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Fan Templeton – RIP
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
OH YEAH? SEZ WHO? (A Rant)
“He’s always like this on the thirteenth of the month.”
A couple of days ago, I ran a lengthy quote from Howard Beale – the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves in the movie Network, and rather reopened the debate on decentralization and disengagement from totalitarian corporate capitalism. One anonymous poster suggested, “we don't need to buy HDTV. Or cable. We can wear used clothes. And barter for books. And get food from a local farmer co-ops. We can keep everything within our own communities. Even if that means moving from cities to smaller towns where land is more plentiful.” For my part, I harbor grave misgivings about the whole business of rural retreat. I firmly believe that radical change cannot be achieved without mass confrontation of some kind, be it in the style of Gandhi, or armed-and-Bolshevik dangerous. I also worry that the power structure has been long schooled in how to deal with radical rural communes or communities all the way from the crushing of the Levelers and the Diggers in 17th century England, through to Jonestown and the Branch Davidians at Waco.
I also cannot subscribe to any revolution that cannot hold on to the technology. Science is not a luxury. It is humanity at its most noble. We stand on the threshold of wherever String Theory might lead, and the Singularity may only be a quarter-century away. Since I am not about to give that up (should I live so long) for digging carrots out of the dirt, can anyone educate me? How do the rebels seize an ISP? Classic Guevara-style guerrillas always seized the radio station early in the taking of the city. It’s the same tactic written more high-tech. This is the overcrowded 21st century and our solutions may not only have to be more drastic, but also far more complex.
And while I was still frowning over those conundrums, someone calling himself Man mounted something that felt close to a Stalinist blitzkrieg. Demanding to know “are these songs supposed to be ironic? They are all from the sixties and all more proof that pretty much whatever posture someone from that era assumed, they and their fans will do otherwise.” Fans? Does that mean you? Man then went on describe “artists and revolutionaries” as “grotesque reality of nightmares past” and I was grimly instructed to leave “the pics of dead blonds to the wanker caste and focus entirely on practical solutions.” And if that wasn’t enough, even my good pal HCB weighed in on the 1960s with “we've been picking over the bones of the golden age for an awfully long time.”
Initially I was furious and banged my curmudgeon fist on the keyboard, declaring angrily that it was my blog and I’d post what I damn well liked, motherfuckers, but, later, contrition set in. Yes, my friends, I now freely admit my moribund guilt. I found Elvis in the 1950s and made my anarchic bones in the 1960s, a wonderful time when stoned girls danced on my stage, semi-naked, until ushered off by the Hells Angels. (See above.) It was a lot if fun in that scant five minutes between the Pill and AIDS, and much of what goes up on Doc40 is intended as a history lesson, or just an old timer telling tales of the velvet trenches. But there’s also more to it than just geriatric nostalgia. The complained-of Marilyn Monroe is the perfect example.
An image of Marilyn has the resonance of a multi-faceted, 20th century fertility icon, and lends itself to a wide spectrum of symbolism and artistic exploitation. The reason I use her has nothing to do with wanker masturbation. It is because – even after more than half a century – there is nothing with equal cognitive impact. You simply do not achieve the same effect with Scarlett Johansson or Miley Cyrus. If you don’t believe me, just try it. It’s same with the music I post. Sure, a lot of it is from the 1950/60/70s, (and a lot isn’t) but that’s not only because it’s the music I know and love. Much of it simply hasn’t been superseded by any new and more powerful rock & roll malcontent anthems.
A couple of days ago, I ran a lengthy quote from Howard Beale – the Mad Prophet of the Airwaves in the movie Network, and rather reopened the debate on decentralization and disengagement from totalitarian corporate capitalism. One anonymous poster suggested, “we don't need to buy HDTV. Or cable. We can wear used clothes. And barter for books. And get food from a local farmer co-ops. We can keep everything within our own communities. Even if that means moving from cities to smaller towns where land is more plentiful.” For my part, I harbor grave misgivings about the whole business of rural retreat. I firmly believe that radical change cannot be achieved without mass confrontation of some kind, be it in the style of Gandhi, or armed-and-Bolshevik dangerous. I also worry that the power structure has been long schooled in how to deal with radical rural communes or communities all the way from the crushing of the Levelers and the Diggers in 17th century England, through to Jonestown and the Branch Davidians at Waco.
I also cannot subscribe to any revolution that cannot hold on to the technology. Science is not a luxury. It is humanity at its most noble. We stand on the threshold of wherever String Theory might lead, and the Singularity may only be a quarter-century away. Since I am not about to give that up (should I live so long) for digging carrots out of the dirt, can anyone educate me? How do the rebels seize an ISP? Classic Guevara-style guerrillas always seized the radio station early in the taking of the city. It’s the same tactic written more high-tech. This is the overcrowded 21st century and our solutions may not only have to be more drastic, but also far more complex.
And while I was still frowning over those conundrums, someone calling himself Man mounted something that felt close to a Stalinist blitzkrieg. Demanding to know “are these songs supposed to be ironic? They are all from the sixties and all more proof that pretty much whatever posture someone from that era assumed, they and their fans will do otherwise.” Fans? Does that mean you? Man then went on describe “artists and revolutionaries” as “grotesque reality of nightmares past” and I was grimly instructed to leave “the pics of dead blonds to the wanker caste and focus entirely on practical solutions.” And if that wasn’t enough, even my good pal HCB weighed in on the 1960s with “we've been picking over the bones of the golden age for an awfully long time.”
Initially I was furious and banged my curmudgeon fist on the keyboard, declaring angrily that it was my blog and I’d post what I damn well liked, motherfuckers, but, later, contrition set in. Yes, my friends, I now freely admit my moribund guilt. I found Elvis in the 1950s and made my anarchic bones in the 1960s, a wonderful time when stoned girls danced on my stage, semi-naked, until ushered off by the Hells Angels. (See above.) It was a lot if fun in that scant five minutes between the Pill and AIDS, and much of what goes up on Doc40 is intended as a history lesson, or just an old timer telling tales of the velvet trenches. But there’s also more to it than just geriatric nostalgia. The complained-of Marilyn Monroe is the perfect example.
An image of Marilyn has the resonance of a multi-faceted, 20th century fertility icon, and lends itself to a wide spectrum of symbolism and artistic exploitation. The reason I use her has nothing to do with wanker masturbation. It is because – even after more than half a century – there is nothing with equal cognitive impact. You simply do not achieve the same effect with Scarlett Johansson or Miley Cyrus. If you don’t believe me, just try it. It’s same with the music I post. Sure, a lot of it is from the 1950/60/70s, (and a lot isn’t) but that’s not only because it’s the music I know and love. Much of it simply hasn’t been superseded by any new and more powerful rock & roll malcontent anthems.
When Man demands that I “focus entirely on practical solutions” I can only responded why me? I’ve been walking point on my fraction of this adventure since Jack Kennedy was shot. Where are your plans, Man? Where are your practical solutions? Can I look them up on line, or do I need to buy the book? When are you young people going to put down your fancy phones for long enough to surprise the old man with something new and uniquely dangerous? I becoming a little bored with the waiting.
And, talking of anthems, click here for The (ironic) Ramones
The secret word is Venerable
And, talking of anthems, click here for The (ironic) Ramones
The secret word is Venerable
KILLER CEREAL OR CEREAL KILLER?
Some dire crap has been corporately foisted on the youth culture down the years. Some of you may remember Pop Rocks, or Squirt Gum, or Screaming Yellow Zonkers. K Rave may well be right in there with the worst of them. The story comes from Viceland.com…
“The other day we got sent some cereal. Attached was a press release so bizarre and pretentious we can only assume that Kellogg’s are embracing some new trend of reverse-psychology PR and are secretly hoping we’ll take the piss out of it, and that it would go viral and become some edible version of The Room for post-ironic 20somethings. Well, OK Kellogg’s, you win. We’re writing about the only cereal that “surfs the youth culture wave.” Unfortunately, after extensive product-testing we’ve discovered that K Rave tastes like shit and it inflamed our intern’s IBS. So, no one buy it, just click through and read the press release, then forget it even exists. It’s worth noting that this ketamine-themed cereal also boasts the unabashedly rapely slogan “Dare to unleash the predator in you!” and the box is covered in sperm.”
Friday, February 12, 2010
REGENERATING BRAIN CELLS
By way of a Friday medical spot there appears to be good news for those of us who worry about all those brain cells we have destroyed down the years by fun and abuse – good news even for those who have lost so many they are no longer capable of worrying. The little buggers can seemingly grow back, although it may be a case of use them or lose them, so get to thinking real hard, brothers and sisters.
"In the 1990s scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons. Biologists had long believed that this talent for neurogenesis was reserved for young, developing minds and was lost with age. But in the early part of the decade Elizabeth Gould, then at the Rockefeller University, demonstrated that new cells arise in the adult brain - particularly in a region called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory.
Fresh neurons arise in the brain every day. ... Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of new neurons in the adult brain, and the more engaging and challenging the problem, the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These neurons are then presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It seems, then, that a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise builds up the body. – Tracey J. Shors, "Saving New Brain Cells," Scientific American
And in a less cheerful medical item, I note that former President Bill Clinton was in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He had chest pains and went to the hospital and got a stent. He was expected to spend the night there. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported that Clinton had been having chest pains. Clinton is 63 years old. I’m 66 years old and when I have chest pains I take an aspirin and hope I don’t die. In a system where insurance companies calculate cost points at which treatment for children with cancer is denied, I’m precluded from coverage by an existing condition that I've had since I was a toddler. Such is the way of it with healthcare in the USA. I may have to move back to England and the evils of single payer socialism if I want to live to see the end of the world in 2012.
And now click here for the Rolling Stones' “Dear Doctor”. It’s ironic and it’s from the 1960s. Anyone got a problem with that?
The secret word is Medication
"In the 1990s scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons. Biologists had long believed that this talent for neurogenesis was reserved for young, developing minds and was lost with age. But in the early part of the decade Elizabeth Gould, then at the Rockefeller University, demonstrated that new cells arise in the adult brain - particularly in a region called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory.
Fresh neurons arise in the brain every day. ... Recent work, albeit mostly in rats, indicates that learning enhances the survival of new neurons in the adult brain, and the more engaging and challenging the problem, the greater the number of neurons that stick around. These neurons are then presumably available to aid in situations that tax the mind. It seems, then, that a mental workout can buff up the brain, much as physical exercise builds up the body. – Tracey J. Shors, "Saving New Brain Cells," Scientific American
And in a less cheerful medical item, I note that former President Bill Clinton was in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He had chest pains and went to the hospital and got a stent. He was expected to spend the night there. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported that Clinton had been having chest pains. Clinton is 63 years old. I’m 66 years old and when I have chest pains I take an aspirin and hope I don’t die. In a system where insurance companies calculate cost points at which treatment for children with cancer is denied, I’m precluded from coverage by an existing condition that I've had since I was a toddler. Such is the way of it with healthcare in the USA. I may have to move back to England and the evils of single payer socialism if I want to live to see the end of the world in 2012.
And now click here for the Rolling Stones' “Dear Doctor”. It’s ironic and it’s from the 1960s. Anyone got a problem with that?
The secret word is Medication
NUCLEAR PIGEON
If you like cartoon pigeons you’re going to love this one -- sent by Mr.MR -- who comes within the edge of a feather of starting a nuclear war. (But is that a donut or a bagel?) Click here.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
THE LETHAL POTENTIAL OF "MY WAY"
Okay, so pop culture is getting weird, but this symptom is weirder than most. It comes close to the Monty Python killer joke sketch, but, I have to confess, the idea of writing a song that starts guys slaughtering each other in bars is an awesome concept.
“GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.” Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.” “I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”
The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?
Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.” (Click here for the rest of the story)
Click here to try it for yourself
Click here to try it with Elvis
Click here to try it with Sid (and, of course, all three singers are dead.)
The secret word is Refrain
“GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.” Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.” “I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”
The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?
Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.” (Click here for the rest of the story)
Click here to try it for yourself
Click here to try it with Elvis
Click here to try it with Sid (and, of course, all three singers are dead.)
The secret word is Refrain
FREE RINGS PREQUEL
Our pal Wendy sent us this free movie that she describes as a “prequel to Lord Of the Rings - made for 25,000 pounds (sterling) by some gal in the UK” – in fact a lady called Kate Madison, who also cast herself as a sword wielding heroine. It’s a remarkable piece of work, like fan fiction graduating to fan film. The official website tells us…
“This hour long original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings we follow Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people's history.” Click here to watch.
“This hour long original drama is set in the time before the War of the Ring and tells the story of the Dúnedain, the Rangers of the North, before the return of the King. Inspired by only a couple of paragraphs written by Tolkien in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings we follow Arathorn and Gilraen, the parents of Aragorn, from their first meeting through a turbulent time in their people's history.” Click here to watch.
THE FROZDICK FAMILY
The twins – Andrea and Anthea – could maintain their regimentation even under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
IN THE END, THEY SHOT HOWARD BEALE
Last night I watched part of the movie Network. I hadn’t seen it in a long time, and it came as something of a minor shock. In 1976, when the movie was released, it was close to being a work of science fiction; Paddy Chayefsky’s vision of a near future in which corporate media had driven itself insane and corporate corruption had negated the last remaining shreds of demo. Last night, I realized to my horror that we have now reached the reality of what was once a projected satiric fantasy. We live – or, more accurately, we drown – in a seamless media delusion in which nothing can be changed or repaired unless it is wholly in the interests of our corporate master, who, in turn, have grown wholly and fatally myopic in their quadrant of the insanity. I could rant on at length, but, hell, it’s late. I’ll leave it to Howard Beale. More than just the “mad as hell” speech that everyone remembers. But don’t forget. They killed Howard Beale when his ratings tanked.
“So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth. But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! WE are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF...
You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.”
“So, you listen to me. Listen to me: Television is not the truth! Television is a God-damned amusement park! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business! So if you want the truth... Go to God! Go to your gurus! Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever going to find any real truth. But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds... We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God's name, you people are the real thing! WE are the illusion! So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF...
You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.”
THE LAKOTA’S WINTER OF DISCONTENT
The first Native Tribe to officially support Barack Obama for president is now waiting for him to declare the reservation a disaster. According to a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) press release, 3,000 utility poles were downed during recent severe storms. CRST Chairman, Joseph Brings Plenty, has declared a state of emergency.Thousands of CRST residents have been without water, heat, and electricity for over two weeks. Experts relate it may be as long as one month to restore power across the reservation. Wind-chill factors in central South Dakota have been subzero. Brings Plenty worries the reservation’s all ready overburdened water system, which consists of pipes running through the reservation, will fail. Neighboring off-reservation communities are also affected, because the reservation pipelines feed those communities. The tribe is very grateful for assistance from the Navajo Nation, Army Corps of Engineers, South Dakota National Guard, and State’s Department of Public Safety.But, much more help is needed. Click here for more information
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
INTERNET OR SPYNET?
Now we learn that if you go online with a hot conspiracy theory you’ll have the FBI – or the NSA or some other agency too black to even have initials – all over your ass, attempting to ram you full of "cognitive diversity." Or you will have if some of the Harvard control freaks in the White House have their way. Those crazy conspiracy theories are just too whacked. They cannot be permitted to run around loose. Opponents of the idea claim US secret police trolling the net will take us back to the 1960s, Hoover’s FBI, and black ops like COINTELPRO. They are almost certainly right. I’d also point out how, when the first rumors about COINTELPRO and CIA domestic games like CHAOS and MKULTRA began to circulate, they were dismissed and dissed as crazy conspiracy theories.
“A high-ranking official in the Obama administration has come under fire in the past few weeks for suggesting that it would be a good idea to deploy federal agents to "cognitively infiltrate" political groups that believe in conspiracy theories. "Cognitive infiltration" may just be a fancy way to describe what chat room trolls do every day, but it's downright Orwellian in its implications, summoning visions of disinformation campaigns, agents provocateurs, and J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO. The official is Cass Sunstein, the long-time University of Chicago law professor (he has since moved on to Harvard), who is currently serving as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Sunstein's proposal was not issued under the auspices of the government, but in an academic paper. Co-authored with Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule and published in The Journal of Political Philosophy in 2008, "Conspiracy Theory" surveys the existing scholarship on the origins and characteristics of conspiracy theories and contemplates whether or not governments should try to neutralize them. In general, it takes a social sciences approach, arguing that conspiracy theories are neither legitimate political ideas nor symptoms of a psychological disorder, but are rather the inevitable distortions of closed-off, self-reinforcing belief systems. Using government agents to inject "cognitive diversity" into those communities, it suggests, just might provide the body politic with an antidote to the thought contagions they inspire.
Glenn Greenwald ripped into Sunstein's "truly pernicious" article in Salon. "Note how similar Sunstein's proposal is to multiple, controversial stealth efforts by the Bush administration to secretly influence and shape our political debates," he wrote. "There is a very strong case to make that what Sunstein is advocating is itself illegal under long-standing statutes prohibiting government 'propaganda' within the U.S., aimed at American citizens." The far right World Net Daily was no less alarmist: "Top Obama czar: Infiltrate all 'conspiracy theorists,'" its headline read. "Presidential adviser wrote about crackdown on expressing opinions." Click here for the rest.
Click here for “I Spy For The FBI” by Jamo Thomas
The secret word is Policeman
“A high-ranking official in the Obama administration has come under fire in the past few weeks for suggesting that it would be a good idea to deploy federal agents to "cognitively infiltrate" political groups that believe in conspiracy theories. "Cognitive infiltration" may just be a fancy way to describe what chat room trolls do every day, but it's downright Orwellian in its implications, summoning visions of disinformation campaigns, agents provocateurs, and J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO. The official is Cass Sunstein, the long-time University of Chicago law professor (he has since moved on to Harvard), who is currently serving as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Sunstein's proposal was not issued under the auspices of the government, but in an academic paper. Co-authored with Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule and published in The Journal of Political Philosophy in 2008, "Conspiracy Theory" surveys the existing scholarship on the origins and characteristics of conspiracy theories and contemplates whether or not governments should try to neutralize them. In general, it takes a social sciences approach, arguing that conspiracy theories are neither legitimate political ideas nor symptoms of a psychological disorder, but are rather the inevitable distortions of closed-off, self-reinforcing belief systems. Using government agents to inject "cognitive diversity" into those communities, it suggests, just might provide the body politic with an antidote to the thought contagions they inspire.
Glenn Greenwald ripped into Sunstein's "truly pernicious" article in Salon. "Note how similar Sunstein's proposal is to multiple, controversial stealth efforts by the Bush administration to secretly influence and shape our political debates," he wrote. "There is a very strong case to make that what Sunstein is advocating is itself illegal under long-standing statutes prohibiting government 'propaganda' within the U.S., aimed at American citizens." The far right World Net Daily was no less alarmist: "Top Obama czar: Infiltrate all 'conspiracy theorists,'" its headline read. "Presidential adviser wrote about crackdown on expressing opinions." Click here for the rest.
Click here for “I Spy For The FBI” by Jamo Thomas
The secret word is Policeman
MARILYN SEZ...
“Jack and I are already a conspiracy theory – in fact, multiple conspiracy theories.”
Monday, February 08, 2010
GOLDEN OLDIES AND BLASTS FROM THE PAST
“Farren had my number years ago.”
Although La CityBeat went out of business months ago, I wondered last night, as I idled online, if the website was still up. And yes, it was. There was even a file of my old columns. Click here to check it out. This one about Dick Cheney from 2007 has certainly stood the test of time.
“The humorous suggestion has more than once been made that Dick Cheney is, in fact, something other than human. Most recently Maureen Dowd came close to calling the vice president an alien in her New York Times column: "I've always thought Cheney was way out there - the most Voldemort-like official I've run across. But ... I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet."
At the opposite extreme, conspiracy theorist David Icke seriously claims that Cheney is actually a shape-shifting reptilian from inside the Hollow Earth with an agenda of world conquest. But Icke, a former British soccer player whose theories cloak a virulent and calculated anti-Semitism, can hardly be considered a reliable source. He does, however, illustrate the odd frequency with which science fiction is used to denigrate the veep.
This seems a unique phenomenon in American political and cultural history. Certainly, every president and vice president has come in for his share of abuse: FDR and JFK were both called communists, Nixon was a crook, Gerald Ford was a stumbling doofus, Jimmy Carter was ineffectual, Reagan was a puppet, Dan Quayle was a moron, Bill Clinton couldn't keep his pants zipped, and LBJ picked up beagles by their ears. All offensive, but strictly terrestrial. Cheney, on the other hand, with approval ratings that dipped as low as 18 percent in mid-2006, may have alienated so many of us that we look for alien metaphors to express our loathing for the man.
An intensive Web search (during which my computer froze, I swear) revealed that the Cheney-as-alien concept runs deep. He was referred to as "Dark Lord of the Sith" more times than I care to count, and his face has been Photoshopped onto every unholy phase of Anakin Skywalker metamorphosing into Darth Vader. On June 27, a Cheney-is-an-alien joke appeared on the blog of an anonymous Washington lawyer (Lawyerworldland.blogspot.com). The author mock-quoted White House Press Secretary Tony Snow as saying Cheney had "complete immunity from everything" and "not only is he not part of the Executive Branch, but strictly speaking not even part of the human race."
Instead of Star Wars, a blogger called Defective Yeti used the Alien movie cycle for an elaborate parallel. "The xenomorph has a complex lifecycle," D. Yeti writes. "After hatching from an egg, the 'facehugger' implants an embryo deep within the body of the host organism. Sometime later the parasite violently emerges from its carrier, then rapidly grows to a near-perfect killing machine. This reminds me of nothing so much as Dick Cheney. He found a host organism easily enough. In 1999, Cheney headed up Bush's Vice-Presidential Search Committee, only to announce that he was the most qualified man for the job. After Bush was elected, Cheney gestated deep within the body politic. Now, his metamorphosis is complete, he ruptures forth ... and if the democracy that incubated him is killed in the process, so be it ... In January 2009 it will be fun to watch Hillary strap herself into a power-loader, and blow Cheney out of an airlock."
Of course, Cheney himself hardly confirms his humanity. The abnormal arrogance, the mysterious disappearances, the strange beliefs in the nature of his office the weird demand that Google Earth pixilate his official residence, and recent revelation on HuffPo that "Cheney runs to an undisclosed location because he, his doctors, and the Secret Service know that his pacemaker is not shielded from EMR [electronic medical records] or EMP [electromagnetic pulse]" all provide grist for speculations straight out of Invasion of Body Snatchers. The recent news of the Mosler, man-sized safe in Cheney's office, however, took one blog commentator straight in the direction of H. P. Lovecraft: "Be warned that it's not really a safe," goes the posting. "When you open the door to that safe, it actually leads straight to hell."
And click here for Bob singing Masters Of War which has also stood the test of time.
Although La CityBeat went out of business months ago, I wondered last night, as I idled online, if the website was still up. And yes, it was. There was even a file of my old columns. Click here to check it out. This one about Dick Cheney from 2007 has certainly stood the test of time.
“The humorous suggestion has more than once been made that Dick Cheney is, in fact, something other than human. Most recently Maureen Dowd came close to calling the vice president an alien in her New York Times column: "I've always thought Cheney was way out there - the most Voldemort-like official I've run across. But ... I never imagined that he would declare himself not only above the law, not only above the president, but actually his own dark planet."
At the opposite extreme, conspiracy theorist David Icke seriously claims that Cheney is actually a shape-shifting reptilian from inside the Hollow Earth with an agenda of world conquest. But Icke, a former British soccer player whose theories cloak a virulent and calculated anti-Semitism, can hardly be considered a reliable source. He does, however, illustrate the odd frequency with which science fiction is used to denigrate the veep.
This seems a unique phenomenon in American political and cultural history. Certainly, every president and vice president has come in for his share of abuse: FDR and JFK were both called communists, Nixon was a crook, Gerald Ford was a stumbling doofus, Jimmy Carter was ineffectual, Reagan was a puppet, Dan Quayle was a moron, Bill Clinton couldn't keep his pants zipped, and LBJ picked up beagles by their ears. All offensive, but strictly terrestrial. Cheney, on the other hand, with approval ratings that dipped as low as 18 percent in mid-2006, may have alienated so many of us that we look for alien metaphors to express our loathing for the man.
An intensive Web search (during which my computer froze, I swear) revealed that the Cheney-as-alien concept runs deep. He was referred to as "Dark Lord of the Sith" more times than I care to count, and his face has been Photoshopped onto every unholy phase of Anakin Skywalker metamorphosing into Darth Vader. On June 27, a Cheney-is-an-alien joke appeared on the blog of an anonymous Washington lawyer (Lawyerworldland.blogspot.com). The author mock-quoted White House Press Secretary Tony Snow as saying Cheney had "complete immunity from everything" and "not only is he not part of the Executive Branch, but strictly speaking not even part of the human race."
Instead of Star Wars, a blogger called Defective Yeti used the Alien movie cycle for an elaborate parallel. "The xenomorph has a complex lifecycle," D. Yeti writes. "After hatching from an egg, the 'facehugger' implants an embryo deep within the body of the host organism. Sometime later the parasite violently emerges from its carrier, then rapidly grows to a near-perfect killing machine. This reminds me of nothing so much as Dick Cheney. He found a host organism easily enough. In 1999, Cheney headed up Bush's Vice-Presidential Search Committee, only to announce that he was the most qualified man for the job. After Bush was elected, Cheney gestated deep within the body politic. Now, his metamorphosis is complete, he ruptures forth ... and if the democracy that incubated him is killed in the process, so be it ... In January 2009 it will be fun to watch Hillary strap herself into a power-loader, and blow Cheney out of an airlock."
Of course, Cheney himself hardly confirms his humanity. The abnormal arrogance, the mysterious disappearances, the strange beliefs in the nature of his office the weird demand that Google Earth pixilate his official residence, and recent revelation on HuffPo that "Cheney runs to an undisclosed location because he, his doctors, and the Secret Service know that his pacemaker is not shielded from EMR [electronic medical records] or EMP [electromagnetic pulse]" all provide grist for speculations straight out of Invasion of Body Snatchers. The recent news of the Mosler, man-sized safe in Cheney's office, however, took one blog commentator straight in the direction of H. P. Lovecraft: "Be warned that it's not really a safe," goes the posting. "When you open the door to that safe, it actually leads straight to hell."
And click here for Bob singing Masters Of War which has also stood the test of time.
The secret word is Paranormal
Sunday, February 07, 2010
A TREAT FOR SUNDAY – COLORED DINOSAURS
Wow! This makes my old monochrome plastic models from the National History Museum so redundant.
“Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. The finding may also open up a new world of prehistoric color, illuminating the role of color in dinosaur behavior and allowing the first accurately colored dinosaur re-creations, according to the study team, led by Fucheng Zhang of China's Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology. The team identified fossilized melanosomes—pigment-bearing organelles—in the feathers and filament-like "protofeathers" of fossil birds and dinosaurs from northeastern China. Found in the feathers of living birds, the nano-size packets of pigment—a hundred melanosomes can fit across a human hair—were first reported in fossil bird feathers in 2008.” (Click here for more.)
“Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. The finding may also open up a new world of prehistoric color, illuminating the role of color in dinosaur behavior and allowing the first accurately colored dinosaur re-creations, according to the study team, led by Fucheng Zhang of China's Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology. The team identified fossilized melanosomes—pigment-bearing organelles—in the feathers and filament-like "protofeathers" of fossil birds and dinosaurs from northeastern China. Found in the feathers of living birds, the nano-size packets of pigment—a hundred melanosomes can fit across a human hair—were first reported in fossil bird feathers in 2008.” (Click here for more.)
The secret word is Festive
Saturday, February 06, 2010
HOW TO RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD JUNK TV SHOW IN JUST THREE EPISODES
Longtime readers of Doc40 will doubtless remember that, after some initial misgivings, I became quite a fan of the remake of Battlestar Galactica, and was particularly taken by Dr. Gaius Baltar and the blonde humanoid Cylons whose spines glowed neon red at the moment of robot orgasm. Although the final season rather fell apart at the end, the show had been a regular feature of Friday nights when I had nothing better to do and before the DVR came to stay. On the strength of this previous connection, I set the controls for the new show Caprica, the supposed prequel to Galactica, hoping to derive a similar space opera enjoyment. Unfortunately not. Instead of intergalactic intrigue, space warfare, hot cyborgs, and a bit of religious ambiguity (with Bob Dylan), I found to my dismay that Caprica is all about some cute teenager who is killed in a terrorist attack so her grieving dad builds her avatar (that’s right) into what will be the first Cylon. Not a Viper, hyper-space jump, or glowing spine in sight. The only conclusion I can draw is that some executive idiot decided it would a cool move to screw the fans of the previous show and go after the Twilight market. Not cool. Asinine. If teenage girls weren’t lured by the kick-ass, hard-drinking, female fighter pilots on Galactica, they aren’t going to go for this saccharine Caprica crap. The toilet level ratings confirm this. Caprica jumped the shark in the pilot. What we have here is yet another example of abandoning the base that put you where you are for some nebulous grass-is-greener demographic. It seems a primary delusion in this modern world, adopted by both presidents and bad TV shows.
The secret word is Epsilon
Click here for the Pink Floyd playing Interstellar Overdrive
The secret word is Epsilon
Click here for the Pink Floyd playing Interstellar Overdrive
THE LEVITATING CAT
If I ever catch Finn doing this, I shall walk straight out of the apartment and never go back. (Click here for the animated version.)
Friday, February 05, 2010
NEW AMERICAN GOTHIC
Fear is our motivation. Abject fear is all we have left. We will give it up when it’s pried from our cold dead fingers. We fear the black helicopters of the New World Order that will come to take us the special trains that will, in turn, take us to the FEMA concentration camps. We fear the Islamo-fascist terrorists who are moving in to kill us. We fear the foreigners who are taking our land. We fear a president who calls himself Barack. We fear the homosexuals and their abominable agenda. We fear the Elders of Zion and their abominable protocols. We fear unions and are glad they are gone. Since our jobs were outsourced, we survive on unemployment, but we hate and fear socialism. We believe every word that Glenn Beck tells us which inflates the fear. We believe every word in the Bible and hate and fear anyone who doesn’t. We know that climate change is a dirty lie. We live on animal fat and corn syrup and we have no healthcare. We have a chainsaw and no future. We will see our nation reduced to a Third World wasteland. We must torture our enemies. We pray the Rapture comes soon to stop the voices in our head. Thank God for crystal meth and Jesus.
Click here for Johnny Cash singing “Hurt.”
Click here for Johnny Cash singing “Hurt.”
The secret words are Pain and Threshold
THE WOLVES STILL NEED OUR HELP
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The follow came from the NRDC...
Dear Mick,
The war on wolves is getting uglier by the day. It's tragic enough that a record 402 wolves were killed last year in Idaho and Montana after their removal from the endangered species list -- an astronomical level that amounts to one-third of the entire wolf population in those two states. But what saddens me almost as much are the barbaric tactics that wolf-haters have been employing lately. For example, on Christmas Eve, Idaho wolf supporter Lynne Stone received a threatening email from a wolf hater there. The email only said "Merry Cristmas" (spelled without the 'h') and included a morbid photo of a bloodied dead wolf in the back of a pickup truck. This disturbing photo and sinister email remind us of what wolves and their supporters are up against -- and why we need you to speak out now against the savage slaughter of wolves. Even if you've recently signed other wolf petitions, please sign our new message to Interior Secretary Salazar because it's only getting worse for wolves. Here are a few shocking examples of how ugly the situation has become: Just a few weeks ago, a Wolf/Coyote/Predator Killing Derby was held in Idaho, where prizes were given away for shooting the most animals. Participants were told in advance they'd be able to use "wolf distress calls" to attract nearby wolves to the rifle range. Outraged by this blatant example of animal cruelty? Take action now and sign our new Citizen's Petition. And as we showed you a while back, a sickening sign outside an Idaho restaurant proclaimed, "Tag a Wolf. Get a Free Pizza and Pitcher of Beer." Angry that wolf-killing is being promoted in such a cavalier way? Fire off a wolf-saving email petition now to demand federal protections for wolves. Many wolf packs have been decimated. A majority of Idaho's Basin Butte pack, a favorite of wolf-watchers, was wiped out, seven of them by government agents firing from a helicopter or airplane. The remaining members of Montana's Sage Creek pack were also killed by aerial gunners. Four of the 10 wolves in Yellowstone Park's much-studied Cottonwood Creek pack were killed when they ventured out of the park's boundaries. And government agents have recently been authorized to destroy several packs in Montana. This disastrous open season on wolves has reversed so much of our hard-won progress over the past several years. Tell Interior Secretary Salazar to put wolves back on the endangered species list where they belong. Over the next critical months, NRDC will be facing off in federal court against Interior Secretary Salazar over the fate of the wolf. But legal action is just one important tactic. Public action is another. That's why we're urging you to show the Interior Secretary that you care about wolves. Powerful government agencies and a vocal minority of hunters and ranchers have lined up against the wolves of the Northern Rockies. But the wolves have you. It's urgent that you stand with us now.
Sincerely,
The war on wolves is getting uglier by the day. It's tragic enough that a record 402 wolves were killed last year in Idaho and Montana after their removal from the endangered species list -- an astronomical level that amounts to one-third of the entire wolf population in those two states. But what saddens me almost as much are the barbaric tactics that wolf-haters have been employing lately. For example, on Christmas Eve, Idaho wolf supporter Lynne Stone received a threatening email from a wolf hater there. The email only said "Merry Cristmas" (spelled without the 'h') and included a morbid photo of a bloodied dead wolf in the back of a pickup truck. This disturbing photo and sinister email remind us of what wolves and their supporters are up against -- and why we need you to speak out now against the savage slaughter of wolves. Even if you've recently signed other wolf petitions, please sign our new message to Interior Secretary Salazar because it's only getting worse for wolves. Here are a few shocking examples of how ugly the situation has become: Just a few weeks ago, a Wolf/Coyote/Predator Killing Derby was held in Idaho, where prizes were given away for shooting the most animals. Participants were told in advance they'd be able to use "wolf distress calls" to attract nearby wolves to the rifle range. Outraged by this blatant example of animal cruelty? Take action now and sign our new Citizen's Petition. And as we showed you a while back, a sickening sign outside an Idaho restaurant proclaimed, "Tag a Wolf. Get a Free Pizza and Pitcher of Beer." Angry that wolf-killing is being promoted in such a cavalier way? Fire off a wolf-saving email petition now to demand federal protections for wolves. Many wolf packs have been decimated. A majority of Idaho's Basin Butte pack, a favorite of wolf-watchers, was wiped out, seven of them by government agents firing from a helicopter or airplane. The remaining members of Montana's Sage Creek pack were also killed by aerial gunners. Four of the 10 wolves in Yellowstone Park's much-studied Cottonwood Creek pack were killed when they ventured out of the park's boundaries. And government agents have recently been authorized to destroy several packs in Montana. This disastrous open season on wolves has reversed so much of our hard-won progress over the past several years. Tell Interior Secretary Salazar to put wolves back on the endangered species list where they belong. Over the next critical months, NRDC will be facing off in federal court against Interior Secretary Salazar over the fate of the wolf. But legal action is just one important tactic. Public action is another. That's why we're urging you to show the Interior Secretary that you care about wolves. Powerful government agencies and a vocal minority of hunters and ranchers have lined up against the wolves of the Northern Rockies. But the wolves have you. It's urgent that you stand with us now.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke, President Natural Resources Defense Council
Click here to help
And click here for a friend of Doc40 who should be in our thoughts.
Click here to help
And click here for a friend of Doc40 who should be in our thoughts.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
OBAMA ESCALATES THE DRUG WAR
Just as public opinion seems more accepting of drug legalization, the Obama administration escalates funding for the drug war. The story comes from the Marijuana Policy Project.
WASHINGTON - February 4 - According to 2011 funding "highlights" released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Obama administration is expanding the war on drugs and focusing its funds toward law enforcement over treatment. The budget puts America's drug war spending at $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2011; an increase of 3.5 percent over 2010 and an increase of 5.2 percent in overall enforcement funding ($9.7 billion in FY 2010 to $9.9 billion in FY 2011). Addiction treatment and preventative measures are budgeted to increase from $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion. Furthermore, President Obama chose to continue funding the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which is run by the drug czar's office and has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana ads that veer far from the truth. One such ad released in 2006 insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape, a particularly dishonest claim considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults. "This budget reflects the same Bush-era priorities that led to the total failure of American drug policy during the last decade," said Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations. "One of the worst examples is $66 million requested for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign when every independent study has called it a failure."
Click here for the “date rape” commercial.
The secret word is Shame
WASHINGTON - February 4 - According to 2011 funding "highlights" released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Obama administration is expanding the war on drugs and focusing its funds toward law enforcement over treatment. The budget puts America's drug war spending at $15.5 billion for fiscal year 2011; an increase of 3.5 percent over 2010 and an increase of 5.2 percent in overall enforcement funding ($9.7 billion in FY 2010 to $9.9 billion in FY 2011). Addiction treatment and preventative measures are budgeted to increase from $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion. Furthermore, President Obama chose to continue funding the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which is run by the drug czar's office and has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana ads that veer far from the truth. One such ad released in 2006 insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape, a particularly dishonest claim considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults. "This budget reflects the same Bush-era priorities that led to the total failure of American drug policy during the last decade," said Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations. "One of the worst examples is $66 million requested for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign when every independent study has called it a failure."
Click here for the “date rape” commercial.
The secret word is Shame
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM – A QUICK HISTORY LESSON
Yesterday Daily Kos/Research 2000 came out with a poll that indicated 39 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached, 36 percent of Republicans believe Obama was not born in the United States, 31 percent of Republicans believe Obama is a "Racist who hates White people" – a description used by Glenn Beck. As if that wasn’t enough, the poll also showed 53 percent believed Sarah Palin more qualified to be president than Obama, and 23 percent believed their state should secede from the Union. For our purpose here, the important number is the whopping 63 percent who think Obama is a socialist. Shall we get real? Anyone who thinks Barack Obama is a socialist does not have even a hazy inkling of the true nature of socialism. And what the hell would they do if confronted by the term anarcho-syndicalism?
As it happens anarcho-syndicalism has come up a Jungian number of times in conversation recently and I thought it might be time to be reacquainted with the theory. I’m also thinking a great deal about the potential for anarchism to combine with cyber-technology and online communications where, it seems, money is already on the way to being abolished. I have yet to form even a partial conclusion, however.
"Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced upon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nullify every concession they had made to labor as soon as opportunity offered, as soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers' organizations, so governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely rights and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the press, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, governments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace . Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution." – Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory & Practice, 1947
Click here for the sensible Wikipedia entry
Click here for the Python version
The secret word is Change
As it happens anarcho-syndicalism has come up a Jungian number of times in conversation recently and I thought it might be time to be reacquainted with the theory. I’m also thinking a great deal about the potential for anarchism to combine with cyber-technology and online communications where, it seems, money is already on the way to being abolished. I have yet to form even a partial conclusion, however.
"Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced upon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nullify every concession they had made to labor as soon as opportunity offered, as soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers' organizations, so governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely rights and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the press, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, governments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace . Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution." – Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory & Practice, 1947
Click here for the sensible Wikipedia entry
Click here for the Python version
The secret word is Change
LULLABY OF BROADWAY
And while I was looking at the anarcho-syndicalism in the 1930s another piece of synchronicity came into play as I happened across a clip of the extended Busby Berkeley production number “Lullaby of Broadway” from the movie Gold Diggers of 1935. I have always marveled at this amazing piece of cinema. It seems so much more than just a dance segment in a Hollywood musical. For a start, the principal character falls to her death at the end, and on an inspired day, I am able to see it as a metaphor for the rise of fascism. If you think I’m crazy, click here and check it out.
THE FROZDICK FAMILY
Anastasia Wharton-Frozdick trained her group to have little patience for debate.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
THEY WILL EAT THEIR OWN
It’s usually the left that schisms, fragments, and starts fighting with its own. The Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party focuses its spite and loathing on the Revolutionary Workers Socialist party and who could forget the Anarchists shooting it out with the Stalinists in Barcelona in 1937. But now, if we hang in there, we are likely to see the right snarling at each other’s throats. As the Republican primaries approach and the extremist of the Tea Party movement start purging heretics, the whole thing could turn really ugly and the grifters, the crooks, the megalomaniacs, and the-just-plain crazy form factions and turn their poisonous and frequently fabricated vitriol on each other rather than the Obama administration. James O'Keefe and his ludicrous crew are most probably ratting each other out right, and heaven help Glenn Beck if he picks the wrong side as the right goes for the jugular. Not even Sarah Palin – already under fire for possible money laundering via her book – seems above the coming fray as this weekend’s Tea Party Convention degenerates into bickering chaos and she remains the last speaker standing. Oh man, would I love to see Palin and Michelle Bachmann going at it. I would even spring for Pay For View.
The secret word is Glee
OMAR – THE KITTY OF DEATH
This somewhat unnerving story was supplied by our pal Elf Hellion…
“Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death. The cat, now five and generally unsociable, was adopted as a kitten at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Providence, Rhode Island, which specialises in caring for people with severe dementia. Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar's gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke. The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in. When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.” (Click here for more.)
Monday, February 01, 2010
THE WAGES OF POT
“An Oakland, Calif., based group is trying to gather the 434,000 signatures necessary to put the question of marijuana legalization before state voters on the 2010 ballot.
Under the Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010, adults over age 21 would be allowed to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and could grow the drug for personal use on plots of land up to 25 square feet. The proposed ballot measure was filed with the state Attorney General's office this week. Legalization advocates point to past successes with medical marijuana in California and a Field Poll that found that 56 percent of state voters support the legalization and taxation of marijuana. "It's one more pretty amazing element in the momentum toward ending statewide prohibition," said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the Drug Policy Alliance. If it makes the ballot and is approved by voters, the measure would repeal all state and local marijuana laws and clear marijuana offenses from the records of all past offenders.”
While being well aware that this is a major step towards the eventual goal of wholly legal marijuana, that eventual goal has to be kept firmly in mind, and public relations should not be confused with reality. Already, in Los Angeles, we have medical marijuana emerging as essentially a neat legal loophole for the affluence middle classic dope smoker – the yuppie pothead, if you like – who can kick back a hundred bucks to a doctor for a cannabis card and then pay $120 bucks for a quarter of purple kush or Skywalker OG. The almost 200 hundred dope stores that have sprung up in LA County are a clear testimony to the profits levels in the business. And of course the profits are amazing because quasi-legal dope is being sold at outlaw prices even though the risk factor – the reason we paid the big bucks during prohibition – has been eliminated. Also eliminated – or at least seriously threatened – is the community benefit of illegal dope in that distribution and sale previously supported literally hundreds of people. Medical marijuana stores would appear to be making a fortune for a lucky few, but hardly spreading the wealth. We also have the nebulous, beam-me-up-Scotty, anomaly of dope that is illegal during its mass cultivation, harvesting, and distribution, but magically becomes legal once it is safely inside the pot store.
The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010 perpetuates and extends the same nonsensical legal anomaly. The ounce that you’re holding will be legal, but the kilo it came in remains outside the law. Ounce good/kilo evil simply cannot stand. If marijuana is to be legal, it has to be legal across the board, taxed, regulated, and subject to a considerable reduction in consumer prices because no one has to duck the narcs any more and no ones goes to jail. Half measures have to be recognized as merely temporary or else we go back to an outlaw pot economy in which everyone’s ass was up for grabs.
The secret word is Bud
Under the Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010, adults over age 21 would be allowed to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and could grow the drug for personal use on plots of land up to 25 square feet. The proposed ballot measure was filed with the state Attorney General's office this week. Legalization advocates point to past successes with medical marijuana in California and a Field Poll that found that 56 percent of state voters support the legalization and taxation of marijuana. "It's one more pretty amazing element in the momentum toward ending statewide prohibition," said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the Drug Policy Alliance. If it makes the ballot and is approved by voters, the measure would repeal all state and local marijuana laws and clear marijuana offenses from the records of all past offenders.”
While being well aware that this is a major step towards the eventual goal of wholly legal marijuana, that eventual goal has to be kept firmly in mind, and public relations should not be confused with reality. Already, in Los Angeles, we have medical marijuana emerging as essentially a neat legal loophole for the affluence middle classic dope smoker – the yuppie pothead, if you like – who can kick back a hundred bucks to a doctor for a cannabis card and then pay $120 bucks for a quarter of purple kush or Skywalker OG. The almost 200 hundred dope stores that have sprung up in LA County are a clear testimony to the profits levels in the business. And of course the profits are amazing because quasi-legal dope is being sold at outlaw prices even though the risk factor – the reason we paid the big bucks during prohibition – has been eliminated. Also eliminated – or at least seriously threatened – is the community benefit of illegal dope in that distribution and sale previously supported literally hundreds of people. Medical marijuana stores would appear to be making a fortune for a lucky few, but hardly spreading the wealth. We also have the nebulous, beam-me-up-Scotty, anomaly of dope that is illegal during its mass cultivation, harvesting, and distribution, but magically becomes legal once it is safely inside the pot store.
The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010 perpetuates and extends the same nonsensical legal anomaly. The ounce that you’re holding will be legal, but the kilo it came in remains outside the law. Ounce good/kilo evil simply cannot stand. If marijuana is to be legal, it has to be legal across the board, taxed, regulated, and subject to a considerable reduction in consumer prices because no one has to duck the narcs any more and no ones goes to jail. Half measures have to be recognized as merely temporary or else we go back to an outlaw pot economy in which everyone’s ass was up for grabs.
The secret word is Bud
Sunday, January 31, 2010
IT’S NOT THE MOST COMFORTING THOUGHT FOR SUNDAY
Those darn scientists keep coming up with more stuff to worry about...
“According to researchers at Australian National University, the end of the universe will happen earlier than anyone previously thought. The mother of all deadlines is coming up!
Dr. Charley Lineweaver and Ph.D. student Chas Egan at ANU, who recently tried to tally and account for all the entropy in the universe, ended up finding about thirty time more than they expected to. (Entropy is a measure of how much energy a system has used up; one way to think of it is that the more entropy is present in a system, the more run-down that system is.) Lineweaver and Egan think the excess entropy quotient comes from supermassive black holes, and they've concluded that the whole of existence is nearer its stopping point anyone believed.” (Click here for more)
“According to researchers at Australian National University, the end of the universe will happen earlier than anyone previously thought. The mother of all deadlines is coming up!
Dr. Charley Lineweaver and Ph.D. student Chas Egan at ANU, who recently tried to tally and account for all the entropy in the universe, ended up finding about thirty time more than they expected to. (Entropy is a measure of how much energy a system has used up; one way to think of it is that the more entropy is present in a system, the more run-down that system is.) Lineweaver and Egan think the excess entropy quotient comes from supermassive black holes, and they've concluded that the whole of existence is nearer its stopping point anyone believed.” (Click here for more)
And just for retro-fun, click here for REM playing "It's The End Of The World As We Know it.
The secret word is Chill
The secret word is Chill
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