CANADA GROVELS TO BUSH ON BUSH

“Another dastardly pot pusher meets his well- deserved fate, ay!”

The New York Times reports from Ottawa that the Canadian government is reversing its highly intelligent earlier moves to decriminalize marijuana use. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new legal and spending measures against reefer use, cultivation, and distribution. In 2005, when the Canadian Liberal Party was in power, legislation was in the works to eliminate criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The bill did not pass Parliament however, before an election in which a majority of Canadians succumbed to the same idiot political narcissism as Americans, and voted Harper and his Bush-friendly Conservatives into power. Needless to say, the bill was never reintroduced.
Harper has now escalated to becoming a total Bush collaborator in the War on Drugs and is mouthing the usual tired horseshit and adopting the faux-macho posture. “For far too long now in Canada, governments have been sending out mixed messages on drugs. Canadians hardly know what the law is anymore.” And to ram home the idiocy that drug use is still illegal, Harper will spend some $64 million on anti-drug campaigns and increased enforcement, including mandatory sentences for dealers and smugglers. The most telling part of the statement, though, was the avowal of “increased coordination with the United States.” A clear signal that Harper is busy cozying up to Bush, the DEA, and the NAFTA bureaucracy, and making sure that Canada does not become the Holland of North America.

(On the subject of NAFTA, though, (even if the segue is kinda loose) former Mexican President Vicente Fox revealed to the media last week that George Bush, the smirking, swaggering cowboy is actually afraid of horses.)

The secret word is Bud

BUT AFTER THE BAD NEWS...

Here he comes to save the day with a Sunday treat! A new-look Mighty Mouse cartoon from the creators of Ren and Stimpy!

A WEEKEND ART SHOW

Valerie brought us a link to a site devoted to the work of the Spanish artist, Josep Renau, from the Civil War era, who spent the rest of his life speaking out loud in the only way he knew how? Click for much, much more. (And then click the tiny boxes at the far right of the web page.)

SAVED FROM SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

Thank the Gods of disease and pestilence that we have George Bush and the Republican Party, the AMA, the insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry making sure we Americans don’t live as long (average life span) as those lousy pinkos in Cuba, Denmark, Chile, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, Ireland, Cyprus, Guadeloupe, Finland, Germany, The United Kingdom, Malta, Belgium, Greece, Martinique, the Netherlands, Austria, Singapore, Norway, New Zealand, Italy, Canada, France, Macau, Israel, Sweden, Spain, Australia, Switzerland, Iceland, Hong Kong and Japan, most of whom have universal health care systems.

A song about healthcare?

The secret word is Ill (but it may be better later if it takes some pills)

POSTSCRIPT

Munz sends us a link to story how prisoners are being quietly released from Gitmo with, I would imagine, stern warnings to keep their fucking mouths shut. Read all about it.

THE AWFUL AFTERMATH OF ART

Earlier, I read the poetry of the detainees after some impromptu chat. It was too grim to be pleased with the performance. (See Monday for the background details.) But the people present seemed to be affected by what the others and I did. Wayne Kramer wore an orange jump suit. We hugged. Some performers didn't show. I guess fearing an FBI file or something. When all was done I drank in aptly named Dresden. It never changes. I got home and fell asleep in front of Stephen Colbert. I woke, alone with cat -- knowing I would always be alone with the cat -- and wondering if our evening efforts had made an iota of difference. Because, if they didn’t, the only question that remains is do I blow my brains out now, or cultivate a total loathing of humanity first. I'm exhausted by 40 years of fighting the bastards.

The secret word is Blackwater

HI!

Hi, I’m an amphetamine molecule and this is The Who.

From when they were mod gods, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere and I Can’t Explain.

The secret word is Wot?

COOLING TOWERS FALL

Hi, this is the Witch-king of Angmar and I hate to see towers falling down. In this clip it’s the cooling towers at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England, the world's first full-scale nuclear power station, being demolished. (Monty Burns take note.)

Oh, and, as of today, the Iranians claim the Russian specialists working on the construction of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran are not leaving town. (See yesterday’s post, and thanks, Munz.)

Also I have a media column in this week’s LA CityBeat about how Fred Thompson should definitely not be president.

REMINDER

Tonight (Thursday), along with a bunch of poets, writers and performers – including my homies Brother Wayne Kramer and Michael Simmons – I’ll be taking part in a mass reading of poems written by former Guantanamo detainees. It’s at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles. See Monday's post for more details.

THIS TRANSCENDS SCARY

Aeswiren, Doc40’s apocalyptic watchdog, and pessimist emeritus, sends some very disturbing news.

"Iranian and Israeli news outlets are reporting that Russia has evacuated its entire staff of nuclear engineers and experts who were working at the Bushehr nuclear reactor, increasing speculation that the United States is preparing an imminent military attack on Iran. According to the Khorramshar News Agency, which represents ethnic Arabs in opposition to Ahmadinejad's regime who live near the reactor, the Russians packed their bags and left on Friday." (Click for the rest.)

And I can’t help it, but this kind of news makes me resort to Ol’ Bob. Here are not one, but two versions, just shy of half a century apart, of the same very obvious song. This not only shows the artist at extreme phases of his career, but also how, in the 45 years since Cuba Missile Crisis, when the song was written, we have made little headway in negating the fear of nuclear annihilation.

The secret word is Strontium and the secret number is 90

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 28

And this Astounding cover was making pretty much the same point twelve years earlier than Bob. We still stall on making the choice.

TASER TALK

This is a TASER. The TASER seems to be showing up all over the place. Security guards, campus cops, real cops. As far as my research goes, it has yet to appear in the BDSM community, although other electric shock devices like cattle prods are becoming quite the rage, but all levels of quasi-law enforcement, including the security at political events, seem to think they are the equivalent of 21st electric billyclubs and are using them with gleeful abandon on anyone who does or says anything they don’t like. And the New Scientist is concerned.

THE INVENTOR AND HIS INFLUENCE

TASER is a registered trademark. The name stems from an acronym created by the original inventor of TASER technology, John H. "Jack" Cover, formerchief scientist of North American Aerospace's Apollo Moon Landing Program. Jack's favorite book character is Tom Swift of the Tom Swift Series, authored by Victor Appleton in 1910-1941. One of the books, TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE, inspired Jack to create the acronym TASER (A Valerie input)

IF I WAS A BIBLE PRAYING KINDA GUY...

…I’d be experiencing massive metaphysical concern over the volcano that erupted yesterday on an island in Yemen’s end of the Red Sea. The idea of a volcano spewing lava and flame far too fucking close, in my estimation, to the massive Ghawar oilfield, would make me one worried fundamentalist, except most of the media have chosen to ignore it, and I probably wouldn’t even know about it. In my own, more secular reality, I am far more perturbed about Seymour Hersh's revelations in the current New Yorker about how Bush now totally seems bent on starting a war with Iran. (Do Bush and Cheney think their place in history will be assured by leaving the Middle East and maybe the whole bloody planet charred to a crisp?)

“In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.” Click for the rest of the story

Also, if I were of bible praying kinda guy, this version of “I Got You Babe” might tip me over into total apocalyptic dread.

The secret word is Endtime

MONDAY’S MAGRITTE AND MARIANNE

What can I write?
What can I do?
What can I say?
Another month has gone away.
It will not return.
Will the egg become the bird of vision?
Or just a fried egg sandwich?
Shall we start the week with a John Lennon anthem?
Marianne Faithfull performing "Working Class Hero" live?
Damn but she’s wonderful.

And before yesterday’s Brecht/Weil binge fades, here’s P.G. Harvey doing “The Soldier’s Wife” – a song that Marianne once recorded.

The secret word is Uneasy

DETAINEES SPEAK -- A PUBLIC READING

The event is a mass reading of poems written by former Guantanamo detainees and read by the listed performers. (And it will be great to be doing something with Wayne again.) It is at Skylight Books, at 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, next Thursday (October 4th) at 7.00pm and its free!

And if any motherfucking neocon starts talking about giving aid and comfort to terror or failing to support he troops, I would forcibly remind them that we are, in fact, fulfilling the prime function of the nation's military – defending the Constitution of the United States.

LATE SUNDAY REFLECTION ON WHAT'S MISSING IN MY LIFE

Now the dreadful HBO show John From Cincinnati has been cancelled, shouldn’t David Milch get his ass in gear and get to producing another cocksucker series of Deadwood?

DECADENT WEIMAR SUNDAY PICTURE SHOW

"I have knives, boys."

A week ago last Friday (Sept 20th) I posted a video link to David Bowie performing Brecht & Weil’s “Alabama Song.” Since then I’ve come across more of the related same. I don’t know why I find this music of the 1930s so I appealing. (I mean, even I wasn’t born yet.) Maybe it's because there is the same sense of fascist evil I feel today, pushing its way up through the fetid swamp of power – not even a new fascist evil, just the same one as before, but with a different tailor. I have also been running graphics from the Spanish Civil War. I have to suppose that I am really looking at two sides of the same coin. Spain was the briefly shining hope, and Weimar Germany was the doomed hedonism. As modern analogues of the doomed hedonism, here is Nick Cave’s version of Mack the Knife, Mick Jagger performing Streets of Berlin from Bent in full drag, Bob Fosse’s ultimately scary Tomorrow Belongs To Me from Cabaret, and Klaus Nomi’s Falling In Love Again. (pic from Valerie)

The secret word is Marlene

GOD BLESS AMERICA

And here's a link from Miss Templeton to a story in Time about how the leaders of mega-churches just can't stay out of trouble.

WATCH OUT POLAND!

Would you believe I used to lend this man a quid ‘til Friday? That I let him eat the cheese out of my fridge? That he and I wrote a bunch of tunes together? Well, we did, and here’s one of them, “Damage Case” being performed by Metallica with Lemmy as a special guest.

THE CAT SLEEPS

I wish I slept too.

DR WHO WAS NEVER LIKE THIS

Andy, Tom, and I played some dynamite music at the Hyperion last night -- or so I was told -- so today has been mainly dedicated to small literary chores and recovery until I stumbled across this image. It would appear that, before the current Dr. Who revival, the Daleks had sunk so low they were forced to act in porn. I only have this still so I have no idea what exactly they were doing or whether they were Dalek-shouting “Fornicate! Fornicate!” while doing it.

ALEX THE PARROT HAS JOINED THE CHOIR CELESTIAL

Valerie was kind enough to send us this clip Alex the Parrot who died at age 31 but left the legacy of a video of his vocabulary and language comprehension that must be seen to be believed. It’s a hell of a long way from Polly want a cracker. Also, in my travels, I discovered a clip of Marc Bolan performing “Children Of The Revolution”, a tune of which I am very fond, although Marc and I had fairly different concepts of revolution and also a highly divergent taste in shirts, the gods rest him and Alex.

The secret word is Fiord

I also have a short squib in this week’s LA CityBeat about the TV reality show Kid Nation.

A REMINDER

“You’ll get down to the Hyperion Tavern tonight and watch Mick & Andy performing their deviant blues if you know what’s good for you. Now I gotta go trap a fly in my gun barrel.”

And you can find all the details of this fabulous show if you scroll back two days to Tuesday where the info is right below a lovely picture of Maggie Gyllenhaal on a black fur rug.

A QUANDARY

HCB sends me a link to a site called Philorock where they seem to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of psychedelia, and there’s Ptooff!, the Deviants first album, in some pretty intense company like Love, The Doors, and Captain Beefheart. The only trouble is that the whole thing’s in Spanish, and I don’t have a clue whether the writer thinks it’s a masterpiece or a load of shite. Like the headline says, a quandary…

"Este grupo no alcanzó la fama ni el éxito comercial (dudo que ni siquiera lo pretendieran), pero su existencia fue imprescindible para el surgimiento de lo que hoy entendemos por punk. En 1966, cuando el movimiento hippy estaba en su apogeo, los Deviants, primero llamados Social Deviants, lanzaban con sus canciones auténticos cuchillos a los mensajes de paz, amor, flores y “buenos viajes”, a través de unas letras subversivas e incluso antiautoritarias, que hablaban del rechazo a la sociedad y de las drogas en su sentido más oscuro y autodestructivo, a veces con una frialdad extrema, a veces con ironía. Arrasaron en la escena underground de Londres (este disco, producido por ellos mismos, vendió más de 10000 copias al poco de salir), dando conciertos rabiosos y llenos de excesos con todo tipo de drogas, convirtiéndose en el grupo-banda sonora de los más álgidos momentos de protesta juvenil de finales de los sesenta en Inglaterra.En Detroit los MC5 ya habían puesto la semilla del punk (los Stooges no habían nacido aún), pero al otro lado del charco no se experimentaba con música parecida. Entonces los Deviants traen al mundo este “Ptooff!!”, un pequeño monstruo de 34 minutos que mezcla la psicodelia, y el punk al modo de un engendro a medio camino entre los Mothers of Invention y el grupo de Iggy y compañía, sobre el cual ejerció alguna influencia a buen seguro, no sólo en la música sino también en la actitud. No hay más que oír la primera canción, “I´m Coming Home”, una auténtica punkada al modo Stooges, en la que Mick Farren, líder y vocalista del grupo, canta a su propio ego en una progresión enfermiza que acaba llevando a la pura psicosis. Toda una delicia, una joya imprescindible en cualquier colección.Las increíbles “Charlie”, “Garbage” y “Deviation Street” siguen en ese estilo, si bien en las dos últimas se notan más las influencias de Frank Zappa a la hora de imprimir un poco de demencia en lo que ya de por sí es salvaje.“Nothing Man” pone aún más de manifiesto dicha influencia, pero en su vertiente más freak, pues es una composición cacofónica y perturbadora de más de 4 minutos. La sorprendente balada “Child of Sky” y la instrumental “Bun”, ponen un poco de calma dando el toque melódico entre la distorsión reinante en un disco anárquico que, aun siendo corto y un poco extraño, se ha ganado su hueco indiscutible en la historia del rock.Varios miembros del grupo formaron en 1971 The Pink Fairies."Magnífico comentario extraido de la página.

FREE JOHN WATERS

John Waters gives an amazing address on free speech. (Thanks Munz) I guess – just to prove we don’t have any free speech – children shouldn’t watch this because it would probably get Doc40 into a mess of excrement. So, if you’re under 18, piss off and don’t click the link. We mean it. Go watch Fat Britney or idiots sticking bottle rockets up their rectums.

The secret word is Dirty

KILLER MICROROBES FROM OUTER SPACE

Some girl sends us this somewhat worrying report on the behavior of germs in space. That also, as she puts it, “might be a corollary of some sort to the Peru asteroid story.” (See last Wednesday)
“Spaceflight is known to have profound effects on human physiology, weakening astronauts' bones and muscles and impairing their immune systems. A new study shows that its effects on microorganisms may be just as dramatic: Salmonella grown onboard the space shuttle was many times deadlier than its terrestrial counterparts. The study suggests that NASA and other space agencies may need to worry that long manned missions will increase the virulence of microorganisms that astronauts inevitably carry with them.” (The picture is not salmonella, but it looked threatening.) For more.

THE MELT GOES ON

Meanwhile Valerie links us to the fact that the North Pole is the smallest it has ever been.
“Arctic sea ice shrank to the smallest area on record this year, US scientists have confirmed. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said the minimum extent of 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles) was reached on 16 September. The figure shatters all previous satellite surveys, including the previous record low of 5.32 million sq km measured in 2005. Earlier this month, it was reported that the Northwest Passage was open. The fabled Arctic shipping route from the Atlantic to the Pacific is normally ice-bound at some location throughout the year; but this year, ships have been able to complete an unimpeded navigation." For more

The secret word is Screwed

POPEYE STATES BASIC INDIVIDUALIST PHILOSOPHY

Without which we all become foul thralls of Mordor. (Although there was a time when I considered that Witch-king of Angmar might not be a bad gig.)

FREE BOB DYLAN

Including the epic (and complete) Maggie’s Farm from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with a whole mess of Michael Bloomfield and the booing fools at the end. I know it’s from Amazon, but what the hell.

This blog is still affiliated with The White Panther Party

THEY'RE DOING IT AGAIN. THEY CAN'T BE STOPPED.

“Oh course I’m going to see Mick and Andy, why do you think I’m dressed like this?"

Mick Farren and Andy Colquhoun will once again be romping and stomping their two-man psychedelic deviant future blues – with new tunes and special guest Tom Gardner at Tequila Mockingbird’s Club Fluffer at the Hyperion Tavern in Silver Lake this Thursday (September 27th) and you are sooo cordially invited. Showing up between 9.30 and 10.00 PM would be about right.

Hyperion Tavern, 1941 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027. 323-665-1941 (Look for the red lights.)

Drink it up, tip the bartender, forget your troubles and come on down. (Still our current slogan.)

We understand that Dick and Jane, Slobbery Jim, Angel and Love, Vaseline Tuner and burlesque queen Madame Miss La Diva will also grace the stage.

KITTENS WITH MACHINE GUNS

Twice in the last 24 hours I have encountered a cat with a machine gun. It could just be coincidence, but too many people have told me there are no coincidences in this life, so I wonder if we should take all this a little seriously. Are felines arming themselves with automatic weapons? And, if so, why and against whom? I’d also wonder how they were getting them, except I’m well aware, after decades of strife in the Middle East, Central America, and the former Yugoslavia, you can pick up an Uzi or AK47 dirt cheap from any Tom, Sergei, or Achmed. Just be vigilant if your calico companion starts getting long narrow packages from UPS and claims they're curtain rods.

See the Cat With The Golden Gun in motion.

The secret word is Thompson

Marcel Marceau -- RIP (ssssh)

Bush or Bud?

I don’t quite know what to think about this pretty damn unique portrait of George W. Bush by Steve Lazarides (and sent over by Doug the Bass.) Does the loathsome oaf even deserve the attention? I recall something similar was done to John Ashcroft when he was the Holy Roller Attorney General. This, however, is a great deal more subtle and takes a little figuring out, but start from the top of his left ear (your left) and move out across all the pornographic contours of the face. Left clicking for a bigger image helps.

I’m also unsure about this Budweiser commercial from the 2002 Super Bowl that's been making the web rounds in the wake of 9/11 hindsight. Is the damned thing dignified or a piece of tawdry beer bathos? Those Clydesdales are damn fine horses, though.

The secret word is Decide

FASCINATING...

Fascinating.

WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND

This is meat. Doesn’t it look yummy? Don’t you just love vintage advertising? The red tint alone is an argument for vegetarianism. Or liquid nourishment. See how it coordinates with the nail polish. But don’t expect anything too profound from me in the next 48 hours. Even Strindberg had a day off.

The secret word is Cocktail

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 27

Maybe I should join the Hordes of Mekh. A strange adventure on another world in the company of an erotically implausible redhead with a double edged axe might do my mental health a power of good.

AS IF BEES DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TROUBLES

At least enlisting in the Hordes of Mekh might get me away from the gratuitous madness of this damned planet where the military is now attempting to turn bees – who have enough trouble already – into little flying bomb detectors. (Also Valerie notes "If you check out the applications on the company web, they´re already marketing all this, which means they´ve been messing with the bees for a long time.")

“Honeybees are trained to recognize particular odors (for example, that of explosive compounds), and then to associate that smell with a food reward. Bees are able to recognize odors that are as faint as only a few parts per trillion in an air sample. When the bees detect the special odor, they extend their proboscis in expectation of receiving food.” More

IS THE PERUVIAN METEOR A DEAD SATELLITE?

Ready for the latest conspiracy theories in the matter of the Peruvian meteor and the unknown X-Files-class contagion that would appear to be emanating from the crater? I would also note that I have seen at least a dozen science fiction movies or read stories that have started like this -- including, of course War Of The Worlds. (Not the film version with Tom Cruise.)

“Reports from Peru now claim that more than 600 people have fallen ill after coming into contact with the "glowing rock" or having inhaled 'toxic gases' while visiting the massive 30 metre wide crater. The Peruvian Regional Health Directorate has been forced to set up medical tents near a health centre in Carancas to deal with the casualties, which most reports now claim are well above 600 people.” More

FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
I had previously failed to notice that GEheimSTAdts POlizei freely translates as Homeland Security

HCB
Our pal has a piece on the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in American Heritage.

MUSIC? Fancy some Brecht/Weil by Bowie? (The end, I would add of the current Doc40 Bowie cache.) Although I do know the way to the next whisky bar.

The secret word is Mekh

HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE GIVEN UP COMMUNISM

ATHENS, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - A prisoner in a Romanian jail is suing God, Greek state television reported from Bucharest Tuesday. "God received different material valuables from me, as well as prayers in exchange for promises of a better life. In reality, this did not happen - I found myself in the devil's hands," the plaintiff said.
The convict is serving 20 years in the west Romanian city of Timisoara. He apparently blames God for the troubles in his life and wants God brought to account for failing to fulfill the commitments He undertook and for taking bribes. The plaintiff said that when he had been baptized in childhood, he concluded a contract with God that had legal effect - God was supposed to protect him from evil. The plaintiff said the Romanian Orthodox Church, which, according to him, directly represents God, should compensate him for the alleged God-inflicted damage. In line with the law, the lawsuit was submitted to court. However, as the defendant is neither an individual nor a company, and is not subject to a civil court of law's jurisdiction, the case is unlikely to be heard regardless of how justified the plaintiff's demands may be, court officials said.

OJ'S BACK -- WE CAN STOP THINKING

OJ, the ultimate distraction, has been deployed. Forget the war, forget the planet, forget the election, forget health care. Forget it all and sit and drool at the smirking, smug, sociopath, murdering sonofabitch like it was 1994.

WHAT US WORRY?

Meanwhile, in this week’s LA CityBeat, I re-discover MAD magazine. And wandering YouTube, I re-discovered the Grateful Dead, which is always tricky. Middle-aged punks stare at you like you were a puppy molester caught en flagrante. (Or maybe OJ) “Farren is a closet Deadhead!” Which is actually not true. As Boss Goodman used to put it. “You like the songs and the singing, not the solos.” Whatever fashion might dictate, though, I am unashamedly fond of New Speedway Boogie.

The secret word is Tromp

BLUE LAKES BOB

The following story, forwarded by Doug the Bass, but I believe to be circulating on the net has a naïve neo-Norman Rockwell quality that suggests those in power can't fool all of the people all of the time forever and ever, amen. On the other hand, how long and how much does it take for supposedly decent citizens to wise up to what is being done to them and theirs? Does it always require mutilated children before they grasp there's something wrong with this picture.?

THE BALLAD OF BLUE LAKES BOB ! (In memory of 9/11) by Purple Gene. I remember that Monday morning when I was driving to work ...9/11/01. I'll never forget it...ever!
The following weekend I was walking on a little dirt road behind our cabin on Blue Lakes. I ran into a larger than life old Vet named Bob walking his aging black Lab. I said Hi and the first thing out of his mouth after Hi was, "Fuckin' Ragheads!"
A year later, around September of 2002, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his oldest son had enlisted in the Army and was going to Afghanistan. I said, "Bob, I'll keep your boy in my thoughts. I mean it"!
A year later, around September of 2003, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his youngest son had enlisted in the Army and was going to Iraq. I said, "Bob, I'll keep your boys in my thoughts"! And I did!
Another year later, around September of 2004, I saw old Bob again and he told me that both his boys were doing O.K., but he started complaining about what his sons were saying in term of lack of protection on their Humvees and body armor and the heat and the sand and. I said, "Bob, I hope those boys of yours stay safe!"
A year later, around September of 2005, I saw old Bob again and he told me that his oldest son was back from Afghanistan but that his youngest boy re-upped in Iraq. Bob said, "my youngest is kinda crazy and I'm a little worried". I said, "Bob, I hope we can get him back home soon!"
Yet another year later, around September of 2006, I saw old Bob again and he said that his son was writing him less and less and that more of his buddies had been blown up by I.E.D's and he didn't give a shit who won the congressional elections. They’re all the same up in Washington...I said, "Bob, I would like nothing more than to see thiswar end and your youngest come home...and besides, I think they're spending too much of "our" money over in that "shit hole"!
Well I just saw old Bob this last weekend (September of 2007) up at Blue Lakes. He had on his usual army fatigues and hat and his black Lab was still limping along behind him. This time Bob said something that really struck me hard. "I think these "Chicken Hawks"in Washington have been lying to us all along. They just want that black gold. Oh and by the way my youngest made it back in one piece, but his head is kinda screwed up." I said, "Bob, tell your sons thanks a lot for trying over there...and I think you're rightas rain about Washington and the War!"
I wonder what he'll have to say next year?

And all I can follow this grim Americana with is Elvis singing “Trying To Get To You.”

THAT DAMNED PERUVIAN METEOR

(See yesterday’s comments. I felt challenged.)
"A meteorite fell Saturday night in the Peruvian area of Puno, close to the border with Bolivia, forming a crater with a 30 meters diamater, and six meters in depth, the local press reported today. A luminous object fell a little before midnight of the day before yesterday in the town of Carancas, in the province of Chucuito, about 1.300 kilometers to the south of Lima. According to sources of the Territorial Direction of the Police, the alarmed inhabitants of the area heard a great noise, similar to that of an airplane falling. Later, the witnesses saw a luminous object in fire in the sky that hit the ground, producing an explosion that left the earth charred. The meteorite didn’t hurt anyone, but the authorities are investigating if the remains found in the area are of animals that may have died because of the explosion. The farmers of the place fear the appearance of some disease, since chips of lead and silver were liberated in the shock of the meteor with the soil, the local broadcasting station “RPP” informed. The member of the National Academy of Sciences, Modesto Montoya, told to the “Andean” state agency that the fall of meteorites in Peru doesn’t present any danger, unless they hit some structure. “None of the several meteorites that fall in Peru and make perforations of varied sizes are harmful for people, unless they fall over a house”, Montoya said. In June, another meteorite fell in the Mascapampa hill, in the province of Arequipa (south), leaving the population alarmed. Curiously the meteorite fell exactly one month after the terrible earthquake that hit Lima on August 15.
Other more dubious stories told of tiny people emerging from the meteor."

The secret word is Scully

NOW… You wanna see the Sears Tower struck by lightning?

THIS BLOG IS STILL PROTECTED BY...

The advanced societies of the future will not be governed by reason. They will be driven by irrationality, by competing systems of psychopathology.- J.G. Ballard

WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, MR RINGLING

Doc 40 was never designed as an animal rights blog, but humanity is spends so much of its time fucking over the other inhabitants of the planet it becomes impossible to ignore. I am not fond of zoos, and I loathe circuses that feature animal acts. (I don’t much like clowns either, but that’s a whole other story.) Part of my loathing for circuses stems from knowing, from nothing less than personal experience, that much of so-called animal training is based in calculated cruelty. This clip send by blu reveals a little of the nastiness involved in training an animal act, in this case elephants. Be warned, though. This video is not pleasant.

The secret word is Bastards

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 26

(Do I feel the depression coming back or is it a conversion to nihilism?)

FLEEING THE MENACE OF THE BOB DYLAN MACHINE...

Now here’s where it really gets complicated. In this message from Dan, Bob Dylan (helped by Antonio Lopez) warns us of the Cylon menace, while out there across the galaxy, the human survivors have All Along The Watchtower ringing in their ears, and we poor schmucks back on Earth are going to have to wait maybe a year to find what the fuck is going on and what the writers are up to. (Why do I watch TV? It only makes me dissatisfied.)

But if I actually lived in the TV all of this would be the primary mythology, not to say some high-octane motherfucker metaphysics of possibly catastrophic dimensions and I’d be thinking, right here, roll on 2012 and let’s see what that’s going to bring. In space no one can hear you scream, but on Earth, mind-snapping terror is completely audible. (Although if I lived in the TV I would be nano-tiny and speak in binary code. Word?)

CRYPTIQUE – God is just an out-of-control vending machine. (But what currency does he/she/it accept?)

The secret word is Relief

WATCH THIS ADMIRAL

Munz has sent us this highly salient warning about how Admiral William Fallon, commander of CENTCOM, which covers the Middle East and Southeast Asia – and who is essentially the boss of Bush lapdog Gen. David Petraeus – “privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy." Since he remains CENTCOM commander, there does not appear to be an imminent invasion of Iran. If he quits, get nervous. (He also called Petraeus an "ass-kissing little chickenshit.”) Click for chapter and verse.

AND I clean forgot with all that’s been going on that I have a couple of snappy riffs on drunk driving in the current issue of LA CityBeat.

FIFTEEN CENTS?

I have a nickel and a dime and one fuck of a toothache. I’m off to Hudson Avenue, Albany.

The secret word is Bicuspid