22nd February, 2008, 6:54 PM: Darkness had fallen over the trench belonging to the Windsorian Army’s Third Company nearly two hours before, and while Corporal Alun Graves’, a brunet, eagle-eyed, Action Man, Action Soldier, who was one of the last surviving veterans of the war’s opening days, eyes had long since adjusted to the gloom, as he walked down the line of soldiers standing at attention, waiting for 7:00 PM, and the signal to go over the trench’s top toward the enemy lines, there were one or two times where he had to hesitate while moving on the wooden duckboards that covered the trench’s dirt floor.
Graves was performing a last-minute inspection of the soldiers’ equipment webbing and weapons, a job, he thought, that would normally be the Platoon Sergeant’s, except that, with so many additions to the company, and the Windsorian Army’s ranks as a whole, in preparation for what was supposed to be the last “Big Push” of this war, and victory, he and the other corporals and lance-corporals were having to do much of the tasks that would normally have been the Company and Platoon Sergeants’ lots, since the former were swamped with the tasks of keeping so many new, and, in many cases, either trained but un-battle experienced, half-trained and in-experienced, or completely un-trained and inexperienced men organised and functioning even somewhat in the manner that a proper fighting company should be.
Hence, his checking the men’s equipment and weaponry to make sure that they were in working order, or, that they at least had equipment and weapons.
“Merrill (first name of Merrill Hassenfeld, who was in charge at Hasbro Toys when GI Joe was created in 1963-64, and regarded by most action figures as the primary “Creator”, or god-figure by them)”, Graves mentally blasphemed, as he walked down the line, stopping for no more than a minute to inspect every man’s equipment and weapons, before moving on, “what a lot of Odds and Sods, we’ve got here.”
While most of the men standing at attention in the three long lines of thirty men each, one ranked in front of the other, and crowding the trench so badly that there was barely room for Graves to walk in front of them, would probably have taken exception to his description of them, they would have agreed with him that they were a mixed lot indeed.
Every available Army occupation from clerk-typists for the General Staff, to cooks, cooks’ assistants, latrine diggers, mechanics, and even military policemen, was represented in the trench, as well as almost every civilian occupation found within the Kingdom of Windsor itself-everything from minor nobles, respectable businessmen, lay clergy, and stock brokers, to factory workers, shop assistants, rubbish collectors, rag-and-bone men, tramps, and even prisoners, along with their warders, from the city and Royal prisons.
Every racial and ethnic group possible, from Europeans and Africans, to Asians of various ethnicities, Latin and Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and many others, were found in those lines, as were Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Jains, and, of course, members of the majority faith, the Church of the Creators, which was both liturgically and organizationally much like Christianity, only with the names of the various Creators substituted for those of God, the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.
Of the latter, most belonged to the Official Church of Windsor, which had the King as its titular head, though there were also those present who belonged to the several Dissenting sects as well.
The ranks were also greatly varied in age and physical condition, ranging from Action Men, GI Joes, Dragon Models’, and many other sorts of figures, who, except for being customised to fit their individual and social roles, would have been considered C-10 or C-9, or practically fresh out of the box by action figure collectors, to those who were only C-4 or even C-3, or bad to poor shape, and good only for parts.
Then, there were, and this is what Graves found most disturbing as he made his way down the line, those figures who were only “Confies”, or newly psychologically matured, and even a few “Weebs”, who hadn’t even reached that stage yet.
“What the Levine (surname of Don Levine, GI Joe’s designer and akin to Jesus Christ in the Church of the Creators’ theology) are THEY doing here?” he wondered as he checked another soldier’s weapon, “They should be in school, or playin’ tiddelywinks, or somethin’ like that, not out here. They don’t have sense enough to tell a C.B (general figure slang for a Cherry Bomb firework) from a Green Gutter (also general military figure slang for a class of mortar fragmentation shell, usually green-coloured). Be absolutely useless out here. They MUST be getting’ desperate, if they puttin’ Weebs into the line.”
Graves finished checking the soldier’s weapon and handed it back to him without saying a word, then passed on to the next one, a Power Team figure dressed in a rumpled Soldiers Of The World Korean War Canadian Sergeant’s uniform that had seen far better days.
While he checked the webbing and equipment (the former was original to the outfit, with the pouches and such being moulded on, and inoperable) of his newest charge, Graves heard one such Weeb, a Dragon Kenneth, whisper to his friend, a blond GI Joe Classic Collection “blockhead”(so-called by action figure collectors and figures alike because of their square-shaped heads), “Oi, Georgie!!! You scared??? ‘Cos, I sure am!”
Georgie’s response was direct and immediate, “No, of course not. Only girls and sissies’d be scared.”
Graves said nothing as he finished checking his charge’s SOTW Lee-Enfield Mark Two rifle, and handed it back to him, then walked over to the Kenneth weeb, dressed in a mix of British military garb from various toy manufacturers, blue corduroy Ken doll pants, and a pair of knock-off GI Joe style short boots with a split running down the rear middle of the left boot, who was staring at him rather nervously as he approached, afraid that the big, tough soldier in front of him would laugh at him for being scared.
Instead, as Graves inspected the stripling’s equipment and weapon (a SOTW Colt .45 1911 automatic pistol), he told the youngster, “ Nowt wrong with bein’ scared, lad. It’s normal to be scared before a big push like this. Just don’t let it get in your way, and you’ll be fine.”
Graves knew that wasn’t entirely true, as sometimes, some people simply couldn’t push their fears of being wounded or dying out of the way during a battle, much less guarantee that the youth would be all right at battle’s end. No one could make that guarantee, really, and Graves knew it. Still, the boy needed bucking up, and it was sometimes better to feed a little white lie or two to someone who would otherwise be panicking and upsetting the unit’s morale, than to bluntly tell him otherwise, and make him not only useless to the unit and himself, but positively dangerous to both as well.
Graves gave the now considerably more relaxed weeb an avuncular smile, and a quick pat on the left shoulder, as he finished his inspection and got ready to move to the youngster’s friend. “The boy smiled back, and Graves said in his warmest tones, “There’s a good lad.”
His tone to Georgie, on the other hand, was a bit colder, and his words even harsher, as he checked the latter are gear and weapon, “Y’know, Lad. If you had any brains at all, you would be scared.”
Stung by Grave’s remark, Georgie asked, in a very un-amused tone of voice, “Yeah??? Well, how about you? Are you scared?”
Graves, who was now busy inspecting the equipment of the next soldier over, said, “Yeah. But, I don’t let it control me. I control it. That’s the difference, mate. Now, no talking in ranks.”
Suitably chastised, much to his friend’s amusement, Georgie said not another word.
Graves, after finishing his latest inspection, brought his left wrist, upon which was a watch with a glow-in-the-dark dial activated by pushing a button on its right side, saw the time, 6:56 PM, illuminated on the watch-dial’s face, and thought, “Bloody Hell, one minute to kick-off”, meaning the intense artillery, or “hurricane”, bombardment of the enemy’s positions, due to start in a minute’s time, “Better finish up fast before the Sarn’t and the Brass Hats get here.”
So, with two men left standing in the first rank of the assembly, Graves decided to dispense with checking each piece of equipment and webbing, settling for just a quick, cursory glance at them, and an equally fast visual inspection of the men’s weapons as well.
He hated having to use a short-cut like this, but, under the circumstances, there wasn’t anything else Graves’s felt he could do.
So, after giving the new, truncated inspection to the remaining duo of soldiers in the first rank, he shoved his way in between the crowded ranks of the first and second lines, grunting as he did so, and thinking that it would be a very unlikely possibility to get all of these men up and out of the trench when the time came, as crowded together as they all were.
Still, Graves managed to make his way up the line, all the while noting the presence of mixed items of various manufacturers, British Army, other armies’ and civilian clothing and equipment, and the array of weapons ranging from Dragon, 21st Century and Hasbro copies of the SA-80, the British Army’s current standard field weapon, to miniature Lee-Enfield SMLE bolt-action rifles, Martini-Henry lever-action rifles, Brown Bess muskets, various sorts of shotguns, hunting rifles and pistols, and even various kinds of pikes, halberds, axes, swords, daggers and knives, carried or worn by their various owners.
At the very head of the second rank, he even came across a golf club held by a vintage GI Joe Adventure Team Adventurer, who was dressed in, of all conceivable clothes, a navy-blue, pin-striped, three-piece suit, complete with watch fob and a black bowler perched atop his head.
This posh customer looked more at home in the offices of an accountant’s or a stock brokerage house, than in a trench, four minutes away from a massive infantry assault upon enemy positions, and Graves didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at such an absurd sight.
But, there the fellow was, and Graves kept his composure, though he couldn’t resist adding a humourous jab at the curious sight in front of him, “Evenin’, Squire??? And, where are we off to this evenin’, then???”
Nonplussed, the squire-turned-soldier briskly said, “The same destination as you, my dear fellow.”
Graves wasn’t sure whether or not to be amused or give Mr. Posh a good strafing for what would, in ordinary circumstances, be considered his rather un-military form of addressing a superior.
He decided on the former, instead. “Right. Now, is that golf club all you have on you? The enemy won’t be throwing golf balls at us, you know.”
Mr. Posh replied, “ Oh, no. The golf club, I brought from home, but they also issued me a pistol at the depot, when I reported there,” indicating a black pistol holster and belt around his waist.
Graves asked, “Mind if I have a look at your weapon, sir???”
The gent responded, “Oh, no. Not at all,” and pulled out from the holster, a Soldiers Of The World replica 1851 Colt Navy revolver, for the corporal to see.
Graves whistled and said, “That’s a bit of gun, all right. Ever fired one before???”
The gent merely said, “No, I haven’t. But, I imagine I shall pick up the general idea as I go along”, in an airily confident, throwaway, tone.
Graves thought, “If you don’t get yourself bloody well killed first, you might,” but merely said, “I see.”
At that point, Graves gave into the curiosity provoked by the gent’s appearance and rather blasé attitude, and asked him, “So, what’d ya do back in Civvy Street, Guv’nor??”
Without missing a beat, the “Guv’nor” stated, as though he were at a business luncheon, instead of in a trench and about to go over its top, “Ah, well, I’m a chartered accountant, with the firm of Shropshire, Derby, Leicester, and Davidoff. Perhaps, you’ve heard of us?”
Graves shook his head, “Sorry, no I haven’t.”
The gent replied in a rather crest-fallen tone, “Pity. Well, I suppose you wouldn’t have out here, would you?”
Graves matter-of-factly said, “No, I reckon not,” then looked down at his watch again. The hands on the illuminated dial said 6:56 and 30 seconds. Practically no time left to inspect any more soldiers and get back to his appointed place in time before the Company and Platoon Sergeants’ arrival, and, more importantly, his Battalion and Company officers’.
So, just before turning to head over to his designated spot just one step ahead of the first rank on its left-hand side, he said to the accountant –turned-squaddie, “Well, good luck to you out there.”
The accountant cheerily replied, “And likewise to you, erm….”
“Graves, Corporal Graves.”
“Nujoma, Samuel Coleridge Taylor Nujoma, at your service.”
Then, Graves turned around and headed to his spot, where, upon reaching it, he looked over to his right, and saw his mate, a fellow corporal and GI Joe eagle-eye Man Of Action named Jeff Baker, who was dressed in a 21st Century Toys Vietnam US Army Platoon Leader fatigues outfit, with a GI Joe green American helmet on his head, and armed with a GI Joe copy of an M-1 Garand rifle, looking at him with something of a half-repressed snicker at the little scene he’d witnessed on his face.
Graves returned a wan version of Baker’s snicker, then turned his head facing straight towards the trench’s front wall, as he, and the rest of the company, heard the Company and Platoon Sergeant’s approaching foot-steps.
The time was 6:56 PM, with 15 seconds to go before the bombardment commenced.
07 September 2007
05 September 2007
Washington Post Story Link: Luciano Pavarotti Dead At Age 71
According to a Washington Post breaking news story, with an earlier AP story attached, tenor Luciano Pavarotti is dead at age 71.
The article can be found here at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090501382.html?referrer=email.
Would like to extend my condolences to any of Mr. Pavarotti's fans out there who may read this at some time or another in the next 24 hours.
Yours, D.
The article can be found here at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/05/AR2007090501382.html?referrer=email.
Would like to extend my condolences to any of Mr. Pavarotti's fans out there who may read this at some time or another in the next 24 hours.
Yours, D.
HeadInjuryTheatre.com Link:"Archie Meets The Punisher"
Yes, that's right. Am enclosing a link to a review, from the "HeadInjuryTheater". com web-site, of the 1994 Marvel Comics opus, "Archie Meets The Punisher".
Honest. No fucking lie, there actually WAS a Marvel Comics Special Edition with this title and theme, and I laughed myself just about hoarse all the way through the review of the damned thing.
I mean, really, Archie Andrews, the All-American Schmuck, meeting the Punisher, everyone's favourite Italian-American, ex-Special Forces, skull-emblazoned jumpsuit wearing, vigilante killing machine, who ends up in Riverdale, because..... nope. Ain't gonna do it. You're just gonna have to go to the site and see what I mean, and just TRY and keep from laughing your head. You ain't gonna be able to do it.
The link's here at http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article49.htm.
Check it out, enjoy and be seeing you.
Honest. No fucking lie, there actually WAS a Marvel Comics Special Edition with this title and theme, and I laughed myself just about hoarse all the way through the review of the damned thing.
I mean, really, Archie Andrews, the All-American Schmuck, meeting the Punisher, everyone's favourite Italian-American, ex-Special Forces, skull-emblazoned jumpsuit wearing, vigilante killing machine, who ends up in Riverdale, because..... nope. Ain't gonna do it. You're just gonna have to go to the site and see what I mean, and just TRY and keep from laughing your head. You ain't gonna be able to do it.
The link's here at http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article49.htm.
Check it out, enjoy and be seeing you.
Story: "The Big Push", Part One
Had this action figure story idea in my head for about a week now, in various forms, and so, decided to put in down in bytes this morning. It's from the same general body of stories as "In Cannibalism We Trust", and shares roughly the same general setting as that one.
However, am hoping that this, unlike "In Cannibalism We Trust", which is well on its way to looking like being a multi-part "epic" of sorts, will be only a two-parter, at most.
However, who knows, especially when you've someone as generally long-winded as I am, writing the story.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Once upon a time, and all that, there were, in the eastern lands of Dystopia, two small kingdoms in the northern central part of them, known as Battenberg and Windsor, respectively.
These nations had been founded and settled by cousin dynasties from Centralia and Pacifica that had failed to find places where they could establish themselves in their own fiefdoms, when the bigger states were starting out. But, in eastern Terra Nova, as Dystopia was then known, they found just the spots they wanted, and so, in the fall of 2000, they set out for their new homes, along with their retainers, servants and so-called "commoners", and, within a few months, established the kingdom of Battenberg-Windsor, in which members of both families shared power.
This arrangement worked well enough for about the first two years or so, even though the Battenbergs mainly spoke German and the Windsors English, and thought of themselves as Germans and Englishmen, respectively.
But, an inter-family quarrel over seating arrangements at the Foundation Day banquet, and specifically who was to be seated at the head of the Royal Table, provoked an on-going crisis throughout the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2004, with all the usual charges, counter-charges, denunciations, and, finally, threats of secession, by one side or the other, brought all that to an end.
In March 2004, the crisis climaxed, when the Windsors more or less told the Battenbergs to bugger off, and announced that the Kingdom of Windsor was going it alone.
The Battenbergs would have none of that, and so, declared war on their seceding cousins.
The Windsors did likewise, and so the Battenberg-Windsor War of 2004-2008 was on.
Both sides, confident of a quick victory over the other, and predicting that the war would be over by Easter, marched on each other's capitals, and only cities, only to collide in the field on half-a-dozen occasions, and be thrown back to their own territories every time.
To prevent the possibility of a surprise attack that would sweep all before one side or the other, both the Battenbergers and Windsors began digging trenches and other fortifications in and around the likeliest invasion route, Battenberg Mountain, a large, mole-hill-like protrusion, with a surrounding grassy field, that had traditionally marked the border between the Battenberg and Windsor lands.
Over the weeks and months that followed, these fortifications were extended and deepened by both sides, and, before too much longer, the kind of massive, sweeping overland attack that both sides had feared became impossible.
But, that also meant a swift end to the war was also out of the picture.
In order to end the war and achieve victory, both sides realised that they'd have to shatter their opponent's trenches with massed artillery fire and infantry assaults, and so, they tried, day after day, week after week, month after month, and, finally, year after weary year.
The results were, generally speaking, on the greatly under whelming side, with a few inches or feet gained by one side or the other, after one offensive or another, and just as quickly re-taken in the offensive after that, with nothing much gained except for a few dead and wounded on both sides every time.
At times, the numbers of dead and wounded were high enough, that both sides would essentially cease fighting for a few weeks or months, while the dead were revived, and had to undergo the whole process of action figure-doll infancy, childhood and adolescence again, before they could be sent out into the trenches, and the wounded could receive new body parts, so they could also be sent out again.
The only exceptions made to that policy regarding the wounded were those with exceptionally loose bodies, that would have, at best, made any movement of individuals and groups exceedingly slow and tenuous at best (not generally a desirable thing in combat, where speed is regarded as being essential), and those for whom no replacement limbs or appendages could be found or made. They, along with those figures whose minds had been so damaged by the obscenities they had heard, seen and experienced in combat, were shunted off into "rest homes", far away from the eyes of the general public, whose sensibilities were judged to be far too delicate and easily upset by the sight of limbless, raving wounded, which would have, so it was feared, also undermined its support for the war effort.
But, they, along with women, children, the newly-deboxed, fledgling and nearly-mature figures, and a very few farmers and factory workers, whose labour was deemed essential to the war effort, were the only ones who weren't drawn into, in one way or another, into the war.
Everyone else went, though some, especially members of the Royal Families, the nobility, and those commoners with connections of one sort or another, were able to wangle positions with the General Staff, or some sort of quartermaster or similar non-combatant post in the battle area's rear.
As for those who weren't connected or lucky, it was the trenches, dug-outs, blockhouses, machine-gun and artillery emplacements of the front for them, and where they would remain, in all sorts of weather, artillery and machine-gun fire, infantry assaults and counter-assaults, snipers' duels and disease, for up to two weeks at a time, until replaced by another unit, which would then endure the same, if not worse, conditions.
For those Other Ranks who were temporarily out of the lines, their experiences were of re-fitting equipment, re-training, and preparing themselves to go back to the line, with only a few hours in the evenings to be able to go to some little canteen on base to have a drink, or, for those types who were a bit more on the religious side, a reading room where they could study their faiths' religious texts, or to the base chapel.
Otherwise, it was drill, work and sleep, day in and day out.
The officers were luckier, in that, every few months, they could go to either Windsor or Battenbergstadt, see their families and friends, and take in a few music-hall shows, plays or something like them, and, for three days at a time, somewhat enjoy themselves and forget the war, or, at least try to.
Not that one really could forget the war, as whether from the radio and television, billboards, signs, newspapers, magazines and books, cinema screens, the legitimate stage or music-hall boards, and even walking in the streets and parks, where speakers would hold rallies and exhort their listeners to buy more war bonds, eat less, economise more on everything, and, above all, to keep supporting the war, no matter what, the war was everywhere.
It could be seen, heard and felt in the constant and growing shortages of anything and everything that one could care to name, and in the growth of black markets on both sides that could and did get one anything and everything, provided one could pay the prices they demanded.
It could be seen in the generally shabby clothes in people's backs, the grubby appearances of city buildings and rural farmhouses, heard in the rumblings of often empty bellies, and felt and tasted in the rough, abrasive textures of war-time substitutes for everything from clothing materials to food. It could even be smelt in the often greasy, oppressive odours generated by boiled cabbage and food substitutes, unwashed bodies, because of lack of rubbing alcohol with which to cleanse them, unbrushed and unflossed teeth, because of no materials with which to make tooth powders and pastes, or dental floss, and in uncollected garbage that piled up in the back streets of Windsor and Battenbergstadt, because most of the rubbish collectors had gone away to the war, and the few remaining prioritised for operating in both cities' upper- and middle-class districts.
This sorry state wasn't entirely due to the war between the two kingdoms, as the general social, political and economic collapse that had taken place in Dystopia since Pacifica broke away from Centralia in 2002, had resulted in all manner of conflicts that had greatly inhibited agriculture, industry and trade throughout the region ever since. But, it certainly was responsible for most of the sufferings of Battenberger and Windsorian soldiers and civilians alike.
And, every six months or so, so it seemed to most of them, the Royal Family, nobility, generals, politicians and press on both sides, kept repeating that this latest offensive, or the "Big Push", as the Windsorian elites liked to call it, was indeed going to be the final one.
Of course, it never was, and, over time, it became a running national joke that the only "Big Pushing" going on was the various rubbings of crotches inside the palaces and manor homes of the Royal Family and nobility. There were similar jokes in Battenberg as well, though if any music-hall comedian, stage performer, or newspaper columnist in either country had said them aloud in public, or written them in a general publication, he or she would have been imprisoned for dis-respecting the Royal Family and Nation and obscenity, then sent to a front-line punishment unit to be quickly sent over a trench parapet and killed or wounded, preferably fatally, as rapidly as could be, the perversities of the enemy, who sometimes wouldn't co-operate with the intended scheme, notwithstanding.
It's at this point, in February of 2008, nearly 4 years into the war, and at the beginning of another Windsorian "Big Push", that our story truly begins.
However, am hoping that this, unlike "In Cannibalism We Trust", which is well on its way to looking like being a multi-part "epic" of sorts, will be only a two-parter, at most.
However, who knows, especially when you've someone as generally long-winded as I am, writing the story.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Once upon a time, and all that, there were, in the eastern lands of Dystopia, two small kingdoms in the northern central part of them, known as Battenberg and Windsor, respectively.
These nations had been founded and settled by cousin dynasties from Centralia and Pacifica that had failed to find places where they could establish themselves in their own fiefdoms, when the bigger states were starting out. But, in eastern Terra Nova, as Dystopia was then known, they found just the spots they wanted, and so, in the fall of 2000, they set out for their new homes, along with their retainers, servants and so-called "commoners", and, within a few months, established the kingdom of Battenberg-Windsor, in which members of both families shared power.
This arrangement worked well enough for about the first two years or so, even though the Battenbergs mainly spoke German and the Windsors English, and thought of themselves as Germans and Englishmen, respectively.
But, an inter-family quarrel over seating arrangements at the Foundation Day banquet, and specifically who was to be seated at the head of the Royal Table, provoked an on-going crisis throughout the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2004, with all the usual charges, counter-charges, denunciations, and, finally, threats of secession, by one side or the other, brought all that to an end.
In March 2004, the crisis climaxed, when the Windsors more or less told the Battenbergs to bugger off, and announced that the Kingdom of Windsor was going it alone.
The Battenbergs would have none of that, and so, declared war on their seceding cousins.
The Windsors did likewise, and so the Battenberg-Windsor War of 2004-2008 was on.
Both sides, confident of a quick victory over the other, and predicting that the war would be over by Easter, marched on each other's capitals, and only cities, only to collide in the field on half-a-dozen occasions, and be thrown back to their own territories every time.
To prevent the possibility of a surprise attack that would sweep all before one side or the other, both the Battenbergers and Windsors began digging trenches and other fortifications in and around the likeliest invasion route, Battenberg Mountain, a large, mole-hill-like protrusion, with a surrounding grassy field, that had traditionally marked the border between the Battenberg and Windsor lands.
Over the weeks and months that followed, these fortifications were extended and deepened by both sides, and, before too much longer, the kind of massive, sweeping overland attack that both sides had feared became impossible.
But, that also meant a swift end to the war was also out of the picture.
In order to end the war and achieve victory, both sides realised that they'd have to shatter their opponent's trenches with massed artillery fire and infantry assaults, and so, they tried, day after day, week after week, month after month, and, finally, year after weary year.
The results were, generally speaking, on the greatly under whelming side, with a few inches or feet gained by one side or the other, after one offensive or another, and just as quickly re-taken in the offensive after that, with nothing much gained except for a few dead and wounded on both sides every time.
At times, the numbers of dead and wounded were high enough, that both sides would essentially cease fighting for a few weeks or months, while the dead were revived, and had to undergo the whole process of action figure-doll infancy, childhood and adolescence again, before they could be sent out into the trenches, and the wounded could receive new body parts, so they could also be sent out again.
The only exceptions made to that policy regarding the wounded were those with exceptionally loose bodies, that would have, at best, made any movement of individuals and groups exceedingly slow and tenuous at best (not generally a desirable thing in combat, where speed is regarded as being essential), and those for whom no replacement limbs or appendages could be found or made. They, along with those figures whose minds had been so damaged by the obscenities they had heard, seen and experienced in combat, were shunted off into "rest homes", far away from the eyes of the general public, whose sensibilities were judged to be far too delicate and easily upset by the sight of limbless, raving wounded, which would have, so it was feared, also undermined its support for the war effort.
But, they, along with women, children, the newly-deboxed, fledgling and nearly-mature figures, and a very few farmers and factory workers, whose labour was deemed essential to the war effort, were the only ones who weren't drawn into, in one way or another, into the war.
Everyone else went, though some, especially members of the Royal Families, the nobility, and those commoners with connections of one sort or another, were able to wangle positions with the General Staff, or some sort of quartermaster or similar non-combatant post in the battle area's rear.
As for those who weren't connected or lucky, it was the trenches, dug-outs, blockhouses, machine-gun and artillery emplacements of the front for them, and where they would remain, in all sorts of weather, artillery and machine-gun fire, infantry assaults and counter-assaults, snipers' duels and disease, for up to two weeks at a time, until replaced by another unit, which would then endure the same, if not worse, conditions.
For those Other Ranks who were temporarily out of the lines, their experiences were of re-fitting equipment, re-training, and preparing themselves to go back to the line, with only a few hours in the evenings to be able to go to some little canteen on base to have a drink, or, for those types who were a bit more on the religious side, a reading room where they could study their faiths' religious texts, or to the base chapel.
Otherwise, it was drill, work and sleep, day in and day out.
The officers were luckier, in that, every few months, they could go to either Windsor or Battenbergstadt, see their families and friends, and take in a few music-hall shows, plays or something like them, and, for three days at a time, somewhat enjoy themselves and forget the war, or, at least try to.
Not that one really could forget the war, as whether from the radio and television, billboards, signs, newspapers, magazines and books, cinema screens, the legitimate stage or music-hall boards, and even walking in the streets and parks, where speakers would hold rallies and exhort their listeners to buy more war bonds, eat less, economise more on everything, and, above all, to keep supporting the war, no matter what, the war was everywhere.
It could be seen, heard and felt in the constant and growing shortages of anything and everything that one could care to name, and in the growth of black markets on both sides that could and did get one anything and everything, provided one could pay the prices they demanded.
It could be seen in the generally shabby clothes in people's backs, the grubby appearances of city buildings and rural farmhouses, heard in the rumblings of often empty bellies, and felt and tasted in the rough, abrasive textures of war-time substitutes for everything from clothing materials to food. It could even be smelt in the often greasy, oppressive odours generated by boiled cabbage and food substitutes, unwashed bodies, because of lack of rubbing alcohol with which to cleanse them, unbrushed and unflossed teeth, because of no materials with which to make tooth powders and pastes, or dental floss, and in uncollected garbage that piled up in the back streets of Windsor and Battenbergstadt, because most of the rubbish collectors had gone away to the war, and the few remaining prioritised for operating in both cities' upper- and middle-class districts.
This sorry state wasn't entirely due to the war between the two kingdoms, as the general social, political and economic collapse that had taken place in Dystopia since Pacifica broke away from Centralia in 2002, had resulted in all manner of conflicts that had greatly inhibited agriculture, industry and trade throughout the region ever since. But, it certainly was responsible for most of the sufferings of Battenberger and Windsorian soldiers and civilians alike.
And, every six months or so, so it seemed to most of them, the Royal Family, nobility, generals, politicians and press on both sides, kept repeating that this latest offensive, or the "Big Push", as the Windsorian elites liked to call it, was indeed going to be the final one.
Of course, it never was, and, over time, it became a running national joke that the only "Big Pushing" going on was the various rubbings of crotches inside the palaces and manor homes of the Royal Family and nobility. There were similar jokes in Battenberg as well, though if any music-hall comedian, stage performer, or newspaper columnist in either country had said them aloud in public, or written them in a general publication, he or she would have been imprisoned for dis-respecting the Royal Family and Nation and obscenity, then sent to a front-line punishment unit to be quickly sent over a trench parapet and killed or wounded, preferably fatally, as rapidly as could be, the perversities of the enemy, who sometimes wouldn't co-operate with the intended scheme, notwithstanding.
It's at this point, in February of 2008, nearly 4 years into the war, and at the beginning of another Windsorian "Big Push", that our story truly begins.
03 September 2007
Story: In Cannibalism We Trust, Part Two
Author's note: In Part One of this saga, I had written that there were five Dystopian lands that are the settings of our story. Well, I realised that I had made a bit of a blunder in stating that, as, upon thinking(an activity in which I rarely engage)about it further, there were actually SIX such nations, not five.
So, of course, I and my Premature Senility take the blame, as there isn't anyone else involved with this mess of a process to blame.
Well, I guess I could blame it on the Cats or the Fairy God-Mother, but no-one would rightly believe the former, and the latter would probably sue me for defamation of character, if imaginary beings can be supposed to have any character, good or bad.
My apologies to you all there, for the last-minute notice of revision and the sloppy manner in which it was done.
But, that's just par for the course with me, now, isn't it???
I hear you sighing, whining and restlessly moving out there like a bunch of spoilt six year olds, so, yes, I will now Shut Up and Get On With The Story.
Happy, now??? I hope so.
So, Dear Readers, where were we????
Oh, yes, the six Dystopian lands.
Well, they were all located side-by-side, along the coast in the southern section of the far eastern part of Dystopian, and were respectively known as New Polynesia, Nativia, New Atzlan, New Ethiopia, Asgard and Panasia, after the types of figures who settled there.
New Polynesia, the farthest west of the quintet, was the smallest in area and population, and was home to around 60 action figures that thought of themselves as belonging to one or another of the various Polynesian peoples.
There were no cities, or even large towns, in New Polynesia, merely a set of small villages and two small towns, Kamehameha Bay in the east, and Lilliuokalani Beach in the west that, combined, had around 32 souls residing in both places.
The rest were scattered in four small settlements, two of which were also along New Polynesia's coast, with the other two being found in the country's centre and north.
The bulk of New Polynesia's people lived by fishing, growing crops like taro root, and the odd spot of hunting and gathering, with a few people making various handicrafts for purely local use.
There were also around 3 or 4 shamans or priestesses who devoted themselves to practising the various traditional Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian or Maori religions, around the same number of sacred hula dancers, and, of course, the 4 chiefs and kings who made up New Polynesia's Governing Council, which made up the general sort of legal rules for New Polynesia as a whole, though the chiefs, priestesses and shamans held sway in their own areas.
There were also about a dozen full-time warriors in New Polynesia's Defence Force, half of which belonged to a tiny land force, while the other half belonged to its equally small navy, which possessed one small home-made wooden ship with which to protect New Polynesia's territorial waters.
But, in times of war, the New Polynesia Defence Force included most of the able-bodied male, and some of the female, population, and, despite its diminutive size, proved itself to be a generally formidable lot in action against its neighbours, especially the Nativians on New Polynesia's east, about whom we'll say a bit more in a little while.
Ever since the first New Polynesian settlers arrived and settled down in the region in 2001-2002, they had always been in one sort of dust-up or another with their immediate neighbours, and had shifted alliances with one or more of them as well, as was, and is, customary in action figure inter-state politics.
But, if there was one factor that remained constant in New Polynesia's relations with its other four neighbours, it was its animosity towards Nativia. This dated from the earliest days of settlement in both states, and came out of several territorial claims between the two that rapidly turned sour, and remained so, only intensifying as the months and years passed.
The up-shot of all this brouhaha between the New Polynesians and Nativians meant that whatever side one state was on in the various regional disputes between the quintet, the other would make absolutely sure to be on the opposite one, no matter how disgusting its allies were, or just how badly its own interests were harmed.
But, that could generally be said to be true for all six nations at the centre of our story.
The Nativians, who were composed for various Native American figures, or Asian, Latino, European, and even some African figures who had had their identities either conferred upon them when liberated from their packages (a state in which action figures and dolls that, up until three weeks or so after their being removed from their packages and dressed in costumes appropriate to their new identities, is characterized by a similar stage to that found in organic infants, toddlers, and children up to until around the ages of 8-10 years. These stages are formally known as, respectively, "Blank Slates" for the former, "New Arrivals", for the second category, and, finally, "Confirmed Figures", for the last-named category. Colloquially, they are also known as "Blanks," "Newbies" and "Configs", as well as "FOBs"(an acronym for "Fresh Out Of The Box"), "Weebs"(acronym for "Wet Behind The Ears"), and "Confies"(a shortened version of "Confirmed Figures"), though the latter three terms are considered rather derogatory and not generally used in "polite" society or conversation), or choosing them after reaching psychological maturity when between 4-6 months old, numbered roughly around some 300 or so souls among them at the time our story took place.
The first Nativians, who numbered around a tenth of that number when they first settled in Nativia in late 2001, and the successive waves of immigrants who followed them, sought a refuge, like their neighbours, for their cultures and ways of life, uncontaminated by what they felt to be the destructive influences of other ethnicities' ideas and lifestyles.
In the Nativians' case, having come mainly from the Pacifican department (equivalent to an American state or Canadian province) of Occidentalia, which was inhabited mainly by American Western-themed figures and dolls, their fears were of being colonized culturally, socially and economically by the European-American and Latino figures and dolls, and, to a far lesser extent, the Asian ones, resident there.
So, after organizing a small group, called the Native Occidentalian Survival and Preservation Association, in mid-2001, they embarked, first on finding a distant part of the Terra Novan lands (as Dystopia was then called), which they could call home, and that would support enough of them to make their concern a success, and, after finding what was to become Nativia, journeying there and setting up shop, so to speak.
By the time of our story, the thirty original settlers had grown ten-fold in number, and lived in 6 different communities scattered over the length and breadth of Nativia.
All but one of these, the only town and Nativia's capital, Tecumseh, named for the famous Shawnee chieftain who gave the Americans considerable trouble in the early 19th Century, were hamlets and villages with no more than around 10-30 inhabitants in each one, where they lived by traditional methods of fishing, if along the coast, hunting, gathering, agriculture, and animal herding.
Tecumseh's citizens, who comprised around a third of Nativia's people, in contrast, lived a mixed form of Native American (incorporating elements from various and sundry Native American cultures) and European-American lifestyles, with some small-scale manufacturing, service and media industries (Nativia even had a film studio that produced around 4-8 feature films, and twice that number of short films, usually documentaries and instructional films, a year), and had a rudimentary European-style governmental bureaucracy.
However, that bureaucracy was organised and maintained mainly to deal with outsiders, who would have been otherwise bewildered, confused and stymied by doing business with the broad range of governments the Nativians had internally. These ranged from the sort of tightly organised chiefdoms found among the Iroquois and Mexica, to the far looser arrangements pursued by other tribes, within the confines of the Nativian Concord, as Nativia was officially known.
Nativia's quarrels with New Polynesia, as mentioned before, had begun over territorial boundaries, both sides' contending claims over pieces of those territories, and hunting and fishing rights and privileges in them.
The armed conflicts between the two states that sometimes erupted them (five between early 2002 and the late Spring of 2008, when our story begins) considerably added to the hard feelings between the New Polynesians and the Nativians.
But, compared to those between the Nativians and their eastern neighbours, the inhabitants of the Chicano nationalist state of New Atzlan, the tensions between the New Polynesians and Nativians looked like an occasional hissing and growling match between two very elderly and sick cats by comparison.
About the quarrels between the New Atzlanians and Nativians, as well as the former's history and disputes with its other neighbours, the New Ethiopians, Ivorians, and Panasians, we shall find out more in the next passage, whenever Yours Truly gets up off his dead arse, and actually makes the time to write it, Dear Readers.
So, of course, I and my Premature Senility take the blame, as there isn't anyone else involved with this mess of a process to blame.
Well, I guess I could blame it on the Cats or the Fairy God-Mother, but no-one would rightly believe the former, and the latter would probably sue me for defamation of character, if imaginary beings can be supposed to have any character, good or bad.
My apologies to you all there, for the last-minute notice of revision and the sloppy manner in which it was done.
But, that's just par for the course with me, now, isn't it???
I hear you sighing, whining and restlessly moving out there like a bunch of spoilt six year olds, so, yes, I will now Shut Up and Get On With The Story.
Happy, now??? I hope so.
So, Dear Readers, where were we????
Oh, yes, the six Dystopian lands.
Well, they were all located side-by-side, along the coast in the southern section of the far eastern part of Dystopian, and were respectively known as New Polynesia, Nativia, New Atzlan, New Ethiopia, Asgard and Panasia, after the types of figures who settled there.
New Polynesia, the farthest west of the quintet, was the smallest in area and population, and was home to around 60 action figures that thought of themselves as belonging to one or another of the various Polynesian peoples.
There were no cities, or even large towns, in New Polynesia, merely a set of small villages and two small towns, Kamehameha Bay in the east, and Lilliuokalani Beach in the west that, combined, had around 32 souls residing in both places.
The rest were scattered in four small settlements, two of which were also along New Polynesia's coast, with the other two being found in the country's centre and north.
The bulk of New Polynesia's people lived by fishing, growing crops like taro root, and the odd spot of hunting and gathering, with a few people making various handicrafts for purely local use.
There were also around 3 or 4 shamans or priestesses who devoted themselves to practising the various traditional Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian or Maori religions, around the same number of sacred hula dancers, and, of course, the 4 chiefs and kings who made up New Polynesia's Governing Council, which made up the general sort of legal rules for New Polynesia as a whole, though the chiefs, priestesses and shamans held sway in their own areas.
There were also about a dozen full-time warriors in New Polynesia's Defence Force, half of which belonged to a tiny land force, while the other half belonged to its equally small navy, which possessed one small home-made wooden ship with which to protect New Polynesia's territorial waters.
But, in times of war, the New Polynesia Defence Force included most of the able-bodied male, and some of the female, population, and, despite its diminutive size, proved itself to be a generally formidable lot in action against its neighbours, especially the Nativians on New Polynesia's east, about whom we'll say a bit more in a little while.
Ever since the first New Polynesian settlers arrived and settled down in the region in 2001-2002, they had always been in one sort of dust-up or another with their immediate neighbours, and had shifted alliances with one or more of them as well, as was, and is, customary in action figure inter-state politics.
But, if there was one factor that remained constant in New Polynesia's relations with its other four neighbours, it was its animosity towards Nativia. This dated from the earliest days of settlement in both states, and came out of several territorial claims between the two that rapidly turned sour, and remained so, only intensifying as the months and years passed.
The up-shot of all this brouhaha between the New Polynesians and Nativians meant that whatever side one state was on in the various regional disputes between the quintet, the other would make absolutely sure to be on the opposite one, no matter how disgusting its allies were, or just how badly its own interests were harmed.
But, that could generally be said to be true for all six nations at the centre of our story.
The Nativians, who were composed for various Native American figures, or Asian, Latino, European, and even some African figures who had had their identities either conferred upon them when liberated from their packages (a state in which action figures and dolls that, up until three weeks or so after their being removed from their packages and dressed in costumes appropriate to their new identities, is characterized by a similar stage to that found in organic infants, toddlers, and children up to until around the ages of 8-10 years. These stages are formally known as, respectively, "Blank Slates" for the former, "New Arrivals", for the second category, and, finally, "Confirmed Figures", for the last-named category. Colloquially, they are also known as "Blanks," "Newbies" and "Configs", as well as "FOBs"(an acronym for "Fresh Out Of The Box"), "Weebs"(acronym for "Wet Behind The Ears"), and "Confies"(a shortened version of "Confirmed Figures"), though the latter three terms are considered rather derogatory and not generally used in "polite" society or conversation), or choosing them after reaching psychological maturity when between 4-6 months old, numbered roughly around some 300 or so souls among them at the time our story took place.
The first Nativians, who numbered around a tenth of that number when they first settled in Nativia in late 2001, and the successive waves of immigrants who followed them, sought a refuge, like their neighbours, for their cultures and ways of life, uncontaminated by what they felt to be the destructive influences of other ethnicities' ideas and lifestyles.
In the Nativians' case, having come mainly from the Pacifican department (equivalent to an American state or Canadian province) of Occidentalia, which was inhabited mainly by American Western-themed figures and dolls, their fears were of being colonized culturally, socially and economically by the European-American and Latino figures and dolls, and, to a far lesser extent, the Asian ones, resident there.
So, after organizing a small group, called the Native Occidentalian Survival and Preservation Association, in mid-2001, they embarked, first on finding a distant part of the Terra Novan lands (as Dystopia was then called), which they could call home, and that would support enough of them to make their concern a success, and, after finding what was to become Nativia, journeying there and setting up shop, so to speak.
By the time of our story, the thirty original settlers had grown ten-fold in number, and lived in 6 different communities scattered over the length and breadth of Nativia.
All but one of these, the only town and Nativia's capital, Tecumseh, named for the famous Shawnee chieftain who gave the Americans considerable trouble in the early 19th Century, were hamlets and villages with no more than around 10-30 inhabitants in each one, where they lived by traditional methods of fishing, if along the coast, hunting, gathering, agriculture, and animal herding.
Tecumseh's citizens, who comprised around a third of Nativia's people, in contrast, lived a mixed form of Native American (incorporating elements from various and sundry Native American cultures) and European-American lifestyles, with some small-scale manufacturing, service and media industries (Nativia even had a film studio that produced around 4-8 feature films, and twice that number of short films, usually documentaries and instructional films, a year), and had a rudimentary European-style governmental bureaucracy.
However, that bureaucracy was organised and maintained mainly to deal with outsiders, who would have been otherwise bewildered, confused and stymied by doing business with the broad range of governments the Nativians had internally. These ranged from the sort of tightly organised chiefdoms found among the Iroquois and Mexica, to the far looser arrangements pursued by other tribes, within the confines of the Nativian Concord, as Nativia was officially known.
Nativia's quarrels with New Polynesia, as mentioned before, had begun over territorial boundaries, both sides' contending claims over pieces of those territories, and hunting and fishing rights and privileges in them.
The armed conflicts between the two states that sometimes erupted them (five between early 2002 and the late Spring of 2008, when our story begins) considerably added to the hard feelings between the New Polynesians and the Nativians.
But, compared to those between the Nativians and their eastern neighbours, the inhabitants of the Chicano nationalist state of New Atzlan, the tensions between the New Polynesians and Nativians looked like an occasional hissing and growling match between two very elderly and sick cats by comparison.
About the quarrels between the New Atzlanians and Nativians, as well as the former's history and disputes with its other neighbours, the New Ethiopians, Ivorians, and Panasians, we shall find out more in the next passage, whenever Yours Truly gets up off his dead arse, and actually makes the time to write it, Dear Readers.
Charles Bukowski YouTube Poetry Video: "There's A Bluebird In My Heart"
My MySpace friend Sweet Thursday was kind enough to re-post this YouTube video of Charles Bukowski reciting his poem, "There's A Bluebird In My Heart" from Swedish TV(the sub--titles are in Swedish), in a bulletin she sent out this morning, after getting this from another MySpace friend of hers in another bulletin.
I think that this is a lovely work, and shows Bukowski at his best, cynical, tough and tender.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Sweet Thursday
Date: Sep 2, 2007 8:42 PM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: W.W.
Date: Sep 2, 2007 6:42 PM
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
I think that this is a lovely work, and shows Bukowski at his best, cynical, tough and tender.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Sweet Thursday
Date: Sep 2, 2007 8:42 PM
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: W.W.
Date: Sep 2, 2007 6:42 PM
There's a Blue Bird in my Heart
by Charles Bukowski
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?
30 August 2007
Virginia Tech and Other School Shootings’ Article Links
In light of the announcement yesterday of the findings by the investigative panel authorised by Virginia Tech University into the events surrounding the 17th April, 2007 massacre there, I thought it appropriate to put up the following article links about the panel, its findings, and some associated events accompanying them.
The first is to an AP article from Yahoo News dated to-day, about the panel and its recommendations at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_investigation.
Next on the list is this Washington Post article from Monday, in which it was revealed that Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who shot and killed 32 of his teachers and classmates, had had help in his Virginia high school with a condition he suffered from, called selective mutism, but, that due to privacy laws, plus Mr. Cho's and his family's own reticence to advise the university of this condition, similar help wasn't given by the university.
It's at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601410.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
This is a similar WP article to the one above, and is found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701710.html?tid=informbox.
Next, we have three more WP article links from, respectively, 29th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801307.html?tid=informbox 25th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402108.html?tid=informbox, and
22nd August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082201677.html, .
These are about, in descending order, an anti-violence protest at the Virginia gun shop where Cho bought one of the pistols he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, and whose wares have been tied to gun crimes in the Washington D.C. area, and as far afield as New York City, the Virginia Tech panel's investigation winding up, and that the panel was seeking reforms in campus security and notification of students and faculty in case of future campus emergencies.
From the Washington Post, we next got to Virginia Tech itself, and its on-line Virginia Tech News, with an overview, and PDF document link for those of you who want to see the full report, of the panel's proposed reforms at http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=459.
Then, we go to the Daily Press, with a 20th August article about how life on the Virginia Tech campus is renewing itself for both in-coming freshmen and returning students at http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-08084sy0aug20,0,2395602.story?coll=hr_tab01_layout.
With the next three article links, we go a few months farther back in time, first to an op-ed piece posted by Scott Donahue, a Panama City, Florida, high school senior at the time this was posted on 26th April, 2007, in which he analyses the Virginia Tech shootings and some of the various solutions proposed for this problem, at http://www.newsherald.com/blogs/entry.php?entryID=473, then to John Derbyshire's "The Spirit Of Self-Defense" post on The Corner blog at the National Review's site at http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzllOTU0MDUzY2NhZDE2YmViYmRiNmE5ZjM1OWQxYTU=, and, finally, to a Newsweek interview with Wayne Lo, the perpetrator of the Simon's Rock College of Bard University in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on the evening of 14th December, 1992, in which 3 people were killed and four wounded, before Lo surrendered to police, on the Virginia Tech shootings at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442224/site/newsweek.
For my money, this last article's the most problematic, and I would advise taking much of what Lo says in the interview with a large sackful of salt. But, his insight into how some of the various Asian cultures tend to be reticent about talking openly about mental illness, and how members of these cultures often suppress anger until it comes flooding out, are worth seeing, if, again, to be taken with a great deal of caution.
Then, from the Toronto Star, we've an article about how the Toronto School District's policy of "safe school" transfers, designed to send students who've engaged in fighting or other such activities to other schools, and which has also been used as a tactic to break up gangs, especially at Westview High School in northwestern Toronto, may have resulted in the shooting death of 15 year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on 23rd May of this year at http://www.thestar.com/article/251354.
Am also enclosing a Wikipedia article on the C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute shooting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.W._Jefferys_Collegiate_InstituteShooting, so you can find out a little more about the incident yourselves.
Finally, have two more Wikipedia articles here, the first being a general description of school shootings at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Ferris, and a list of school massacres, some of which surprised the Hell out of me, especially the first one on the list, which occurred in 1890(was perpetrated by an adult male who opened fire on a group of male students with a shotgun), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres.
All in all, there should be enough article links here to either help give you something more of a perspective of the Virginia Tech shootings, or, should you wish to, begin your own explorations into the history of school shootings and school massacres in general.
Be seeing you.
The first is to an AP article from Yahoo News dated to-day, about the panel and its recommendations at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_investigation.
Next on the list is this Washington Post article from Monday, in which it was revealed that Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who shot and killed 32 of his teachers and classmates, had had help in his Virginia high school with a condition he suffered from, called selective mutism, but, that due to privacy laws, plus Mr. Cho's and his family's own reticence to advise the university of this condition, similar help wasn't given by the university.
It's at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601410.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
This is a similar WP article to the one above, and is found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701710.html?tid=informbox.
Next, we have three more WP article links from, respectively, 29th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801307.html?tid=informbox 25th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402108.html?tid=informbox, and
22nd August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082201677.html, .
These are about, in descending order, an anti-violence protest at the Virginia gun shop where Cho bought one of the pistols he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, and whose wares have been tied to gun crimes in the Washington D.C. area, and as far afield as New York City, the Virginia Tech panel's investigation winding up, and that the panel was seeking reforms in campus security and notification of students and faculty in case of future campus emergencies.
From the Washington Post, we next got to Virginia Tech itself, and its on-line Virginia Tech News, with an overview, and PDF document link for those of you who want to see the full report, of the panel's proposed reforms at http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=459.
Then, we go to the Daily Press, with a 20th August article about how life on the Virginia Tech campus is renewing itself for both in-coming freshmen and returning students at http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-08084sy0aug20,0,2395602.story?coll=hr_tab01_layout.
With the next three article links, we go a few months farther back in time, first to an op-ed piece posted by Scott Donahue, a Panama City, Florida, high school senior at the time this was posted on 26th April, 2007, in which he analyses the Virginia Tech shootings and some of the various solutions proposed for this problem, at http://www.newsherald.com/blogs/entry.php?entryID=473, then to John Derbyshire's "The Spirit Of Self-Defense" post on The Corner blog at the National Review's site at http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzllOTU0MDUzY2NhZDE2YmViYmRiNmE5ZjM1OWQxYTU=, and, finally, to a Newsweek interview with Wayne Lo, the perpetrator of the Simon's Rock College of Bard University in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on the evening of 14th December, 1992, in which 3 people were killed and four wounded, before Lo surrendered to police, on the Virginia Tech shootings at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442224/site/newsweek.
For my money, this last article's the most problematic, and I would advise taking much of what Lo says in the interview with a large sackful of salt. But, his insight into how some of the various Asian cultures tend to be reticent about talking openly about mental illness, and how members of these cultures often suppress anger until it comes flooding out, are worth seeing, if, again, to be taken with a great deal of caution.
Then, from the Toronto Star, we've an article about how the Toronto School District's policy of "safe school" transfers, designed to send students who've engaged in fighting or other such activities to other schools, and which has also been used as a tactic to break up gangs, especially at Westview High School in northwestern Toronto, may have resulted in the shooting death of 15 year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on 23rd May of this year at http://www.thestar.com/article/251354.
Am also enclosing a Wikipedia article on the C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute shooting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.W._Jefferys_Collegiate_InstituteShooting, so you can find out a little more about the incident yourselves.
Finally, have two more Wikipedia articles here, the first being a general description of school shootings at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Ferris, and a list of school massacres, some of which surprised the Hell out of me, especially the first one on the list, which occurred in 1890(was perpetrated by an adult male who opened fire on a group of male students with a shotgun), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres.
All in all, there should be enough article links here to either help give you something more of a perspective of the Virginia Tech shootings, or, should you wish to, begin your own explorations into the history of school shootings and school massacres in general.
Be seeing you.
29 August 2007
Two Nat Hentoff Village Voice Column Links On Torture
Well, Children, we've had our bits of fun here this morning. But, now is the time for a pair of deadly, and I mean DEADLY, serious Nat Hentoff articles from the Village Voice's site.
The first one's, from to-day, is on a set of new reports leaked from the International Red Cross about the CIA's extensive use of torture in its various "secret" prisons, and can be found at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0735,hentoff,77643,6.html.
The second's from 10th July, 2007, and is about John Yoo, the Bush Administration legal counsel turned Berkeley professor, who was the author of the infamous Department of Justice "torture" memo back in 2002, and, who is, as far as I am concerned, one prize son of a bitch.
It can be seen at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0728,hentoff,77169,6.html.
In closing, I want to thank the friend who originally sent me the first article via e-mail, and to ask those of you out there to please read these articles, and pass along the links to your families and friends, and post them on your blogs, if you have any.
Let's not, when all of this is finally over, and we have to explain all this to our kids, grand-kids, and the rest of the world's kids and grand-kids, that we didn't bloody know this was happening.
It didn't work for the Germans after World War Two, and it sure won't bloody wash in future, either.
Take Care, and be seeing you.
The first one's, from to-day, is on a set of new reports leaked from the International Red Cross about the CIA's extensive use of torture in its various "secret" prisons, and can be found at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0735,hentoff,77643,6.html.
The second's from 10th July, 2007, and is about John Yoo, the Bush Administration legal counsel turned Berkeley professor, who was the author of the infamous Department of Justice "torture" memo back in 2002, and, who is, as far as I am concerned, one prize son of a bitch.
It can be seen at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0728,hentoff,77169,6.html.
In closing, I want to thank the friend who originally sent me the first article via e-mail, and to ask those of you out there to please read these articles, and pass along the links to your families and friends, and post them on your blogs, if you have any.
Let's not, when all of this is finally over, and we have to explain all this to our kids, grand-kids, and the rest of the world's kids and grand-kids, that we didn't bloody know this was happening.
It didn't work for the Germans after World War Two, and it sure won't bloody wash in future, either.
Take Care, and be seeing you.
Your Japanese Obscenity Lesson
Now, from the political, we go to a bit of a foreign language obscenity lesson, and the phrase in question is Japanese in origin.
Picked this up from a friend of mine in a chat room early this morning, and thought I'd pass it along to you.
The phrase is, "Ah, Nan Desu Fuck", and it means, "What the Fuck???".
Now, here's my quick and dirty pronunciation guide to the phrase.
"Ah", is pronounced just like "Ah" in "Open up and say, Ah".
"Nan" is pronounced "Nahn", with the "Ah" in the middle being pronounced just like its counter-part above.
"Desu" is roughly pronounced like "Days", though there's just a TINY hint of a U at the word's end.
As for "Fuck", well, if ya don't know how to pronounce THAT word by now, you never will!!!!
Anyway, am unsure as to the precise meaning of "Ah" in this sentence, but it's probably an intensifying word, "Nan" means "What", "Desu" means "Is" or "Are", depending on the context, and "Fuck".... Oh, Jesus H. Christ On A Pogo Stick!!!! If ya don't know what THAT means already, you really ARE all wet!!!!
Anyway, as my friend explained it to me, the phrase is used in a context of great shock and surprise, just like its English counter-part.
Warning: if you've any Japanese-speaking friends, acquaintances, business associates, it's generally NOT a good idea to use this within either their ear-shot, and especially NOT to their faces, unless you want to be good and rude to them for some reason.
Also, I would definitely NOT recommend using this on any rough-looking Yakuza, biker, punker or other types in a bar, unless you're planning to get in the first shot on 'em, or you want to commit suicide.
Anyhow, that's your Japanese Obscenity Lesson for now.
Have fun, be careful out there, and be seeing you.
Picked this up from a friend of mine in a chat room early this morning, and thought I'd pass it along to you.
The phrase is, "Ah, Nan Desu Fuck", and it means, "What the Fuck???".
Now, here's my quick and dirty pronunciation guide to the phrase.
"Ah", is pronounced just like "Ah" in "Open up and say, Ah".
"Nan" is pronounced "Nahn", with the "Ah" in the middle being pronounced just like its counter-part above.
"Desu" is roughly pronounced like "Days", though there's just a TINY hint of a U at the word's end.
As for "Fuck", well, if ya don't know how to pronounce THAT word by now, you never will!!!!
Anyway, am unsure as to the precise meaning of "Ah" in this sentence, but it's probably an intensifying word, "Nan" means "What", "Desu" means "Is" or "Are", depending on the context, and "Fuck".... Oh, Jesus H. Christ On A Pogo Stick!!!! If ya don't know what THAT means already, you really ARE all wet!!!!
Anyway, as my friend explained it to me, the phrase is used in a context of great shock and surprise, just like its English counter-part.
Warning: if you've any Japanese-speaking friends, acquaintances, business associates, it's generally NOT a good idea to use this within either their ear-shot, and especially NOT to their faces, unless you want to be good and rude to them for some reason.
Also, I would definitely NOT recommend using this on any rough-looking Yakuza, biker, punker or other types in a bar, unless you're planning to get in the first shot on 'em, or you want to commit suicide.
Anyhow, that's your Japanese Obscenity Lesson for now.
Have fun, be careful out there, and be seeing you.
MySpace Blog Link To Article About Reno-Area Anti-Bush Protest
Got a bulletin from a MySpace friend of mine who's involved with anti-war protests up in the Reno area this morning, about the demo that took place there when Da Prez spoke before the American Legion's national convention there yesterday.
Anyway, am giving y'all a link to a blog with lotsa(mainly Reno-area, but also Las Vegas Sun and a San Diego newspaper)media links about it at http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=119887058&blogID=304761878&Mytoken=3ECF0DAC-836F-4266-AD26CF9BB88F12F548956367.
'Nuff said 'bout that, but, for those of you thinkin' about possibly posting any hostile comments, please remember that the blog owner has to approve the comments, so it might not get up there.
Anyway, check it out, and be seeing you.
Anyway, am giving y'all a link to a blog with lotsa(mainly Reno-area, but also Las Vegas Sun and a San Diego newspaper)media links about it at http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=119887058&blogID=304761878&Mytoken=3ECF0DAC-836F-4266-AD26CF9BB88F12F548956367.
'Nuff said 'bout that, but, for those of you thinkin' about possibly posting any hostile comments, please remember that the blog owner has to approve the comments, so it might not get up there.
Anyway, check it out, and be seeing you.
"The Ocular Penetration Act Of 2007": A The Onion Video Link
This is a link to an "The Onion" video posted on MySpace Videos, in which House Represenative Benjamin Sinclair(R-Ohio)announces his proposed bill, "The Ocular Penetration Act of 2007", which would outlaw skull fucking and throw some pretty stiff penalties at its perpetrators.
Laughed and yelped my damned head off all throughout, and have to say that Rep. Sinclair has probably set a new record for the number of times "fucking" has been heard on the House floor.
The link's at Live From Congress: The Skull Fucking Bill Of 2007
Add to My Profile | More Videos .
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Laughed and yelped my damned head off all throughout, and have to say that Rep. Sinclair has probably set a new record for the number of times "fucking" has been heard on the House floor.
The link's at Live From Congress: The Skull Fucking Bill Of 2007
Add to My Profile | More Videos .
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
28 August 2007
A Trio Of Sydney Morning Herald Arts and Entertainment Links
Since to-day's been a link fest here, might as well end up the same way we started out, eh???
So, here are three arts and entertainment story links from the Sydney Morning Herald for you to see.
First, here's a link to a story about an exhibition of photographs by the Australian, but Italian-born and originally UK national, Renato Grome, on the darker side of Barbie, and how the doll's sexual yet sexless appearance reflects aspects of our culture, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/exposed-the-darker-side-of-barbie/2007/08/28/1188067107267.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Then, it's onto the world of music, with an article about The Proclaimers, the Scottish folk-rock twin duo, whose 1987 hit, "I'm Gonna Be(500 Miles)", some of you out there may remember, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/twins-flex-their-specs/2007/08/28/1188067107258.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Finally, this article's about an Australian comedy troupe with an, um, unique twist, Puppetry Of The Penis, and can be seen at http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/still-pulling-a-crowd/2007/08/28/1188067099269.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Well, can't say you don't have some interesting reading ahead of you, now, can ya????
Be seeing you.
So, here are three arts and entertainment story links from the Sydney Morning Herald for you to see.
First, here's a link to a story about an exhibition of photographs by the Australian, but Italian-born and originally UK national, Renato Grome, on the darker side of Barbie, and how the doll's sexual yet sexless appearance reflects aspects of our culture, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/exposed-the-darker-side-of-barbie/2007/08/28/1188067107267.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Then, it's onto the world of music, with an article about The Proclaimers, the Scottish folk-rock twin duo, whose 1987 hit, "I'm Gonna Be(500 Miles)", some of you out there may remember, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/twins-flex-their-specs/2007/08/28/1188067107258.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Finally, this article's about an Australian comedy troupe with an, um, unique twist, Puppetry Of The Penis, and can be seen at http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/still-pulling-a-crowd/2007/08/28/1188067099269.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
Well, can't say you don't have some interesting reading ahead of you, now, can ya????
Be seeing you.
Some Article Links About The Michael Vick Case And A Home-Made Editorial
Here are a whole slew of news article links about the Michael Vick affair now winding to an end after his guilty plea yesterday.
They're from, respectively, the Washington Post and the Toronto Star, and am just going to list them without making any introductory comments.
The WP articles can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001879.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401970.html?tid=informbox, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082000898.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701906.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701751.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701791.html?wpisrc=newsletter, and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701454.html.
The Toronto Star piece can be found at http://www.thestar.com/article/250487.
For the record, I can see where Vick's defenders have a point, in that the lives of canines are being held above those of human beings, and, especially for his African-American defenders, I can definitely see this as being rooted in the quite often-true perception that, if one's African-American in this culture, oft-times others will, to use a quote I got from a Russian describing how he was treated in Germany in a biography of the late Dean Reed I read a while back, "people say Hello to the dog, and not to you."
That is all too often most certainly true.
There are others who bring up other forms of animal mis-treatment, exploitation, abuse, neglect and, of course, mass killing of animals to denounce meat eating, etc, etc, etc.
There are also those who point out that the real outrage should be directed at the current Administration for its cruel war in Iraq, and many other issues besides that.
All of these are good points, but there is just one problem with all of that, and that is that Michael Vick was not, by his own admission, an innocent Lambie-Pie who got inadvertently sucked into Bad Newz Kennels' operations, betting on dog-fighting, killing dogs that didn't perform, and all the other charges he plead out to.
He was a financier and active participant in Bad Newz Kennels' operations from beginning to end, and, like it or not, Vick is now having to pay the consequences of his own bad behaviour, period.
I hope Vick finds the redemption he said he now so urgently seeks.
But, I also stand with Michael Wilbon's comments about Vick and that search for redemption, and say that it's going to take a long, long, time and much real soul-searching and effort on his part to do that.
As for the other topics mentioned by Vick's supporters, I have to say this; those topics need to be debated, yes, and well they should be. But, using them as a kind of smoke screen to deflect criticism and outrage over Mr. Vick's actions in this matter strike me as being All-American, Grade-A, 100% percent bullshit.
Yep, his actions and attitudes occurred within the larger context of this culture, and the various sub-cultures of which he was a part, and those should be taken into consideration within the larger debate about how and why this culture acts the way it does, and what can be done to change it for the better.
This doesn't mean putting the lives of dogs, or other animals, above those of human beings, and it means making damned sure that African-Americans and other people who have been traditionally excluded from full participation in just about every sphere of this society have the opportunities to make decent livings for themselves and their families, and to be treated with respect by every institution in this society.
But, it also means that Mr. Vick and his associates, who made their deals with Federal prosecutors to testify against him to get lesser sentences, and those who participate in and profit from dog-fighting, have to be held accountable for their actions, and punished accordingly.
Cruelty's cruelty, whether inflicted by the whip hand of a plantation overseer on a field hand during our country's Slavery period, or by a professional football player into dog-fighting on a dog that was bred, trained and put into a fighting ring to make money for its owner by fighting, winning or dying.
The principle's the same, even if the target of such cruelty differs, and it is unjustifiable in the end.
Here Endeth The Lesson, and be seeing you.
They're from, respectively, the Washington Post and the Toronto Star, and am just going to list them without making any introductory comments.
The WP articles can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082001879.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401970.html?tid=informbox, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/20/AR2007082000898.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701906.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701751.html, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701791.html?wpisrc=newsletter, and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701454.html.
The Toronto Star piece can be found at http://www.thestar.com/article/250487.
For the record, I can see where Vick's defenders have a point, in that the lives of canines are being held above those of human beings, and, especially for his African-American defenders, I can definitely see this as being rooted in the quite often-true perception that, if one's African-American in this culture, oft-times others will, to use a quote I got from a Russian describing how he was treated in Germany in a biography of the late Dean Reed I read a while back, "people say Hello to the dog, and not to you."
That is all too often most certainly true.
There are others who bring up other forms of animal mis-treatment, exploitation, abuse, neglect and, of course, mass killing of animals to denounce meat eating, etc, etc, etc.
There are also those who point out that the real outrage should be directed at the current Administration for its cruel war in Iraq, and many other issues besides that.
All of these are good points, but there is just one problem with all of that, and that is that Michael Vick was not, by his own admission, an innocent Lambie-Pie who got inadvertently sucked into Bad Newz Kennels' operations, betting on dog-fighting, killing dogs that didn't perform, and all the other charges he plead out to.
He was a financier and active participant in Bad Newz Kennels' operations from beginning to end, and, like it or not, Vick is now having to pay the consequences of his own bad behaviour, period.
I hope Vick finds the redemption he said he now so urgently seeks.
But, I also stand with Michael Wilbon's comments about Vick and that search for redemption, and say that it's going to take a long, long, time and much real soul-searching and effort on his part to do that.
As for the other topics mentioned by Vick's supporters, I have to say this; those topics need to be debated, yes, and well they should be. But, using them as a kind of smoke screen to deflect criticism and outrage over Mr. Vick's actions in this matter strike me as being All-American, Grade-A, 100% percent bullshit.
Yep, his actions and attitudes occurred within the larger context of this culture, and the various sub-cultures of which he was a part, and those should be taken into consideration within the larger debate about how and why this culture acts the way it does, and what can be done to change it for the better.
This doesn't mean putting the lives of dogs, or other animals, above those of human beings, and it means making damned sure that African-Americans and other people who have been traditionally excluded from full participation in just about every sphere of this society have the opportunities to make decent livings for themselves and their families, and to be treated with respect by every institution in this society.
But, it also means that Mr. Vick and his associates, who made their deals with Federal prosecutors to testify against him to get lesser sentences, and those who participate in and profit from dog-fighting, have to be held accountable for their actions, and punished accordingly.
Cruelty's cruelty, whether inflicted by the whip hand of a plantation overseer on a field hand during our country's Slavery period, or by a professional football player into dog-fighting on a dog that was bred, trained and put into a fighting ring to make money for its owner by fighting, winning or dying.
The principle's the same, even if the target of such cruelty differs, and it is unjustifiable in the end.
Here Endeth The Lesson, and be seeing you.
Another News Article Link
This article link's to an AP article via Yahoo News on a new National Guard recruiting programme that gives Guardsmen a $ 2,000 bonus incentive for each person he or she brings into the Guard, especially if the latter opts to serve in the Regular Army for an alloted time span first.
In the last two weeks, have seen signs on the north-west corner of my neighbourhood from the Nevada Army National Guard offering a similar financial incentive for joining up, and even goes so far as to state that one can serve at home, etc.
Well, don't know about now, but, the last time I saw the sign, it'd been torn down. By whom and for what reasons, I know not.
It, or another like it, is probably back up again.
Will have to check in the next few days and let you know.
The article link's at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070828/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_recruiting.
Check it out, and be seeing you.
In the last two weeks, have seen signs on the north-west corner of my neighbourhood from the Nevada Army National Guard offering a similar financial incentive for joining up, and even goes so far as to state that one can serve at home, etc.
Well, don't know about now, but, the last time I saw the sign, it'd been torn down. By whom and for what reasons, I know not.
It, or another like it, is probably back up again.
Will have to check in the next few days and let you know.
The article link's at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070828/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_recruiting.
Check it out, and be seeing you.
A Fistful Of News Article Links
Here are a quartet of news links(albeit from yesterday)that may be of interest to you all.
From the Washington Post, comes this article about how the US Army's using $20,000 'quick ship" enlistment bonuses to get new recruits into its ranks faster and build up its recruiting quotas at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601266.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
Then, from the Los Angeles Times, comes this article about the growing use of child soldiers by Iraqi insurgents at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-childfighters27aug27,0,3111279.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Next, comes a Washington Post piece by Michael Abramowitz on the Administration's strategy behind its recent use of the Viet-Nam War's aftermath at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601144.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
Finally, we have another Washington Post piece, this one from Andrew Cohen's Bench Conference blog, entitled "Good Riddance" about now-former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/08/post_48.htmlmore.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
From the Washington Post, comes this article about how the US Army's using $20,000 'quick ship" enlistment bonuses to get new recruits into its ranks faster and build up its recruiting quotas at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601266.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
Then, from the Los Angeles Times, comes this article about the growing use of child soldiers by Iraqi insurgents at http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-childfighters27aug27,0,3111279.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Next, comes a Washington Post piece by Michael Abramowitz on the Administration's strategy behind its recent use of the Viet-Nam War's aftermath at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601144.html?wpisrc=newsletter.
Finally, we have another Washington Post piece, this one from Andrew Cohen's Bench Conference blog, entitled "Good Riddance" about now-former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/08/post_48.htmlmore.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
27 August 2007
A Trio Of Sydney Morning Herald Show-Biz Links
In my never-ending campaign to make myself out a liar, here are a trio of various show-biz links, all from the Sydney Morning Herald, for you.
The first is to a story about a new documentary,by Julien Temple about the late Joe Strummer, the lead singer of The Clash, at
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/paying-homage-to-a-punk-pioneer/2007/08/27/1188067084354.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
The second's to an articlelette about Sir Ian McKellen and why he couldn't make an appearance on New Zealand's longest-running soap opera, while doing a tour there in a production of King Lear, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/no-soap-for-sir-ian/2007/08/28/1188067085473.html, and the third's to a SMH video gossip show that mentions that Pete Doherty(of Oasis and Kate Moss fame, remember him??)'s cat turned up with traces of cocaine in its system after it was tested for it, after his recent bust for possession of the stuff. It's at http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=31055, and is appropriately enough called "Trash Talk".
There are two reasons I posted the last link; one is that, if true, Doherty's a real swine for allowing his cat and her kittens, some of which were also tested positive for traces of cocaine in their systems, to even get near the stuff. One thing to hammer yourself like that, another to hammer animals that have no way of consenting to it is another.
The other's that, particularly when one sees the rest of the shit on offer at "Trash Talk", that such crap can be considered news, period.
Either way, be seeing you.
The first is to a story about a new documentary,by Julien Temple about the late Joe Strummer, the lead singer of The Clash, at
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/paying-homage-to-a-punk-pioneer/2007/08/27/1188067084354.html?page=fullpagecontentSwap1.
The second's to an articlelette about Sir Ian McKellen and why he couldn't make an appearance on New Zealand's longest-running soap opera, while doing a tour there in a production of King Lear, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/no-soap-for-sir-ian/2007/08/28/1188067085473.html, and the third's to a SMH video gossip show that mentions that Pete Doherty(of Oasis and Kate Moss fame, remember him??)'s cat turned up with traces of cocaine in its system after it was tested for it, after his recent bust for possession of the stuff. It's at http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=31055, and is appropriately enough called "Trash Talk".
There are two reasons I posted the last link; one is that, if true, Doherty's a real swine for allowing his cat and her kittens, some of which were also tested positive for traces of cocaine in their systems, to even get near the stuff. One thing to hammer yourself like that, another to hammer animals that have no way of consenting to it is another.
The other's that, particularly when one sees the rest of the shit on offer at "Trash Talk", that such crap can be considered news, period.
Either way, be seeing you.
Las Vegas Americans Against Escalation In Iraq Meeting To-Morrow Night
Well, damnit, here I go, making a liar out of myself, when I said in the last post that it would be my last one this evening.
But, I think the occasion warrants it.
The Las Vegas chapter of Americans Against Escalation In Iraq will be holding a town-hall meeting/vigil featuring an Iraq War veteran, as well as two other veterans(wars unnamed)and a local religious leader at the Painters' Hall, 1701 Whitney Mesa, in Henderson at 6:00 PM to-morrow evening. Yes, refreshments will be served, you Greedy-Guts, so let there be no carping on that score.
The vigil will be held after the town-hall meeting.
Can't make it, as I've not enough for bus fare to and fro, but can at least give you the info so you can go out there and attend yourselves.
Very rarely, it's a good thing when I make a liar out of myself, but this is one of those occasions.
Be seeing you.
But, I think the occasion warrants it.
The Las Vegas chapter of Americans Against Escalation In Iraq will be holding a town-hall meeting/vigil featuring an Iraq War veteran, as well as two other veterans(wars unnamed)and a local religious leader at the Painters' Hall, 1701 Whitney Mesa, in Henderson at 6:00 PM to-morrow evening. Yes, refreshments will be served, you Greedy-Guts, so let there be no carping on that score.
The vigil will be held after the town-hall meeting.
Can't make it, as I've not enough for bus fare to and fro, but can at least give you the info so you can go out there and attend yourselves.
Very rarely, it's a good thing when I make a liar out of myself, but this is one of those occasions.
Be seeing you.
Some Gian Maria Volonte English Language Links
Was going to put these in the last blog post, but had a brain fart, and didn't.
So, without further ado, here are some English-language links to more info about Gian Maria Volonte.
We start out, predictably enough, with two IMDB links to Mr. Volonte's biography and filmography at, respectively, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002231/bio, and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002231/filmoyear, as well as his Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Maria_Volont%C3%A9.
We then go to RAI's(the Italian state-run radio and tv network)Italica site, where a section devoted to him in its "Political Films" section can be found at http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/cinema/political/volonte.htm.
This has a brief biography and filmography, as well as a production still from Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, and a video of Gian-Carlo Gianinini's reminscences about Volonte(in Italian only, sorry)can be found in the Multimedia sub-section there.
Finally, we have two reviews of a pair of films in which he starred, the first being of a 1987 Spaghetti Western, A Bullet For The General, directed by Damaniano Damaniani, at http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies2007/bullet_general.htm, and of the 1979 Francesco Rosi adaptation of Carlo Levi's novel, Christ Stopped At Eboli, already mentioned above, at http://pellicola.wordpress.com/2007/05/25/cristo-si-e-fermato-a-eboli-christ-stopped-at-eboli-1979/.
The review there doesn't mention Volonte's performance in it, but has been included to give you all something of an idea, along with the A Bullet For The General review, of the sorts of films in which Mr. Volonte starred.
Incidentally, there's a link to a sound sample of Pierro Piccioni's music for Christ Stopped At Eboli towards the end of the review, so check that out if you want.
Those are it for now. Hope you enjoy them, and that maybe you learn a little bit about one of the great actors of world cinema of the 1960's, '70's and '80's.
Be seeing you.
So, without further ado, here are some English-language links to more info about Gian Maria Volonte.
We start out, predictably enough, with two IMDB links to Mr. Volonte's biography and filmography at, respectively, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002231/bio, and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002231/filmoyear, as well as his Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Maria_Volont%C3%A9.
We then go to RAI's(the Italian state-run radio and tv network)Italica site, where a section devoted to him in its "Political Films" section can be found at http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/cinema/political/volonte.htm.
This has a brief biography and filmography, as well as a production still from Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, and a video of Gian-Carlo Gianinini's reminscences about Volonte(in Italian only, sorry)can be found in the Multimedia sub-section there.
Finally, we have two reviews of a pair of films in which he starred, the first being of a 1987 Spaghetti Western, A Bullet For The General, directed by Damaniano Damaniani, at http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies2007/bullet_general.htm, and of the 1979 Francesco Rosi adaptation of Carlo Levi's novel, Christ Stopped At Eboli, already mentioned above, at http://pellicola.wordpress.com/2007/05/25/cristo-si-e-fermato-a-eboli-christ-stopped-at-eboli-1979/.
The review there doesn't mention Volonte's performance in it, but has been included to give you all something of an idea, along with the A Bullet For The General review, of the sorts of films in which Mr. Volonte starred.
Incidentally, there's a link to a sound sample of Pierro Piccioni's music for Christ Stopped At Eboli towards the end of the review, so check that out if you want.
Those are it for now. Hope you enjoy them, and that maybe you learn a little bit about one of the great actors of world cinema of the 1960's, '70's and '80's.
Be seeing you.
A YouTube Video Tribute To Gian Maria Volonte
This latest YouTube video is a tribute to the late, great, Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte, who's perhaps best known to American audiences for his roles as Ramon Rojo and El Indio in Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars(Per Un Pugno Di Dollari) and For A Few Dollars More(Per Qual'che Dollari In Piu), but whose career included stage, television and screen work, especially for left-wing directors like Elio Petri and Jean-Luc Godard.
While he played quite a few villains in his long career, including the police inspector who murders his mistress to see if he can get away with it in the 1970 Elio Petri film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1971, he also played heroic characters, like Lulu in the 1971 film The Working Class Goes To Heaven(La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso) and the 1979 film Christ Stopped At Eboli.
Volonte died of a heart attack at the age of 61 in 1994.
May he rest in peace.
Oh, in closing, should say that this is a video montage of clips featuring scenes from his various films, as well as some interviews done during his lifetime. They are all in Italian, with no English sub-titles, alas, but please don't let that stop you, as great acting, like any great art, can cross linguistic and cultural barriers.
Be seeing you.
While he played quite a few villains in his long career, including the police inspector who murders his mistress to see if he can get away with it in the 1970 Elio Petri film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1971, he also played heroic characters, like Lulu in the 1971 film The Working Class Goes To Heaven(La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso) and the 1979 film Christ Stopped At Eboli.
Volonte died of a heart attack at the age of 61 in 1994.
May he rest in peace.
Oh, in closing, should say that this is a video montage of clips featuring scenes from his various films, as well as some interviews done during his lifetime. They are all in Italian, with no English sub-titles, alas, but please don't let that stop you, as great acting, like any great art, can cross linguistic and cultural barriers.
Be seeing you.
Alberto Gonzales Resigns(Washington Post Article Link)
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click here to view the post.
26 August 2007
Why The Ice Cream Man Was Fired(Or Maybe Not)
As you can see from the text below, this is from a bulletin that my MySpace friend Cheryl posted this morning.
It doesn't mention where the photo was taken, but, somehow, I've a suspicion that it was taken at some sort of festival in Japan, a country that loves its erotically- and other-themed festivals.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Cheryl
Date: Aug 26, 2007 1:47 PM
It doesn't mention where the photo was taken, but, somehow, I've a suspicion that it was taken at some sort of festival in Japan, a country that loves its erotically- and other-themed festivals.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Cheryl
Date: Aug 26, 2007 1:47 PM
A Pair Of Flight Of The Conchords Songs
Here's a pair of YouTube clips from the New Zealand folk comedy duo The Flight Of The Conchords, the first one of which was sent to me as an e-mail link to me by my good friend Jo Meditz to-day.
The songs are, respectively, "The Humans Are Dead", and "Albi, The Racist Dragon".
Enjoy and be seeing you.
The songs are, respectively, "The Humans Are Dead", and "Albi, The Racist Dragon".
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Joke: New Doctor
My therapist sent me this in an e-mail to-day, and I pass it along to y'all for you to enjoy.
Hope you like it, and be seeing you.
I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and
exhaustive
lab tests, he said I was doing "fairly well" for my age.
A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him,
"Do you
think I'll live to be 80?"
He asked, "Do you smoke tobacco, or drink scotch, beer or wine?"
"Oh no," I replied. "I'm not doing drugs, either!"
Then he asked, "Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?"
I said, "No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very
unhealthy!"
"Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing,
hiking,
or bicycling?"
"No, I don't," I said.
He asked, "Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?"
"No," I said.
He looked at me and said, "Then, why do you even give a shit?"
Hope you like it, and be seeing you.
I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and
exhaustive
lab tests, he said I was doing "fairly well" for my age.
A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him,
"Do you
think I'll live to be 80?"
He asked, "Do you smoke tobacco, or drink scotch, beer or wine?"
"Oh no," I replied. "I'm not doing drugs, either!"
Then he asked, "Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?"
I said, "No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very
unhealthy!"
"Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing,
hiking,
or bicycling?"
"No, I don't," I said.
He asked, "Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?"
"No," I said.
He looked at me and said, "Then, why do you even give a shit?"
Agents Provocateurs Used And Exposed At Quebec Summit
Some of you out there may have heard about the summit between US President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Montebello, Quebec, Canada, last week-end.
Some of you may have even heard about an incident in which three Surete du Quebec(Quebec provincial police)undercover officers masquerading as demonstrators allegedly tried to provoke a riot amongst the 200 or so demonstrators protesting the summit, and were exposed as agents provocateurs(police agents inciting people into engaging in criminal behaviour)by some of the demonstrators, thus causing the officers to be "arrested" and taken off by their colleagues.
This incident was captured in a video which was then posted by people involved with the demonstrations on YouTube.
Within the past two days, after denying that its officers had engaged in any such tactics, the Surete du Quebec acknowledged that they had, indeed, engaged in such behaviour, though it continued to deny that the officers had any intention of starting a riot.
Rather, the officers were allegedly trying to prevent a riot, and the one officer holding a rock had had it handed to him by another demonstrator.
Whatever the case, and I personally think the SQ hasn't much of a leg to stand on here, here are some links to articles about the story, as well as to the YouTube video of the incident itself.
We'll start with the video, which you can see for yourselves here:
After that, we have stories from the Toronto Star about the incident at http://www.thestar.com/article/249759, which is about an announcement by the Surete du Quebec on Friday about an impeding investigation by the service into the conduct of their undercover officers, this one, which gives a brief history of the term "agent provocateurs" and their use by various countries, including their use in Czarist Russia and, more recently, the US at http://www.thestar.com/Article/249603, and, finally, an editorial from the Star urging an independent investigation of the incident at http://www.thestar.com/article/249628.
In closing, for my money, I think the use of agents provocateurs by governments everywhere is a supremely bad idea, because it ends up, quite rightly, causing the public wherever they're used to suspect their government's policies and actions, and the motives behind them, and, additionally, can end up masking committing any number of offences and crimes under the colour of law.
When authorities start doing that, it's a sure way to undermine public confidence in any policy or action they make undertake, and creates a climate of suspicion and mis-trust so pervasive throughout the society that it undermines it from within far better than anyone or anything coming from the outside can, in a million years.
Be seeing you.
Some of you may have even heard about an incident in which three Surete du Quebec(Quebec provincial police)undercover officers masquerading as demonstrators allegedly tried to provoke a riot amongst the 200 or so demonstrators protesting the summit, and were exposed as agents provocateurs(police agents inciting people into engaging in criminal behaviour)by some of the demonstrators, thus causing the officers to be "arrested" and taken off by their colleagues.
This incident was captured in a video which was then posted by people involved with the demonstrations on YouTube.
Within the past two days, after denying that its officers had engaged in any such tactics, the Surete du Quebec acknowledged that they had, indeed, engaged in such behaviour, though it continued to deny that the officers had any intention of starting a riot.
Rather, the officers were allegedly trying to prevent a riot, and the one officer holding a rock had had it handed to him by another demonstrator.
Whatever the case, and I personally think the SQ hasn't much of a leg to stand on here, here are some links to articles about the story, as well as to the YouTube video of the incident itself.
We'll start with the video, which you can see for yourselves here:
After that, we have stories from the Toronto Star about the incident at http://www.thestar.com/article/249759, which is about an announcement by the Surete du Quebec on Friday about an impeding investigation by the service into the conduct of their undercover officers, this one, which gives a brief history of the term "agent provocateurs" and their use by various countries, including their use in Czarist Russia and, more recently, the US at http://www.thestar.com/Article/249603, and, finally, an editorial from the Star urging an independent investigation of the incident at http://www.thestar.com/article/249628.
In closing, for my money, I think the use of agents provocateurs by governments everywhere is a supremely bad idea, because it ends up, quite rightly, causing the public wherever they're used to suspect their government's policies and actions, and the motives behind them, and, additionally, can end up masking committing any number of offences and crimes under the colour of law.
When authorities start doing that, it's a sure way to undermine public confidence in any policy or action they make undertake, and creates a climate of suspicion and mis-trust so pervasive throughout the society that it undermines it from within far better than anyone or anything coming from the outside can, in a million years.
Be seeing you.
25 August 2007
"La Marque Du Tuer"("Branded To Kill")
The last YouTube clip from "Branded To Kill" is a French-language presentation(no English sub-titles, sorry)hosted by Nicolas Saad from HK Video, and includes a variety of clips from the film, including some featuring both lead actresses in the film(though, alas, I can only remember the name of one of them, Mariko Ogawa, whom you'll see with a fur wrap draped round her at one point)in the all-together.
Sex, violence, odd imagery, and the occasional bit of skin. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Sex, violence, odd imagery, and the occasional bit of skin. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
"Branded To Kill" Scene
From "Branded To Kill", comes this scene featuring the film's protagonist, Number Three, played by Jo Shisedo, who's a hit-man in action.
The scene's original YouTube poster, Eigagogo, states that there are three simultaneous assassinations in this clip.
That's not entirely true, as the assassinations come one right after the other in sequential fashion, and five, not three, victims die as a result.
Other than that, his description's pretty much accurate.
By the way, a friend of mine told me a while back that the reason for Shisedo's puffy cheeks was that, prior to making "Branded To Kill", he'd had a failed bout of plastic surgery designed to Westernise his appearance.
If anything, it sort of adds to the odd nature of the character he plays here.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
The scene's original YouTube poster, Eigagogo, states that there are three simultaneous assassinations in this clip.
That's not entirely true, as the assassinations come one right after the other in sequential fashion, and five, not three, victims die as a result.
Other than that, his description's pretty much accurate.
By the way, a friend of mine told me a while back that the reason for Shisedo's puffy cheeks was that, prior to making "Branded To Kill", he'd had a failed bout of plastic surgery designed to Westernise his appearance.
If anything, it sort of adds to the odd nature of the character he plays here.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
"Branded To Kill" Trailer
This is a trailer for "Branded To Kill" featuring various scenes from the flick that should give you a fair idea of what the film's like, and the kind of loopy story-line and structure it has.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Japanese Movie Clip:"Branded To Kill"(1967)opening
From YouTube, we bring you our first Japanese movie clip, the opening portion of Seijun Suzuki's 1967 film noir classic, "Branded To Kill", which, incidentally, is one of my favourite films.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
23 August 2007
A Pair Of World Science Article Links
Here are a pair of links to articles on the World Science web-site for you to peruse.
The first is to a new study linking several school shooting in the past decade to a psychological condition called "cynical shyness", which is shyness more than laced by considerable anger, cynicism and hostility towards others, and may be an underlying cause of the rage that propels some kids, especially boys, to blast their school-mates.
The study was done by the Shyness Research Institute in New Albany, Indiana, and was presented at the American Psychological Association's annual convention in San Francisco last week-end.
Is "cynical shyness" THE explanatory factor behind school shootings???? I don't know, and say that it probably isn't the only such factor, but it could well be a contributing one.
The article's at http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070820_cynical-shyness.htm.
The next and last article is about how female Rhesus monkeys use a form of baby-talk, called "girneys" on infant Rhesus monkeys, but, not with their own offspring.
This behaviour, similar to human "motherese", or baby talk, may be a way of interacting with the infant Rhesus monkeys, while smoothing social interactions with their mothers.
The link's http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070823_baby-talk.htm.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
The first is to a new study linking several school shooting in the past decade to a psychological condition called "cynical shyness", which is shyness more than laced by considerable anger, cynicism and hostility towards others, and may be an underlying cause of the rage that propels some kids, especially boys, to blast their school-mates.
The study was done by the Shyness Research Institute in New Albany, Indiana, and was presented at the American Psychological Association's annual convention in San Francisco last week-end.
Is "cynical shyness" THE explanatory factor behind school shootings???? I don't know, and say that it probably isn't the only such factor, but it could well be a contributing one.
The article's at http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070820_cynical-shyness.htm.
The next and last article is about how female Rhesus monkeys use a form of baby-talk, called "girneys" on infant Rhesus monkeys, but, not with their own offspring.
This behaviour, similar to human "motherese", or baby talk, may be a way of interacting with the infant Rhesus monkeys, while smoothing social interactions with their mothers.
The link's http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070823_baby-talk.htm.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
The Cats’ Bill Of Rights(Re-Post)
From the serious, we now go to the almost sickening cutesy comic, with a reproduction of a bulletin from my MySpace friend Cheryl, whom I thank for posting, or rather re-posting , this, this afternoon.
Be seeing you.
The Cats' Bill Of Rights , Thx Glenn
1. Humans shall make no law respecting an establishment of
boundaries or prohibiting the free exercise therein, or
abridging the freedom of access, or the right to peaceful
assembly. In other words: The cat is entitled to go outside
anytime s/he wants.
2. A well-carried provisional chamber, being necessary to the
fulfillment of a felines whims, shall not be infringed. In
other words: The cat is entitled to EAT anytime s/he wants.
3. The right of the feline to be secure in their domain, and
effects, against unreasonable discomposure, shall not be
violated. In other words: The cat is entitled to SLEEP anytime
s/he wants.
4. Humans shall issue no warrants or decrees or edicts as
prescribed to the demarcation of possessions or property which
are in direct conflict with right of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of feline affirmation. In other words: The cat is
entitled to sleep ANYWHERE s/he wants.
5. The feline shall be immune to all criminal accusations,
indictments, and complaints. The accused shall enjoy the right
to a speedy and impartial dismissal of any and all charges
provided said felines compulsory right to obtain any or all
witnesses, including character witnesses, are obtained in his
favor. In other words: Cats can do anything they want as long
as they're cute.
6. Neither serfdom, vassalage, or involuntary servitude will be
tolerated, except by said cats in proprietorship of their humans.
In other words: What I say goes. (And I can sleep on your face.)
7. No Canis familiaris shall, in time of peace or at any other
time, be quartered in any dwelling without the consent of the
potentate, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed
by sovereign. In other words: No dogs in the house without my
permission.
8. The right of the feline to be protected against unreasonable
search and seizures shall not be breached or infringed upon at
any time or any place. In other words: Don't disturb me when I
am sleeping in a drawer.
Be seeing you.
The Cats' Bill Of Rights , Thx Glenn
1. Humans shall make no law respecting an establishment of
boundaries or prohibiting the free exercise therein, or
abridging the freedom of access, or the right to peaceful
assembly. In other words: The cat is entitled to go outside
anytime s/he wants.
2. A well-carried provisional chamber, being necessary to the
fulfillment of a felines whims, shall not be infringed. In
other words: The cat is entitled to EAT anytime s/he wants.
3. The right of the feline to be secure in their domain, and
effects, against unreasonable discomposure, shall not be
violated. In other words: The cat is entitled to SLEEP anytime
s/he wants.
4. Humans shall issue no warrants or decrees or edicts as
prescribed to the demarcation of possessions or property which
are in direct conflict with right of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of feline affirmation. In other words: The cat is
entitled to sleep ANYWHERE s/he wants.
5. The feline shall be immune to all criminal accusations,
indictments, and complaints. The accused shall enjoy the right
to a speedy and impartial dismissal of any and all charges
provided said felines compulsory right to obtain any or all
witnesses, including character witnesses, are obtained in his
favor. In other words: Cats can do anything they want as long
as they're cute.
6. Neither serfdom, vassalage, or involuntary servitude will be
tolerated, except by said cats in proprietorship of their humans.
In other words: What I say goes. (And I can sleep on your face.)
7. No Canis familiaris shall, in time of peace or at any other
time, be quartered in any dwelling without the consent of the
potentate, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed
by sovereign. In other words: No dogs in the house without my
permission.
8. The right of the feline to be protected against unreasonable
search and seizures shall not be breached or infringed upon at
any time or any place. In other words: Don't disturb me when I
am sleeping in a drawer.
Conspiracy Theories And Their Believers: My Response
Just got through responding to an op-ed piece on the Socialist Standard's MySpace blog, which is by one Paddy Shannon, entitled "Conspiracy of Dunces", as part of the Standard's "Pathfinder" column, and reproduced below is my response to that column's assertions about conspiracy theories and their believers.
The reason I've re-posted my response to that column is because have been doing a lotta thinking about conspiracy theories and those who believe 'em, and just how heartily sick I am of them, and of bad information from various sources in general, "mainstream" or not.
So, here's my little rant, which considering that the editor at the Socialist Standard's blog has to approve the comment or not, may never be seen there, but which, for better or worse, can and will be seen here.
If you want to see the original article, just go to http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4018139&blogID=302696155&Mytoken=4DBFD8FD-6B5A-48A2-9A2AAFD68153E6AF11930059 to see for yourselves.
And remember, Folks, if you decide to post a response of your own there, the blog owner there has to approve the comment, so keep it reasonable and relatively sweet.
Be seeing you.
Personally, I tend to be far more of a subscriber to the "Peter Principle" than I am to any conspiracy theory, simply because from I've read, heard, seen and experienced in my life, it seems to explain a Helluva lot more about how and why people in positions of authority make decisions and act than any grand conspiracy theory involving the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jews, the Trilateral Commission, etc, etc, etc.
By that last bit, you can undoubtedly make the guess that I am pretty tired of conspiracy theories and their believers. I am.
I haven't entirely worked out why, and probably never will, but, part of it for me, at least, is that have got sick and tired of being pushed junk information and speculation from just about every corner of the political spectrum and the media landscape.
The JFK assassination conspiracy theory, the various 9/11 conspiracy theories(In fact, I recently had quite a tiff with a local anti-war activist who'd become a convert to one of these theories about that, and why I thought it was a steaming pile of crap), the Trilateral Commission-Bilderbergers-Council for Foreign Relations-Jewish-Freemasonry conspiracy theory pushed by such far Right media entities as the late, unlamented Spotlight, to which my dad had a subscription back in the late '70's, and so on, I've grown up with, in one form or another, and have either generally rejected or had no interest in, partially because of the groups that were pushing them, and because of the individuals I knew who were pushing them to me, and who had and have agendas of their own.
Does that mean that those individuals I mentioned are themselves engaged in some sort of "conspiracy"? Nope, just that they, like everyone who's human and alive, have their own points of view on how and why the world works, and how the world SHOULD work in their eyes.
For a lot of people, especially working-class and poor people who don't generally have the greatest of educations, especially here in the States(If you've not already guessed, I'm a Yank), and whose general access to anything but either the dumbest of "mainstream" media outlets or to the kinds of heavily biased, partisan screeds like the Spotlight isn't great, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that, combined with the feeling that many working-class and poor folks have that they are mushrooms, kept in the dark and waitin' to be shat on, it's a Helluva lot easier to either be a-political, a defender of whichever powers that be, or a believer in one conspiracy theory or another, than it is to try and work somethin' out for oneself.
The last-named road takes a certain amount of time, and especially time spent in researching and reading, and working issues out in one's head, and that's not easily done when much of one's time is spent either getting the bills paid or engaging in the usual leisure activities that a lot of working-class and poor folks like to do, when they're not struggling to pay the bills.
Ain't sayin' it can't be done, just that it takes time, especially in research and reflection on issues, and a certain amount of grounding in history, economics, and, yep, even psychology, among other subjects, to get to something of a point where one starts understanding, within the limits of current knowledge, how and why the world works as it does, or doesn't.
In contrast, depending on whatever existing cultural, social, religious, racial, ethnic and other biases one already has, plus some smatterings of information here and there about various subjects, it's far easier to go down the conspiracy theory route and stay there.
Just as it's easier for some folks to go down the race-baiting route, or any other pseudo-intellectual quick fix that you can think of.
That's can-opener history and politics, Folks;just open of a can of whatever theory you like, shlump out the stuff into your head, and, Presto!!!, there you are.
Now, that doesn't always mean that every question and everything conspiracy theorists and their ilk believe are wrong. Sometimes, they can be right on some details and some aspects of given issues.
But, it's in the over-all conclusions they arrive at, based on at least partially errorneous premises, that the conspiracy theorists and those like 'em fall down, and fall down hard.
That's why it's important to get one's info from a variety of sources, not just the ones that one likes(will admit to a bit of hypocrisy here, though, as I don't generally go for conservative or far Right publications, on-or off-line, very much), as much as one can, compare the info being given with other info from other sources, and from one's own experiences, and decide for yourselves what and who's right, wrong, or just plain confused.
One last bit, and that's at times, when one doesn't know anything or enough about a subject to make a decision one way or another, to simply say, "Y'know what??? I don't know.".
Better to admit that ya don't know than to pretend ya do, and end up lookin' like the Biggest Fool On Earth since the first guy that bought the Brooklyn Bridge.
The reason I've re-posted my response to that column is because have been doing a lotta thinking about conspiracy theories and those who believe 'em, and just how heartily sick I am of them, and of bad information from various sources in general, "mainstream" or not.
So, here's my little rant, which considering that the editor at the Socialist Standard's blog has to approve the comment or not, may never be seen there, but which, for better or worse, can and will be seen here.
If you want to see the original article, just go to http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4018139&blogID=302696155&Mytoken=4DBFD8FD-6B5A-48A2-9A2AAFD68153E6AF11930059 to see for yourselves.
And remember, Folks, if you decide to post a response of your own there, the blog owner there has to approve the comment, so keep it reasonable and relatively sweet.
Be seeing you.
Personally, I tend to be far more of a subscriber to the "Peter Principle" than I am to any conspiracy theory, simply because from I've read, heard, seen and experienced in my life, it seems to explain a Helluva lot more about how and why people in positions of authority make decisions and act than any grand conspiracy theory involving the Illuminati, Freemasons, Jews, the Trilateral Commission, etc, etc, etc.
By that last bit, you can undoubtedly make the guess that I am pretty tired of conspiracy theories and their believers. I am.
I haven't entirely worked out why, and probably never will, but, part of it for me, at least, is that have got sick and tired of being pushed junk information and speculation from just about every corner of the political spectrum and the media landscape.
The JFK assassination conspiracy theory, the various 9/11 conspiracy theories(In fact, I recently had quite a tiff with a local anti-war activist who'd become a convert to one of these theories about that, and why I thought it was a steaming pile of crap), the Trilateral Commission-Bilderbergers-Council for Foreign Relations-Jewish-Freemasonry conspiracy theory pushed by such far Right media entities as the late, unlamented Spotlight, to which my dad had a subscription back in the late '70's, and so on, I've grown up with, in one form or another, and have either generally rejected or had no interest in, partially because of the groups that were pushing them, and because of the individuals I knew who were pushing them to me, and who had and have agendas of their own.
Does that mean that those individuals I mentioned are themselves engaged in some sort of "conspiracy"? Nope, just that they, like everyone who's human and alive, have their own points of view on how and why the world works, and how the world SHOULD work in their eyes.
For a lot of people, especially working-class and poor people who don't generally have the greatest of educations, especially here in the States(If you've not already guessed, I'm a Yank), and whose general access to anything but either the dumbest of "mainstream" media outlets or to the kinds of heavily biased, partisan screeds like the Spotlight isn't great, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that, combined with the feeling that many working-class and poor folks have that they are mushrooms, kept in the dark and waitin' to be shat on, it's a Helluva lot easier to either be a-political, a defender of whichever powers that be, or a believer in one conspiracy theory or another, than it is to try and work somethin' out for oneself.
The last-named road takes a certain amount of time, and especially time spent in researching and reading, and working issues out in one's head, and that's not easily done when much of one's time is spent either getting the bills paid or engaging in the usual leisure activities that a lot of working-class and poor folks like to do, when they're not struggling to pay the bills.
Ain't sayin' it can't be done, just that it takes time, especially in research and reflection on issues, and a certain amount of grounding in history, economics, and, yep, even psychology, among other subjects, to get to something of a point where one starts understanding, within the limits of current knowledge, how and why the world works as it does, or doesn't.
In contrast, depending on whatever existing cultural, social, religious, racial, ethnic and other biases one already has, plus some smatterings of information here and there about various subjects, it's far easier to go down the conspiracy theory route and stay there.
Just as it's easier for some folks to go down the race-baiting route, or any other pseudo-intellectual quick fix that you can think of.
That's can-opener history and politics, Folks;just open of a can of whatever theory you like, shlump out the stuff into your head, and, Presto!!!, there you are.
Now, that doesn't always mean that every question and everything conspiracy theorists and their ilk believe are wrong. Sometimes, they can be right on some details and some aspects of given issues.
But, it's in the over-all conclusions they arrive at, based on at least partially errorneous premises, that the conspiracy theorists and those like 'em fall down, and fall down hard.
That's why it's important to get one's info from a variety of sources, not just the ones that one likes(will admit to a bit of hypocrisy here, though, as I don't generally go for conservative or far Right publications, on-or off-line, very much), as much as one can, compare the info being given with other info from other sources, and from one's own experiences, and decide for yourselves what and who's right, wrong, or just plain confused.
One last bit, and that's at times, when one doesn't know anything or enough about a subject to make a decision one way or another, to simply say, "Y'know what??? I don't know.".
Better to admit that ya don't know than to pretend ya do, and end up lookin' like the Biggest Fool On Earth since the first guy that bought the Brooklyn Bridge.
YouTube Classic Japanese Anime: "Umi No Shinpen"
This last classic Japanese cartoon clip from YouTube dates from 1944, and is an extract from an animated feature released in that year, called "Umi No Shinpen"("The Heavenly Sailors", as the clip's poster on YouTube, Dorataro, translated it).
Dorataro also states that, as most Japanese children had been evacuated from Japan's cities due to Allied bombing raids by the time "Umi No Shinpen" was released, it's pretty unlikely that many Japanese children saw it at that time.
Considering the widespread destruction of much of the Japanese film industry's facilities and product during World War Two, it amazes me that this, along with the various other pieces of classic Japanese animation that have posted here in the last few weeks, have survived at all.
Like you, am discovering these works for the first time, and I hope that you will enjoy them, and that they'll help give you something of a wider view of Japan and its popular culture, as well as of the 1930's and early '40's period of Japanese history, than you may have had before.
Be seeing you.
Dorataro also states that, as most Japanese children had been evacuated from Japan's cities due to Allied bombing raids by the time "Umi No Shinpen" was released, it's pretty unlikely that many Japanese children saw it at that time.
Considering the widespread destruction of much of the Japanese film industry's facilities and product during World War Two, it amazes me that this, along with the various other pieces of classic Japanese animation that have posted here in the last few weeks, have survived at all.
Like you, am discovering these works for the first time, and I hope that you will enjoy them, and that they'll help give you something of a wider view of Japan and its popular culture, as well as of the 1930's and early '40's period of Japanese history, than you may have had before.
Be seeing you.
YouTube Classic Japanese Anime: "Norakuro"
This early thirties Japanese cartoon from YouTube is called "Norakuro", and is about a cartoon cat's struggle with a band of villains who want to steal a piece of technology a professor's developed.
The cartoon is silent, with music and spoken narration(in Japanese only, with no sub-titles, sorry)recently added on.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
The cartoon is silent, with music and spoken narration(in Japanese only, with no sub-titles, sorry)recently added on.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Classic Japanese Anime Clips From YouTube and Digital Meme.com
This YouTube clip is from a Digital Meme(www.digitalmeme.com/)DVD preview of a collection of 1920's and '30's Japanese animated cartoons, and is well worth a look, as it gives the uninitiated viewer a glimpse of what such cartoons were like.
Incidentally, the female narrator providing the spoken narration for many of the clips here is what is known in Japanese cinema parlance as a benshi, a narrator who provides narration and character voices, as well as doing sound effects, for a silent film.
Had read about this tradition in Japanese silent film, but only learned what it was called this morning when I visited the Digital Meme site.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Incidentally, the female narrator providing the spoken narration for many of the clips here is what is known in Japanese cinema parlance as a benshi, a narrator who provides narration and character voices, as well as doing sound effects, for a silent film.
Had read about this tradition in Japanese silent film, but only learned what it was called this morning when I visited the Digital Meme site.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
22 August 2007
"Robot Chicken Vs. 300"
A YouTube editorial mash-up by one Phillip R. Skinner, in which the soundtrack from the recent film "300" is put together with visuals from various "Robot Chicken" episodes for comic effect.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
"Robot Chicken S02E19-Titanic"
Another Robot Chicken pop-culture parody, this time of "Titanic", as done in IM text messages.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Kitty In A Blanket
Amigo the Cat's recently developed this habit of jumping up onto my bed while going underneath the cover upon it.
Well, he did that to-day, and his little head was poking through the cover's thin spots.
So, dragged out the old camera, and these pics below are the results.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Well, he did that to-day, and his little head was poking through the cover's thin spots.
So, dragged out the old camera, and these pics below are the results.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Message From Nevada Democratic Veterans and Military Families' Caucus
For my friends in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, who can make this event or contribute in some way towards this, here's a message I received in my e-mail to-day from the Nevada Democratic Veterans and Military Families' Caucus.
Personally, I don't have the money to contribute, so I'll not be attending the function. But, am posting this here in hopes that it'll be of some small help.
Be seeing you.
The Democratic Veterans & Military Families caucus is working with local unions to provide care packages to troops injured in Iraq to ensure they can call home while they are in the hospital.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Our troops' first stop after being injured in Iraq is a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Unfortunately our government does not provide a way for every soldier, marine, airman, and sailor to contact loved ones after being injured. As a result, our troops' ability to phone home depends on donations to the Landstuhl Military Chaplain.
On Saturday, the vets caucus will ask supporters and union members to donate phone cards that troops can use to call their family after they are injured in Iraq.
Who: Nevada Democratic Veterans & Military Families, Local Las Vegas Unions, Concerned Americans
What: Care Package Building (w/refreshments)
Where: Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 525 Union Hall
760 N. Lamb Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89110
When: Saturday August 25th 2007, 1 pm- 4 pm
Volunteers will create care packages with the phone cards. We are also asking attendees to bring other comfort items such as beef jerky, towels, washcloths, batteries, razors, old & new magazines, misc. toiletries, cds, dvds and books.
Just last weekend, the caucus held a successful care package party in Elko, assembling 25 packages for troops, including phone cards for injured troops hospitalized in Germany. The vets caucus encourages all Nevadans to visit http://www.treatsfortroops.com, http://www.booksforsoliders.com, or http://www.anymarine.com to help provide support to our troops.
People who cannot attend this weekend's event can send donations to:
Nevada Democratic Veterans & Military Families Caucus, 1210 S. Valley View Ste. 114, Las Vegas NV 89102.
Donations can also be made online at http://www.nvdemocraticvets.com.
Personally, I don't have the money to contribute, so I'll not be attending the function. But, am posting this here in hopes that it'll be of some small help.
Be seeing you.
The Democratic Veterans & Military Families caucus is working with local unions to provide care packages to troops injured in Iraq to ensure they can call home while they are in the hospital.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Our troops' first stop after being injured in Iraq is a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Unfortunately our government does not provide a way for every soldier, marine, airman, and sailor to contact loved ones after being injured. As a result, our troops' ability to phone home depends on donations to the Landstuhl Military Chaplain.
On Saturday, the vets caucus will ask supporters and union members to donate phone cards that troops can use to call their family after they are injured in Iraq.
Who: Nevada Democratic Veterans & Military Families, Local Las Vegas Unions, Concerned Americans
What: Care Package Building (w/refreshments)
Where: Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 525 Union Hall
760 N. Lamb Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89110
When: Saturday August 25th 2007, 1 pm- 4 pm
Volunteers will create care packages with the phone cards. We are also asking attendees to bring other comfort items such as beef jerky, towels, washcloths, batteries, razors, old & new magazines, misc. toiletries, cds, dvds and books.
Just last weekend, the caucus held a successful care package party in Elko, assembling 25 packages for troops, including phone cards for injured troops hospitalized in Germany. The vets caucus encourages all Nevadans to visit http://www.treatsfortroops.com, http://www.booksforsoliders.com, or http://www.anymarine.com to help provide support to our troops.
People who cannot attend this weekend's event can send donations to:
Nevada Democratic Veterans & Military Families Caucus, 1210 S. Valley View Ste. 114, Las Vegas NV 89102.
Donations can also be made online at http://www.nvdemocraticvets.com.
Harry Potter And The YouTube Robot Chicken Excerpt
And now, for something REALLY nasty, at least for you Harry Potter fans!!!!
Presenting this YouTube excerpt from "Robot Chicken", in which Harry, Heromine, and Ron are pitted against the monster Pubertus.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Presenting this YouTube excerpt from "Robot Chicken", in which Harry, Heromine, and Ron are pitted against the monster Pubertus.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
21 August 2007
A Flare In The Dark
Earlier to-day, while having a phone conversation with my friend JT, he told me that he enjoyed the "Vegas When It Rains" pics, and had even gone so far as to use one as a desktop wallpaper on his computer.
Well, that just made my day, as, sometimes, when I haven't heard from people about their reactions to my work, I start wondering if it had any impact at all.
Just lovely to hear that, even for one person, it does.
Absolutely marvelous, that.
Be seeing you.
Well, that just made my day, as, sometimes, when I haven't heard from people about their reactions to my work, I start wondering if it had any impact at all.
Just lovely to hear that, even for one person, it does.
Absolutely marvelous, that.
Be seeing you.
"Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" Story Link
From the New York Times, via truthout.org, comes this op-ed piece on the new HBO documentary, "Alive Day Memories:Home From Iraq", about the experiences of 10 soldiers and marines who were disabled in combat in Iraq.
The documentary's narrated by James Gandolfini, who also interviews these survivors on-camera in it as well.
Don't have cable, let alone HBO, so won't be able to see it.
But, if you do, check it out when it plays in your area, and, in the meantime, check Bob Herbert's op-ed piece on it out.
It's at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082107E.shtml.
Be seeing you.
The documentary's narrated by James Gandolfini, who also interviews these survivors on-camera in it as well.
Don't have cable, let alone HBO, so won't be able to see it.
But, if you do, check it out when it plays in your area, and, in the meantime, check Bob Herbert's op-ed piece on it out.
It's at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082107E.shtml.
Be seeing you.
A Pair Of Yahoo News US News Links
Just got through reading these Yahoo News articles, the first of which, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_re_us/utah_mine_collapse, is about the families of the six coal miners trapped in Utah venting their frustrations with the mine's owner and the Mine Safety and Health Administration(MSHA), while the second one, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_re_us/spooky_house_shooting;_ylt=Ap3QsnB9lTGjbWk8sgv8.61H2ocA, is about how the shooting of a teen-age girl at the home of a pair of local hermits, and which was locally described as a "spooky house", has divided the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Worthington over who was right or wrong in the matter.
Not happy stories, but news stories generally aren't.
Be seeing you.
Not happy stories, but news stories generally aren't.
Be seeing you.
Got Phished
Well, it happened. Tried sending a message of condolence to a MySpace friend whose daughter got snubbed by her ex-husband at a cousin's wedding recently, and even tried enclosing a kitty pic I'd got on-line, when MySpace let me know I'd been phished.
Thus, had to come up with a new password, you get the whole idea. So, if I've sent out any bulletins for ring-tones or just something you don't think it'd be into, guess who's responsible for that???
You got it-Mr.Phisherman.
Took me about three to four tries before I could get the account un-blocked, but I got it un-blocked.
Frustrating??? Oh, yeah. Also, alas, a part of being on the 'Net.
At least, now I can say that I know how a founded flounder feels.
Be seeing you, Little Fishies.
Thus, had to come up with a new password, you get the whole idea. So, if I've sent out any bulletins for ring-tones or just something you don't think it'd be into, guess who's responsible for that???
You got it-Mr.Phisherman.
Took me about three to four tries before I could get the account un-blocked, but I got it un-blocked.
Frustrating??? Oh, yeah. Also, alas, a part of being on the 'Net.
At least, now I can say that I know how a founded flounder feels.
Be seeing you, Little Fishies.
The Explosion That Wasn’t, Or Never Tried, Or Something Like That, With Lotsa Fish, Malt Vinegar and Tartar Sauce On The Side
Little side note here: when posting the link to the LA Times op-ed piece below here, I initially went off on quite an angry little tangent about puritans of the left and right, how they're a bunch of power-hungry little money grubbers with the brains of suet, the hearts of six week old cat shit, and the souls of East St. Louis pimps, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
But, in looking at it, I saw that it was only making the intro a lot longer and harder to read for whatever poor reader who looked at the thing, and cut out a lot of that crap.
Then, I thought, I'll have one of my occasional literary explosions here, where I try to tear everything and everyone in the Known Universe a new arsehole.
Well, started in on that, and, right away, started in on the insults(Tell ya the truth, I laugh more than half the time when composing those. Why??? One Helluva mean sense of humour is my immediate answer. That, and have always had a good ear for a choice piece of invective).
After a few minutes, and I don't remember precisely why, but I laughed and decided to cancel the impending literary-political-cultural volcanic explosion, because it just seemed silly and unnecessary to me.
Hell, I even congratulated myself, and still am, on at least having grown up enough to realise that that kind of shit doesn't really do much good, even if it provides for fun venting.
But, what may be fun venting for an essay's author can also be tiresomely self-indulgent and boring reading for anyone who encounters such a piece, so, so much for that.
Then, and you're looking at the end product of this process here, I decided to pen a self-congratulatory essay about how I'd decided NOT to write such a piece of drivel, and so, here you are, reading THIS piece of drivel.
OK, it's self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and entirely un-merited, and, yes, I managed to throw in a few insults about ding-dong(The Wicked Witch Is Deeaaaddd!!!)puritans in the bargin, as well as lotsa self-referential "irony"(or is it mere sarcasm???)about the whole damned process.
No matter. Am proud of myself for not having inflicted one type of self-indulgent piece of shit scrivening upon the world, even if I ended up inflicting another type in the bargin.
My point being???? You know, I forgot my point, if I ever had one, that is. Oh, well. Must be that pre-mature senility catching up with me, or maybe it's just plain stupidity. You decide.
Anyway, to quote Ian Shoales from the old Duck's Breath Mystery Theater, "I gotta go."
Be seeing you.
But, in looking at it, I saw that it was only making the intro a lot longer and harder to read for whatever poor reader who looked at the thing, and cut out a lot of that crap.
Then, I thought, I'll have one of my occasional literary explosions here, where I try to tear everything and everyone in the Known Universe a new arsehole.
Well, started in on that, and, right away, started in on the insults(Tell ya the truth, I laugh more than half the time when composing those. Why??? One Helluva mean sense of humour is my immediate answer. That, and have always had a good ear for a choice piece of invective).
After a few minutes, and I don't remember precisely why, but I laughed and decided to cancel the impending literary-political-cultural volcanic explosion, because it just seemed silly and unnecessary to me.
Hell, I even congratulated myself, and still am, on at least having grown up enough to realise that that kind of shit doesn't really do much good, even if it provides for fun venting.
But, what may be fun venting for an essay's author can also be tiresomely self-indulgent and boring reading for anyone who encounters such a piece, so, so much for that.
Then, and you're looking at the end product of this process here, I decided to pen a self-congratulatory essay about how I'd decided NOT to write such a piece of drivel, and so, here you are, reading THIS piece of drivel.
OK, it's self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and entirely un-merited, and, yes, I managed to throw in a few insults about ding-dong(The Wicked Witch Is Deeaaaddd!!!)puritans in the bargin, as well as lotsa self-referential "irony"(or is it mere sarcasm???)about the whole damned process.
No matter. Am proud of myself for not having inflicted one type of self-indulgent piece of shit scrivening upon the world, even if I ended up inflicting another type in the bargin.
My point being???? You know, I forgot my point, if I ever had one, that is. Oh, well. Must be that pre-mature senility catching up with me, or maybe it's just plain stupidity. You decide.
Anyway, to quote Ian Shoales from the old Duck's Breath Mystery Theater, "I gotta go."
Be seeing you.
LA Times Op-Ed Piece Link
Another LA Times article, this one by Anne K. Ream on the emergence of the "modesty movement" for young women in this country in the past few years.
Ream's contention, which I agree with, is that this "modesty" movement, while allegedly empowering young women by encouraging them to dress in more conservative clothing, saying no to sex, etc, is really another way of controlling young women's attitudes, dress and behaviour, while placing no such obligations on men, young, middle-aged or old, to change their attitudes and behaviour towards girls and women.
It's the same old double-standard game, just with "empowering" pseudo-feminist language tacked on.
The link's http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ream21aug21,0,5669391.story?coll=la-tot-opinion&track=ntottext
Ream's contention, which I agree with, is that this "modesty" movement, while allegedly empowering young women by encouraging them to dress in more conservative clothing, saying no to sex, etc, is really another way of controlling young women's attitudes, dress and behaviour, while placing no such obligations on men, young, middle-aged or old, to change their attitudes and behaviour towards girls and women.
It's the same old double-standard game, just with "empowering" pseudo-feminist language tacked on.
The link's http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ream21aug21,0,5669391.story?coll=la-tot-opinion&track=ntottext
LA Times Article and eBossWatch.com Links
Just read this LA Times story about abusive bosses becoming a real problem in this country, and how some employees are no longer taking that abuse.
The link's http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-badbosses21aug21,0,4403490.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Am also including a link to a site where one can report one's abusive boss or supervisor. It's called eBossWatch, and its motto's "Nobody Should Have To Work With A Jerk".
Its addy's http://www.ebosswatch.com/.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
The link's http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-badbosses21aug21,0,4403490.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntottext.
Am also including a link to a site where one can report one's abusive boss or supervisor. It's called eBossWatch, and its motto's "Nobody Should Have To Work With A Jerk".
Its addy's http://www.ebosswatch.com/.
Check 'em out, and be seeing you.
20 August 2007
Harper Lee Article Link
The last post here for to-night is to an AP article via the Sydney Morning Herald, about Alabama authoress Harper Lee, who wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird", and her being at an induction of four new members of the Alabama Academy of Honor to-day.
Won't spoil the rest of the extremely short article for you, so just head over to http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/harper-lee-in-honour-role/2007/08/21/1187462231499.html, to see the rest of it.
Be seeing you.
Won't spoil the rest of the extremely short article for you, so just head over to http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/harper-lee-in-honour-role/2007/08/21/1187462231499.html, to see the rest of it.
Be seeing you.
"The Crap Club 2"
From the talented and twisted mind of Jason DeWitt comes the sequel to "The Crap Club", "The Crap Club 2".
Enjoy and be seeing you.
Enjoy and be seeing you.
"The Crap Club"
This little bit of Mego 8 inch action figure comic brilliance on YouTube comes from my on-line friend Jason DeWitt, and is called "The Crap Club", for reasons best seen in the video.
Incidentally, Mr. DeWitt runs a lovely Mego figure-oriented site, with loads of stories, pictures and the like, called wearesmall.com, which can be found at, naturally, www.wearesmall.com/.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Incidentally, Mr. DeWitt runs a lovely Mego figure-oriented site, with loads of stories, pictures and the like, called wearesmall.com, which can be found at, naturally, www.wearesmall.com/.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
"Stranded"
In a far more serious vein is this YouTube Action Man video, "Stranded", which effectively tells the story of two French Foreign Legionnaires separated from their unit, and wandering through the Sahara Desert.
A good, short, sharp shock.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
A good, short, sharp shock.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
"The Sentry"
More action figure-fashion doll silliness from YouTube, as GI Joe must defend his cardboard box, and himself, from the seemingly unstoppable attacks of a Killer Robot Barbie.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
A Little Girl's Question Answered
More YouTube toy video madness, with a combination of toy and clay figure stop-motion animation being deployed to answer a little girl's question about how "Darbie's" friend Rebecca ended up in a wheel-chair.
The answer definitely ain't for under-18's or religious types, though it's funny as all Hell.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
The answer definitely ain't for under-18's or religious types, though it's funny as all Hell.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Barbie And Action Man On The Job
More toy-related YouTube video madness, with Barbie and Action Man(GI Joe's British and Australian cousin) being caught on video, while on the job.
Relax, it's not what you think, Ken(you dirty-minded old sod).
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Relax, it's not what you think, Ken(you dirty-minded old sod).
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
"Confessions Of A Plastic Mind"
From the wild and wooly wilderness that is YouTube, comes this Barbie video, "Confessions Of A Plastic Mind", in which Barbie asks some pertinent questions about dating after a very long-term relationship, and uses a rather naughty word to describe the sort of fellow best avoided.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
Enjoy, and be seeing you.
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