NORWAY?

Right now I can only repeat what I just posted on Facebook. The slaughter in Norway leaves me speechless. Norway? But then I recall the extremes of Norweigan death metal in the 1980s and I start to wonder. Also my distrust of lone psychotics begins to stir.

Steve Sparkes – RIP
Amy Winehouse – RIP

THEY REFUSE TO LEARN

The National Weather Service website reported "The dangerous heatwave continues across much of the central and eastern USA, with excessive heat and humidity expected to expand into the Ohio Valley and East Coast states for the remainder of the week," Authorities issued heat alerts for more than half the 50 states as a blanket of hot air smothered the country, leaving at least 20 people dead. The heatwave has left states from Texas to Michigan sweltering in temperatures above 100F (37C). Some cities have also been engulfed in smog. The heatwave is estimated to cover a million square miles, affecting 141 million Americans. And yet fools like this commenter on a MSNBC web report continue to spout their malignant nonsense.

“You know, there is a simple solution to this global warming stuff. If you want to believe it, go ahead and believe it. If you don't want to believe it, then don't believe it. As long as everyone acts on what they believe, then that's fine. Notice that those who don't believe it don't ask anything of those who do believe, but those who do believe try force their beliefs on those who don't and force the government to take more control over peoples' lives. That's why those who don't believe have come to realize that all this global warming stuff is just the new socialism.”

Click here for the rather obvious Martha

The secret word is Desperation

AND, IF THE HEAT WASN’T BAD ENOUGH, CATAPOCALYPSE DRAWS NEARER

(Life does go on.)

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

YOU CAN’T BLAME ME, I WAS ONLY GIVING ORDERS

“I am far too gorgeous to the be thrown to the wolves and lesbians have crushes on me.”

On Tuesday I was gleeful. Murdoch and son, Rebekah the Red, and all the bent coppers and thralls of New Corp’s media Mordor were being held to account. The euphoria lasted for maybe 48 hours, and then I started asking myself what exactly had happened. The Murdochs had wafted in on a private plane, their black SUV motorcade had charged through London with arrogance of the untouchable, and they had faced a parliamentary inquisition. But the inquisition was one without rack or retribution. Tuesday was no day for an auto de fe, just a lone custard pie that the media treated like a crime against humanity. When it was all over they wafted out again and that was that.
And, in the course of their testimony, the Murdochs and Ms Brooks managed to do something that I found quite flabbergasting. They turned around the old Nazi Nuremburg defense – “You can’t blame me, I was only obeying orders.” Their scarcely believable excuse for wholesale corporate corruption and criminality was that it was all the work of underlings and they were too elevated in the ivory-power command structure of News Corp to know anything about it. – “You can’t blame me, I was only giving orders.” Even the devious Rebekah – while editor of both The Sun and The News of the World – had no idea of what was going on, and having just been arrested, was also taking the Brit equivalent of the 5th. “I want to be absolutely clear that as editor of News of the World I had no knowledge whatsoever of phone hacking in the case of Milly Dowler and her family, or in any other cases during my tenure.” She claimed had such unshakable trust in her reporters that she never asked for their sources. Which was arrant bullshit. You don’t have to have been a professional journalist to know that every editor wants to know every source on every story. You only have to have seen Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee in All The President’s Men. Remember this exchange?

Ben Bradlee: Bernstein, are you sure on this story?
Carl Bernstein: Absolutely.
Ben Bradlee: Woodward?
Carl Bernstein: I'm sure.
Ben Bradlee: I'm not. It still seems thin.
Howard Simons: Get another source.

I can only conclude that the bastards were lying in their teeth and no one has so far seriously called them on it.

Click here for The Who

The secret word is Slither

“I have nothing more to say.”

THE LETTER OF THE LAW

Our pal Stephen Saban at World of Wonder offers the following reports. (With sources.)

"Fact: There are no strip clubs in Tallahassee. So plan your vacation accordingly. But far raunchier than a strip club is this strip club-forbidding Part II Chapter 12 Article V Division 2 Section 12-139 (3) of the Tallahassee Code of Ordinances, which stipulates that "No person or entity maintaining, owning, or operating an establishment dealing in alcoholic beverages shall encourage, allow or permit any person to appear nude or to expose to public view his or her genitals, pubic area, vulva, anus, or any portion of the buttocks or simulation thereof. This section shall be violated if any portion of the buttocks is visible from any vantage point."

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Raspberry Frozdick was a girl after my own heart.

WHEN SUBTLETY FAILS…

MY DOG’S GOT NO NOSE

A woman called Jackie Kaufman asks owners to send her moulds of their pooch or moggie's nose or paws so she can make them into fashionable jewelry and accessories. Using solid silver she turns these impressions it into a necklace, ring or even a belt buckle, which costs animal-lovers up to £320 per piece. (Click here for more if you really need to.)

Click here for Shep

The secret words are Cold and Moist

SWEET GENE VINCENT

I lifted this gem from our good pal Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds. It’s a sad and poignant documentary on the last declining days of Gene Vincent. (You may need to scroll down a bit to find it). Click here.

FORGET VIDEO GAMES -- BLOW STUFF UP OR COOK METH!

MARILYN SEZ...

“I don’t usually say anything during the week, but will you please stop corrupting the world’s youth?”

(Image from DTA)

THIS BLOG IS STILL PROTECTED BY...

TELL IT TO THE WORKERS

The great con of capital v labour. This is the 1945 version, but it’s still going strong today. I fear this is all the Doc40 I can post right now. I’ve been engaged a long overdue overhaul of my electronics with the help of my goodbuddy Keiron.

Click here for Destroy All Monsters lifted from Jon Nelson

The secret word is Refurbish

THE BIRD IS THE WORD

(Supplied by our pal Wendy.)

WHO? ME?

“Before we go any farther, I would like to assure the committee that I am not – nor have ever been – a ruthless, unscrupulous, power-obsessed, lying whore.”  

SPECTATOR SPORT

As I watch the live-on-TV squirming of the Murdoch father and son, their sleazy minions, and cops-on-the-pad, (and the pie attack) all I need is snacks.

Click here for Elvis

The secret word is Hope

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Buffalo Bob Frozdick never made it as big as John Merrick.

DON'T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

SPACE OPERA (Comrades)

HAVE WE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE?

I just posted the following on Facebook..."Over the weekend I indulged feline fantasies, but now Monday has come and the real world smells of toxic fraud. It’s a stench I recall as a teenager watching the Profumo scandal unravel, an ignominious banality progressively revealed as a labyrinth of corruption. The elite were brought down and nothing was ever the same again."

ALL THE FUTURES OF YESTERDAY

Ten days ago we watched Atlantis – the last space shuttle – take off. At the time I wrote, “is this the end of space exploration as we know it? Yes, I do miss the 20th century when I took acid and other men went to the moon. Once we had space ships. Now we have smart phones.” And now, just to rub salt in the wound here’s this NASA promo from the 1970s predicting we’d have space colonies by the year 2000. Click here and weep.

Click here for The Rolling Stones

The secret word is Failure

ACTION TRANSVESTITES?

If the question “cake or death” has no meaning for you, you may not see the point of this.

…WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS (Part 3)

GRATUITOUS JAGGER

(Are we establishing some kind of theme here while we wait and wonder if Rebekah Brooks will go to jail?)

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

I never considered I had much in common with Holly Golightly or even Truman Capote, aside from maybe knowing the words to “Moon River.” I’m now one hell of a long way from Tiffany’s, I’ve never had any inclination to stare at bling in a shop window, no matter how prestigious, and I quit smoking and wearing big sunglasses. I am not – nor ever have been – a euphemistic prostitute (although some might debate that) and I don’t seek a rich husband. Seemingly, though, Ms Golightly and I are both woken earlier than we want to be by demanding and wholly unreasonable ginger felines who want things. I have pointed out to Finn the cat that he is so much better treated than the Golightly furry companion. She didn’t even bother to give her unfortuate pal a name, misplaced him in the rain, and certainly didn’t buy him or her online catnip. To be fair, the online catnip maybe a part of the problem. Since it’s arrive Finn has been behaving with such reckless and energetic dementia that he even triggered a lively discussion on Facebook last night as to whether he required services of an exorcist. This engaged a range of cultural references that spanned H. P. Lovecraft to Fight Club, and, of course, the inevitability of Catapocalypse. Right now Finn sleeps (not in R'lyeh, thank heavens) but he will rise again. And want things.

Click here for Frank

The secret word is Miaow

AND TALKING OF H. P. LOVECRAFT…

MARILYN SEZ...

“There is something wistfully adorable about a man who is in total thrall to his pet.”

…WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS (Part 2)

Click here for A3

PLUG FOR A PAL

METAL DISABILITY

Hey America, this is socialism in action. Don’t knock it.

“Roger Tullgren of Hässleholm, Sweden needs to listen to heavy metal music while he works. Mind you, that’s not wants to, but needs to. It’s such an essential part of his life that it’s been classified as a disability, entitling him to special dispensation by employers. The ageing rocker claims to have attended almost three hundred shows last year, often skipping work in the process. Eventually his last employer tired of his absences and Tullgren was left jobless and reliant on welfare handouts. But his sessions with the occupational psychologists led to a solution of sorts: Tullgren signed a piece of paper on which his heavy metal lifestyle was classified as a disability, an assessment that entitles him to a wage supplement from the job centre. “I signed a form saying: ‘Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style. This puts him in a difficult situation on the labour market. Therefore he needs extra financial help’. So now I can turn up at a job interview dressed in my normal clothes and just hand the interviewers this piece of paper,” he said. The manager at his new workplace allows him to go to concerts as long as he makes up for lost time at a later point. He is also allowed to dress as he likes and listen to heavy metal while washing up.”

Click here for Painkiller

The secret word is Bipolar

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

As Owen Frozdick moved through life, he left a sad trail of jilted sheep.

…WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS

(While we’re tagged as offensive anyway.)

Click here for Gene

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR OVERLORDS...

LET SLIP THE ROBOTS OF WAR (Part 2)

We advance deeper into the murk if the future.

“The Pentagon released a long-promised cybersecurity plan Thursday that declares the Internet a domain of war. The plan notably does not spell out how the U.S. military would use the Web for offensive strikes. The Defense Department’s first-ever plan for cyberspace calls on the DoD to expand its ability to thwart attacks from other nations and groups, beef up its cyber workforce and expand collaboration with the private sector. Like major corporations and the rest of the federal government, the military “depends on cyberspace to function,” the DoD plan says. The U.S. military uses cyberspace for everything from carrying out military operations to sharing intelligence data internally to managing personnel. “The department and the nation have vulnerabilities in cyberspace,” the document states. “Our reliance on cyberspace stands in stark contrast to the inadequacy of our cybersecurity.” Other nations “are working to exploit DoD unclassified and classified networks, and some foreign intelligence organizations have already acquired the capacity to disrupt elements of DoD’s information infrastructure,” the plan states. “Moreover, non-state actors increasingly threaten to penetrate and disrupt DoD networks and systems.” (Click here for more)

Click here for “Stairway To Heaven” – but not what you might expect.

The secret word is Davros

WE WERE ALL SUPPOSED TO HAVE THESE BY NOW

WATCH SEAN BEAN DIE OVER AND OVER

Click here

SOMEONE’S BEEN BORROWING MY LYRICS...

...and he didn't even ask.  
Click here for a partial explanation

LET SLIP THE ROBOTS OF WAR

Okay, so Reuters report that the Pentagon is starting to figure human grunts are less than cost effective and maybe remote controlled combat is a pretty swell idea. Which it might be, taken in isolation. Unfortunately few things can be taken in isolation these days, and if you factor in Ray Kurzweil’s prediction of the Singularity, when the machines become smarter than we are, and the fictional speculation of The Matrix, Skynet, and HAL 9000, the time may come when the robots decide they’ve seen the enemy and it is us.

"As the United States draws down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and cuts back on defense spending, its reliance on technology will only rise, benefiting a clutch of companies specializing in intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance. The U.S. military will need more equipment like infrared sensors, jammers and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems to counter threats to its troops, with the Obama administration planning to cut troops in Afghanistan by a third by 2012, and exit from Iraq by the end of this year. "(The United States) will have to continue to keep an eye on what is occurring in these countries. So, we will invest in intelligence gathering equipment to complement the decrease in actual forces on ground," Lazard Capital Markets analyst Michael Lewis said. Defense technology companies such as signal intelligence systems maker Mercury Computer Systems , night-vision systems specialist FLIR Systems and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) maker AeroVironment are expected to benefit from this shift in defense spending priorities." (Click here for more)

Click here for Marianne

The secret word is Terminator

…AND SOME DAYS THE HOG EATS YOU

A tribute to the late great Vaughn Bode (who also gave a lot of consideration to robot wars in his Junkwaffel comics.)

THE YOUNG ELVIS – ARMED AND WITH EARMUFFS

I FIND THIS JUST PLAIN PUZZLING

EXCUSE ME, OFFICER, BUT YOU FORGOT YOUR MACHINE GUN

Protect and serve -- when you can remember where you left your weapon.

“A Seattle resident named Nick snapped the photo above in late June, passing it on to The Stranger, a weekly newspaper. It shows an empty police patrol car with an unattended semi-automatic rifle sitting on the trunk. A SPD spokesperson professes to being "very embarrassed" on behalf of the force. "The department is very embarrassed that this happened," says Seattle Police Department Sergeant Sean Whitcomb. "We're incredibly grateful to the person that flagged down the bike officers and the woman who followed the patrol car driver around to let them know there was a rifle on the back of the car." But were SPD officers driving around with an AR-15 rifle on the back of their squad car???? "I'm not going to comment," says Whitcomb, adding that the West Precinct has launched "an investigation into the circumstances that allowed this to happen."

Click here for LW

The secret word is Mariah

THE JELLYFISH ARE UPON US

Yes, my droogs, we’ve warmed up the oceans and now the invertebrates are turning on us.

“They have no backbone and their slimey bodies are made up of more than 90 per cent water but they threaten to turn beaches into no-go zones within two decades. Huge amounts of jellyfish have forced the shutdown of nuclear power plants in Japan, already hit by the earthquake and tsunami, Scotland and a coal-powered plant in Israel in the past few weeks. And a sustained explosion in the population of jellyfish throughout the world's oceans has the potential to be "quite catastrophic" if it is not checked, said jellyfish expert Dr Jamie Seymour from James Cook University in Queensland.” (Click here for the whole story)

SPACE OPERA

Nothing improves a cathedral like an Imperial Star Destroyer.

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

CLIMATE CHANGE DRESDEN-STYLE

Seemingly the thousand bomber raids on Germany during World War II actually produced temporary climate change. The story comes from Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG

"Allied bombing raids during World War II "inadvertently experimented on the weather" in England by creating massive concentrations of artificial clouds as the planes roared off toward continental Europe. Researchers quoted by New Scientist claim that "where the aircraft circled and assembled into formation," on one particular day back in 1944 for which military, meteorological, and even anecdotal eyewitness records are available, "it was significantly cloudier and 0.8°C cooler than the area upwind of the bases." In many ways, this is both obvious and uninteresting, as, of course, any uniquely large-scale act of artificial cloud-production-such as aircraft contrails-would have at least some effect on local weather. But what, to me, seems most remarkable about this story is the darkly poetic idea that war brings with it its own meteorology, its own skies, storms, and atmospheres, literally altering the very firmament beneath which human affairs take place. World War II becomes an even more frightening event, as sun-obliterating cloudfronts of mechanized combat roll eastward over the ruined cities of Europe."

Click here for Nat King Cole

The secret word is Liberator

THE FROZDICK FAMILY (A Two Part Special)

Olga Frozdick’s generosity to the Red Army knew no bounds.

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

While Bettie Frozdick had a soft spot for the Yanks.