To-day is 8th August, the 62nd anniversary of the Hiroshima A-Bombing.
To commemorate that event, have posted here a link to a 1987 essay by Paul Fussell, English scholar and World War Two veteran(European Theater of Operations), in which he points out that, while the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-Bombings can be seen in historical hindsight, and from a certain class and geographical distance, to be unjustified horrors, to those, like himself, who would have had to be on the ground in Japan, when Operation Olympic, the projected invasion of the Japanese mainland, happened, they came as a relief.
Fussell also points out the grim, uncompromising and grotesquely savage nature of the Pacific War, in which Japanese and American soldiers, sailors and marines alike butchered each other, and desecrated each other's corpses routinely.
This was as much a race war, as a war between two nations, and the Pacific War bears the trademarks of a race war-unfettered hatred, brutality, and out-right violation and murder of one side's combattants and civilians by the other.
Fussell also acknowledges that the Nuclear Age that followed was, and is, characterised by greed and ineptitude on the parts of those who exploit nuclear power. But, he also urges us not to lump in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings with that, as, like it or not, millions of lives were saved on the Allied and Japanese sides, since the projected invasion of mainland Japan, as well as Japanese-held territories like Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Viet-Nam, among others, didn't take place.
Had we gone in with Operation Olympic, considering that Japan still had an active military component of around two million men at the time of the bombings, as well as the fact that much of the Japanese civilian population, women, the elderly and children, would have been mobilised to rise up and fight the Allied invasion, I can see where such an invasion would have lead to, at first, a conventional war, as had thus far been fought, and then to a guerrilla war, that would have made Viet-Nam look small and tame by comparison, with the results of an eventual Allied victory, but only after such a mass slaughter of Japanese military personnel and civilians, that it would turn the stomachs of all but the most die-hard nationalists on the Japanese side, and the bitterest racists on the Allied side.
For my money, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were, and remain, loathsome. But, they also came at the end of a long chain of loathsome brutalities that began with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, kept right on through Japan's invasion of China in 1937, its attacks on Pearl Harbor and the various Allied colonies in the Pacific and Far East in December, 1941, the massive US air raids on Japan, culminating in the fire-bombing of Tokyo in March, 1944, that killed over a hundred thousand people there, and so on.
Combine the deeds perpetrated by both sides in the Pacific War with the similar kind of race war waged by the various sides on the Eastern Front during World War Two, and one sees a portrait of so-called civilised humanity at its extreme worst.
If there's any message at all that should come out of World War Two, indeed, out of our current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's that any country's political, economic and social leadership classes and populations had better think once, twice, ten thousand, and even one hundred thousand times, before engaging in war, because of the ugliness and madness that such a decision unleashes cannot be taken back, ever.
For those Americans who didn't serve in World War Two, and especially in combat operations, as for those Japanese who didn't, nor who were victims of that terrible war, and who feel that this is some occasion to cheer or vent their frustrations, I've only this to say; shut the fuck up, because you've not earned the right to display that.
No God-Damn cheering, and no fucking displays of national self-pity and victimhood, if you please, as partisans on both sides have been wont to do since 1945.
The dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be mourned, as should the dead of World War Two, especially because, due to the ideas, policies, actions and failures of soldiers, statesmen, bureaucrats, philosophers, ideologues, journalists, film-makers, and religious leaders, among others, they and so many others in Japan, the US, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, China, and every other part of the world touched by World War Two, were wasted, in terms of lives, time, talent, potential and so on.
Mourn the dead, help the remaining survivors, and, most of all, for God's sake, work in whatever way you can to stop atrocities like this, and the various wars that have followed since, right up to this day, from happening.
The link's http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfib/courses/Fussell.pdf.
Be seeing you.
08 August 2007
Little Red Riding Hood As You Least Expect It
Thanks to Cheryl for re-posting this in a MySpace bulletin this morning.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Little Red Riding Hood
Body: Little Red Riding Hood is skipping down the road when she sees the Big Bad Wolf crouched down behind a log.
"My what big eyes you have, Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
The surprised wolf jumps up and runs away!!!
Further down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time he is crouched behind a tree stump.
"My what big ears you have Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
Again the foiled wolf jumps up and runs away.
About 2 miles down the track, Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time crouched down behind a road sign.
"My what big teeth you have Mr. Wolf.", taunts Little Red Riding Hood.
With that the Big Bad Wolf jumps up and screams... "Will you fuck off, I'm trying to take a shit"!
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Little Red Riding Hood
Body: Little Red Riding Hood is skipping down the road when she sees the Big Bad Wolf crouched down behind a log.
"My what big eyes you have, Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
The surprised wolf jumps up and runs away!!!
Further down the road Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time he is crouched behind a tree stump.
"My what big ears you have Mr. Wolf.", says Little Red Riding Hood.
Again the foiled wolf jumps up and runs away.
About 2 miles down the track, Little Red Riding Hood sees the wolf again, this time crouched down behind a road sign.
"My what big teeth you have Mr. Wolf.", taunts Little Red Riding Hood.
With that the Big Bad Wolf jumps up and screams... "Will you fuck off, I'm trying to take a shit"!
"Springtime For Hitler" from "The Producers(1968)
This was originally posted in a MySpace bulletin this morning by The Blairs, to whom I'm grateful for this clip from the original 1968 version of "The Producers", with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, and features the show-piece of the film, a little number entitled "Springtime For Hitler".
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Springtime for Hitler
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Springtime for Hitler
07 August 2007
Last Carol Burnett Show Out-Take: "The Flasher"
Our last "Carol Burnett Show" out-take's entitled "The Flasher", in which Carol has a little surprise for our supposed-to-be-stone-faced Tim Conway.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Another Carol Burnett Show out-take, with Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman
Here's another out-take, with Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, and even the crew and director joining in on the fun, as a priest discovers why a new kind of meat he's eating doesn't taste fishy.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Carol Burnett and Tim Conway:"The Elephant Story"
My friend Cheryl originally re-posted this in a MySpace bulletin this afternoon.
I saw it, and got such a kick out of it, that it's being re-posted here.
This is a out-take from a sketch in the "Mama's Family" series of sketches on the "Carol Burnett Show", which ran on CBS from 1968-1979, and features Vicki Lawrence as Mama, and Dick Van Dyke.
This was never seen on air, for reasons that will become obvious as you watch it, but was offered as part of the set of Carol Burnett Show DVD extras that have appeared in the last couple of years.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
I saw it, and got such a kick out of it, that it's being re-posted here.
This is a out-take from a sketch in the "Mama's Family" series of sketches on the "Carol Burnett Show", which ran on CBS from 1968-1979, and features Vicki Lawrence as Mama, and Dick Van Dyke.
This was never seen on air, for reasons that will become obvious as you watch it, but was offered as part of the set of Carol Burnett Show DVD extras that have appeared in the last couple of years.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
I Was Hitler’s Record Collection
This article in to-day's The Independent(UK)details the amazing story of how Hitler's personal record collection ended up in the hands of a Jewish Red Army captain after the fall of Berlin in May, 1945, and, more importantly, that among the various works and artists found in that collection, there were a number of recordings of works by Russian and Jewish composers and performers in it, in addition to the usual Teutonic classics(Wagner, Bruckner, etc)that Hitler and his regime favoured.
The article's reporter makes the observation that, given this, Hitler was a hypocrite as well as a mass murderer.
Quite true.
However, considering how many top-and-middle-ranking Nazi officials were married to Jewish women, or had Jewish mistresses, this perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise.
Only just goes to show that regimes, like fish, usually stink from the head down.
The link's http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2841357.ece.
Be seeing you.
The article's reporter makes the observation that, given this, Hitler was a hypocrite as well as a mass murderer.
Quite true.
However, considering how many top-and-middle-ranking Nazi officials were married to Jewish women, or had Jewish mistresses, this perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise.
Only just goes to show that regimes, like fish, usually stink from the head down.
The link's http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2841357.ece.
Be seeing you.
A Pair of Links About The Jena(LA)Six
Well, having finished catching up on the re-posts from my MySpace blog here, here's an article I posted there just a few minutes ago.
Hope you all out there will find it of interest.
Just saw a bulletin posted by a friend of mine here to ColorOfChange.org, which is launching a campaign to get justice for the six African-American youths charged in the beating of a European-American youth in Jena, Louisiana.
Posted an editorial by Mumia Abu-Jamal and a link to a Washington Post article about this story last week here, and they should still be up.
In the meantime, if you want to sign an on-line petition to Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the DA prosecuting the case, Reed Walters, contribute money to the campaign, or head on down to Jena on 20th September, here's the link to follow-http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1845-222680.
Also, am enclosing an article from the Austin(Texas)Weekly News about the case. It gives a brief chronology of events, and a brief out-line of what has occurred since then.
It's at http://austinweeklynews.1upsoftware.com/main.asp?Secti..1&SubSecti..1&ArticleID=1342&TM=12921.11.
Be seeing you.
Hope you all out there will find it of interest.
Just saw a bulletin posted by a friend of mine here to ColorOfChange.org, which is launching a campaign to get justice for the six African-American youths charged in the beating of a European-American youth in Jena, Louisiana.
Posted an editorial by Mumia Abu-Jamal and a link to a Washington Post article about this story last week here, and they should still be up.
In the meantime, if you want to sign an on-line petition to Louisiana State Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the DA prosecuting the case, Reed Walters, contribute money to the campaign, or head on down to Jena on 20th September, here's the link to follow-http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=1845-222680.
Also, am enclosing an article from the Austin(Texas)Weekly News about the case. It gives a brief chronology of events, and a brief out-line of what has occurred since then.
It's at http://austinweeklynews.1upsoftware.com/main.asp?Secti..1&SubSecti..1&ArticleID=1342&TM=12921.11.
Be seeing you.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Editorial and Washington Post Story Link
Got this op-ed piece by Mumia Abu-Jamal on a recent set of racial incidents in the central Louisiana town of Jena on the 28th of last month, and decided to re-post here for y'all to review and consider for yourselves.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
[col. writ. 7/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal
If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called 'Jena', I would've drawn a blank.
Jena? Never heard of it.
It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Janin, that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.
I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').
But, that's it.
When a friend sent me several internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.
I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a 'white tree', called that not because the leaves are white, but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.
In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the 'white tree.' The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.
So, they did.
The next day, the 'white tree' was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.
In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning -- they are threats of death.
People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.
Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.
The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3 - day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, " Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."
(Perhaps he meant anybody important - or white)
For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.
Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the 'white tree' to protest the light suspensions given to the 3 white noose-hangers.
When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called 'New South'). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this 'prank' he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, " I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."
Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students 'niggers', got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.
Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.
The 6 teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.
Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.
And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?
Again -- out of the question.
That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.
For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.
Bell now awaits sentencing which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.
The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.
The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon?
Tennis shoes.
Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."
To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342
Or on the web: jena6defense@gmail.com.
--(c) '07 maj
[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu.; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]
*******
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.
Free Mumia!
For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:
Top Ten "Fry Mumia" Myths Debunked
(Myth 1) "Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php
Subscribe to Liberation News:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
For a more "mainstream" perspective on the events in Jena, here's a link to a Washington Post article on the story, dated to-day, here-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080302098.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
The story also discusses the acute racial disparities between the way that European-American and African-American juveniles are treated and sentenced by our country's juvenile legal system.
Be seeing you.
Mumia Abu-Jamal: Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
[col. writ. 7/21/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal
If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called 'Jena', I would've drawn a blank.
Jena? Never heard of it.
It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Janin, that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.
I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').
But, that's it.
When a friend sent me several internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.
I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a 'white tree', called that not because the leaves are white, but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.
In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the 'white tree.' The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.
So, they did.
The next day, the 'white tree' was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.
In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning -- they are threats of death.
People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.
Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.
The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3 - day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, " Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."
(Perhaps he meant anybody important - or white)
For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.
Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the 'white tree' to protest the light suspensions given to the 3 white noose-hangers.
When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called 'New South'). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this 'prank' he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, " I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."
Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students 'niggers', got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.
Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.
The 6 teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.
Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.
And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?
Again -- out of the question.
That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.
For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.
Bell now awaits sentencing which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.
The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.
The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon?
Tennis shoes.
Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."
To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342
Or on the web: jena6defense@gmail.com.
--(c) '07 maj
[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu.; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]
*******
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.
Free Mumia!
For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:
Top Ten "Fry Mumia" Myths Debunked
(Myth 1) "Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php
Subscribe to Liberation News:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
For a more "mainstream" perspective on the events in Jena, here's a link to a Washington Post article on the story, dated to-day, here-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080302098.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
The story also discusses the acute racial disparities between the way that European-American and African-American juveniles are treated and sentenced by our country's juvenile legal system.
Be seeing you.
Sir Elton John, Andrew Keen, The Internet, and Bollocks
Just like the subject line says, here is a long, hard slog through the subjects mentioned therein, at least for the poor reader who comes across this.
The spark for this is an article about remarks made by Sir Elton John to Britain's Sun newspaper about the Internet, blogging and the like, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
In the article, Sir Elton's quoted as saying that Sir Elton said the internet had "stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff", and it compelled them to "sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn't bode well for long-term artistic vision".
Sir Elton confessed he was a "luddite" who did not have a mobile phone or an iPod, and wrote all his music at the piano.
"I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span," he said."
The article also points out that his latest album, "The Captain and The Kid", has slumped badly in the music industry charts since coming out last September.
Whether or not, this has been due to Internet piracy of his songs, which he has denounced in the past, according to the Sun article, is unknown, but, the financial firm "PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted sales of "physical" formats such as CDs and DVDs would drop from 81 per cent of total sales to 40.5 per cent in 2011, as digital downloads took over."
Either way, Sir Elton's of the mind that, "We're talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that's not going to happen with people blogging on the internet," or so he stated to the Sun.
The publication's article correlates Sir Elton's statements with similar remarks made by one Andrew Keen in his new book, "The Cult Of The Amateur", in which the author denounces the Internet for killing our culture and assaulting our economy. However, the article, at least as reprinted in the SMH, doesn't go into details about Keen's arguments on those scores.
However, it quotes this assertion in Keen's tome, which, the SMH notes, went on sale in Australia this month, that, ""[Anyone] can use their networked computers to publish everything from uninformed political commentary, to unseemly home videos, to embarrassingly amateurish music, to unreadable poems, reviews, essays, and novels."
The Sun/SMH article also notes, however, that Sir Elton made his entire music catalogue of 400 tracks available for down-load on Apple's I-Tunes music store back in March of this year, and that a concert celebrating his 60th birthday and the 250 million albums he's sold world-wide was streamed live over the 'Net as well.
All right, you've heard from Sir Elton John and Andrew Keen about the Internet's deletrious effects on society, culture and the economy. Now, I'll have my very uninformed say about their stances, which can be summed up in one word-bollocks.
For those of you out there who've not even my very limited grasp of Brit-Slang, "bollocks" means "balls", as in the pair a-dangling between a male's legs. named therein.
In this context, "bollocks" also has the same meaning as a similar American expression, "balls", meaning not only that portion of the male genitalia, but that an argument, notion or line of reasoning is complete and utter nonsense.
It strikes me, from my worm's-eye point-of-view here, that Sir Elton has had a very long, generally distinguished, and quite profitable music career, certainly in comparison with most musicians, of whatever musical genre you could care to name.
With all due respect to that career and those accomplishments, it just strikes me that his arguments are those of a frustrated 60 year-old man, who's allowed himself to fall out of touch with what's going on in the rest of the world outside of his patch of it, sees, along with the recording companies, a declining revenue stream thanks to declining CD sales, and who understands the 'Net and its workings about as well as my cats do(with all due apologies to my cats, which neither know nor care about the Internet, except for the fact that their Human-Tom Mama's being on the Box-Thing takes a lot of time and attention away from the attention and time due them. That's as it should be, because they ARE cats, which, while they are often alert to many aspects of the world and living I'm not, do not understand computers or the Internet, because both are beyond their ken, and their capacities to understand. I don't expect Sir Elton to have an expert technical grasp of the 'Net and its workings, but I do expect something of an extremely basic layman's understanding from the fella).
That epic sentence out of the way, it just seems to me that, while some of Sir Elton's concerns about the 'Net and its effects on human cultures and socialisation may have some validity, his grasp of the 'Net, its actual effects, and its potential effects, on human socialisation, creativity and culture are, at best, more than slightly off the mark.
Yes, people, Yours Truly included, should perhaps be outside more, socialising with others constructively, and creating all sorts of new, wonderful, artistic masterpieces, etc, etc.
But, what he fails to understand is that, for many people, especially those like myself, who find the costs of going out generally quite expensive, in a variety of ways, or who are restricted by physical or mental conditions that impair their mobility, the 'Net can be, when wisely used, a great place to gather information about all sorts of topics, see and hear points of view, art works, films, television shows, radio programmes, and other cultural products they'd never get to see otherwise, or, at best, might hear of only by report, whether in print or in face-to-face conversation.
Also, to put it very bluntly here, there are often many times when one's neighbours, acquaintances, business associates, work mates, etc, AREN'T especially pleasant nor desirable company with whom to be around, especially when drunk or high.
Some of this assertion comes from unpleasant experiences I've had with neighbours here in my years in Vegas, some of it from bad experiences I've had, both in Reno and Vegas, in some of the low-level poetry and artistic circles I've been in, and some of it comes from the kind of hyper-sensitive personality I have.
I don't hate people, but, there are times when they can be a bit much for me, and I also know that I'm also not to many people's tastes.
I can talk too much and in far too much detail about subjects that I might find interesting, but which most people either don't know about, could care less about, or both.
My sense of humour can be extremely dark, rough and gauche, and I can, especially when drunk or stoned, if I'm not careful, over-familiar with people at times.
I also have a pretty wicked, bad temper, which, as a friend of mine described it on numerous occasions, "that can go from zero to sixty in 30 seconds"(not an exact quote, BTW), and, while I can and do sit on it much of the time, it can come rushing up, like a lava stream, extremely fast and hard when I feel provoked.
Have also been in a few physical fights(Generally, but not exclusively, when drunk)and confrontations in the past few years, and have generally very narrowly avoided getting into extremely serious trouble, thanks to a combination of other people's tolerance and charity, and just plain dumb luck.
Combine those, with the kind of party-down, have-another-drink, we-like-your-money-but-fuck-off-if-you're-broke culture we've here in Nevada, or at least in much of the Reno-Sparks and Greater Las Vegas areas of the state, and I think that you can get a fair idea of where I'm coming from, when I say that I'm bloody sceptical about Sir Elton's claims that, if the 'Net were shut down for five years, we'd see some sort of cultural and social Renaissance.
There are romantically-inclined sectors of the Left and the environmental movement that have similar hopes for the post-oil, post-car world they envision in the immediate future, once the big, bad economic order we've now, and which is very dependent on both, collapses, with locally-grown food, locally-made products, and locally-made culture combining with a sudden awareness on everyone's part that they should love, respect, and co-operate with their neighbours, thus ushering a new, far better social order, with everyone living happily ever after, and similar such-like rubbish.
It's the same sort of hyper-romanticised thinking as the dystopian fantasies of those on the Left, Centre, and Right, and especially on some segments of the libertarian and racist right, which envision a kind of free-for-all, Every-Man-For-Himself-And-The-Devil-Take-The-Hindmost, Mad Max sort of world, in which the biggest, baddest, most sociopathic or psycho-pathic(Excuse me, I should say "fittest", in deference to the tenth-rate sort of Social Darwinist thinking that often motivates this line of reasoning)individuals will come to dominate and prosper, while everyone else(because they're less "fit", or completely "un-fit")will go to the wall, so much the better, Amen.
Utopian and Dystopian thought and opinion are, based, depending on the individuals and groups involved, based in reality, or at least some parts of reality.
But, because they often tend to selectively portray various social ideals and goals in a heavily idealised form, without generally taking into account the simple fact that people are, quite often, very complex and contrary individual and social animals not always amenable to the pleas, protestations and punches given to them by those who "know better" about how the world should work than they, and, conversely, portray everything about the past and present as being horribly, irredeemably flawed and corrupted, both utopians and dystopians often miss a very basic point, which is that their analyses and projections, like most human analyses and projections, could be either wholly or partially wrong.
The reasons for their being wrong, or only partially right, could be because of flawed sample data, analyses based on either incomplete or very biased information, or other factors like those, and other factors that I neither know enough about, or not at all.
I also think that, in many cases, many utopians and dystopians, like most people, tend to forget that, quite often, what a person says, writes, creates, publishes, depicts, or just plain does in expressing him- or herself, can quite often say far more about the person or people doing the saying, etc, than the subject matter they're tackling.
The same, by the way, goes for this essay, too, and well it should.
I'm not as rigourously analytical and logical as I perhaps should be, but tend to be far more intuitive and emotional in looking at essays, art works, and in everyday life in general.
I can be quite inconsistent, and even hypocritical, and can be quite foolish and gullible at times.
I can be a bit of a pompous cunt, when I want to be, and when I don't mean to be, too.
That comes with being a human being.
Most of us are various combinations of all of these qualities, and far more, both desirable and undesirable, and how we express them depends on the social and other circumstances the individual finds him- or herself in in a given culture(and yes, that goes for rebels, recluses and hermits, too)and any given situation at various points in time.
There are some folks who, for one reason or another, or a combination of reasons, who tend to lean far more in one direction or another than most, but I believe them to be a relative minority of human beings alive and walking around on this planet.
Either way, this means that, whatever one says, does or creates, the sayings, deeds and creations that one makes are as likely to say more about oneself and how one sees the universe and the world around him- or herself at a given point in time, than they might necessarily say about the subjects at hand.
This is where this essay comes back to Sir Elton's pronouncements on the Internet and its effects, because this is a man who has, for reasons of his own, chosen to insulate himself from the 'Net and its effects, good and bad, on contemporary society and culture, and whom, I think, is also further insulated from much of the world around him by his great wealth and social position.
Some of his criticisms of the 'Net and its effects, as well as those of Andrew Keen's, which I shortly get to, may be quite valid.
But, I think much of his remarks are based more in ignorance and fear of something Sir Elton neither understands even a little, and I am no expert on the 'Net myself, so let me get that out of the way here, nor wants to.
Simultaneously, I'd also say that Sir Elton, his management team, and his recording label(Don't ask me which one, as I don't keep up with pop music developments)are, at least if the information about the availability of his music library via I-Tunes and the birthday/album sales concert being 'Net-streamed mentioned in the article are true, are rather hypocritical for turning right 'round(Yes, like a record, Baby)and making sneering remarks about the 'Net and its effects, while using it to make larger profits off of it, than they would have otherwise.
Sir Elton also mentions alleged musical changes that he thinks are coming within the next five years that will have absolutely nothing to do with the Internet, blogging, or anything else even remotely connected to them.
But, he doesn't specify what they will be, nor how they will work.
Now, some of that could be journalistic omissions on the parts of the Sun's or Sydney Morning Herald's reporters and editors, and the Sun is quite notorious for its brand of glaring headline, maximum-sizzle-but-little-steak style of yellow journalism, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Sun didn't mention what musical changes he envisioned(No, I've not read the original article, and don't really plan to, but probably should).
Some of it could be that he's just plain talking out of his arse, whether out of frustration, or a desire to get a quick bit of publicity by stirring up a bit of short-lived controversy.
I don't know, and will admit to that.
As for Andrew Keen's comments in the Sun/SMH article, let me just say this.
In every field of human endeavour, throughout our species' million year history, most of the artifacts produced in any field you care to name have varied greatly in quality, depending on who produced them, the materials used, etc.
This is especially true of human artifacts of all sorts, including cultural ones, produced since the rise of the printing press in the 15th Century, and the advent of the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the late 18th Century.
Many of the artifacts from the various pre-industrial stages of human history haven't survived, or at least only partially intact, and weren't produced in the vast quantities that we've seen from the late 18th-early 19th Centuries onwards, and this goes, again, for cultural artifacts, just as much as for house-wares, furniture, and other goods.
Even in the era of mass production, many cultural artifacts, like the vast majority of silent-era and pre-1950 sound films have either survived only partially intact or not at all.
The use of highly-flammable and easily degraded cellulose nitrate film stock, improper, careless and just plain lazy archiving and storage procedures on the parts of film producers and distributors, as well as accidents and the like, have further contributed to the decay and loss of many of these films, especially if these films weren't seen as having much of a shelf life beyond their original release dates.
What has survived has generally been what were considered to be valuable enough properties by at least one film distributor or film preservation society somewhere, or was just plain lucky in not being chopped to bits and pieces somewhere along the line.
Even then, of the majority of such films that have survived, many of those would be, at best, mediocre in quality, with sizeable minorities occupying their respective places on the spectrum of film quality, ranging from excellent to downright horrible.
All depends on one's tastes, I think.
I don't know.
What I DO know is that, while there's a ton and more of mediocrity and just plain junk out there on the 'Net, and doubtlessly I've contributed to my share of both, I've also found that there are interesting sites that contain valid, useful information, express artistic and other points of view I find worthy, and that contribute, even in microscopic ways, to the general human culture.
I enjoy being able to see, read and hear, and yes, down-load, music, video and other files of materials that I probably would have otherwise have had scant, if any, chance at all to access otherwise.
For me, the 'Net, as I've stated before, provides me with access to a far wider world than the confines of my own home, neighbourhood or locality, and I appreciate it for that.
It's also given me the chance to express myself, on however small a scale and badly, that I might not have had the chance to, otherwise.
Mr. Keen's charges, or at least what the Sun/SMH article mentions of them, strike me as being just so much effete, psuedo-intellectual eye-wash in the face of it.
Will have to read about Mr. Keen, his book, background, articles by and about him, to understand why and how he feels the way he does.
In the meantime, his rhetoric, as shown in the quote from "The Cult Of The Amateur" in the Sun/SMH article, and even the book's title, seems to be that of a common, garden-variety, urban, intellectual snob, concerned with the maintenance of "canonical" literary and other standards, and with the idea that only "qualified professionals" vetted, judged and attested by other "professionals", like himself, are fit to produce cultural products, since they've the background, training, experience and requisite skills to do that, and no one else need apply, thank you very much.
There's an entire class of gate-keepers, whether agents, literary and casting, editors, sub-editors, or any such similar professions you'd care to name, whose jobs entail that only those people whose appearance, background and work fit a certain desired profile and professional standards get into, and keep working in, the various cultural professions, and who might well feel their livelihoods threatened by the rise of the Internet, and especially by the fact that many musicians, artists, writers, etc, who would have otherwise had to do the rounds of begging art gallery owners, literary agents, and so on, to please, please, PLEASE take just an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny look at their work, and judge it to be acceptable, in the hopes of getting the work made and distributed in one form or another, now have possible outlets on the 'Net for their works, without having to go through the whole hat-in-hand procedure of begging someone else to take a look at the fruit of their creative loins.
Whatever positions, money and power, these gate-keepers have could, and, in the case of the recording industry in particular, are gradually declining, as increasing numbers of artists, professional and amateur alike, use the 'Net to show off their wares, and by-pass the layers upon layers of gate-keepers employed to limit access to production and distribution of cultural goods to a relatively select few.
Does this mean that much of, if not all of, these works being displayed on the 'Net are of a stunningly high standard of quality and professionalism????
Nope, not at all.
Many of them are staggeringly bad, and many more are mediocre at best, but, as far as I'm concerned, that's also par for the course, especially when you've large numbers of people producing anything.
The larger the quantity, the more variable the quality of various goods and services produced.
One doesn't have to like it, not at all.
But, I think that Mr. Keen's book more likely than not begs the following question; given that the vast majority of goods, including cultural goods, produced throughout human history, and especially since the Industrial Revolution, have been and are highly variable in quality, especially when produced in mass quantities, wouldn't the vast bulk of such goods, including those made by trained and qualified professionals, be subject to those same dynamics???
I think they would.
Therefore, one could reasonably ask, if the vast majority of goods and services provided by professionals can be expected to be mediocre at best, what is the good of valuing professionalism above all else, if all that results is the same, or only slightly better than, outcome, than if the playing field was opened to amateurs also????
I think it has to do more with preserving one's position, power, however limited and illusory, and making a living, more than with preserving some grand artistic, social and political set of ideals.
Yes, one can probably correctly say that there are many amateurs out there in the cultural sphere who shouldn't be making poems, paintings, films, videos, photographs, musical recordings, etc.
One could also say that there are also quite a few professionals out there who should also be kept from foisting their works on the unsuspecting general public as well.
But, that's just what I think.
In closing, am enclosing the link to the SMH article so you can see it for yourselves, and not just take my word for it. It's http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648044623.html?sssdmh=dm16.272311&from=top5.
Here Endeth The Lesson.
Be seeing you.
The spark for this is an article about remarks made by Sir Elton John to Britain's Sun newspaper about the Internet, blogging and the like, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
In the article, Sir Elton's quoted as saying that Sir Elton said the internet had "stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff", and it compelled them to "sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn't bode well for long-term artistic vision".
Sir Elton confessed he was a "luddite" who did not have a mobile phone or an iPod, and wrote all his music at the piano.
"I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span," he said."
The article also points out that his latest album, "The Captain and The Kid", has slumped badly in the music industry charts since coming out last September.
Whether or not, this has been due to Internet piracy of his songs, which he has denounced in the past, according to the Sun article, is unknown, but, the financial firm "PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted sales of "physical" formats such as CDs and DVDs would drop from 81 per cent of total sales to 40.5 per cent in 2011, as digital downloads took over."
Either way, Sir Elton's of the mind that, "We're talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that's not going to happen with people blogging on the internet," or so he stated to the Sun.
The publication's article correlates Sir Elton's statements with similar remarks made by one Andrew Keen in his new book, "The Cult Of The Amateur", in which the author denounces the Internet for killing our culture and assaulting our economy. However, the article, at least as reprinted in the SMH, doesn't go into details about Keen's arguments on those scores.
However, it quotes this assertion in Keen's tome, which, the SMH notes, went on sale in Australia this month, that, ""[Anyone] can use their networked computers to publish everything from uninformed political commentary, to unseemly home videos, to embarrassingly amateurish music, to unreadable poems, reviews, essays, and novels."
The Sun/SMH article also notes, however, that Sir Elton made his entire music catalogue of 400 tracks available for down-load on Apple's I-Tunes music store back in March of this year, and that a concert celebrating his 60th birthday and the 250 million albums he's sold world-wide was streamed live over the 'Net as well.
All right, you've heard from Sir Elton John and Andrew Keen about the Internet's deletrious effects on society, culture and the economy. Now, I'll have my very uninformed say about their stances, which can be summed up in one word-bollocks.
For those of you out there who've not even my very limited grasp of Brit-Slang, "bollocks" means "balls", as in the pair a-dangling between a male's legs. named therein.
In this context, "bollocks" also has the same meaning as a similar American expression, "balls", meaning not only that portion of the male genitalia, but that an argument, notion or line of reasoning is complete and utter nonsense.
It strikes me, from my worm's-eye point-of-view here, that Sir Elton has had a very long, generally distinguished, and quite profitable music career, certainly in comparison with most musicians, of whatever musical genre you could care to name.
With all due respect to that career and those accomplishments, it just strikes me that his arguments are those of a frustrated 60 year-old man, who's allowed himself to fall out of touch with what's going on in the rest of the world outside of his patch of it, sees, along with the recording companies, a declining revenue stream thanks to declining CD sales, and who understands the 'Net and its workings about as well as my cats do(with all due apologies to my cats, which neither know nor care about the Internet, except for the fact that their Human-Tom Mama's being on the Box-Thing takes a lot of time and attention away from the attention and time due them. That's as it should be, because they ARE cats, which, while they are often alert to many aspects of the world and living I'm not, do not understand computers or the Internet, because both are beyond their ken, and their capacities to understand. I don't expect Sir Elton to have an expert technical grasp of the 'Net and its workings, but I do expect something of an extremely basic layman's understanding from the fella).
That epic sentence out of the way, it just seems to me that, while some of Sir Elton's concerns about the 'Net and its effects on human cultures and socialisation may have some validity, his grasp of the 'Net, its actual effects, and its potential effects, on human socialisation, creativity and culture are, at best, more than slightly off the mark.
Yes, people, Yours Truly included, should perhaps be outside more, socialising with others constructively, and creating all sorts of new, wonderful, artistic masterpieces, etc, etc.
But, what he fails to understand is that, for many people, especially those like myself, who find the costs of going out generally quite expensive, in a variety of ways, or who are restricted by physical or mental conditions that impair their mobility, the 'Net can be, when wisely used, a great place to gather information about all sorts of topics, see and hear points of view, art works, films, television shows, radio programmes, and other cultural products they'd never get to see otherwise, or, at best, might hear of only by report, whether in print or in face-to-face conversation.
Also, to put it very bluntly here, there are often many times when one's neighbours, acquaintances, business associates, work mates, etc, AREN'T especially pleasant nor desirable company with whom to be around, especially when drunk or high.
Some of this assertion comes from unpleasant experiences I've had with neighbours here in my years in Vegas, some of it from bad experiences I've had, both in Reno and Vegas, in some of the low-level poetry and artistic circles I've been in, and some of it comes from the kind of hyper-sensitive personality I have.
I don't hate people, but, there are times when they can be a bit much for me, and I also know that I'm also not to many people's tastes.
I can talk too much and in far too much detail about subjects that I might find interesting, but which most people either don't know about, could care less about, or both.
My sense of humour can be extremely dark, rough and gauche, and I can, especially when drunk or stoned, if I'm not careful, over-familiar with people at times.
I also have a pretty wicked, bad temper, which, as a friend of mine described it on numerous occasions, "that can go from zero to sixty in 30 seconds"(not an exact quote, BTW), and, while I can and do sit on it much of the time, it can come rushing up, like a lava stream, extremely fast and hard when I feel provoked.
Have also been in a few physical fights(Generally, but not exclusively, when drunk)and confrontations in the past few years, and have generally very narrowly avoided getting into extremely serious trouble, thanks to a combination of other people's tolerance and charity, and just plain dumb luck.
Combine those, with the kind of party-down, have-another-drink, we-like-your-money-but-fuck-off-if-you're-broke culture we've here in Nevada, or at least in much of the Reno-Sparks and Greater Las Vegas areas of the state, and I think that you can get a fair idea of where I'm coming from, when I say that I'm bloody sceptical about Sir Elton's claims that, if the 'Net were shut down for five years, we'd see some sort of cultural and social Renaissance.
There are romantically-inclined sectors of the Left and the environmental movement that have similar hopes for the post-oil, post-car world they envision in the immediate future, once the big, bad economic order we've now, and which is very dependent on both, collapses, with locally-grown food, locally-made products, and locally-made culture combining with a sudden awareness on everyone's part that they should love, respect, and co-operate with their neighbours, thus ushering a new, far better social order, with everyone living happily ever after, and similar such-like rubbish.
It's the same sort of hyper-romanticised thinking as the dystopian fantasies of those on the Left, Centre, and Right, and especially on some segments of the libertarian and racist right, which envision a kind of free-for-all, Every-Man-For-Himself-And-The-Devil-Take-The-Hindmost, Mad Max sort of world, in which the biggest, baddest, most sociopathic or psycho-pathic(Excuse me, I should say "fittest", in deference to the tenth-rate sort of Social Darwinist thinking that often motivates this line of reasoning)individuals will come to dominate and prosper, while everyone else(because they're less "fit", or completely "un-fit")will go to the wall, so much the better, Amen.
Utopian and Dystopian thought and opinion are, based, depending on the individuals and groups involved, based in reality, or at least some parts of reality.
But, because they often tend to selectively portray various social ideals and goals in a heavily idealised form, without generally taking into account the simple fact that people are, quite often, very complex and contrary individual and social animals not always amenable to the pleas, protestations and punches given to them by those who "know better" about how the world should work than they, and, conversely, portray everything about the past and present as being horribly, irredeemably flawed and corrupted, both utopians and dystopians often miss a very basic point, which is that their analyses and projections, like most human analyses and projections, could be either wholly or partially wrong.
The reasons for their being wrong, or only partially right, could be because of flawed sample data, analyses based on either incomplete or very biased information, or other factors like those, and other factors that I neither know enough about, or not at all.
I also think that, in many cases, many utopians and dystopians, like most people, tend to forget that, quite often, what a person says, writes, creates, publishes, depicts, or just plain does in expressing him- or herself, can quite often say far more about the person or people doing the saying, etc, than the subject matter they're tackling.
The same, by the way, goes for this essay, too, and well it should.
I'm not as rigourously analytical and logical as I perhaps should be, but tend to be far more intuitive and emotional in looking at essays, art works, and in everyday life in general.
I can be quite inconsistent, and even hypocritical, and can be quite foolish and gullible at times.
I can be a bit of a pompous cunt, when I want to be, and when I don't mean to be, too.
That comes with being a human being.
Most of us are various combinations of all of these qualities, and far more, both desirable and undesirable, and how we express them depends on the social and other circumstances the individual finds him- or herself in in a given culture(and yes, that goes for rebels, recluses and hermits, too)and any given situation at various points in time.
There are some folks who, for one reason or another, or a combination of reasons, who tend to lean far more in one direction or another than most, but I believe them to be a relative minority of human beings alive and walking around on this planet.
Either way, this means that, whatever one says, does or creates, the sayings, deeds and creations that one makes are as likely to say more about oneself and how one sees the universe and the world around him- or herself at a given point in time, than they might necessarily say about the subjects at hand.
This is where this essay comes back to Sir Elton's pronouncements on the Internet and its effects, because this is a man who has, for reasons of his own, chosen to insulate himself from the 'Net and its effects, good and bad, on contemporary society and culture, and whom, I think, is also further insulated from much of the world around him by his great wealth and social position.
Some of his criticisms of the 'Net and its effects, as well as those of Andrew Keen's, which I shortly get to, may be quite valid.
But, I think much of his remarks are based more in ignorance and fear of something Sir Elton neither understands even a little, and I am no expert on the 'Net myself, so let me get that out of the way here, nor wants to.
Simultaneously, I'd also say that Sir Elton, his management team, and his recording label(Don't ask me which one, as I don't keep up with pop music developments)are, at least if the information about the availability of his music library via I-Tunes and the birthday/album sales concert being 'Net-streamed mentioned in the article are true, are rather hypocritical for turning right 'round(Yes, like a record, Baby)and making sneering remarks about the 'Net and its effects, while using it to make larger profits off of it, than they would have otherwise.
Sir Elton also mentions alleged musical changes that he thinks are coming within the next five years that will have absolutely nothing to do with the Internet, blogging, or anything else even remotely connected to them.
But, he doesn't specify what they will be, nor how they will work.
Now, some of that could be journalistic omissions on the parts of the Sun's or Sydney Morning Herald's reporters and editors, and the Sun is quite notorious for its brand of glaring headline, maximum-sizzle-but-little-steak style of yellow journalism, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Sun didn't mention what musical changes he envisioned(No, I've not read the original article, and don't really plan to, but probably should).
Some of it could be that he's just plain talking out of his arse, whether out of frustration, or a desire to get a quick bit of publicity by stirring up a bit of short-lived controversy.
I don't know, and will admit to that.
As for Andrew Keen's comments in the Sun/SMH article, let me just say this.
In every field of human endeavour, throughout our species' million year history, most of the artifacts produced in any field you care to name have varied greatly in quality, depending on who produced them, the materials used, etc.
This is especially true of human artifacts of all sorts, including cultural ones, produced since the rise of the printing press in the 15th Century, and the advent of the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the late 18th Century.
Many of the artifacts from the various pre-industrial stages of human history haven't survived, or at least only partially intact, and weren't produced in the vast quantities that we've seen from the late 18th-early 19th Centuries onwards, and this goes, again, for cultural artifacts, just as much as for house-wares, furniture, and other goods.
Even in the era of mass production, many cultural artifacts, like the vast majority of silent-era and pre-1950 sound films have either survived only partially intact or not at all.
The use of highly-flammable and easily degraded cellulose nitrate film stock, improper, careless and just plain lazy archiving and storage procedures on the parts of film producers and distributors, as well as accidents and the like, have further contributed to the decay and loss of many of these films, especially if these films weren't seen as having much of a shelf life beyond their original release dates.
What has survived has generally been what were considered to be valuable enough properties by at least one film distributor or film preservation society somewhere, or was just plain lucky in not being chopped to bits and pieces somewhere along the line.
Even then, of the majority of such films that have survived, many of those would be, at best, mediocre in quality, with sizeable minorities occupying their respective places on the spectrum of film quality, ranging from excellent to downright horrible.
All depends on one's tastes, I think.
I don't know.
What I DO know is that, while there's a ton and more of mediocrity and just plain junk out there on the 'Net, and doubtlessly I've contributed to my share of both, I've also found that there are interesting sites that contain valid, useful information, express artistic and other points of view I find worthy, and that contribute, even in microscopic ways, to the general human culture.
I enjoy being able to see, read and hear, and yes, down-load, music, video and other files of materials that I probably would have otherwise have had scant, if any, chance at all to access otherwise.
For me, the 'Net, as I've stated before, provides me with access to a far wider world than the confines of my own home, neighbourhood or locality, and I appreciate it for that.
It's also given me the chance to express myself, on however small a scale and badly, that I might not have had the chance to, otherwise.
Mr. Keen's charges, or at least what the Sun/SMH article mentions of them, strike me as being just so much effete, psuedo-intellectual eye-wash in the face of it.
Will have to read about Mr. Keen, his book, background, articles by and about him, to understand why and how he feels the way he does.
In the meantime, his rhetoric, as shown in the quote from "The Cult Of The Amateur" in the Sun/SMH article, and even the book's title, seems to be that of a common, garden-variety, urban, intellectual snob, concerned with the maintenance of "canonical" literary and other standards, and with the idea that only "qualified professionals" vetted, judged and attested by other "professionals", like himself, are fit to produce cultural products, since they've the background, training, experience and requisite skills to do that, and no one else need apply, thank you very much.
There's an entire class of gate-keepers, whether agents, literary and casting, editors, sub-editors, or any such similar professions you'd care to name, whose jobs entail that only those people whose appearance, background and work fit a certain desired profile and professional standards get into, and keep working in, the various cultural professions, and who might well feel their livelihoods threatened by the rise of the Internet, and especially by the fact that many musicians, artists, writers, etc, who would have otherwise had to do the rounds of begging art gallery owners, literary agents, and so on, to please, please, PLEASE take just an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny look at their work, and judge it to be acceptable, in the hopes of getting the work made and distributed in one form or another, now have possible outlets on the 'Net for their works, without having to go through the whole hat-in-hand procedure of begging someone else to take a look at the fruit of their creative loins.
Whatever positions, money and power, these gate-keepers have could, and, in the case of the recording industry in particular, are gradually declining, as increasing numbers of artists, professional and amateur alike, use the 'Net to show off their wares, and by-pass the layers upon layers of gate-keepers employed to limit access to production and distribution of cultural goods to a relatively select few.
Does this mean that much of, if not all of, these works being displayed on the 'Net are of a stunningly high standard of quality and professionalism????
Nope, not at all.
Many of them are staggeringly bad, and many more are mediocre at best, but, as far as I'm concerned, that's also par for the course, especially when you've large numbers of people producing anything.
The larger the quantity, the more variable the quality of various goods and services produced.
One doesn't have to like it, not at all.
But, I think that Mr. Keen's book more likely than not begs the following question; given that the vast majority of goods, including cultural goods, produced throughout human history, and especially since the Industrial Revolution, have been and are highly variable in quality, especially when produced in mass quantities, wouldn't the vast bulk of such goods, including those made by trained and qualified professionals, be subject to those same dynamics???
I think they would.
Therefore, one could reasonably ask, if the vast majority of goods and services provided by professionals can be expected to be mediocre at best, what is the good of valuing professionalism above all else, if all that results is the same, or only slightly better than, outcome, than if the playing field was opened to amateurs also????
I think it has to do more with preserving one's position, power, however limited and illusory, and making a living, more than with preserving some grand artistic, social and political set of ideals.
Yes, one can probably correctly say that there are many amateurs out there in the cultural sphere who shouldn't be making poems, paintings, films, videos, photographs, musical recordings, etc.
One could also say that there are also quite a few professionals out there who should also be kept from foisting their works on the unsuspecting general public as well.
But, that's just what I think.
In closing, am enclosing the link to the SMH article so you can see it for yourselves, and not just take my word for it. It's http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648044623.html?sssdmh=dm16.272311&from=top5.
Here Endeth The Lesson.
Be seeing you.
Flim Review Link: Snow Cake
Am posting a link to a 2nd August review in the Sydney Morning Herald of the Canadian drama, "Snow Cake", starring Sigourney Weaver, as a high-functioning autistic woman whose daughter' s killed in an auto accident, and co-starring Alan Rickman as the driver of the car in which Weaver's daughter was traveling when the accident happened.
The Herald's reviewer gives high marks to Rickman and Carrie Ann Moss, who has a supporting role in "Snow Cake", but isn't as happy with Ms. Weaver's performance.
Not having seen the film, I'll leave you be the judges of that.
The review's at http://www.smh.com.au/news/film-reviews/snow-cake/2007/08/02/1185648019070.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
The Herald's reviewer gives high marks to Rickman and Carrie Ann Moss, who has a supporting role in "Snow Cake", but isn't as happy with Ms. Weaver's performance.
Not having seen the film, I'll leave you be the judges of that.
The review's at http://www.smh.com.au/news/film-reviews/snow-cake/2007/08/02/1185648019070.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Joke: A Guy And His Monkey
Joke: A Guy and His Monkey
A guy walked into a bar with his pet monkey and ordered a drink. While he was drinking, the monkey jumped all around the place. It grabbed some olives off the bar and ate them, then grabbed some sliced limes and ate them. It jumped onto the pool table, took one of the billiard balls, stuck it in his mouth and to everyone's amazement, somehow swallowed it whole.
The bartender screamed at the guy, "Did you see what your monkey just did?"
The guy said, "No, what?"
"He just ate a billiard ball off my pool table...whole!"
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me," replied the guy, "he eats everything in sight. Sorry, I'll pay for the cue ball and stuff." He finished his drink, paid his bar bill and paid for the stuff the monkey ate and walked out.
Two weeks later he came into the bar again along with his monkey. He ordered a drink and the monkey started running around the bar as before. While the man was finishing his drink, the monkey found a maraschino cherry on the bar. He grabbed it, stuck it up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it. Then it found a peanut.. This, too, he stuck up his butt, pulled it out and ate it.
The bartender was disgusted "Did you see what your monkey did now?" he asked.
"No, what?" replied the guy.
"Well, he stuck a maraschino cherry up his butt, pulled it out and ate it...the same with a peanut!"
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. " said the guy. "He still eats everything in sight but ever since he had to pass that cue ball, he measures everything first."
A guy walked into a bar with his pet monkey and ordered a drink. While he was drinking, the monkey jumped all around the place. It grabbed some olives off the bar and ate them, then grabbed some sliced limes and ate them. It jumped onto the pool table, took one of the billiard balls, stuck it in his mouth and to everyone's amazement, somehow swallowed it whole.
The bartender screamed at the guy, "Did you see what your monkey just did?"
The guy said, "No, what?"
"He just ate a billiard ball off my pool table...whole!"
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me," replied the guy, "he eats everything in sight. Sorry, I'll pay for the cue ball and stuff." He finished his drink, paid his bar bill and paid for the stuff the monkey ate and walked out.
Two weeks later he came into the bar again along with his monkey. He ordered a drink and the monkey started running around the bar as before. While the man was finishing his drink, the monkey found a maraschino cherry on the bar. He grabbed it, stuck it up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it. Then it found a peanut.. This, too, he stuck up his butt, pulled it out and ate it.
The bartender was disgusted "Did you see what your monkey did now?" he asked.
"No, what?" replied the guy.
"Well, he stuck a maraschino cherry up his butt, pulled it out and ate it...the same with a peanut!"
"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. " said the guy. "He still eats everything in sight but ever since he had to pass that cue ball, he measures everything first."
Jason Alexander Is...Rovedemort???
From Ourfuture.org, comes this video, starring Jason Alexander as Rovedemort, a cross between Karl Rove and Lord Voldemort, who's continually engaged in conspiracies to frustrate Democratic progress in Congress.
Yes, the video's partisan propaganda, but, it's not bad partisan propaganda, and I have to say that I actually like Alexander's work(he co-wrote, as well as starred in and produced this)in this effort, and I don't usually care for Alexander's acting at all(too many memories of the incredibly irritating George Costanza character he created on Seinfeld).
So, check it out, and see for yourselves what you think of it.
Be seeing you.
Yes, the video's partisan propaganda, but, it's not bad partisan propaganda, and I have to say that I actually like Alexander's work(he co-wrote, as well as starred in and produced this)in this effort, and I don't usually care for Alexander's acting at all(too many memories of the incredibly irritating George Costanza character he created on Seinfeld).
So, check it out, and see for yourselves what you think of it.
Be seeing you.
Once Was Lost, But Now Found
Late this morning, I got a message in my in-box here from an old friend of mine, with whom I'd been part of the Committee For Public Safety(a mid-'90's Las Vegas arts group), and, slightly later on, had been a co-host on a segment of a late-night Sunday radio show at the university radio station here in town.
Well, after our gig ended there, and that was around ten years ago now, he ended up leaving town, and we fell outta touch.
Had asked mutual acquaintances, whenever I infrequently saw 'em, how this friend was doing, and their responses indicated to me that his fate wasn't good.
So, you better believe I was happier than all Hell and the Devil himself, when I got that message from him this morning.
Added him to my friends' list here, and sent 'im a reply to his second message a few minutes ago.
For some of the problems and frustrations I've encountered here on MySpace, and elsewhere on-line, it's moments like this, as well as re-encountering Jason Quiggle and Mlle Omnisciente at earlier points in time, that make being here worth it and more.
Welcome aboard, Jim!!!! Damn nice to have ya here.
Well, after our gig ended there, and that was around ten years ago now, he ended up leaving town, and we fell outta touch.
Had asked mutual acquaintances, whenever I infrequently saw 'em, how this friend was doing, and their responses indicated to me that his fate wasn't good.
So, you better believe I was happier than all Hell and the Devil himself, when I got that message from him this morning.
Added him to my friends' list here, and sent 'im a reply to his second message a few minutes ago.
For some of the problems and frustrations I've encountered here on MySpace, and elsewhere on-line, it's moments like this, as well as re-encountering Jason Quiggle and Mlle Omnisciente at earlier points in time, that make being here worth it and more.
Welcome aboard, Jim!!!! Damn nice to have ya here.
WHO Is The Superior Species???
Got this pic of a cat confronting a toy Dalek on-line a few months back, and, after showing all the pics of wet, humiliated, kitties, I thought it was time to show one taking charge of a situation.
For those of you who aren't Doctor Who fans, the Daleks are a sort of cyborg-like race of beings whose ambition is to conquer the universe, and who like to utter cries of "Exterminate, exterminate!!!".
Yep, they and the good Doctor don't get along. Not at all.
Anyhow, enjoy the pic, and be seeing you.
For those of you who aren't Doctor Who fans, the Daleks are a sort of cyborg-like race of beings whose ambition is to conquer the universe, and who like to utter cries of "Exterminate, exterminate!!!".
Yep, they and the good Doctor don't get along. Not at all.
Anyhow, enjoy the pic, and be seeing you.
A Re-Post Triple Shot
Ruben Navarrette On The Immigration Debate
Am reproducing this op-ed piece by Ruben Navarrette Jr. that had been posted in a bulletin a friend of mine here sent out this evening.
I think it very concisely and nicely spells out the two major factors driving the immigration debate, and the extremely nasty turn it's taken in this country.
As for the Morris Dees quote about Joseph McCarthy, I think Mr. Dees was talking squarely out of his arse.
McCarthy's demagoguery was aimed, first and foremost, at Americans, whether "native-born" or immigrant, who were Communists, thought to be "fellow travelers" with the Communists, or who simply opposed McCarthy, Roy Cohn, Robert Kennedy(That's right. THAT Bobby Kennedy), and the rest of HUAC's activities.
Make no mistake: the above-named were, and remain, swine for what they said and did.
But, they didn't, to my knowledge, make the kinds of anti-immigrant statements, nor advocate the kinds of anti-immigrant policies that, for instance, A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General during the second Wilson and Harding Administrations, did, though he was able to combine that with anti-Communist fear during the "Red Scare" of 1919-21.
It'd be one thing if Dees were someone like you or me, and made that kind of historical boo-boo.
But, Dees is the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been fighting racism for around 30 years now, and should know his history better than that.
A niggling point??? Maybe. But, when people, on whatever portion of the political spectrum, fudge or completely screw up portions of the historical record for their own gain, even accidentally, I see(no pun intended)red.
Historical distortions, however accidental, garble people's understanding of history, and, consequently, their understanding of their culture and themselves, and leave them open to more distortions, exaggerations, and out-right lies.
Sorry for the extended rant about Dees' little historical whoopsie, but I really can't stand it, when someone who does, or at least should, know better than that, makes a dubious historical allegation to score some political point or another.
As for Dobbs, well, he may have made some good points about out-sourcing and its effects in the past, but, as for his stand on immigration, I have to say that he's so full of shit, his eyes should be brown, if they aren't already.
Anyhow, enough blather from me.
The article's directly below.
Thanks to ST for originally posting this in her bulletin, and be seeing you.
UNION-TRIBUNE
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
The winners write the history. And now that border restrictionists have won the battle to scuttle immigration reform, the history that many are desperate to write is that the debate was colorblind.
Really. The restrictionists and those pundits who have taken up their cause claim that race and ethnicity aren't even part of the discussion and that those who oppose giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status would feel the same way if the immigrants were coming from Canada instead of Mexico. They say their concerns are limited to border security and the rule of law, and have nothing to do with nativism or xenophobia. And they reject any suggestion that the debate was hostile to Hispanics.
This is the fable being spun by CNN's Lou Dobbs, a commentator labeled by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt as "the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans." In recent days, Dobbs has argued that the Senate compromise died because Americans of all colors dispassionately concluded that it was bad for the country. Racism played no role, he insists.
Most Hispanics feel differently. I've seen three different surveys, including one by the Pew Hispanic Center, where majorities of Hispanics say that the immigration debate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. And, as I travel the country speaking to Hispanic groups, one thing I hear is that "anti-immigrant" rapidly morphed into "anti-Hispanic" and specifically "anti-Mexican."
I get evidence of that every day in my e-mail. Just last week, after I defended the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, a reader called me a "dirty Latino" who needs to get "back to Mexico." Another writer called me an "anchor baby" – the term used by nativists to describe the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States.
Never mind that I was born in the United States and my parents were born in the United States. What I see here is racism.
That's also the view of the National Council of La Raza, which recently wrapped up its annual conference in Miami Beach. Speakers included Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton said the immigration debate has become "venomous."
Obama, quoting from a 1968 telegram that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, said that Hispanics and African-Americans were "brothers in the fight for equality" and decried the "racism" that crept into the immigration debate.
For some reason, Dobbs took those remarks personally. He responded by poking at Clinton and Obama on his show, insisting that they were insulting the American people.
And he really went ballistic when NCLR Vice President Cecilia Munoz said that much of the immigration debate was driven by a "discomfort with Latinos," and the Senate had caved into "what was largely a wave of hate." That prompted Dobbs to blast the NCLR as a "socio-ethnic centric group."
I'd quibble with Munoz. I don't think it was just hate that drove the immigration debate, though according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants are on the rise while hate groups use the immigration issue as a recruitment tool.
Just last week, the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America – an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan – and five Klansmen, claiming that two members were recruiting for the group at a county fair in Kentucky when they beat up and kicked a 16-year-old Hispanic boy and called him a racial epithet. The boy, who suffered cracked ribs and other injuries, is a U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent.
But this isn't really about hate as much as it is fear and ignorance. And ironically, one of the things fueling it is people such as Dobbs.
"America has a long history of men like Lou Dobbs," Morris Dees, co-founder of the SPLC, said during a recent conference call with journalists. "Men like Sen. Joseph McCarthy who prey on the public fears. Often, they're xenophobic demagogues."
The people who buy into this demagoguery say the country is being colonized. That harkens back to what Benjamin Franklin said in the 1700s about German immigrants making up "a colony of aliens."
A lot of what Franklin said about the Germans was rank bigotry. The same goes for what other generations of Americans would later say about Italians, Irish, Jews and other immigrants – even if they came legally.
What poison. Thank goodness we got that out of our system.
Reproduced for educational purposes.
A Message From Senator John Ensign(R-NV)
A few weeks back, I received a response from Sen. John Ensign(R-Nv) regarding an on-line petition, which I'd signed, banning the use of cluster bombs by the US.
Well, this morning, I signed another petition calling on the GOP's Senate leadership to stop filibustering bills designed to mandate a time-table for American withdrawal from Iraq.
This response, and a bloody quick one it was, too, came from his office to-day.
The message's text is reproduced in full below.
Be seeing you.
This is an official communication from the Office of Senator John Ensign. Any tampering or alteration of this communication is prohibited and may result in criminal investigation or prosecution.
July 30, 2007
Mr. Donald Rilea
457 N Lamb Blvd Apt F
Las Vegas, Nevada 89110-3376
Dear Mr. Rilea:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the continued presence of our armed forces in Iraq. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and I value the opportunity to address them.
Recognizing that a new direction was needed if we were to achieve success in Iraq, President Bush outlined his new strategy in an address to the nation. He stated that in order for Iraqis to achieve a political solution to the civil strife in Iraq, security needed to be ensured. Approximately 20,000 additional U.S. troops will help this effort, coupled with an increase of Iraqi police and army units. To address the other requirements for success, the Iraqi government has pledged to pass legislation that will distribute oil revenues on a fair-share basis among all Iraqis: Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd. It will also spend some $10 billion of its own money in order to create jobs and improve the country's infrastructure.
I recently met with Army Lieutenant General David Petraeus, the new commander of our forces in Iraq. General Petraeus concurred with the sobering reality that removing U.S. troops prematurely would cause collapse of the government in Iraq and result in chaos, with terrorists groups like al-Qaeda filling the vacuum created by our departure. Anything short of victory would significantly undermine U.S. credibility and motivate the terrorists to wage their war inside our own borders. As such, it is vital to our own national security that Iraq succeeds.
Some in Congress have spoken out against the President's plan without offering any policy alternatives of their own. Empty rhetoric is not what is needed; rather we need to realize that this war against Islamic jihadists is unlike anything America has ever faced. While there is no guarantee that this plan or any other plan will work, I believe that we must make every effort to achieve success. We cannot permit Iraq to become a failed state from which terrorists can launch attacks against the United States.
I fully appreciate the sacrifice American families make when they lose a loved one in this fight to keep America safe. This country was built on the valiant sacrifices made by the many brave men and women in uniform who have answered the call to defend the freedom of all Americans. My prayers are for the safe return of those deployed and a timely, successful end to this conflict. I will continue to work to ensure that these heroes and their families are afforded the very best this nation can provide.
The various resolutions addressing the conflict in Iraq will be debated in the Senate within the next few weeks; please rest assured that I will be sure to keep your concerns, and the concerns of all Nevadans, in mind. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. If you should have further questions or comments or would like to share your thoughts on another matter, please feel free to write or e-mail me via my website at http://ensign.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
JOHN ENSIGN
United States Senator
JE/RT
Your thoughts and opinions are important. Unfortunately, any replies to this e-mail will not be received and processed. If you want to contact Senator Ensign electronically again please visit:
http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm
We respect your online time and privacy. If you have any questions about our online privacy statement, please visit Senator Ensign's website http://ensign.senate.gov/ and read our privacy policy at the bottom of the page.
Ingmar Bergman and Bill Walsh Are Dead
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Just saw these obituaries on, respectively, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Chicago Tribune's respective sites.
The link to the Bergman obit. is http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/film-legend-passes-away/2007/07/30/1185647819444.html,
while the Walsh obit. is at http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/sns-ap-fbn-obit-walsh,0,5477816.story.
May both Mr. Bergman and Mr. Walsh rest in peace.
Be seeing you.
Tom Synder Dead At 71
Just read this at the LA Times site. Tom Snyder, whom many of you out there may remember from his '70's late-night talk show stint on NBC, as well as his CBS "Late Show" stint on CBS from '95-98, and even the parodies that Dan Akroyd did of him on "Saturday Night Live" back in the '70's, died of lukaemia, at age 71 yesterday.
I don't recall seeing him on NBC, but I enjoyed his work on "The Late Show", and thought he made a marvelous talk show host.
I, for one, will miss him.
The article can be found here at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-ex-snyder31jul31,0,7566354.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel.
Rest In Peace, Mr. Synder.
Be seeing you.
News Monday: Article Links
Here are a few news article links for you to check out when you get the time.
The first is on the British Army's draw-down in the Basra area of southern Iraq from the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/middleeast/29basra.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1185807864-DdTP8KqFKCVI2rjusTKwvQ.
From the Veterans For Common Sense web-site comes this CNN article on the emergence of Shi'ite warlords in southern Iraq, and why and how that situation's so, at http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/8128.
From the Los Angeles Times, comes this article on the divisions inside the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, which is split among as many factions, as there are floors of the Interior Ministry building in Baghdad(There are eleven floors, according to the article, and the top one's occupied by American advisors, so you do the math), at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-interior30jul30,0,7135292.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Also from the LA Times, comes this article on the increasing number of US-Iraqi tribal(mainly Sunni tribes)alliances, and how that doesn't sit well with many in the currently-Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq29jul29,0,1476598.story?coll=la-tot-world&track=ntottext.
From the Sydney Morning Herald comes this article about how current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denies calling for British troop withdrawals from Iraq at http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bushs-poodle-turns-bulldog/2007/07/29/1185647743536.html?sssdmh=dm16.271293.
From the Observer/Guardian UK comes this story on the vast numbers of Iraqi amputees, and how the growing rates and numbers of amputations in Iraq are creating a health care crisis there, at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2137035,00.html.
From the Telegraph(UK)comes this article on just how stormy the relationship between Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Malaki and US forces' Commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus have become, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IGAHG33FIYEL1QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/28/wirq128.xml.
From the New York Times, again, comes this article about how the Iraqi government's failing to take charge of the numerous development projects launched by various US military and civilian agencies once the latter have completed the initial tasks of building said projects, at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/world/middleeast/28reconstruct.html?hp.
Finally, also from the NYT, comes this op-ed piece by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, the former a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the latter the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, which advocates that Gen. Petraeus' surge strategy, along with the local alliances between the US military and various Iraqi tribal and ethnic groups, is beginning to bear fruit in Iraq, and should be allowed to seen through, at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
I personally don't endorse this view, but post it here nonetheless, so that you can see it, and decide for yourselves what you think of it, as well as all of the other articles here.
Thanks for your time and attention, and be seeing you.
Am reproducing this op-ed piece by Ruben Navarrette Jr. that had been posted in a bulletin a friend of mine here sent out this evening.
I think it very concisely and nicely spells out the two major factors driving the immigration debate, and the extremely nasty turn it's taken in this country.
As for the Morris Dees quote about Joseph McCarthy, I think Mr. Dees was talking squarely out of his arse.
McCarthy's demagoguery was aimed, first and foremost, at Americans, whether "native-born" or immigrant, who were Communists, thought to be "fellow travelers" with the Communists, or who simply opposed McCarthy, Roy Cohn, Robert Kennedy(That's right. THAT Bobby Kennedy), and the rest of HUAC's activities.
Make no mistake: the above-named were, and remain, swine for what they said and did.
But, they didn't, to my knowledge, make the kinds of anti-immigrant statements, nor advocate the kinds of anti-immigrant policies that, for instance, A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General during the second Wilson and Harding Administrations, did, though he was able to combine that with anti-Communist fear during the "Red Scare" of 1919-21.
It'd be one thing if Dees were someone like you or me, and made that kind of historical boo-boo.
But, Dees is the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been fighting racism for around 30 years now, and should know his history better than that.
A niggling point??? Maybe. But, when people, on whatever portion of the political spectrum, fudge or completely screw up portions of the historical record for their own gain, even accidentally, I see(no pun intended)red.
Historical distortions, however accidental, garble people's understanding of history, and, consequently, their understanding of their culture and themselves, and leave them open to more distortions, exaggerations, and out-right lies.
Sorry for the extended rant about Dees' little historical whoopsie, but I really can't stand it, when someone who does, or at least should, know better than that, makes a dubious historical allegation to score some political point or another.
As for Dobbs, well, he may have made some good points about out-sourcing and its effects in the past, but, as for his stand on immigration, I have to say that he's so full of shit, his eyes should be brown, if they aren't already.
Anyhow, enough blather from me.
The article's directly below.
Thanks to ST for originally posting this in her bulletin, and be seeing you.
UNION-TRIBUNE
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
The winners write the history. And now that border restrictionists have won the battle to scuttle immigration reform, the history that many are desperate to write is that the debate was colorblind.
Really. The restrictionists and those pundits who have taken up their cause claim that race and ethnicity aren't even part of the discussion and that those who oppose giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status would feel the same way if the immigrants were coming from Canada instead of Mexico. They say their concerns are limited to border security and the rule of law, and have nothing to do with nativism or xenophobia. And they reject any suggestion that the debate was hostile to Hispanics.
This is the fable being spun by CNN's Lou Dobbs, a commentator labeled by New York Times columnist David Leonhardt as "the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans." In recent days, Dobbs has argued that the Senate compromise died because Americans of all colors dispassionately concluded that it was bad for the country. Racism played no role, he insists.
Most Hispanics feel differently. I've seen three different surveys, including one by the Pew Hispanic Center, where majorities of Hispanics say that the immigration debate has led to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment. And, as I travel the country speaking to Hispanic groups, one thing I hear is that "anti-immigrant" rapidly morphed into "anti-Hispanic" and specifically "anti-Mexican."
I get evidence of that every day in my e-mail. Just last week, after I defended the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents, a reader called me a "dirty Latino" who needs to get "back to Mexico." Another writer called me an "anchor baby" – the term used by nativists to describe the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States.
Never mind that I was born in the United States and my parents were born in the United States. What I see here is racism.
That's also the view of the National Council of La Raza, which recently wrapped up its annual conference in Miami Beach. Speakers included Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton said the immigration debate has become "venomous."
Obama, quoting from a 1968 telegram that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sent to farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, said that Hispanics and African-Americans were "brothers in the fight for equality" and decried the "racism" that crept into the immigration debate.
For some reason, Dobbs took those remarks personally. He responded by poking at Clinton and Obama on his show, insisting that they were insulting the American people.
And he really went ballistic when NCLR Vice President Cecilia Munoz said that much of the immigration debate was driven by a "discomfort with Latinos," and the Senate had caved into "what was largely a wave of hate." That prompted Dobbs to blast the NCLR as a "socio-ethnic centric group."
I'd quibble with Munoz. I don't think it was just hate that drove the immigration debate, though according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants are on the rise while hate groups use the immigration issue as a recruitment tool.
Just last week, the SPLC filed a lawsuit against the Imperial Klans of America – an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan – and five Klansmen, claiming that two members were recruiting for the group at a county fair in Kentucky when they beat up and kicked a 16-year-old Hispanic boy and called him a racial epithet. The boy, who suffered cracked ribs and other injuries, is a U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent.
But this isn't really about hate as much as it is fear and ignorance. And ironically, one of the things fueling it is people such as Dobbs.
"America has a long history of men like Lou Dobbs," Morris Dees, co-founder of the SPLC, said during a recent conference call with journalists. "Men like Sen. Joseph McCarthy who prey on the public fears. Often, they're xenophobic demagogues."
The people who buy into this demagoguery say the country is being colonized. That harkens back to what Benjamin Franklin said in the 1700s about German immigrants making up "a colony of aliens."
A lot of what Franklin said about the Germans was rank bigotry. The same goes for what other generations of Americans would later say about Italians, Irish, Jews and other immigrants – even if they came legally.
What poison. Thank goodness we got that out of our system.
Reproduced for educational purposes.
A Message From Senator John Ensign(R-NV)
A few weeks back, I received a response from Sen. John Ensign(R-Nv) regarding an on-line petition, which I'd signed, banning the use of cluster bombs by the US.
Well, this morning, I signed another petition calling on the GOP's Senate leadership to stop filibustering bills designed to mandate a time-table for American withdrawal from Iraq.
This response, and a bloody quick one it was, too, came from his office to-day.
The message's text is reproduced in full below.
Be seeing you.
This is an official communication from the Office of Senator John Ensign. Any tampering or alteration of this communication is prohibited and may result in criminal investigation or prosecution.
July 30, 2007
Mr. Donald Rilea
457 N Lamb Blvd Apt F
Las Vegas, Nevada 89110-3376
Dear Mr. Rilea:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the continued presence of our armed forces in Iraq. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and I value the opportunity to address them.
Recognizing that a new direction was needed if we were to achieve success in Iraq, President Bush outlined his new strategy in an address to the nation. He stated that in order for Iraqis to achieve a political solution to the civil strife in Iraq, security needed to be ensured. Approximately 20,000 additional U.S. troops will help this effort, coupled with an increase of Iraqi police and army units. To address the other requirements for success, the Iraqi government has pledged to pass legislation that will distribute oil revenues on a fair-share basis among all Iraqis: Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd. It will also spend some $10 billion of its own money in order to create jobs and improve the country's infrastructure.
I recently met with Army Lieutenant General David Petraeus, the new commander of our forces in Iraq. General Petraeus concurred with the sobering reality that removing U.S. troops prematurely would cause collapse of the government in Iraq and result in chaos, with terrorists groups like al-Qaeda filling the vacuum created by our departure. Anything short of victory would significantly undermine U.S. credibility and motivate the terrorists to wage their war inside our own borders. As such, it is vital to our own national security that Iraq succeeds.
Some in Congress have spoken out against the President's plan without offering any policy alternatives of their own. Empty rhetoric is not what is needed; rather we need to realize that this war against Islamic jihadists is unlike anything America has ever faced. While there is no guarantee that this plan or any other plan will work, I believe that we must make every effort to achieve success. We cannot permit Iraq to become a failed state from which terrorists can launch attacks against the United States.
I fully appreciate the sacrifice American families make when they lose a loved one in this fight to keep America safe. This country was built on the valiant sacrifices made by the many brave men and women in uniform who have answered the call to defend the freedom of all Americans. My prayers are for the safe return of those deployed and a timely, successful end to this conflict. I will continue to work to ensure that these heroes and their families are afforded the very best this nation can provide.
The various resolutions addressing the conflict in Iraq will be debated in the Senate within the next few weeks; please rest assured that I will be sure to keep your concerns, and the concerns of all Nevadans, in mind. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. If you should have further questions or comments or would like to share your thoughts on another matter, please feel free to write or e-mail me via my website at http://ensign.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
JOHN ENSIGN
United States Senator
JE/RT
Your thoughts and opinions are important. Unfortunately, any replies to this e-mail will not be received and processed. If you want to contact Senator Ensign electronically again please visit:
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Ingmar Bergman and Bill Walsh Are Dead
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Just saw these obituaries on, respectively, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Chicago Tribune's respective sites.
The link to the Bergman obit. is http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/film-legend-passes-away/2007/07/30/1185647819444.html,
while the Walsh obit. is at http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/sns-ap-fbn-obit-walsh,0,5477816.story.
May both Mr. Bergman and Mr. Walsh rest in peace.
Be seeing you.
Tom Synder Dead At 71
Just read this at the LA Times site. Tom Snyder, whom many of you out there may remember from his '70's late-night talk show stint on NBC, as well as his CBS "Late Show" stint on CBS from '95-98, and even the parodies that Dan Akroyd did of him on "Saturday Night Live" back in the '70's, died of lukaemia, at age 71 yesterday.
I don't recall seeing him on NBC, but I enjoyed his work on "The Late Show", and thought he made a marvelous talk show host.
I, for one, will miss him.
The article can be found here at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-ex-snyder31jul31,0,7566354.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel.
Rest In Peace, Mr. Synder.
Be seeing you.
News Monday: Article Links
Here are a few news article links for you to check out when you get the time.
The first is on the British Army's draw-down in the Basra area of southern Iraq from the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/middleeast/29basra.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1185807864-DdTP8KqFKCVI2rjusTKwvQ.
From the Veterans For Common Sense web-site comes this CNN article on the emergence of Shi'ite warlords in southern Iraq, and why and how that situation's so, at http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/8128.
From the Los Angeles Times, comes this article on the divisions inside the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, which is split among as many factions, as there are floors of the Interior Ministry building in Baghdad(There are eleven floors, according to the article, and the top one's occupied by American advisors, so you do the math), at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-interior30jul30,0,7135292.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Also from the LA Times, comes this article on the increasing number of US-Iraqi tribal(mainly Sunni tribes)alliances, and how that doesn't sit well with many in the currently-Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq29jul29,0,1476598.story?coll=la-tot-world&track=ntottext.
From the Sydney Morning Herald comes this article about how current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denies calling for British troop withdrawals from Iraq at http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bushs-poodle-turns-bulldog/2007/07/29/1185647743536.html?sssdmh=dm16.271293.
From the Observer/Guardian UK comes this story on the vast numbers of Iraqi amputees, and how the growing rates and numbers of amputations in Iraq are creating a health care crisis there, at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2137035,00.html.
From the Telegraph(UK)comes this article on just how stormy the relationship between Iraqi PM Nouri Al-Malaki and US forces' Commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus have become, at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IGAHG33FIYEL1QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/28/wirq128.xml.
From the New York Times, again, comes this article about how the Iraqi government's failing to take charge of the numerous development projects launched by various US military and civilian agencies once the latter have completed the initial tasks of building said projects, at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/world/middleeast/28reconstruct.html?hp.
Finally, also from the NYT, comes this op-ed piece by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, the former a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the latter the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, which advocates that Gen. Petraeus' surge strategy, along with the local alliances between the US military and various Iraqi tribal and ethnic groups, is beginning to bear fruit in Iraq, and should be allowed to seen through, at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
I personally don't endorse this view, but post it here nonetheless, so that you can see it, and decide for yourselves what you think of it, as well as all of the other articles here.
Thanks for your time and attention, and be seeing you.
06 August 2007
The Prisoner: "Fall Out", Part 5
Part 5 of "Fall Out", which closes out the episode, and the series.
In some regards, the consternation and anger stirred up by this episode's climactic meeting between No. 6 and No. 1, along with "The Prisoner"'s open end, was quite similar to that caused by the rather enigmatic, open end of the "Sopranos", and the audience reaction to the latter made me think of the reactions to this series' end when I first heard about it.
Will have more thoughts, reflections and pontifications on "The Prisoner" in this space in a few days time.
In the meantime, be seeing you, as was said all throughout the series.
In some regards, the consternation and anger stirred up by this episode's climactic meeting between No. 6 and No. 1, along with "The Prisoner"'s open end, was quite similar to that caused by the rather enigmatic, open end of the "Sopranos", and the audience reaction to the latter made me think of the reactions to this series' end when I first heard about it.
Will have more thoughts, reflections and pontifications on "The Prisoner" in this space in a few days time.
In the meantime, be seeing you, as was said all throughout the series.
The Prisoner: "Fall Out", Part 2
Part two of "Fall Out", the name of which episode, like a fool, I forgot to give in the last post here.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
I Am Not A Number, I Am... Number One???!!!
The last, and perhaps the most problematic, episode of "The Prisoner", in which No. 6, having won his battle with No. 2 in "Degree Absolute", and having seemingly defeated the Village's masters' attempts to break him, is taken to see No. 1.
This episode's ending, and most especially No. 6's confrontation with No. 1 at the episode's climax, caused so much controversy among consternated viewers of "The Prisoner', that McGoohan and family had to first go into seclusion, then leave Britain, first for Switzerland, then the US, where they've been ever since.
Be seeing you.
This episode's ending, and most especially No. 6's confrontation with No. 1 at the episode's climax, caused so much controversy among consternated viewers of "The Prisoner', that McGoohan and family had to first go into seclusion, then leave Britain, first for Switzerland, then the US, where they've been ever since.
Be seeing you.
The Prisoner: "Degree Absolute", Part Five
The fifth, and last, part of "Degree Absolute", in which the psychological, and sometimes, physical, battle between No. 2 and No. 6 comes to its conclusion.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
I'm Not A Number, I Am... Having A Heart Attack???!!!
From "The Prisoner", part 1 of the series' penultimate episode,"Degree Absolute", in which No. 2(played by Leo McKern) engages in a psychological battle with No. 6(Patrick McGoohan), in which there can only be one winner.
The intensity of the episode, and of the performances given by McKern and McGoohan therein, resulted in the physical collapse of Mr. McKern on the episode's set at one point during its filming.
Be seeing you.
The intensity of the episode, and of the performances given by McKern and McGoohan therein, resulted in the physical collapse of Mr. McKern on the episode's set at one point during its filming.
Be seeing you.
Men!!!!
A married male friend of mine sent me this joke via e-mail this evening. To my married, or long-term partner, friends out there, I hope your relationships haven't yet sunk to this level.
Be seeing you.
One night , after the couple had retired for the night, the woman became aware that her husband was touching her in a most unusual manner. He started by running his hand across her shoulders and the small of her back. He ran his hand over her breasts, touching them very lightly. Then, he proceeded to run his hand gently down her side, sliding his hand over her stomach, and then down the other side to a point below her waist. He continued on, gently feeling her hips, first one side and the other.
His hand ran further down the outside of her thighs. His gentle stroking then started up the inside of her left thigh, stopped and then returned to do the same to her right thigh. By this time the woman was becoming aroused and she squirmed a little to better position herself. The man stopped abruptly and rolled over to his side of the bed.
" Why are you stopping"? she whispered.
He whispered back, " I found the remote".
Be seeing you.
One night , after the couple had retired for the night, the woman became aware that her husband was touching her in a most unusual manner. He started by running his hand across her shoulders and the small of her back. He ran his hand over her breasts, touching them very lightly. Then, he proceeded to run his hand gently down her side, sliding his hand over her stomach, and then down the other side to a point below her waist. He continued on, gently feeling her hips, first one side and the other.
His hand ran further down the outside of her thighs. His gentle stroking then started up the inside of her left thigh, stopped and then returned to do the same to her right thigh. By this time the woman was becoming aroused and she squirmed a little to better position herself. The man stopped abruptly and rolled over to his side of the bed.
" Why are you stopping"? she whispered.
He whispered back, " I found the remote".
Of Tasers and Testicles
Just got this in an e-mail from a friend of mine.
No, I don't think it happened to him, as his wife ain't named Toni, and they've a dachshund named Mike, rather than a cat.
On the other hand, still funnier than all Hell.
Be seeing you.
Classic...don't tell me you can read this without laughing...
>
> (Only a guy would do this!) A guy who purchased his lovely wife a
>pocket
> Taser for their anniversary submitted this :
>
> Last weekend at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop I was looking for a
>little
> something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a
>100,000-volt
> pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to
>be short
> lived, with no long-term adverse affect on an assailant. The idea
>is to
> allow my wife -- who would never consider a gun --adequate time to
>retreat
> to safety. WAY TOO COOL!!
>
> Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded
>in two
> triple-a batteries and pushed the button. Nothing! I was
>disappointed. But
> then I read (yes, 'read') that if I pushed the button AND pressed it
>against
> a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of
>electricity
> darting back and forth between the prongs and I'd know it was
>working.
>
> Awesome!!! (Actually, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn
>spot is
> on the face of her microwave). Okay, so I was home alone with this
>new toy,
> thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two
>triple-a
> batteries, right?!! There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie
>looking on
> intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions
>and
> thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and
>blood
> moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a
>fraction
> of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But,
>if I
> was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
>mugger,
> I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I
>wrong?
>
> So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
>glasses
> perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand,
>and
> taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would
>shock
> and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to
>cause
> muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second
>burst would
> purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out
>of water.
> Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.
>
> So, I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked
>to one
> side as to say, "don't do it," reasoning that a one-second burst
>from such a
> tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give
>myself
> a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to
>my
> naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF
>MASS
> DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!@*!!!
>
> I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked
>me up in
> the recliner, and body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over
>and
> over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal
>position,
> with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire,
>testicles
> nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the
>oddest
> position, and tingling in my legs.
>
> You should know, if you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with
>a
> taser,that there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap
> yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged
>from your
> hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.
>
> SON-OF-A-... that hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't
>be sure,
> as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected what little
>wits I
> had left, sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses
>were on
> the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My
>triceps, right
> thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it
>had been
> shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still
>looking
> for my testicles!! I'm offering a significant reward for their safe
>return.
>
> Still in shock,
>Your Friend
No, I don't think it happened to him, as his wife ain't named Toni, and they've a dachshund named Mike, rather than a cat.
On the other hand, still funnier than all Hell.
Be seeing you.
Classic...don't tell me you can read this without laughing...
>
> (Only a guy would do this!) A guy who purchased his lovely wife a
> Taser for their anniversary submitted this :
>
> Last weekend at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop I was looking for a
>little
> something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a
>100,000-volt
> pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to
>be short
> lived, with no long-term adverse affect on an assailant. The idea
>is to
> allow my wife -- who would never consider a gun --adequate time to
>retreat
> to safety. WAY TOO COOL!!
>
> Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded
>in two
> triple-a batteries and pushed the button. Nothing! I was
>disappointed. But
> then I read (yes, 'read') that if I pushed the button AND pressed it
>against
> a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of
>electricity
> darting back and forth between the prongs and I'd know it was
>working.
>
> Awesome!!! (Actually, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn
>spot is
> on the face of her microwave). Okay, so I was home alone with this
>new toy,
> thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two
>triple-a
> batteries, right?!! There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie
>looking on
> intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions
>and
> thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and
>blood
> moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a
>fraction
> of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But,
>if I
> was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
>mugger,
> I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I
>wrong?
>
> So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
>glasses
> perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand,
>and
> taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would
>shock
> and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to
>cause
> muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second
>burst would
> purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out
>of water.
> Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.
>
> So, I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked
>to one
> side as to say, "don't do it," reasoning that a one-second burst
>from such a
> tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give
>myself
> a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to
>my
> naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF
>MASS
> DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!@*!!!
>
> I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked
>me up in
> the recliner, and body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over
>and
> over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal
>position,
> with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire,
>testicles
> nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the
>oddest
> position, and tingling in my legs.
>
> You should know, if you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with
>a
> taser,that there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap
> yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged
>from your
> hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.
>
> SON-OF-A-... that hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't
>be sure,
> as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected what little
>wits I
> had left, sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses
>were on
> the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My
>triceps, right
> thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it
>had been
> shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still
>looking
> for my testicles!! I'm offering a significant reward for their safe
>return.
>
> Still in shock,
>Your Friend
04 August 2007
Old MySpace Whining In New Bottles
Have been extremely remiss in posting here, or rather, re-posting here, for the past couple of weeks or so, and have fallen woefully behind.
So, to remedy that deplorable situation, have re-posted here, in reverse chronological order the various posts I've made on my MySpace blog since 27th July, when I last posted here.
Right now, we're up to 29th July, so there's a ways to go yet.
That said, hope you enjoy the various article, joke and video posts here, 'cos there's more to come, still.
So, to remedy that deplorable situation, have re-posted here, in reverse chronological order the various posts I've made on my MySpace blog since 27th July, when I last posted here.
Right now, we're up to 29th July, so there's a ways to go yet.
That said, hope you enjoy the various article, joke and video posts here, 'cos there's more to come, still.
Men!!!!
Category: Romance and Relationships
A married male friend of mine sent me this joke via e-mail this evening. To my married, or long-term partner, friends out there, I hope your relationships haven't yet sunk to this level.
Be seeing you.
One night , after the couple had retired for the night, the woman became aware that her husband was touching her in a most unusual manner. He started by running his hand across her shoulders and the small of her back. He ran his hand over her breasts, touching them very lightly. Then, he proceeded to run his hand gently down her side, sliding his hand over her stomach, and then down the other side to a point below her waist. He continued on, gently feeling her hips, first one side and the other.
His hand ran further down the outside of her thighs. His gentle stroking then started up the inside of her left thigh, stopped and then returned to do the same to her right thigh. By this time the woman was becoming aroused and she squirmed a little to better position herself. The man stopped abruptly and rolled over to his side of the bed.
" Why are you stopping"? she whispered.
He whispered back, " I found the remote".
23:16 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Of Tasers and Testicles
Category: Life
Just got this in an e-mail from a friend of mine.
No, I don't think it happened to him, as his wife ain't named Toni, and they've a dachshund named Mike, rather than a cat.
On the other hand, still funnier than all Hell.
Be seeing you.
Classic...don't tell me you can read this without laughing...
>
> (Only a guy would do this!) A guy who purchased his lovely wife a
>pocket
> Taser for their anniversary submitted this :
>
> Last weekend at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop I was looking for a
>little
> something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a
>100,000-volt
> pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to
>be short
> lived, with no long-term adverse affect on an assailant. The idea
>is to
> allow my wife -- who would never consider a gun --adequate time to
>retreat
> to safety. WAY TOO COOL!!
>
> Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded
>in two
> triple-a batteries and pushed the button. Nothing! I was
>disappointed. But
> then I read (yes, 'read') that if I pushed the button AND pressed it
>against
> a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of
>electricity
> darting back and forth between the prongs and I'd know it was
>working.
>
> Awesome!!! (Actually, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn
>spot is
> on the face of her microwave). Okay, so I was home alone with this
>new toy,
> thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two
>triple-a
> batteries, right?!! There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie
>looking on
> intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions
>and
> thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and
>blood
> moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a
>fraction
> of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But,
>if I
> was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
>mugger,
> I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I
>wrong?
>
> So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
>glasses
> perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand,
>and
> taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would
>shock
> and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to
>cause
> muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second
>burst would
> purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out
>of water.
> Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.
>
> So, I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked
>to one
> side as to say, "don't do it," reasoning that a one-second burst
>from such a
> tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give
>myself
> a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to
>my
> naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF
>MASS
> DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!@*!!!
>
> I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked
>me up in
> the recliner, and body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over
>and
> over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal
>position,
> with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire,
>testicles
> nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the
>oddest
> position, and tingling in my legs.
>
> You should know, if you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with
>a
> taser,that there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap
> yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged
>from your
> hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.
>
> SON-OF-A-... that hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't
>be sure,
> as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected what little
>wits I
> had left, sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses
>were on
> the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My
>triceps, right
> thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it
>had been
> shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still
>looking
> for my testicles!! I'm offering a significant reward for their safe
>return.
>
> Still in shock,
>Your Friend
20:03 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Category: Romance and Relationships
A married male friend of mine sent me this joke via e-mail this evening. To my married, or long-term partner, friends out there, I hope your relationships haven't yet sunk to this level.
Be seeing you.
One night , after the couple had retired for the night, the woman became aware that her husband was touching her in a most unusual manner. He started by running his hand across her shoulders and the small of her back. He ran his hand over her breasts, touching them very lightly. Then, he proceeded to run his hand gently down her side, sliding his hand over her stomach, and then down the other side to a point below her waist. He continued on, gently feeling her hips, first one side and the other.
His hand ran further down the outside of her thighs. His gentle stroking then started up the inside of her left thigh, stopped and then returned to do the same to her right thigh. By this time the woman was becoming aroused and she squirmed a little to better position herself. The man stopped abruptly and rolled over to his side of the bed.
" Why are you stopping"? she whispered.
He whispered back, " I found the remote".
23:16 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Of Tasers and Testicles
Category: Life
Just got this in an e-mail from a friend of mine.
No, I don't think it happened to him, as his wife ain't named Toni, and they've a dachshund named Mike, rather than a cat.
On the other hand, still funnier than all Hell.
Be seeing you.
Classic...don't tell me you can read this without laughing...
>
> (Only a guy would do this!) A guy who purchased his lovely wife a
> Taser for their anniversary submitted this :
>
> Last weekend at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop I was looking for a
>little
> something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a
>100,000-volt
> pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to
>be short
> lived, with no long-term adverse affect on an assailant. The idea
>is to
> allow my wife -- who would never consider a gun --adequate time to
>retreat
> to safety. WAY TOO COOL!!
>
> Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded
>in two
> triple-a batteries and pushed the button. Nothing! I was
>disappointed. But
> then I read (yes, 'read') that if I pushed the button AND pressed it
>against
> a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of
>electricity
> darting back and forth between the prongs and I'd know it was
>working.
>
> Awesome!!! (Actually, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn
>spot is
> on the face of her microwave). Okay, so I was home alone with this
>new toy,
> thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two
>triple-a
> batteries, right?!! There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie
>looking on
> intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions
>and
> thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and
>blood
> moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a
>fraction
> of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But,
>if I
> was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a
>mugger,
> I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I
>wrong?
>
> So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading
>glasses
> perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand,
>and
> taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would
>shock
> and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to
>cause
> muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second
>burst would
> purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out
>of water.
> Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.
>
> So, I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked
>to one
> side as to say, "don't do it," reasoning that a one-second burst
>from such a
> tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give
>myself
> a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to
>my
> naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF
>MASS
> DESTRUCTION @!@$$!%!@*!!!
>
> I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked
>me up in
> the recliner, and body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over
>and
> over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal
>position,
> with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire,
>testicles
> nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the
>oddest
> position, and tingling in my legs.
>
> You should know, if you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with
>a
> taser,that there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap
> yourself. You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged
>from your
> hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.
>
> SON-OF-A-... that hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't
>be sure,
> as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected what little
>wits I
> had left, sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses
>were on
> the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there??? My
>triceps, right
> thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it
>had been
> shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still
>looking
> for my testicles!! I'm offering a significant reward for their safe
>return.
>
> Still in shock,
>Your Friend
20:03 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Cathead Theatre: "Hamlet", Act 2, Scene 2
And, now, thanks to Cheryl and her friend Glenn, it's time for an episode of "Cathead Theatre", which to-day presents a scene from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Act 2, Scene 2.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
Article Link: "Making Lust Last"
Category: Romance and Relationships
For my married friends, as well as those in long-term relationships, of any kind, comes this link to an MSN article on how to make lust, excitement, passion, all that good stuff, last between you and your partner.
Would love to see your reactions to this piece, and whether or not, you all think it might be practical or complete bullshit.
The link's at:http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/loveandromance/articlegh.aspx?cp-documentid=2932773>1=10217
Be seeing you.
Category: Romance and Relationships
For my married friends, as well as those in long-term relationships, of any kind, comes this link to an MSN article on how to make lust, excitement, passion, all that good stuff, last between you and your partner.
Would love to see your reactions to this piece, and whether or not, you all think it might be practical or complete bullshit.
The link's at:http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/loveandromance/articlegh.aspx?cp-documentid=2932773>1=10217
Be seeing you.
I'm Not A Number, I'm.... At My Wit's End!!!!
Another excerpt from "Free For All", in which No. 6 finds that his new maid, along with the crush of his "adoring" partisans is proving to be more than a bit much for him.
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
I'm Not A Number, I Am... A Candidate For High Office???!!!
From "The Prisoner" episode, "Free For All", in which No. 6 is invited by No. 2 to participate as a candidate for his post in the Village elections, comes this extended excerpt, which is from a Spanish-subtitled version of the series(Don't know if from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, or other Hispanophone country, sorry).
McGoohan, the series' executive producer, co-creator(or one of them), and director of several episodes, as well as being "The Prisoner"'s star, and company take quite a few shots at the electoral process and its promises in this episode, as you can see for yourselves here.
Be seeing you.
McGoohan, the series' executive producer, co-creator(or one of them), and director of several episodes, as well as being "The Prisoner"'s star, and company take quite a few shots at the electoral process and its promises in this episode, as you can see for yourselves here.
Be seeing you.
I Am Not A Number, I AmThe Episode Preview Adverts!!!!
This was, whether for the UK or US markets, I've no idea, a set of episode previews and teasers for "The Prisoner", probably issued when the show was initially released in the UK in '67, and in the US in '68.
I personally suspect that this set of adverts is for the UK market(even in spite of the announcer's American accent), because of the use of the word "channel" rather than "station", as most American tv show adverts would have used.
But, I could be wrong on that score.
All speculation aside, these teasers should help give something of an idea of what the series was like, even if they don't give the whole picture.
Be seeing you.
I personally suspect that this set of adverts is for the UK market(even in spite of the announcer's American accent), because of the use of the word "channel" rather than "station", as most American tv show adverts would have used.
But, I could be wrong on that score.
All speculation aside, these teasers should help give something of an idea of what the series was like, even if they don't give the whole picture.
Be seeing you.
I'm Not A Number, I Am The Alternate Opening Title Credits!!!
Also from "The Prisoner" comes this set of alternate opening title credits, with the musical theme by Wilfred Josephs, rather than Ron Grainer's famous title music.
This was an earlier version of the series' opening titles, that was rejected, mainly because it was felt that Josephs' score wasn't adequate to the task(I believe), and, if so, I have to concur with that decision.
It was, however, kept in the sample episode that was shown to the press before the series' initial release, along with some closing footage that was also later replaced.
This was thought to have been lost, until, sometime in the 1980's, a copy of this turned up in Canada.
Be seeing you.
This was an earlier version of the series' opening titles, that was rejected, mainly because it was felt that Josephs' score wasn't adequate to the task(I believe), and, if so, I have to concur with that decision.
It was, however, kept in the sample episode that was shown to the press before the series' initial release, along with some closing footage that was also later replaced.
This was thought to have been lost, until, sometime in the 1980's, a copy of this turned up in Canada.
Be seeing you.
I Am Not A Number, I Am... The Opening Credits!!!!
From Fry and Laurie, we return, after an interval of several days, to the "The Prisoner". starting out with the famous opening title sequence that was a part of every show, except "Fall Out", the very last episode.
The episode this title sequence comes from is "The Chimes Of Big Ben", with the late, great Leo McKern(some of you out there will remember him as Rumpole Of The Bailey)as No. 2.
Be seeing you.
The episode this title sequence comes from is "The Chimes Of Big Ben", with the late, great Leo McKern(some of you out there will remember him as Rumpole Of The Bailey)as No. 2.
Be seeing you.
Fry and Laurie: "Major Donaldson"
Last in the line-up is a sketch or two from the second season of "A Bit Of Fry and Laurie", in which a British army major taken prisoner by the SS during World War Two develops a sudden attraction to his interrogator, and other bits as well.
More Bloody Fry And Laurie
Fry and Laurie at it again, this time with the second half of the first episode of "A Bit Of Fry and Laurie", in which a politician makes it quite plain that the schools' primary duty is to teach teen-agers not to break into his car, a man sort of wants to join the SAS, but ends up in a rather strangely run library instead, and all sorts of other stuff like that.
Laurie And Fry: "Language"
From the first episode of "A Bit Of Fry and Laurie", comes this sketch entitled "Language", for you linguistically inclined viewers out there.
For those of you who aren't, well, there's always grunting and making rude noises, now, ain't there???
For those of you who aren't, well, there's always grunting and making rude noises, now, ain't there???
Fry and Laurie: "America"
Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry again, having another musical go at the US with "America".
Laurie composed the tune, and is on vocals and piano, with Mr. Fry on fist.
Be seeing you.
Laurie composed the tune, and is on vocals and piano, with Mr. Fry on fist.
Be seeing you.
Hugh Laurie And Stephen Fry Kick Some Ass
Hugh Laurie, whom most of you will know as "House" from the Fox series of the same name, and his old partner in tv and crime, Stephen Fry, in a sketch from their old BBC TV series, "A Bit Of Fry and Laurie", called "Kicking Ass".
Be seeing you.
Be seeing you.
Last Post(Poem
Category: Writing and Poetry
This last piece, like the others before it, is inspired by an episode of "The Prisoner" I just saw on YouTube.
Who are the Warders,
And who are the Prisoners??
Who can tell the difference between old lags,
Fresh meat,
Old screws
And new screws???
Where is the Warden???
Who is the Warden???
Why does he or she do what he or she does???
In the end, we are prisoners,
We are all warders,
We look for the Warden, but he or she's a prisoner, too.
We are prisoners, if we allow ourselves to be.
Absolute freedom's a myth, but so's absolute slavery.
And, even Wardens yearn to leave their prisons,
Of Power,
Pomp
And Predictability.
Be seeing you.
07:11 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Degree Absolute(Poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry
If I were in a small room,
With a man,
Hectoring, pleading, cajoling
With me, to tell who, what,
How, where, when
And WHY I know,
Do,
Say,
Breathe,
Live,
Die,
I don't know if I could
Avoid
Telling,
Telling,
Telling.
For, in Degree Absolute,
In interrogation,
In questioning,
In torture,
In simple conversation,
There is always the urge to tell all one knows, even if the other doesn't want to hear it.
I
Don't
Know
If
I
Would
Spill
Or
Not.
I've not been in those circumstances.
I hope I wouldn't, but I don't know.
One can never know,
Until one is in them.
Degree Absolute isn't just the province of small, locked rooms.
It can happen in the great outdoors, in broad day-light,
Where much of the horrors of this world take place.
Be seeing you.
07:02 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Poem: Six
Category: Writing and Poetry
Six.
Six into Eight.
Six into Twelve.
Six into Eighteen.
Six,
Six,
Six.
Goes and goes as long and as far as it can go.
Until, it reaches its inevitable end, as do we all.
Six into negative six,
Six into negative twelve,
Six into negative eighteen.
Going, going, gone
Into far reverse, or is it opposite progress.
Towards a similar, if not same, end,
As its other.
Does it break?
Do I???
Do you???
Only time and circumstance can tell.
Six.
Why?
Six.
How?
Six.
Where?
Six.
When?
Six.
Who?
Six.
Zero.
Fini, Done, The End.
06:48 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Category: Writing and Poetry
This last piece, like the others before it, is inspired by an episode of "The Prisoner" I just saw on YouTube.
Who are the Warders,
And who are the Prisoners??
Who can tell the difference between old lags,
Fresh meat,
Old screws
And new screws???
Where is the Warden???
Who is the Warden???
Why does he or she do what he or she does???
In the end, we are prisoners,
We are all warders,
We look for the Warden, but he or she's a prisoner, too.
We are prisoners, if we allow ourselves to be.
Absolute freedom's a myth, but so's absolute slavery.
And, even Wardens yearn to leave their prisons,
Of Power,
Pomp
And Predictability.
Be seeing you.
07:11 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Degree Absolute(Poem)
Category: Writing and Poetry
If I were in a small room,
With a man,
Hectoring, pleading, cajoling
With me, to tell who, what,
How, where, when
And WHY I know,
Do,
Say,
Breathe,
Live,
Die,
I don't know if I could
Avoid
Telling,
Telling,
Telling.
For, in Degree Absolute,
In interrogation,
In questioning,
In torture,
In simple conversation,
There is always the urge to tell all one knows, even if the other doesn't want to hear it.
I
Don't
Know
If
I
Would
Spill
Or
Not.
I've not been in those circumstances.
I hope I wouldn't, but I don't know.
One can never know,
Until one is in them.
Degree Absolute isn't just the province of small, locked rooms.
It can happen in the great outdoors, in broad day-light,
Where much of the horrors of this world take place.
Be seeing you.
07:02 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Poem: Six
Category: Writing and Poetry
Six.
Six into Eight.
Six into Twelve.
Six into Eighteen.
Six,
Six,
Six.
Goes and goes as long and as far as it can go.
Until, it reaches its inevitable end, as do we all.
Six into negative six,
Six into negative twelve,
Six into negative eighteen.
Going, going, gone
Into far reverse, or is it opposite progress.
Towards a similar, if not same, end,
As its other.
Does it break?
Do I???
Do you???
Only time and circumstance can tell.
Six.
Why?
Six.
How?
Six.
Where?
Six.
When?
Six.
Who?
Six.
Zero.
Fini, Done, The End.
06:48 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
[27 Jul 2007 | Friday]
A Couple Of Petition Links For My Liberal and Radical Wing-Nut Friends
Category: News and Politics
Just like the subject line says, Folks.
Here are two links to sites where you can sign petitions to send to Congress to have Dicky-Bird Cheney's arse impeached!!!!
The first one's at Democrats.com, and puts your name as a sponsor on a resolution by Dennis Kucinich to have the Dicky-Bow impeached. It's at http://www.democrats.com/impeach-cheney-congressional-record.
The second's from the good ladies at Codepink, and is a simple petition for the same damn thing-gettin' Mr. Undisclosed-Secret Location to finally stand tall before the Man, Woman, and people in Congress and of this country.
It's at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=651.
These actions mayn't be much, but, they are a start. Get on over there, sign up, and let our governing classes know how you feel and why.
That's all.
Be seeing you.
22:19 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
A Poetic Response To A Friend's Poem
Category: Writing and Poetry
Did this just a few minutes ago as a response to a poem by Mr Itchy("Here It Is", I think is the title)on his blog, and decided to re-post it here, 'cos it's the first poem of sorts I've written in a very long while.
The IRA, Black and Tans, Macroom references are to an incident where an IRA flying column wiped out a British auxillary police contingent near the town of Macroom, Ireland, during the Irish War of Independence, in 1920(I think).
There was even a song commemorating that victory that had the verses(only partially recalled here)about the IRA "making shit out of the whole fucking lot."
Be seeing you.
And put paid
To the whole fucking lot
like the IRA
Did to the Black and Tans
At Macroom
So long ago.
21:26 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
A Couple Of Petition Links For My Liberal and Radical Wing-Nut Friends
Category: News and Politics
Just like the subject line says, Folks.
Here are two links to sites where you can sign petitions to send to Congress to have Dicky-Bird Cheney's arse impeached!!!!
The first one's at Democrats.com, and puts your name as a sponsor on a resolution by Dennis Kucinich to have the Dicky-Bow impeached. It's at http://www.democrats.com/impeach-cheney-congressional-record.
The second's from the good ladies at Codepink, and is a simple petition for the same damn thing-gettin' Mr. Undisclosed-Secret Location to finally stand tall before the Man, Woman, and people in Congress and of this country.
It's at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=651.
These actions mayn't be much, but, they are a start. Get on over there, sign up, and let our governing classes know how you feel and why.
That's all.
Be seeing you.
22:19 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
A Poetic Response To A Friend's Poem
Category: Writing and Poetry
Did this just a few minutes ago as a response to a poem by Mr Itchy("Here It Is", I think is the title)on his blog, and decided to re-post it here, 'cos it's the first poem of sorts I've written in a very long while.
The IRA, Black and Tans, Macroom references are to an incident where an IRA flying column wiped out a British auxillary police contingent near the town of Macroom, Ireland, during the Irish War of Independence, in 1920(I think).
There was even a song commemorating that victory that had the verses(only partially recalled here)about the IRA "making shit out of the whole fucking lot."
Be seeing you.
And put paid
To the whole fucking lot
like the IRA
Did to the Black and Tans
At Macroom
So long ago.
21:26 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
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