," according to the Televisa network. The air force pilots are heard expressing amazement on the tape. A frame-by-frame analysis shows 16 UFOs, according to the network. Televisa said the film was taken with an infra-red camera and there are no alterations. "It is one of the most important film documents we have been able to access, especially because it comes from an official source," said Jaime Mausan, a journalist who has been tracking the UFO phenomenon for more than 25 years.
Leaving aside dumb and racist comments like “who knew Mexico had an air force”, I’m damn pleased to see them, even if they’ve only arrived to retrieve the Chupacabra, the nasty-fanged goat-sucker frequently sighed in Mexico when The X-Files was still on the air. I always figured, the Chupacabra had to be some kind of grey alien pet that had somehow escaped it’s alien masters’ flying suacer. I mean, what species that can supposedly cross galaxies and circumnavigate the infinite wants to suck goat? (Don’t all answer at once.)
PETS CORNER
Since we already seem to be discussing pets, some girl forwards a link for The Infinite Cat Project that needs to be seen and not described. Suffice to say the Newton finds it silly and undignified.
http://www.privatehand.com/infinite/
Meanwhile HCBeck contributed a link to curly fries and heroine on Johnny Lehman’s Spot – http://blogs.indiewire.com/jonny/archives/000473.html
YOU WANT ICE 9 IN THAT?
Munz forwarded the lengthy thoughts of Kurt Vonnegut from In These Times. I present a couple of chunks (and maybe some more tomorrow.) http://www.inthesetimes.com/
Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace. But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.
My government’s got a war on drugs. But get this: The two most widely abused and addictive and destructive of all substances are both perfectly legal. One, of course, is ethyl alcohol. And President George W. Bush, no less, and by his own admission, was smashed or tiddleypoo or four sheets to the wind a good deal of the time from when he was 16 until he was 41. When he was 41, he says, Jesus appeared to him and made him knock off the sauce, stop gargling nose paint.
Other drunks have seen pink elephants. And do you know why I think he is so pissed off at Arabs? They invented algebra. Arabs also invented the numbers we use, including a symbol for nothing, which nobody else had ever had before. You think Arabs are dumb? Try doing long division with Roman numerals. We’re spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians, what we now call “Native Americans.” How ungrateful they were! How ungrateful are the people of Baghdad today.So let’s give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That’ll teach bin Laden a lesson he won’t soon forget. Hail to the Chief.
BRING ME THE HEAD OF NICK BERG
On the comments board, agahastgrl wants to know what happened to Nick Berg’s head. I don’t have a clue. I’m still looking for the head of Ralphie Cifferetto. And, to be frank, I’m not that shocked. Okay, decapitation is a bummer. Jayne Mansfield taught us that. But the execution is being used yet another smokescreen to cover that systematic torture of suspects has been okayed from the top in the Iraq occupation. It’s sad the dude died, but he was hanging round in a war zone, in their country, trying to hire on as a low level merc.
And when is everyone going to listen to the low echelon spooks and Theorists of the Obvious like Doc40 and realise that Al Qe’ida is a get-America open franchise, not an octopus command structure?
CRYPTIQUE – Suck my goat, monkey boy!
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN IN DECLINE
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a note on the Subservient Chicken, a disturbingly weird-ass promo from Burger King. Now some girl draws our attention to a Yahoo News report that tells how, after it’s fifteen minutes of cyber-fame, the chicken is officially in decline...
Between April 11 and April 18, the number of people who visited the site at least once from their home computers surged more than two-and-a-half times to 407,000, according to tracking firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Since then, traffic has trailed off, with just 186,000 people visiting the site from home in the week ended May 2. Miami-based Burger King has remained mum about the chicken's future but said consumers should not expect to see his image at one of its restaurants.
"That would be far too mainstream," Burger King spokesman Blake Lewis said. "The chicken doesn't do mainstream."
http://www.subservientchicken.com
FROM THE EMAIL
kaymo writes at length...
Who the hell are these people? wonders Doc 40. In Mother Jones this month I see that 61% of Americans now profess to believe that the Biblical story of the creation of the world/universe in 7 days is literally true. We already know that Americans have rejected the sciences of biology, geology, paleontology, astronomy, cosmology, genetics, etc. etc. since a huge majority of Americans reject "Evolution" in favor of one flavor or another of Creationism. The same rejection ultimately has to include Physics, Math and even Chemistry, since all scientific inquiry is tending to move along the same rails towards similar conclusions. (As long as the Higgs Boson really does exist! If not, oh boy....) What does this mean? One could say that these Americans have chosen a
kind of childish wilfulness, a deliberate refusal to see the world as it is. In doing so they have joined the Islamic fundamentalists, Hindu nationalists, Ultra orthodox Jews and sundry other groups that have deliberately closed their eyes and turned their faces away from the "enlightenment" and the process of scientific inquiry.
Being "enlightened" is hard for some people. It means having to give up notions of being "special", "chosen", and somehow "beloved" beyond others by the lord or lords, depending on your religion. It means having to accept that rationally there are no races, that the very idea of race is a misnomer, although there are slight genetic differences between ALL humans who originate outside of Africa and the various groups that originate on the mother continent. For some reason the idea that we're all pretty much the same and that we're also animals, horrifies a
certain (large) percentage ofAmericans as well as other peoples. This is an area deserving of some
determined work with MRI scanning, psychiatric observation and genetic cross referencing. It might even turn out to be an inheritable genetic trait. Maybe they could come up with a drug or two that would turn it off. One moment a raving religious racist, the next a rational human
being. Part of Bush's popularity is that he shares in the wilful childishness. Not much of a student at school, lacking much of a knowledge base of the world and not caring either, he presents himself as one of them, and they love this.
Other politicians have taken note. We will see more of this and for the possible end consequences I would suggest further reading of works like Ian Kershaw's two part biography of Adolf Hitler. Appealing to the irrational, the mischievous child, the wilful believer in his or her specialness and superiority is a potent political method. Combine it with tons of money from the ruling elite and you've got a successful strategy that no amount of rational good sense can overcome. Bush
doesn't have the personality to take advantage of the situation a la Adolf Hitler, but someone else, as yet unheard of, probably does.
And the Buggers respond to the last post...
Thanks for putting The Buggers positions #2 and #3 on the Funtopia site. I'm really honoured and appreciate your comments. The Buggers had already planned to dedicate a position to you and John Sinclair as seminal figures to revolutionary art in the West, probably the next position. They will make up for the omission of The Who in that same position as the mutual influences of American and British counterculture will be mentioned. I understood that Ron Asheton saw The Who perform when he was in London in the 60s and took the idea of destroying instruments home.
The Buggers would like to start that position with a brief analysis of the title PHUN CITY (the absurdist/anarchist combination of fun plus the association with Vietnam). Before they mention that I'd like to make sure it was you who invented it*. Let me know, if you can find the time. As to desexualisation and De Sade ... you're obviously right. But that will take some more time to work out. The Buggers have been going on about (de)sexualisation a bit too often now.
*The Phun City name and logo (see Funtopia?) was a joint effort by me and the late Edward Barker
CRYPTIQUE – I eat more chicken any man ever seen.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a note on the Subservient Chicken, a disturbingly weird-ass promo from Burger King. Now some girl draws our attention to a Yahoo News report that tells how, after it’s fifteen minutes of cyber-fame, the chicken is officially in decline...
Between April 11 and April 18, the number of people who visited the site at least once from their home computers surged more than two-and-a-half times to 407,000, according to tracking firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Since then, traffic has trailed off, with just 186,000 people visiting the site from home in the week ended May 2. Miami-based Burger King has remained mum about the chicken's future but said consumers should not expect to see his image at one of its restaurants.
"That would be far too mainstream," Burger King spokesman Blake Lewis said. "The chicken doesn't do mainstream."
http://www.subservientchicken.com
FROM THE EMAIL
kaymo writes at length...
Who the hell are these people? wonders Doc 40. In Mother Jones this month I see that 61% of Americans now profess to believe that the Biblical story of the creation of the world/universe in 7 days is literally true. We already know that Americans have rejected the sciences of biology, geology, paleontology, astronomy, cosmology, genetics, etc. etc. since a huge majority of Americans reject "Evolution" in favor of one flavor or another of Creationism. The same rejection ultimately has to include Physics, Math and even Chemistry, since all scientific inquiry is tending to move along the same rails towards similar conclusions. (As long as the Higgs Boson really does exist! If not, oh boy....) What does this mean? One could say that these Americans have chosen a
kind of childish wilfulness, a deliberate refusal to see the world as it is. In doing so they have joined the Islamic fundamentalists, Hindu nationalists, Ultra orthodox Jews and sundry other groups that have deliberately closed their eyes and turned their faces away from the "enlightenment" and the process of scientific inquiry.
Being "enlightened" is hard for some people. It means having to give up notions of being "special", "chosen", and somehow "beloved" beyond others by the lord or lords, depending on your religion. It means having to accept that rationally there are no races, that the very idea of race is a misnomer, although there are slight genetic differences between ALL humans who originate outside of Africa and the various groups that originate on the mother continent. For some reason the idea that we're all pretty much the same and that we're also animals, horrifies a
certain (large) percentage ofAmericans as well as other peoples. This is an area deserving of some
determined work with MRI scanning, psychiatric observation and genetic cross referencing. It might even turn out to be an inheritable genetic trait. Maybe they could come up with a drug or two that would turn it off. One moment a raving religious racist, the next a rational human
being. Part of Bush's popularity is that he shares in the wilful childishness. Not much of a student at school, lacking much of a knowledge base of the world and not caring either, he presents himself as one of them, and they love this.
Other politicians have taken note. We will see more of this and for the possible end consequences I would suggest further reading of works like Ian Kershaw's two part biography of Adolf Hitler. Appealing to the irrational, the mischievous child, the wilful believer in his or her specialness and superiority is a potent political method. Combine it with tons of money from the ruling elite and you've got a successful strategy that no amount of rational good sense can overcome. Bush
doesn't have the personality to take advantage of the situation a la Adolf Hitler, but someone else, as yet unheard of, probably does.
And the Buggers respond to the last post...
Thanks for putting The Buggers positions #2 and #3 on the Funtopia site. I'm really honoured and appreciate your comments. The Buggers had already planned to dedicate a position to you and John Sinclair as seminal figures to revolutionary art in the West, probably the next position. They will make up for the omission of The Who in that same position as the mutual influences of American and British counterculture will be mentioned. I understood that Ron Asheton saw The Who perform when he was in London in the 60s and took the idea of destroying instruments home.
The Buggers would like to start that position with a brief analysis of the title PHUN CITY (the absurdist/anarchist combination of fun plus the association with Vietnam). Before they mention that I'd like to make sure it was you who invented it*. Let me know, if you can find the time. As to desexualisation and De Sade ... you're obviously right. But that will take some more time to work out. The Buggers have been going on about (de)sexualisation a bit too often now.
*The Phun City name and logo (see Funtopia?) was a joint effort by me and the late Edward Barker
CRYPTIQUE – I eat more chicken any man ever seen.
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