Kirk Douglas keeps a wary eye on Bircher General Burt Lancaster in John Frankenheimer's officially prophetic "Seven Days in May".
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The View from Pakistan's DAWN
"The weapons were never found; America's democracy project looks increasingly shaky and the sexual abuse scandal has stripped the mask from the face of human rights. Now like the helpless prisoners in Abu Ghraib what we are left with is a naked bony skeleton of an imperialist order trying to hide itself under the sheath of the United Nations.
President Bush and the people around him never stop talking of the need for winning 'the battle for hearts and minds' in the Muslim world. In reality, the only 'battle for hearts and minds' that matters to the Muslims, and to the world at large is the one that is being fought inside the United States. And recent events for the first time have touched the soul of America.
If the American people got rid of those like Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Cheney along with their president there may be some glimmer of hope for the future. If the struggle of the people of Iraq changes the hearts and minds of the American electorate then it will be a victory not only for the people of Iraq but for the whole blue planet. America will still be in Iraq but with different goals and a different vision. "
"The weapons were never found; America's democracy project looks increasingly shaky and the sexual abuse scandal has stripped the mask from the face of human rights. Now like the helpless prisoners in Abu Ghraib what we are left with is a naked bony skeleton of an imperialist order trying to hide itself under the sheath of the United Nations.
President Bush and the people around him never stop talking of the need for winning 'the battle for hearts and minds' in the Muslim world. In reality, the only 'battle for hearts and minds' that matters to the Muslims, and to the world at large is the one that is being fought inside the United States. And recent events for the first time have touched the soul of America.
If the American people got rid of those like Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Cheney along with their president there may be some glimmer of hope for the future. If the struggle of the people of Iraq changes the hearts and minds of the American electorate then it will be a victory not only for the people of Iraq but for the whole blue planet. America will still be in Iraq but with different goals and a different vision. "
The religious warrior of Abu Ghraib
"Boykin told an evangelical gathering last year how this fostered his spiritual crisis. 'There is no God,' he said. 'If there was a God, he would have been here to protect my soldiers.' But he was thunderstruck by the insight that his battle with the warlord was between good and evil, between the true God and the false one. 'I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.'
Boykin was the action hero side of his boss, Stephen Cambone, a conservative defence intellectual appointed to the new post of undersecretary of intelligence. Cambone is universally despised by the officer corps for his arrogant, abrasive and dictatorial style and regarded as the personal symbol of Rumsfeldism. A former senior Pentagon official told me of a conversation with a three-star general, who remarked: 'If we were being overrun by the enemy and I had only one bullet left, I'd use it on Cambone.' "
"Boykin told an evangelical gathering last year how this fostered his spiritual crisis. 'There is no God,' he said. 'If there was a God, he would have been here to protect my soldiers.' But he was thunderstruck by the insight that his battle with the warlord was between good and evil, between the true God and the false one. 'I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.'
Boykin was the action hero side of his boss, Stephen Cambone, a conservative defence intellectual appointed to the new post of undersecretary of intelligence. Cambone is universally despised by the officer corps for his arrogant, abrasive and dictatorial style and regarded as the personal symbol of Rumsfeldism. A former senior Pentagon official told me of a conversation with a three-star general, who remarked: 'If we were being overrun by the enemy and I had only one bullet left, I'd use it on Cambone.' "
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
blissblog on "faceless techno bollocks"--
"The thing about this stuff, the reason I can see it might actually gain ground on the pirates and with the massive, is a/ the danceability and uptempo NRG b/ the dependability. See, stuff that has vocal and lyrical content, when it's mediocre, it's a helluva lot more aggravating than mediocre instrumental/tracky stuff. Something about average MCing with samey lyric content (that overdose of guntalk/misogyny thing simon silverdollar was complaining about a while back), it's really fucking grating in the way that samey sublow/croydon sound just isn't. somehow the verbal element really rams the impoverishment of imagination right in your face. At the same time--and everybody knows this, don't they?--when you compare each style's highest heights and absolute peak exponents, the MC stuff (proper grime, as commonly understood in other words) is just a whole level above the tracky stuff. "Hard Graft" (here excellently reversioned as "industrial graft") was one of my faves last year but you compare it with "boys love girls" or "birds in the sky" and it's like... nah. The return of vocals (songs, song-fragment, MCs, whatever) is THE defining post-rave paradigm shift from circa 1998 on -from 2step to folktronica to green velvet to electro/nu-wave to (some) microhouse to grime to... -- and I don't seem much sign that's about to change any time soon. "
"The thing about this stuff, the reason I can see it might actually gain ground on the pirates and with the massive, is a/ the danceability and uptempo NRG b/ the dependability. See, stuff that has vocal and lyrical content, when it's mediocre, it's a helluva lot more aggravating than mediocre instrumental/tracky stuff. Something about average MCing with samey lyric content (that overdose of guntalk/misogyny thing simon silverdollar was complaining about a while back), it's really fucking grating in the way that samey sublow/croydon sound just isn't. somehow the verbal element really rams the impoverishment of imagination right in your face. At the same time--and everybody knows this, don't they?--when you compare each style's highest heights and absolute peak exponents, the MC stuff (proper grime, as commonly understood in other words) is just a whole level above the tracky stuff. "Hard Graft" (here excellently reversioned as "industrial graft") was one of my faves last year but you compare it with "boys love girls" or "birds in the sky" and it's like... nah. The return of vocals (songs, song-fragment, MCs, whatever) is THE defining post-rave paradigm shift from circa 1998 on -from 2step to folktronica to green velvet to electro/nu-wave to (some) microhouse to grime to... -- and I don't seem much sign that's about to change any time soon. "
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
shameful censorship
"In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel.
A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being 'un-American' because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its 'No child left behind' education policy.
The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job.
Bill Nevins was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the poetry. He was later fired by the principal.
After firing Nevins and terminating the teaching and reading of poetry in the school, the principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison."
"In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel.
A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being 'un-American' because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its 'No child left behind' education policy.
The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job.
Bill Nevins was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the poetry. He was later fired by the principal.
After firing Nevins and terminating the teaching and reading of poetry in the school, the principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military liaison."
Monday, May 17, 2004
Quaint Provisions
" 'As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war,' Gonzales wrote to Bush. 'The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians.' Gonzales concluded in stark terms: 'In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.'"
" 'As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war,' Gonzales wrote to Bush. 'The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians.' Gonzales concluded in stark terms: 'In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.'"
The Tyee: Politicians Behaving Badly
"For years, the media--and many voters-- celebrated our brand of Xtreme Politics as just another example of B.C.'s distinctive lifestyle. Welcome to B.C., where the mountains are bigger, the bud is stronger, and the politicians are completely unhinged."
"For years, the media--and many voters-- celebrated our brand of Xtreme Politics as just another example of B.C.'s distinctive lifestyle. Welcome to B.C., where the mountains are bigger, the bud is stronger, and the politicians are completely unhinged."
Happy Birthday Dennis Brain--his definitive version of the Mozart Horn Concertos (in the Seraphim pressing) greatly beloved by Dad.
Ultra-red--Alan Gilbert has an interesting piece on these artist/activists in this month's Artforum, not online...
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Pig-devouring bear at large in Maine
"Johnson said he went inside and got a flashlight. By the time he returned, the bear had grabbed the pig again and headed for the woods.
Johnson said he alerted all his neighbors, including a nearby dairy farm and some people who keep rabbits.
'I've lived here seven years and never had a problem,' he said. 'Oh, sometimes someone would see one in the spring and then again maybe in the fall. But nothing like this. The kids aren't sleeping too well.'
'This is a hungry bear,' Eaton said, guessing that it is a large male. "
"Johnson said he went inside and got a flashlight. By the time he returned, the bear had grabbed the pig again and headed for the woods.
Johnson said he alerted all his neighbors, including a nearby dairy farm and some people who keep rabbits.
'I've lived here seven years and never had a problem,' he said. 'Oh, sometimes someone would see one in the spring and then again maybe in the fall. But nothing like this. The kids aren't sleeping too well.'
'This is a hungry bear,' Eaton said, guessing that it is a large male. "
Brian Cox
"But Cox, as Lecter - in Michael Mann's Manhunter - he did nothing. Nothing. He just showed up a couple of times in a bright white cell, speaking with that enviably precise diction that Scottishness often confers, in that deep, rumbling voice of his - and scared the crap out of everyone who saw him. "
ambitious, thorough "Mulholland Drive" review--
"But before the song ends, the singer slumps to the ground, and we realize she's been lip-syncing to a recording. Slowly but knowingly, Betty reaches into her purse. There, as if precipitated from the shimmering blue light, is a new object: a smooth blue box with a triangular keyhole."
(thanks Plep)
"But before the song ends, the singer slumps to the ground, and we realize she's been lip-syncing to a recording. Slowly but knowingly, Betty reaches into her purse. There, as if precipitated from the shimmering blue light, is a new object: a smooth blue box with a triangular keyhole."
(thanks Plep)
happy birthday Henry Fonda (I thought about Frank--the character Fonda played in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"--a lot watching Rumsfeld's testimony the other day, not just the flat midwestern affect a thin skin over capital 'e' Evil, but the sense that though Frank himself is finally killed, his interrupted transformation from hired gun to bureaucrat would be completed by others.)
new Sy Hersh
"According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A. "
"According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon's operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld's long-standing desire to wrest control of America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A. "
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Friday, May 14, 2004
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Paris Hilton Goes to War, The Bush Administration Is Waging a War on Porn While Soldiers Waging War in Iraq Make Porn
"The second thing I find fascinating about the homemade porn coming out of Abu Ghraib--the consensual pornographic pictures depicting American soldiers, not the shocking pictures depicting American soldiers engaged in acts of torture and violence--is the disconnect it exposes between prudes in the Bush administration like Ashcroft and the men and women in the armed services. George W. Bush seizes every opportunity to tell us how brave, moral, and righteous the average American soldier is. He would have us believe that the U.S. armed services, like the Republican Party itself, are filled with churchgoing, patriotic, salt-of-the-earth, small-town-values types from Red states. The truth, of course, is that soldiers, like average Americans, are as likely to consume porn and, given the time, opportunity, and a digital camera, make porn as any other American. They're also likely, as we've seen, to buy into their own inflated sense of moral superiority--inflated by their commander in chief--and brutalize helpless human beings in their charge. Porn producers, by comparison, are angels. "
"The second thing I find fascinating about the homemade porn coming out of Abu Ghraib--the consensual pornographic pictures depicting American soldiers, not the shocking pictures depicting American soldiers engaged in acts of torture and violence--is the disconnect it exposes between prudes in the Bush administration like Ashcroft and the men and women in the armed services. George W. Bush seizes every opportunity to tell us how brave, moral, and righteous the average American soldier is. He would have us believe that the U.S. armed services, like the Republican Party itself, are filled with churchgoing, patriotic, salt-of-the-earth, small-town-values types from Red states. The truth, of course, is that soldiers, like average Americans, are as likely to consume porn and, given the time, opportunity, and a digital camera, make porn as any other American. They're also likely, as we've seen, to buy into their own inflated sense of moral superiority--inflated by their commander in chief--and brutalize helpless human beings in their charge. Porn producers, by comparison, are angels. "
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Jane Jacobs
"There's a joke that the father of an old friend used to tell, about a preacher who warns children, "In Hell there will be wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth." "What if you don't have teeth?" one of the children asks. "Then teeth will be provided," he says sternly. That's it--the spirit of the designed city: Teeth Will Be Provided for You."
"There's a joke that the father of an old friend used to tell, about a preacher who warns children, "In Hell there will be wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth." "What if you don't have teeth?" one of the children asks. "Then teeth will be provided," he says sternly. That's it--the spirit of the designed city: Teeth Will Be Provided for You."
Bad Ginger Cat
""As the postie pushes the letters through, I've seen Bat try to swipe him with his claws.
"He was a rescue cat and is only little--but he does get stroppy.""
""As the postie pushes the letters through, I've seen Bat try to swipe him with his claws.
"He was a rescue cat and is only little--but he does get stroppy.""
Monday, May 10, 2004
"We saw the pictures"
"The system of injustice that, since 9/11, we've sent offshore and organized globally -- from Guantanamo, Cuba to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan -- is by its nature also a system of torture. It was designed from the beginning to be a Bermuda Triangle of injustice, existing in an extrajudicial darkness beyond 'our' sight or oversight. There, on military bases and in special military-controlled prisons, the 'war on terrorism' could be carried to its informational climax in whatever ways and by whatever methods American intelligence officials felt might 'break' whatever prisoners we had. "
"The system of injustice that, since 9/11, we've sent offshore and organized globally -- from Guantanamo, Cuba to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan -- is by its nature also a system of torture. It was designed from the beginning to be a Bermuda Triangle of injustice, existing in an extrajudicial darkness beyond 'our' sight or oversight. There, on military bases and in special military-controlled prisons, the 'war on terrorism' could be carried to its informational climax in whatever ways and by whatever methods American intelligence officials felt might 'break' whatever prisoners we had. "
Sunday, May 09, 2004
wild wild west: "'I don't know where they got this from, but the MPs would say it all the time,' one of the soldiers said. 'MI would drop off a guy who wasn't talking, and the MP would say, 'So looks like I'll be going cowboy on him' or 'Looks like he needs some wild, wild west.''"
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Laura Nyro: Live: The Loom's Desire
"Melancholy doesn't even come close to describing this performance; maybe better is the Brazilian/Portuguese concept of 'saudade', the happiness that arrives when you realize you're just about as sad as you can be. Nyro's alto is maybe a little shaky and perhaps a touch flat, but it's as expressive as all hell, and when it floats on the fluffy cloud provided by the backing voices it sounds like a blueprint of someone's soul. "
"Melancholy doesn't even come close to describing this performance; maybe better is the Brazilian/Portuguese concept of 'saudade', the happiness that arrives when you realize you're just about as sad as you can be. Nyro's alto is maybe a little shaky and perhaps a touch flat, but it's as expressive as all hell, and when it floats on the fluffy cloud provided by the backing voices it sounds like a blueprint of someone's soul. "
too bad we never got Bagpuss over here
"...the lesser-known BAGPUSS was the epic masterpiece of this formidable canon which, like Fawlty Towers, you are always shocked to be reminded ran for a mere 13 episodes. The plot was laid out in a title sequence of faded sepia prints, a two-minute effort shown at the beginning of each episode - a fact that may surprise many Teletubbies-bashers today. In full, then - Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl called Emily. Emily had a shop. It was quite an unusual shop, because it didn't sell anything. Everything in the window was something somebody had once lost, but Emily had found, and taken home to Bagpuss. The titular old fat furry catpuss (widely rumoured to be baggy, and a bit loose at the seams) was called upon by Emily, in cod shamanic prose, to 'wake up and look at this thing that I bring. Wake up, be bright, be golden and light. Bagpuss, O hear what I sing.' Thus summoned, the cat yawned and woke up. And, of course, when Bagpuss woke up, all his friends woke up to. The mice on the mouse-organ woke up and stretched. A toad with a banjo (Gabriel - 'Oh, look!'), and a rather limply-written female character, Madeleine, also woke up. But the best was the allegedly JAMES BURKE (cf CONNECTIONS)-inspired PROFESSOR YAFFLE, a 'carved wooden book-end in the shape of a woodpecker' who made hard work of ambling down a pile of books to examine whatever this week's object was, and draw inevitably wrong conclusions. Hence a porcupine pin-cushion was claimed to be an earless elephant, and (by a thinking-cap-aided Bagpuss) a 'small, soft, Hamish.' Quite. A bog-standard doll's house was turned by the mice into a mill for making chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans, only to be exposed as a fraud. These intellectual battles were interspersed with songs and paper animation..."
"...the lesser-known BAGPUSS was the epic masterpiece of this formidable canon which, like Fawlty Towers, you are always shocked to be reminded ran for a mere 13 episodes. The plot was laid out in a title sequence of faded sepia prints, a two-minute effort shown at the beginning of each episode - a fact that may surprise many Teletubbies-bashers today. In full, then - Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl called Emily. Emily had a shop. It was quite an unusual shop, because it didn't sell anything. Everything in the window was something somebody had once lost, but Emily had found, and taken home to Bagpuss. The titular old fat furry catpuss (widely rumoured to be baggy, and a bit loose at the seams) was called upon by Emily, in cod shamanic prose, to 'wake up and look at this thing that I bring. Wake up, be bright, be golden and light. Bagpuss, O hear what I sing.' Thus summoned, the cat yawned and woke up. And, of course, when Bagpuss woke up, all his friends woke up to. The mice on the mouse-organ woke up and stretched. A toad with a banjo (Gabriel - 'Oh, look!'), and a rather limply-written female character, Madeleine, also woke up. But the best was the allegedly JAMES BURKE (cf CONNECTIONS)-inspired PROFESSOR YAFFLE, a 'carved wooden book-end in the shape of a woodpecker' who made hard work of ambling down a pile of books to examine whatever this week's object was, and draw inevitably wrong conclusions. Hence a porcupine pin-cushion was claimed to be an earless elephant, and (by a thinking-cap-aided Bagpuss) a 'small, soft, Hamish.' Quite. A bog-standard doll's house was turned by the mice into a mill for making chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans, only to be exposed as a fraud. These intellectual battles were interspersed with songs and paper animation..."
Friday, May 07, 2004
AncientScripts.com
(thanks Metafilter, who also link to stuff on mighty ""Aja" drummer Steve Gadd...)
(thanks Metafilter, who also link to stuff on mighty ""Aja" drummer Steve Gadd...)
Atkins Cicadas: " (This enables the flirtatious tunes they strum on body structures known as tymbals to resonate.) "
farewell to reggae pioneer Clement 'Sir Coxsone' Dodd "Dodd set to work to recast American-style jazz and R'n'B within the African-Jamaican traditions of pocomania, mento and revivalism. The resulting sound came to be known as 'ska', from the 'hepcat' greeting 'skavoovie'. "
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Rummy's Lifebuoy?
"Let's say Rumsfeld resigns on Friday. The election is still six months away. And the nation is at war. So a new Defense Secretary would be needed more or less immediately. That would open up a very uncomfortable prospect for the administration.
Confirmation hearings for a new Sec Def would, I think, inevitably turn into a national forum for discussing the management of the Pentagon, the planning for the war and the lack of planning for the occupation. The new nominee would be drawn into all sorts of uncomfortble public second-guessing of what's happened up until this point. Sure, that's stuff under Rumsfeld. But, really, it's stuff under Bush -- the civilian head of the United States military.
That, I have to imagine, is something the White House would like to avoid at any cost."
"Let's say Rumsfeld resigns on Friday. The election is still six months away. And the nation is at war. So a new Defense Secretary would be needed more or less immediately. That would open up a very uncomfortable prospect for the administration.
Confirmation hearings for a new Sec Def would, I think, inevitably turn into a national forum for discussing the management of the Pentagon, the planning for the war and the lack of planning for the occupation. The new nominee would be drawn into all sorts of uncomfortble public second-guessing of what's happened up until this point. Sure, that's stuff under Rumsfeld. But, really, it's stuff under Bush -- the civilian head of the United States military.
That, I have to imagine, is something the White House would like to avoid at any cost."
The Province: "Some shackled inmates got rowdy on a public passenger ferry bound for Vancouver Island from the B.C. mainland Wednesday, breaking windows on the vehicle they were being transported in. " At that moment, Zodiacs full of hippie pirates streamed from the caves of Lasqueti island...
good Lars von Trier takedown
"Bjork, however, sees it rather differently - and recently struck back with a brutal assessment of the director, issued via her official website: 'You can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick and still they are the one that provide the soul to their movies. In Lars von Trier's case it is not so and he knows it. He needs a female to provide his work soul, and he envies them and hates them for it. So he has to destroy them during the filming, and hide the evidence.'"
"Bjork, however, sees it rather differently - and recently struck back with a brutal assessment of the director, issued via her official website: 'You can take quite sexist film directors like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick and still they are the one that provide the soul to their movies. In Lars von Trier's case it is not so and he knows it. He needs a female to provide his work soul, and he envies them and hates them for it. So he has to destroy them during the filming, and hide the evidence.'"
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Joseph Losey at lincoln center watched "Accident" on TV a few weeks ago and it was like one long, sweaty shudder...
A strike against democracy
"The governments have sent a powerful message to trade unions, one which will have ominous future repercussions: You can negotiate all you want, but when push comes to shove, unless you agree to what employers want, we will bring the full force of the state against you and impose what employers want." (thanks Ruth) (link to Globe and Mail doesn't work but you get the point)
"The governments have sent a powerful message to trade unions, one which will have ominous future repercussions: You can negotiate all you want, but when push comes to shove, unless you agree to what employers want, we will bring the full force of the state against you and impose what employers want." (thanks Ruth) (link to Globe and Mail doesn't work but you get the point)
Larry Wilkerson in the WaPo "'I call them utopians,' he said. 'I don't care whether utopians are Vladimir Lenin on a sealed train to Moscow or Paul Wolfowitz. Utopians, I don't like. You're never going to bring utopia, and you're going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it.' "
The Tyee: After the Deal
"So good to see all the union leaders coming out with one voice - 'we stood up for you!' 'we forced the goverment to back down' 'don't blame us, it was the government' - This is the bigest sell-out of working people since jack munroe went to bill bennet on bended knee. When will we learn? There's just one union in this province - Sinclair, heyman, worboys, allnutt and co - better known as the middle-aged white guys club - small membership but great fringe benefits. Did any of these guys just once say they would take any personal risk? I don't see Sinclair offering to take a 15% pay cut in support of his brothers and sisters. These so-called unions are simply another arm of the power elite, hand-in-hand with the bosses -- toss them out on their well-fed asses and find someone whose going to stand up for us. And don't give me that 'divided we fall crap' That BS line has been used by the porkchop squad to hang onto power for years. The only reason these guys still have jobs is because we have adbicated responsibility. The house of labour needs a good cleaning."
"So good to see all the union leaders coming out with one voice - 'we stood up for you!' 'we forced the goverment to back down' 'don't blame us, it was the government' - This is the bigest sell-out of working people since jack munroe went to bill bennet on bended knee. When will we learn? There's just one union in this province - Sinclair, heyman, worboys, allnutt and co - better known as the middle-aged white guys club - small membership but great fringe benefits. Did any of these guys just once say they would take any personal risk? I don't see Sinclair offering to take a 15% pay cut in support of his brothers and sisters. These so-called unions are simply another arm of the power elite, hand-in-hand with the bosses -- toss them out on their well-fed asses and find someone whose going to stand up for us. And don't give me that 'divided we fall crap' That BS line has been used by the porkchop squad to hang onto power for years. The only reason these guys still have jobs is because we have adbicated responsibility. The house of labour needs a good cleaning."
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Craig Baldwin's mighty Spectres of the Spectrum is out on DVD--
"The year is 2007, the "Eve of the Solar Eclipse, Las Vegas, Nevada" according to an informative title. BooBoo, an "epileptic telepath," is the granddaughter of scientist Amy Hacker, who died with a secret on her lips that BobBoo must uncover if she's to save the planet. She's part of a small group of revolutionaries fighting "electromagnetic control" by a shadowy entity called the "New Electromagnetic Order" (NEO) that, after decimating the earth, plans to erase the memories of every living creature on it. Abetting her is her father Yogi, an ex-intelligence guy who transmits anti-NEO propaganda from his bunker/Airstream trailer. BooBoo is immune to the devastation that's been wrought; the mind-control efforts of the NEO have no effect on her. Her plan is to travel back in time to retrieve her grandmother's secret and rescue the world from "the electronic miasma" that's annihilating it. This process allows her--and viewers--to survey America's apocalyptic past and the "heroes and martyrs" of "electromagnetic history" in the 19th and 20th centuries. "
"The year is 2007, the "Eve of the Solar Eclipse, Las Vegas, Nevada" according to an informative title. BooBoo, an "epileptic telepath," is the granddaughter of scientist Amy Hacker, who died with a secret on her lips that BobBoo must uncover if she's to save the planet. She's part of a small group of revolutionaries fighting "electromagnetic control" by a shadowy entity called the "New Electromagnetic Order" (NEO) that, after decimating the earth, plans to erase the memories of every living creature on it. Abetting her is her father Yogi, an ex-intelligence guy who transmits anti-NEO propaganda from his bunker/Airstream trailer. BooBoo is immune to the devastation that's been wrought; the mind-control efforts of the NEO have no effect on her. Her plan is to travel back in time to retrieve her grandmother's secret and rescue the world from "the electronic miasma" that's annihilating it. This process allows her--and viewers--to survey America's apocalyptic past and the "heroes and martyrs" of "electromagnetic history" in the 19th and 20th centuries. "
too much good stuff to steal any one thing from wood's lot today--especially the Gottfried Benn and Novalis
Terry Eagleton on fascism
"For all their crafty appeals to lower-middle-class grouses, fascist regimes left existing patterns of property and social class largely intact. The disgruntled petite bourgeoisie were taken for the longest ride in their unenviable history. "
"For all their crafty appeals to lower-middle-class grouses, fascist regimes left existing patterns of property and social class largely intact. The disgruntled petite bourgeoisie were taken for the longest ride in their unenviable history. "
Turning the Pages splendid shockwave enabled versions of Leonardo's Notebook, Diamond Sutra, etc
(thanks to Coudal Partners)
(thanks to Coudal Partners)
Monday, May 03, 2004
The Face of Jim Sinclair: "'All of us know it is not good enough,' Sinclair said. 'We're not celebrating tonight.'"
or: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Jim Sinclair: "'This deal saved thousands of jobs,' said Sinclair. 'We also got the employer to limit its plans to privatize public health care services. That's a major victory for public health care and union members because the government had very clearly stated they'd never do that.'
"
"
O My Cod!!: "Scientists studying the huge cod -- which can measure more than a metre in length and weigh as much as 26 kilograms, many times the size of cod now found in the sea -- say the fish are cannibals with voracious appetites that eat almost anything that crosses their path, including prickly sea urchins, each other, and -- in at least one case -- an entire loon."
Sunday, May 02, 2004
TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
"The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority. "
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
"The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority. "
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)