Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
THE END IS AT HAND ALL OVER AGAIN
A few
months ago archaeologists supposedly laid to rest the idea that time, the
universe, and everything would come to end when the Mayan calendar runs out on
December 21st of this year. Unfortunately we have another set of
researchers who now claim the end may be at hand after all. For my part I’m hoping some of us
might come together to stage some kind of event on the last day, either to go out all together, happy and loaded, or laugh at the stupidity of it all.
“Now, researchers
exploring the Maya ruins of La Corona in Guatemala have unearthed another
reference. On a stairway block carved with hieroglyphs, archaeologists found a
commemoration of a visit by Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, the most
powerful Mayan ruler in his day. The king, also known as Jaguar Paw, suffered a
terrible defeat in battle by the Kingdom of Tikal in 695. [...] In an effort to
tie himself and his reign to the future, the king linked his reign with another
13th cycle — the 13th bak'tun ending on Dec. 21, 2012. David Stuart, a
professor of art history at the University of Texas at Austin, recognized the
reference to the date among 56 glyphs that were carved on the stone block.
"It was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region, and this
king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in
2012," Stuart said in a statement released by UT.”
Click here for Elvis’ opinion on the matter.
The secret words are That’s, All, and Folks
AND WHILE WE’RE WAITING FOR THE END LET’S NOT FORGET…
“The goal of the future is
full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present
politico-economic system.” This may sound like the pronouncement of some
bong-smoking anarchist, but it was actually Arthur C. Clarke, who found time
between scuba diving and pinball games to write “Childhood’s End” and think up
communications satellites.”
AND LET’S ALSO NOT FORGET…
The UK Nation Health Service may not be perfect and is also being
constantly strangled by Conservatives but in comparison to the USA – where socialized
medicine is treated like an abomination of Satan – it’s a near miracle and the
only reason I’m still alive. In the US I would have died along with over
100,000 others without health coverage. Check these figures…
“Just this year, Families USA's report, “Dying for
Coverage,” found that…
26,100 people between the ages of 25 and 64 died prematurely
due to a lack of health coverage in 2010
2,175 people died prematurely every month in 2010
Between 2005 and 2010, the number of people who died
prematurely each year due to a lack of health coverage rose from 20,350 to
26,100
Between 2005 and 2010, the total number of people who died
prematurely due to a lack of health coverage was 134,120.”
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
ART ON THE BARRICADES
As
the fabric of capitalism disintegrates before our very eyes we may have to
move and fast. We have often posted the apt and timely rants of our comrade
Chris Hedges. Here’s another one…
“Cultures that endure carve
out a protected space for those who question and challenge national myths. Artists,
writers, poets, activists, journalists, philosophers, dancers, musicians,
actors, directors and renegades must be tolerated if a culture is to be pulled
back from disaster. Members of this intellectual and artistic class, who are
usually not welcome in the stultifying halls of academia where mediocrity is
triumphant, serve as prophets. They are dismissed, or labeled by the power
elites as subversive, because they do not embrace collective self-worship. They
force us to confront unexamined assumptions, ones that, if not challenged, lead
to destruction. They expose the ruling elites as hollow and corrupt. They
articulate the senselessness of a system built on the ideology of endless
growth, ceaseless exploitation and constant expansion. They warn us about the
poison of careerism and the futility of the search for happiness in the
accumulation of wealth. They make us face ourselves, from the bitter reality of
slavery and Jim Crow to the genocidal slaughter of Native Americans to the
repression of working-class movements to the atrocities carried out in imperial
wars to the assault on the ecosystem. They make us unsure of our virtue. They
challenge the easy clichés we use to describe the nation—the land of the free,
the greatest country on earth, the beacon of liberty—to expose our darkness,
crimes and ignorance. They offer the possibility of a life of meaning and the
capacity for transformation.” (Click here for the rest)
Click here
for Third World War
The secret word is Act
Monday, July 09, 2012
THE CRO MAG GOT A KNIFE
While
Russian punks challenge the system and go to jail, in New York they just stab
each other. (This is from the ever-reliable New York Post.)
“A former
member of the hard-core punk band the Cro-Mags attacked two of the group’s
current members with a hunting knife in a dressing room before a show at
Webster Hall yesterday— biting one and slashing both The band was about to take
the stage about 8:15 p.m. when tattooed rocker Harley Flanagan, 42, barreled
through the East Village venue’s VIP section toward the Cro-Mags’ dressing
room, sending nearly 30 guests on the balcony into a frenzy, law enforcement
sources and witnesses said.
“Someone
was yelling, ‘Get his hands, get his hands, he’s got a knife!’ ” witness Dave
Gustav said. “Everything went nuts.” Several beefy security guards rushed to
contain Flanagan, who seemed about to boil over before he entered the East
Village venue. “I talked to him outside minutes before it happened and I knew
something was going to go down,” a witness said, according to the Horns Up
Rocks website. “He was like a lunatic outside. Next thing I know he’s in the
VIP area stabbing people!” Flanagan, the band’s former bassist and founder,
suffered a broken leg by the time security finally pinned him down, witnesses
said. Cops handcuffed him to a chair and took him out. “People started booing
him and throwing stuff at him,” eyewitness Justin Brannan said. “His hands were
handcuffed but he still gave everyone the finger.”
A comment
adds extra insight...
“The Cro-Mags are a true group of psychopaths founded upon
the principles of the Hare Krishna movement (LOL, it's true... Both Flanagan
and Joseph will tell you about how they're all for Krishna and Vishnu). John
Joseph and Harley Flanagan have hated each other for years. Harley has always
talked a bunch of trash on his Myspace and Facebook accounts about how he wants
to fight certain ex-members of the Cro-Mags in MMA style matches. John Jospeh
is a conspiracy theorist who believes The Illuminati are out to get him and all
this other crap. Harley needs a trip to the insane asylum and John Joseph needs
to quit buying that nasty weed at the ISKCON center.”
Click here for the noise of the nasty bastards
The secret word is Pointless
Ernest Borgnine – RIP
THE FROZDICK FAMILY
Buzz
Frozdick believed most things could be achieved with a bottle of Jack Daniels
and a gun.
Saturday, July 07, 2012
PUSSY RIOT (It’s not only rock and roll)
While our
own rockers either luxuriate in their own narcissism, sell their tunes for TV
commercials, or complain all the way to the bank, in Russia punks are still
right there seriously risking life and liberty on the barricades.
“Three members of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk-rock
band, began a hunger strike
Wednesday after a Moscow court suddenly told them they must prepare their
defense for trial by Monday. Maria Alyokhina, Yakaterina Samutsevich and
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were taken into custody in March, after the group's
February performance of “Virgin Mary Put Putin Away,” an anti-Putin song,
inside the Russian Orthodox Church's main cathedral, asking the Virgin Mary to
chase President Vladimir Putin out of power. The three women were arrested over
four months ago and have been held without bail on charges of criminal
hooliganism — which carry a possible seven-year prison sentence. Two
other female members of the band have avoided arrest thus far.
"I announce a hunger strike because it is
unlawful," said Tolokonnikova, wearing a T-shirt with the famous slogan of
the Spanish Civil War, "No pasaran!" ("They shall not
pass"), emblazoned across it. "Until July 9 is not enough (time) for
me. I think it is absolutely unlawful," she said in the Tagansky district
court. "I am categorically against it and I announce a hunger
strike," Alekhina also said after the court delivered a separate ruling on
her and another one on Samutsevich. As the case generates media attention,
activists all over the world are advocating for Pussy Riot’s release. Over 100
Russian cultural figures, including some known for pro-government views, have
signed a letter calling for the release of the trio. "We see no legal
basis or practical reason for the further isolation of these young women, who
do not pose any real danger to society," the letter said.”
Click here
for the video.
The secret
word is Courage
NOT EVERYTHING IN TEXAS IS BAD
A couple of
days ago I was slagging off Texans, but, to be fair, they all not all vicious Republican bumpkins. Check this anonymous mural of Charlie Bukowski in Austin. And
don’t forget what Charlie told us. “Some people never go crazy, what truly
horrible lives they must live.”
.jpg)
Thursday, July 05, 2012
ALL HAIL THE GOD PARTICLE!
While the
very essence of the universe is revealed, not a million miles from Cern,
benighted oafs angrily assert that the universe was made just six thousand
years ago by their implausible skygod.
The secret
word is Hopeless
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS
This is
maybe less than kind but, when I saw reprint of Nick Kent’s 1975 review of
Motorhead’s debut at Hammersmith Odeon on the Rock’s Back Pages weekly
newsletter, I just couldn’t resist. A comrade from the trenches of the NME slagging
off three of my old mates, one of whom would become his own action figure, it was too fine to pass up. What you might call a witness to history. But what is
the historical outcome of all this? Was the critic wrong or did Lemmy take
Kent’s advice, rethink his battle plan and repopulate the combo? Don’t you miss
the 20th century?
“In fact, Sunday night at the Hammersmith Odeon was very
much yer connoisseur's guide to rampantly uninspired heavy metal thunder,
kicking off with Motorhead's shocking performance which promptly prefaced the
slickness to come with one of the most horrendous displays of H. Metal Savage
incompetence possibly ever performed.
Of course, it didn't exactly help that guitarist Larry
Wall-lace's bank of amplifiers quickly developed severe feed-back problems
rendering most of his playing inaudible beneath a plethora of teeth-grinding
electronic incontinence, but aside from that, the fact that Lemmy's consortium
raging through the likes of 'Bye Bye Johnny' and 'I'm Waiting for the Man'
ultimately comes on like nothing so much as Budgie on methedrine can't exactly
gladden the soul of the more discerning metal aficionado. Forced exile camping
it up at the Roundhouse should keep them from harm until such time as they see
their way to approaching their craft with something other than all the panache
of a butcher stripping meat from an overripe carcass. Interestingly enough,
Motorhead were given an immensely hard time from the crowd. They turned quite
nasty in fact towards the end, displaying all the earmarks of that rarest of
commodities in London – an uncompromisingly ballsy audience.”
Click here for Laz with Motorhead
The secret word is Afterbirth
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
THE DUMB OF TEXAS ARE UPON US
Those
mindless bumpkin zombies of Christian values also known as the Texas Republican
Party have published their 2012 platform online. It calls for just about every kind
of nasty, vicious, and backward legislation short of reinstating slavery. The
Texas GOP are just heading out for the 15th century and damn the
last vestiges of civilization which – in the modern conservative world – is
strictly for the rich anyway. Some of the most horrific proposals are in the
section titled Educating Our Children which – in addition to calls for a wider
use of corporal punishment – seem designed to keep the youth of Texas ignorant,
dumbed down, fearful, and hag-ridden by religion. Here are a couple of examples….
“We oppose the
teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification),
critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of
Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior
modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs
and undermining parental authority.
“We
recognize parental responsibility and authority regarding sex education. We
believe that parents must be given an opportunity to review the material prior
to giving their consent. We oppose any sex education other than abstinence
until marriage.”
Click here
for the whole depressing document.
Click here
for George Strait
The secret
word is Imbecile
Andy Griffith -- RIP
Andy Griffith -- RIP
A FEAST OF BOB
It all started with a link on Dangerous Minds to a Bob Dylan clip from a
1984 Letterman show on which Bob played blinding versions of "Jokerman", and "License To
Kill" backed by a
rocking combination of members of the Plugz/Cruzados. (And, according to the
late Willy DeVille, Bob called him to ask where he could buy a sharp suit on 14th
Street for the show). After that, I can across a whole bunch of Bob and figured I should post
a few before Sony or someone rips them down.
OUR PAL HCB WRITES FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA...
“The weather is
reminding me more and more of the kind of devastation I used to see in the
first chapters of Flash Gordon serials, when Ming the Merciless was shooting
the world with the Purple Death ray.”
Friday, June 29, 2012
THE ELVIS MOUSE
I suppose
it was inevitable. (And could only trigger an impromptu Elvis Friday.)
“Hair samples of Elvis
Presley, bought on eBay were sent to a gene sequencing lab to identify
different behavioural traits (varied from sociability, athletic performance to
obesity and addiction). Using this information, transgenic mice clones with
parallel traits were produced. The genetically cloned models of Elvis (in this
case) are tested in a collection of various contemporary scientific mouse model
environments, simulating some of the significant biographical circumstances of
his life.” (Click here for the whole weird story)
Click here
for the uncloned Elvis
The secret words are Hillbilly and Cat
Thursday, June 28, 2012
A HAND IN EVERY TILL
International
bankers continue to act as though they own the planet and we are only pawns on
their chessboard. No lessons are learned. No sentences are handed down. No
executions are conducted the cellar. Fraud, larceny, and criminal incompetence
continue unchecked. In recent weeks JP Morgan has been caught playing the same
old billion dollar shell game. In the UK, customers of Nat West and RBS have
been unable to access their own money after an unprecedented computer failure
following the outsourcing of a creaking computer system to poorly trained
and even more poorly paid technicians. And now Channel 4 News tells me that…
“A vast story has broken,
concerning banking dishonesty on what the regulator, the FSA, calls a “serious,
widespread and extended” scale. It has called the action misconduct, and fined
Barclays, as have American regulators, which all adds up to £290m. In
short, Barclays got the people who report their interest rates to the British
Bankers Association (these are collated from all the major banks to fix the
official Libor rate) to try and manipulate their rate. It’s one of the biggest
scandals to hit the City of London and it speaks of extremely loose and even
louche practices. The reporting from Barclays, according to the FSA, amounted
to a straight lie. The bankers, on senior executives’ instructions (we’re not
told any names) were simply told to understate the true level of interest to
enable the bank to sustain trading profits. It’s all so bad, that the ever
resistant Barclay’s boss, Bob Diamond, has finally given in on his huge bonus
and accepted that he cannot claim it. The biggest question tonight, given that
it is so widespread and so deep - why is this activity not regarded as fraud,
and why is no-one being prosecuted?”
But the
problem goes far deeper than even astronomical global racketeering and levels
of greed that now covert sums of money that can only be abstractions. The Nobel
economist Paul Krugman reports in the NY Times how bankers and their political
lackeys are so busy looting the coffers and so dedicated to their notional games
of impossible acquisition, they have abdicated any responsibility for an
economic crisis that could lay waste to the developed world.
“None of this should be happening. As in 1931, Western
nations have the resources they need to avoid catastrophe, and indeed to
restore prosperity — and we have the added advantage of knowing much more than
our great-grandparents did about how depressions happen and how to end them.
But knowledge and resources do no good if those who possess them refuse to use
them. And that’s what seems to be happening. The fundamentals of the world
economy aren’t, in themselves, all that scary; it’s the almost universal
abdication of responsibility that fills me, and many other economists, with a
growing sense of dread.”
The secret word is Suppurating
PUSHING CITIZENS TO EXTREMES
As
governments seem wholly unwilling to bring criminal bankers to justice, angry
and frightened citizens look to more drastic measures. I wouldn’t actually
recommend extreme revenge. It’s probably illegal to suggest such things.
Click here
for Gene Vincent
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
THE WORLD IS TOO COMPLICATED!
The world
is too complicated! We cannot save it! I have no time! I turn your over to
Henri the cat! Click here!
The secret
number is 101
Monday, June 25, 2012
KNOW THE ENEMY
Oft times I
have complained there – probably ad nauseum – about how the War on Drugs has
dragged on and on for more than my entire not inconsiderable lifetime to the
detriment of all and the near destruction of Mexico and Columbia. In that time
there has been no sign of compromise or even sanity. In a vicious vacuum devoid
of all social and philosophical credibility, death and incarceration continue
unabated to feed the funds and fantasies of darkest law enforcement,
neo-fascist billionaire beer barons, screaming moron media and the politicians
who ride it, plus the growing privatised prison industry. Michelle
Leonhart is a senior DEA official. Watch this inane power-idiot in action. As
our good pal Richard Metzger
writes in Dangerous Minds…
“Why is someone as blinkered as Michelle Leonhart serving as
a top DEA administrator? Her opinion about marijuana being as dangerous as
other illegal drugs like heroin, crack, or meth hardly rises to the level of superstition let alone any kind of objective science.
This dumbass obviously has no idea what she is talking
about. This is an infuriating display of complete idiocy and willful ignorance.
Or else she’s just lying and stonewalling with the DEA party line, of course,
but the “deer in the headlights” uncomprehending look on her face as she’s
being grilled probably indicates that she’s being sincere. And stupid.”
Click here
for the witless La Leonhart
The secret
word is Void
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)
