So the big news in geopolitics this week is the Fidel Castro - the penultimate revolutionary -- has relinquished power in Havana. After nearly 50 years of rule, perhaps the longest run of any ruler in history (I don't have all the numbers, but it's pretty long time), Castro has to release his grip on power, and he did it on his own terms without "losing the revolution." Typically, we'd see some rioting in the streets or the opposition party was geared up for the transition and they seize power, but that's not the case here.
I'm curious to see if Barak Obama meets with Raul Castro -- without pre-conditions -- about normalizing relations.
Apparently, the last true efforts to normalize relations occurred during the Carter Administration, but Fidel's support of revolutionary causes in Angola and Ethiopia scuttled the attempts.
The biggest black eye during the Cold War for the US has a chance to heal, before a revolution takes place. Obviously, Cuba could go the way of China and still be a Communist country, but fully embrace capitalist ideas and increase its economy. As the largest island in the Caribbean and natural trading partner/vacation spot for the US, it's been a pissed awsay half-century for both countries.
Will Obama, should he be elected president, actually bring Change to Central America?
Friday, February 22, 2008
What's In A Word?
N - Non
I - Immigrant
G - Gaining
G - Global
A - Achievement...
How's that, fo' yo' ass??!?!?!
I - Immigrant
G - Gaining
G - Global
A - Achievement...
How's that, fo' yo' ass??!?!?!
THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA, Part Two
I was reading an article in last week's NYTimes about how fucking ignorant Americans are, and how much they actively dodge knowledge?!!?!?
Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: February 14, 2008
A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable that’s a questionable adjective, to say the least platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question asked: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”
Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.” Why would you make this statement? It just compounds how fucking ignorant this no talent bitch is? Say something like, “I guess I forgot… world history class was ten years ago.” Don’t drop a bomb that exacerbates your own personal stupidity, please!
Such, uh, lack of global awareness is the kind of thing that drives Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason,” up a wall. Ms. Jacoby is one of a number of writers with new books that bemoan the state of American culture.
Joining the circle of curmudgeons this season is Eric G. Wilson, whose “Against Happiness” warns that the “American obsession with happiness” could “well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation.”This statement is a bit extreme, but it is extremes that the truth is really laid bare.
Then there is Lee Siegel’s “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob,” which inveighs against the Internet for encouraging solipsism, debased discourse and arrant commercialization.This is ALL true; I’ll be pick up this book and reading it on my next trip to the library. Mr. Siegel, one might remember, was suspended by The New Republic for using a fake online persona in order to trash critics of his blog (“you couldn’t tie Siegel’s shoelaces”) and to praise himself (“brave, brilliant”).And here’s the rub, the whole purpose of the internet is to rant anonymously… of course, you can’t stay in the shadows for too long. People WILL make it their mission to find out who wrote what on the internet.
Ms. Jacoby, whose book came out on Tuesday, doesn’t zero in on a particular technology or emotion, but rather on what she feels is a generalized hostility to knowledge. She is well aware that some may tag her a crank. “I expect to get bashed,” said Ms. Jacoby, 62, either as an older person who upbraids the young for plummeting standards and values, or as a secularist whose defense of scientific rationalism is a way to disparage religion.She’s going to get bashed by the people who’s best interest lies in keeping the large majority of the public woefully ignorant on a whole host of topics, fields and subject matter.
Ms. Jacoby, however, is quick to point out that her indictment is not limited by age or ideology. Yes, she knows that eggheads, nerds, bookworms, longhairs, pointy heads, highbrows and know-it-alls have been mocked and dismissed throughout American history.yes, this true with our country, because the country rube is bequeathed a level of power, because the Founding Fathers wanted to let the masses believe they have a lot of say over the direction that this country is headed, but in actuality that’s the biggest piece of chicanery (i.e. pulling the wool over someone’s eyes, if you have a bad vocabulary) that also happens to be the cornerstone of the true nature of this country. And liberal and conservative writers, from Richard Hofstadter to Allan Bloom, have regularly analyzed the phenomenon and offered advice.
T. J. Jackson Lears, a cultural historian who edits the quarterly review Raritan, said, “The tendency to this sort of lamentation is perennial in American history,” adding that in periods “when political problems seem intractable or somehow frozen, there is a turn toward cultural issues.”
But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way.
Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters.
She pointed to a 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located. So more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map. Geo-politics is THE key notion facing the United States as the 21st century progresses, to fail to understand, let alone the desire to understand how the countries of the 2nd World of their geography effects one’s wallet in Green Bay or Kansas City. To bash that knowledge begs that Malcolm X quote, “the chickens have come home to roost.
Ms. Jacoby, dressed in a bright red turtleneck with lipstick to match, was sitting, appropriately, in that temple of knowledge, the New York Public Library’s majestic Beaux Arts building on Fifth Avenue. The author of seven other books, she was a fellow at the library when she first got the idea for this book back in 2001, on 9/11.
Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t expect to revolutionize the nation’s educational system or cause millions of Americans to switch off “American Idol” and pick up Schopenhauer. But she would like to start a conversation about why the United States seems particularly vulnerable to such a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism. After all, “the empire of infotainment doesn’t stop at the American border,” she said, yet students in many other countries consistently outperform American students in science, math and reading on comparative tests.
In part, she lays the blame on a failing educational system. “Although people are going to school more and more years, there’s no evidence that they know more,” she said. Schooling is perhaps the biggest monetary fraud that I can think of… unless you’re planning on working on Wall Street or being a doctor of some sort, then schooling is a trick, a weeding out process more than anything.
Ms. Jacoby also blames religious fundamentalism’s antipathy toward science, as she grieves over surveys that show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution. Creationism IS NOT something to be believed or taught in schools -- it's a waste of resources and time. If you believe in modern science and medicine, then you can't be down with Creationism -- so stop taking your prescription drugs or OTC meds if you really want Creationism to be taught and believed.
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t leave liberals out of her analysis, mentioning the New Left’s attacks on universities in the 1960s, the decision to consign African-American and women’s studies to an “academic ghetto” instead of integrating them into the core curriculum, ponderous musings on rock music and pop culture courses on everything from sitcoms to fat that trivialize college-level learning.
Avoiding the liberal or conservative label in this particular argument, she prefers to call herself a “cultural conservationist.”
For all her scholarly interests, though, Ms. Jacoby said she recognized just how hard it is to tune out the 24/7 entertainment culture. A few years ago she participated in the annual campaign to turn off the television for a week. “I was stunned at how difficult it was for me,” she said.
The surprise at her own dependency on electronic and visual media made her realize just how pervasive the culture of distraction is and how susceptible everyone is — even curmudgeons.
100 YEARS OR MORE?!?!
The other n night on CNN’s LARRY KING LIVE, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) was the guest and he espousing the underpinnings of “The Straight Talk Express” – first off I don’t know why a Dolly Parton Song is being used as part of his campaign slogan-age, but to each his own; the meat of the interview, in my mind, was McCain trying to defend his statement about keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years. Certainly, he didn’t mean it – although we have had troops in Germany and Japan for well over 50 years (but in peacetime, not in the middle of an insurgency that’s lasted longer World War 2, and cost even more – yet has generated less in terms of world changing technology).
What McCain’s biggest problem is when it comes to the illegitimate War in Iraq is that he can’t live down the supposed shame of the VietNam War – especially because he’s tortured and decorated vet of that misbegotten conflict. I’m taking anything whatsoever away from McCain, his struggle, his POW days, his war record – but that armed conflict left a black eye on American foreign policy and military for close to two decades (rehashed by shit like FIRST BLOOD). The US didn’t exactly recover from that, and at the end of the day we’re now good trading partners with VietNam; with normalized diplomatic relations. But the might of the vaunted US armed forces was called into question (however, effectively propagandizes as unstoppable by Hollywood throughout the 80s and 90s).
The current pre-occupation with the Middle East has not only blinded America from its true and present interests across the globe, but the crux of the problem could have been dealt with effectively if a “fuck all y’all” foreign policy wasn’t in effect during the Reagan and Bush years (sure, we’ve been dicking the Middle East since the end of WW2, but it took a new level after Reagan came into office).
So for McCain to claim that we can’t leave without victory (and that MEANS what?) is just ridick!!! No one has even defined what “victory in the Iraq” is supposed to look like. Arabs aren’t cut-out for democracy… I can’t call it when it comes to any place in the whole region is operating under a democracy as entertained by the Greeks. There might be “elections”, but they’re reasonably phony.
And the spiraling costs of the war – in hard dollars, in human lives, in wasted war material, the psychic cost to the nation – doesn’t seem to be factored into McCain’s equation.
Should Barak and Hillary have hard exit strategies? Yeah, but the operative word is strategy – which is something that is usually considered flexible and is oft-revised. No one wants to have the US Military show the pink of its ass, but there’s no problem in turning tail and running – because we’ve done in numerous times before… can anyone same Beirut 1985?
LIVING COLOR SAID IT BEST – “I’m The Cult of Personality”
That hard rock anthem from 1989 from the first legitimate Black rock band in say 25 years is know being used as a invective remark aimed at Senator Barak Obama’s Democratic nomination campaign; which accusations of having a self-referential campaign message, one has to wonder what exactly does it mean to be President. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were charismatic leaders that could have worn the same goathorns, and even Dubya has his own cult of personality – people just wanted to believe that Compassionate Conservative BOOLSHIT – and old boy got elected, and fucked the country with a sharp spike up it’s tight ass.
Sure the Obama camp and its supporters are rabid fans of the man, but they see a man who can articulate a message. People attack his policies or more to the point that his policies are hazy, but if you really think about what Presidential Contender actually made a lot of his election platform come to pass? When you get down to it, national policy isn’t controlled by the President.
Representative Chet Edwards (D-Texas), perhaps has summed up Obama’s candidacy the best, “It's not Senator Clinton's fault, but the baggage she carries is the divisiveness of the 1990s. People are wanting to turn the chapter to the future rather than going back to the last chapter. It's not fair but that is the reality."
Let's Be Real Now
The one thing I really enjoy about Barak Obama’s speaking is that he doesn’t sound like a character on THE BOONDOCKS - not a straight-up coon like Uncle Ruckus, a white-washed chump like Tom DuBois, a foolish old negro like Robert "Grandad" Freeman, a clown hip-hop nigga like Riley or "down for the cause" kid like Huey. All stereotypical examples of how niggas talk, but Barak evades that -- which makes him acceptable to all non-African Americans, whether they get down with his politics or his meesage is another story.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that show, but far too many African-Americans SOUND like African-Americans when you throw a mic in their face; more aptly, they sound like niggaz.
Senator Barak Obama delivered a Victory Speech in Wisconsin the other night, a speech with the grace and power of man who knows how to wield power and influence for the greater good (whether that’s true is anyone’s guess, but I have to hope so…) and it just really began to usher in a new era in America’s socio-cultural landscape.
Obama’s popularity among white women is the most contested constituency in the entire race (one that Hillary Clinton has been winning hand-over-fist in the early voting), and it has been the deciding factor in the big prize contests, but that seems to be eroding as witnessed in the Potomac Primaries just yesterday. In addition, Obama pulled something like 56% of white male voters… something that Clinton has, is and will struggle with.
What does this say about the transracial nature of America? That the one country founded on the hatred of another racial/ethnic group is now finally able to set aside that element of “otherness” – or at least publicly – an embrace a Man who stands for change and camaraderie across traditional dividing lines? Surely since the complete acceptance of Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson as the appeal-to-all Pitchmen, the understanding that their could be an African-American president was tickling some peoples minds… enough so for the people behind Fox’s 24 put a Black man in the White House for multiple seasons dealing with crisis after crisis, and he never failed from the foibles that many would unjustly hang on a Black man’s ability to lead and to make cognitively
The odd thing about Obama is that he’s not a born-n-bread American nigga… because there is a TREMENDOUS amount of baggage the goes with that. Of being part of the constituency that is ever the socio-economic underdog. The burdens attributed to American Blacks are like Atlas’s impossible burden – difficult to shake off because they define that person. To be in the “struggle” typifies what it means to be Black, but it’s not a mutually exclusive moniker.
To look at it from another angle, the new majority of so-called Minorities (the people of color who are non-African American) ascribe to and aspire to be what was dubbed “white” for 88% of the last 100 years – a whiteness that rings of truth and realism in terms of what it means to be societal and financially successful. Yet that same group of People of Color looks to stand on the shoulders of what American Blacks created culturally and side-step any and all malapropism that go hand in hand with being “urban.” It’s a known fact that 50% of all Hispanics consider themselves “white” when walking the streets of America.
Racism, misogyny and character assassination are all ways of distracting voters from the issues, and people who care about the issues have a shared interest in making the politics of hatred unacceptable.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that show, but far too many African-Americans SOUND like African-Americans when you throw a mic in their face; more aptly, they sound like niggaz.
Senator Barak Obama delivered a Victory Speech in Wisconsin the other night, a speech with the grace and power of man who knows how to wield power and influence for the greater good (whether that’s true is anyone’s guess, but I have to hope so…) and it just really began to usher in a new era in America’s socio-cultural landscape.
Obama’s popularity among white women is the most contested constituency in the entire race (one that Hillary Clinton has been winning hand-over-fist in the early voting), and it has been the deciding factor in the big prize contests, but that seems to be eroding as witnessed in the Potomac Primaries just yesterday. In addition, Obama pulled something like 56% of white male voters… something that Clinton has, is and will struggle with.
What does this say about the transracial nature of America? That the one country founded on the hatred of another racial/ethnic group is now finally able to set aside that element of “otherness” – or at least publicly – an embrace a Man who stands for change and camaraderie across traditional dividing lines? Surely since the complete acceptance of Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson as the appeal-to-all Pitchmen, the understanding that their could be an African-American president was tickling some peoples minds… enough so for the people behind Fox’s 24 put a Black man in the White House for multiple seasons dealing with crisis after crisis, and he never failed from the foibles that many would unjustly hang on a Black man’s ability to lead and to make cognitively
The odd thing about Obama is that he’s not a born-n-bread American nigga… because there is a TREMENDOUS amount of baggage the goes with that. Of being part of the constituency that is ever the socio-economic underdog. The burdens attributed to American Blacks are like Atlas’s impossible burden – difficult to shake off because they define that person. To be in the “struggle” typifies what it means to be Black, but it’s not a mutually exclusive moniker.
To look at it from another angle, the new majority of so-called Minorities (the people of color who are non-African American) ascribe to and aspire to be what was dubbed “white” for 88% of the last 100 years – a whiteness that rings of truth and realism in terms of what it means to be societal and financially successful. Yet that same group of People of Color looks to stand on the shoulders of what American Blacks created culturally and side-step any and all malapropism that go hand in hand with being “urban.” It’s a known fact that 50% of all Hispanics consider themselves “white” when walking the streets of America.
Racism, misogyny and character assassination are all ways of distracting voters from the issues, and people who care about the issues have a shared interest in making the politics of hatred unacceptable.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Smack Back
There's lots of talk now that Senator Barak Obama's presidential nomination campaign has become a Cult of Personality. As much as I love that song from the late 80s Black hard rock band, I find it slanderous to claim that Obama's campaign is a cult with no relevancy behind it.
Sure, the backers and supporters of the campaign are rabid fans, but that's because the public at large REALLY has enough of the boolshit that's happened under Dubya's reign.
Ranging from all the conspiracy theories about what really happened on 9/11 to the true nature of the Bush families relationship with the Saudi royal family and the bin Ladens. And everyone is sick of hearing about the war in Iraq; even if you're an idiot and thinks the war was the right thing, you're probably sick of hearing about it and all the lies and deceit that led up to the shameless event.
What is quite possible about the Obama's campaign is that Obama isn't providing enough substantive policy and election platform, because he's shaping his policy and saving the release of the nuts-n-bolts of it all until he's facing John McCain... not much reason or rationale to drop elements that the GOP can get a jump start on fucking up the Democratic contender's election campaign.
However, a President doesn't need to have it all worked about during the campaign, because all policy concepts need to be flexible once one is occupying the Oval Office. In reality, the President can't ramrod policy down the the throat of the American public -- they have to go through the Congress, and people see to forget that. If the Congress is about putting up road blocks for the President, he or she ain't gettin' shit done.
The President does need to be charismatic or at least have some sort of the media impact -- Reagan, Billy Clinton, and Dubya all have a strong media impact quality; Reagan and Clinton hold people in their sway because they speak with such direct fluidity toward the audience; Dubya's complete display of ignorance and inarticulateness is so shocking that it's captivating for the sheer joke of it all.
Senator Obama's voice is gripping like a Tony Robbins character, but that doesn't make him a demagogue.
Hillary Clinton - much like Al Gore during his presidential run -- is too packaged, too staid to be captivating, and yes, sadly, because she's an older woman the key components of her charisma have aged away or would be highly inappropriate for her to use to aide her media image -- even if she was doing squats and lunges for the past 16 years and had a tight asss and lithe legs, she'd be taken to task and laughed at if she wore any kind of clothing that accentuated her female sexuality.
So it goes to reason that Hillary's campaign and those who are supposed to be impartial in their reporting on the campaign are going to find whatever they can to perform character assassination on Obama. This is a smart thing, because ultimately the likability of a candidate has an overwhelming amount of ethereal evidence as to why a voter chooses a candidate.
Mark my words, lots of people didn't like Walter Mondale, didn't like Michale Dukakis, didn't like Bob Dole, didn't lilke John Kerry as people, as someone who they are supposed to respect as the "face" of the nation -- and that's why their opponents beat them in the election.
Sure, the backers and supporters of the campaign are rabid fans, but that's because the public at large REALLY has enough of the boolshit that's happened under Dubya's reign.
Ranging from all the conspiracy theories about what really happened on 9/11 to the true nature of the Bush families relationship with the Saudi royal family and the bin Ladens. And everyone is sick of hearing about the war in Iraq; even if you're an idiot and thinks the war was the right thing, you're probably sick of hearing about it and all the lies and deceit that led up to the shameless event.
What is quite possible about the Obama's campaign is that Obama isn't providing enough substantive policy and election platform, because he's shaping his policy and saving the release of the nuts-n-bolts of it all until he's facing John McCain... not much reason or rationale to drop elements that the GOP can get a jump start on fucking up the Democratic contender's election campaign.
However, a President doesn't need to have it all worked about during the campaign, because all policy concepts need to be flexible once one is occupying the Oval Office. In reality, the President can't ramrod policy down the the throat of the American public -- they have to go through the Congress, and people see to forget that. If the Congress is about putting up road blocks for the President, he or she ain't gettin' shit done.
The President does need to be charismatic or at least have some sort of the media impact -- Reagan, Billy Clinton, and Dubya all have a strong media impact quality; Reagan and Clinton hold people in their sway because they speak with such direct fluidity toward the audience; Dubya's complete display of ignorance and inarticulateness is so shocking that it's captivating for the sheer joke of it all.
Senator Obama's voice is gripping like a Tony Robbins character, but that doesn't make him a demagogue.
Hillary Clinton - much like Al Gore during his presidential run -- is too packaged, too staid to be captivating, and yes, sadly, because she's an older woman the key components of her charisma have aged away or would be highly inappropriate for her to use to aide her media image -- even if she was doing squats and lunges for the past 16 years and had a tight asss and lithe legs, she'd be taken to task and laughed at if she wore any kind of clothing that accentuated her female sexuality.
So it goes to reason that Hillary's campaign and those who are supposed to be impartial in their reporting on the campaign are going to find whatever they can to perform character assassination on Obama. This is a smart thing, because ultimately the likability of a candidate has an overwhelming amount of ethereal evidence as to why a voter chooses a candidate.
Mark my words, lots of people didn't like Walter Mondale, didn't like Michale Dukakis, didn't like Bob Dole, didn't lilke John Kerry as people, as someone who they are supposed to respect as the "face" of the nation -- and that's why their opponents beat them in the election.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
America The Brave? How About America The Weak!?!
There's a lot of talk that Barak Obama is a weak candidate because he has openly talked about sitting down with America's various nemesis nations around the globe and starting a dialogue with NO PRECONDITIONS! This is includes Cuba, Iran and Venezuela.
If you think about why Hillary and all the GOP candidates don't go for this -- it has to do with the American Psyche. Americans believe basically that it's us versus the world because everyone in the World wants the one thing that we offer -- a chance to be an American citizen.
The thing about why the U.S. Government is only willing to negotiate with Iran on the point of nuclear arms, before even considering discussing anything else stems from the the 1979 Hostage crisis. The Iranian Revolution beat America's ass for the whole world to see, and we basically didn't do anything about it -- which softened up the Democrats for the next 4 presidential elections. The US now just can't get over what happened almost 30 years ago.
And that's also why the U.S. Government refuse to even recognize Fidel Castro and Cuba, because he turned his back on America and seized up all the American business assets that were based and nationalized them.
We all know that Dubya rolled up into Iraq and orchestrated Saddam Hussein's execution because Hussein attempted to assassinated Dubya's father after he left the Oval Office.
America is one of the most nationalistic/jingoistic countries the planet has ever seen -- it leads to us being basically an ideologically isolated nation, and the US's mindstate is that of The Zero Sum Game, but it's not the case. Many times when the U.S. does "bad" to other countries its believing that those antagonistic actions must to some "good" for the USA. But that's not all the case, in fact it's ultimately rarely the case.
The US Government has been so preoccupied with the Middle East since the 2nd Intifadah erupted in the fall of 2000, that its basically lost its ability to influence other places on the globe -- like Latin and South America. Do you honestly think that if GI Joes weren't getting their asses handed to them in Fallujah, that Dubya and Rummy wouldn't have thought twice about sending in troops to displace Hugo Chavez?
If you think about why Hillary and all the GOP candidates don't go for this -- it has to do with the American Psyche. Americans believe basically that it's us versus the world because everyone in the World wants the one thing that we offer -- a chance to be an American citizen.
The thing about why the U.S. Government is only willing to negotiate with Iran on the point of nuclear arms, before even considering discussing anything else stems from the the 1979 Hostage crisis. The Iranian Revolution beat America's ass for the whole world to see, and we basically didn't do anything about it -- which softened up the Democrats for the next 4 presidential elections. The US now just can't get over what happened almost 30 years ago.
And that's also why the U.S. Government refuse to even recognize Fidel Castro and Cuba, because he turned his back on America and seized up all the American business assets that were based and nationalized them.
We all know that Dubya rolled up into Iraq and orchestrated Saddam Hussein's execution because Hussein attempted to assassinated Dubya's father after he left the Oval Office.
America is one of the most nationalistic/jingoistic countries the planet has ever seen -- it leads to us being basically an ideologically isolated nation, and the US's mindstate is that of The Zero Sum Game, but it's not the case. Many times when the U.S. does "bad" to other countries its believing that those antagonistic actions must to some "good" for the USA. But that's not all the case, in fact it's ultimately rarely the case.
The US Government has been so preoccupied with the Middle East since the 2nd Intifadah erupted in the fall of 2000, that its basically lost its ability to influence other places on the globe -- like Latin and South America. Do you honestly think that if GI Joes weren't getting their asses handed to them in Fallujah, that Dubya and Rummy wouldn't have thought twice about sending in troops to displace Hugo Chavez?
Endorsements
This is late but...
Over the weekend Barak Obama stormed through South Carolina and took the state, and with something like 25% white votes (up from 10% only a few weeks before)… which is huge.
But what’s really huge is Carolyn and Ted Kennedy
Carolyn Kennedy, the last of those connected with JKF said in the NYTimes Op-Ed the other day“we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.” in regards to supporting Barak Obama.
Now I have to say that the forced parallels between Obama and JFK are interesting, yet scary at the same time. When JFK was running for office, Dwight Eisenhower was gearing up to warn the country about the frightening rising power of the military industrial complex. When Obama is running for office, Prescott’s grandson has been exerting that self-same military industrial complex at the expense of the United State’s economy and its geopolitical power/diplomatic reputation THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE.
JFK came from a rich family with money and political ties that pre-dated Prohibition – Obama’s pop comes from East Africa!
Carolyn Kennedy ended her op-ed piece with this, “I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.” Again the parallels with her Pops are endless, but most importantly
Lastly, will the most dubious parallel hang around Obama’s neck the way it hangs around JFK’s? And I don’t mean dicking down a famous movie star! (and truth be told, there ain’t no young star who’d be worth it – sure someone like Jessica Alba or Emily Blunt – don’t slip on this white girl’s booty!, but aside from that…)
Here’s the thing about Obama – he is getting the youthful cynics who have cringed at politics since they were kids during the Reagan era to become part of the process. Even if American national politics is the most rigged political theater this side of an African dictator claiming he wants democratic reforms, to have people actual giving a flying fuck about their future and their children’s future is what makes Obama a contender. Now, will a huge majority of white folks pull the lever in the voting booth when they reach the “nigger candidate” is the huge question… they did so in Iowa to a winning result, and they obviously did so in the Nevada and New Hampshire (but in large enough numbers).
On a side note, you know what is interesting? Why is it that when people talk about the lower classes in America, its referred to as “the working class”? When we all goddamn well know that what is meant is those who really slave for their minimum wages and getting pegging by that Dominatrix with heavy duty strapon going by the sobriquet of Big Business/Corporate America?
GetHuman
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Pegging The Public Good
There was a item in yesterday’s NPR Morning Edition where Wal-Mart – after getting slammed as being the all-purpose boogey-man for corporate greed by Barak Obama on Monday night’s debates – was announcing plans where it was going to be doing “Public good.”
This is a CROCK OF SHIT!
No corporation ever will do “Public good” unless it’s getting its hand so far up the Public’s skirt that the Public would cry “rape” if it knew what was happening – but every corporation has high quality GHB (i.e. a PR Department) to enable the Public to get fucked and not know it.
WalMart – with its egregiously aggressive drive for lower prices has damaged the American economy wholesale – is up here claiming that they want to do away with hand-written prescriptions and have electronic scripts. This sounds like Big Brother activity to me, and a way to market more worthless shit to you and me.
It’s a grandiose effort of tomfoolery for any corporation to claim in a press conference or press release that it’s acting in the Public good. I’m sure Enron was operating in the “Public good” when it swindle not only its employees but its customers, supplies and shareholders. Now that’s an extreme as fuck case, but it’s representative of the mindset that the Corporate Bigwigs have when it comes to rakin’ in the cheddar.
It’s like whenever there is a massive slaughtering on the Wall Street – like the current one – and the investment companies have the same refrain, put your money back in stocks, the market will eventually rise past the current correction and you’ll make money in the long run. This might be true; however, all these investment types are making money hand over fist when you lose money!!! They be up here steady making money when the stock market goes down, goes up, goes no where – they have their hand in your pocket off of every single transaction; so when the trading volume is huge like it’s been the last week, a lot of people and firms are lining their accounts by siphoning moolah from your retirement account.
Any action that we see a corporation do is something it’s doing to hook itself – in spite of you most of the time, but if there happens to be a confluence WHERE IT LOOKS LIKE the Corp is hooking you, then it’s really getting over.
Have you read that study where it was determined that the so-called “crash position” that they ask everyone to assume in the event of an airplane crash will actually kill you? It’s because the Corporate Bean-Counters know it’s better to have all passengers die than survive so it can be reported that a couple miraculously survived. When in truth, the product liability and negligence lawsuits that would arise if I large portion of the passengers survived would not only kill the airline that had the crash, but smash the entire airline industry with taxes and raises rates to cover mandatory insurance.
Have you ever seen that Michael Mann flick called THE INSIDER? I was peeping it again this morning before getting dressed and I just remembered how this movie pulled the wool off of the stranglehold that corporate interests have on the Public Good. However, that movie was a resounding flop and the story it was based (from Vanity Fair reporting on true, ugly events) was about the tobacco industry flexing its political and legal muscle to get a former tobacco enhancement scientist to shut his fuckin’ mouth!
It’s just a classic example of a Corporation refusing to have the Public’s interest at heart, and to feel the need to dick down whoever wants to try to get Big Business to play otherwise.
Incidentally, I'm sure you all know what pegging means...
This is a CROCK OF SHIT!
No corporation ever will do “Public good” unless it’s getting its hand so far up the Public’s skirt that the Public would cry “rape” if it knew what was happening – but every corporation has high quality GHB (i.e. a PR Department) to enable the Public to get fucked and not know it.
WalMart – with its egregiously aggressive drive for lower prices has damaged the American economy wholesale – is up here claiming that they want to do away with hand-written prescriptions and have electronic scripts. This sounds like Big Brother activity to me, and a way to market more worthless shit to you and me.
It’s a grandiose effort of tomfoolery for any corporation to claim in a press conference or press release that it’s acting in the Public good. I’m sure Enron was operating in the “Public good” when it swindle not only its employees but its customers, supplies and shareholders. Now that’s an extreme as fuck case, but it’s representative of the mindset that the Corporate Bigwigs have when it comes to rakin’ in the cheddar.
It’s like whenever there is a massive slaughtering on the Wall Street – like the current one – and the investment companies have the same refrain, put your money back in stocks, the market will eventually rise past the current correction and you’ll make money in the long run. This might be true; however, all these investment types are making money hand over fist when you lose money!!! They be up here steady making money when the stock market goes down, goes up, goes no where – they have their hand in your pocket off of every single transaction; so when the trading volume is huge like it’s been the last week, a lot of people and firms are lining their accounts by siphoning moolah from your retirement account.
Any action that we see a corporation do is something it’s doing to hook itself – in spite of you most of the time, but if there happens to be a confluence WHERE IT LOOKS LIKE the Corp is hooking you, then it’s really getting over.
Have you read that study where it was determined that the so-called “crash position” that they ask everyone to assume in the event of an airplane crash will actually kill you? It’s because the Corporate Bean-Counters know it’s better to have all passengers die than survive so it can be reported that a couple miraculously survived. When in truth, the product liability and negligence lawsuits that would arise if I large portion of the passengers survived would not only kill the airline that had the crash, but smash the entire airline industry with taxes and raises rates to cover mandatory insurance.
Have you ever seen that Michael Mann flick called THE INSIDER? I was peeping it again this morning before getting dressed and I just remembered how this movie pulled the wool off of the stranglehold that corporate interests have on the Public Good. However, that movie was a resounding flop and the story it was based (from Vanity Fair reporting on true, ugly events) was about the tobacco industry flexing its political and legal muscle to get a former tobacco enhancement scientist to shut his fuckin’ mouth!
It’s just a classic example of a Corporation refusing to have the Public’s interest at heart, and to feel the need to dick down whoever wants to try to get Big Business to play otherwise.
Incidentally, I'm sure you all know what pegging means...
Monday, January 21, 2008
BLACK & TAN FANTASY
Even though is one of my favorite Duke Ellington songs, I have to posit this post as the fantasy is exactly that – a sham, when it comes to Blacks and Hispanics in America.
The recent Nevada Democratic caucus has underscored something that the media isn’t talking about – which is how much Hispanics want to distance themselves from Blacks, who I think they generally hold contempt for. In fact, I’d wager that most people of color hold American niggas in contempt. Why would the Hispanics want to distance themselves from niggas? Simple, all people of color want the benefits of being a minority but don’t want to be permanently labeled as one... which is what happened to American Blacks.
It’s ironically fitting that I post this on the Martin Luther King Day holiday, where this year also marks the 40th anniversary of his political slaying which was preceded by one of King’s most interesting speeches, the I’ve Been To The Mountain Top speech for the striking sanitation workers – a job category that niggas were working real hard to get away from. Although you do see a good amount of niggas slavin’ to pick up the trash of others (the worst part about it is most of people’s trash ain’t been triaged! At least recycle them water bottles, soda cans and beer!)
The one thing that Hispanics have benefited from tremendously is the water-cannon and dog attacks that Blacks took to enable other People of Color to grab their piece of the American Dream, whereas niggas have been left in extra wet clothing and with still-fresh bite-marks… a lot of good that do ‘em.
The nexus with Blacks and Hispanics or Latinos as they want to be referenced as some of the time, is that they don’t get along. If you look at the race-on-race violence within, say Los Angeles over the past year, there has been a disturbing trend in the straight up murderin’ goin’ on with Latins up here buckin’ down niggas like it was Wabbit Season or somethin’! A lot o’ it is gang initiation ritual and rites o’ passage, but it conveniently leaves the White Boy and the Asian the fuck outta Dodge (if white youth were getting’ kilt the way niggas be gettin’ hemmed up, Mayor Antonio Villariagosa would have the national guard up in this piece!)
What does all this mean? It means that Latinos will not vote for Barak Obama – I didn’t about this until after the Nevada vote, where the Unions backed Obama publicly, but their rank-n-file didn’t get down with the Agent of Change.
Somebody over the weekend put it best, the Soccer Mom votes for Barak and the Waitress Ma votes for Hillary; guess where a huge swath of Latinos fall --especially in the Southwest.
I chalk up the inability of other people of color to trust a Black man with their future to that stalwart of all stalwarts, the Anti-Nigga Machine and its unstoppable, incestuous propaganda that disparaged and continues to disparage Black people. Maybe Hispanics or Latinos claim “white” on census type forms!
What was killing me is how certain Black political leaders are up in the piece claimin’ that Bill Clinton is just as Black, if not more Black, than Barak Obama – and it’s attributable to what? His behavior of cigar-fucking an intern? Eating fried chicken in the Oval Office? Cheating on his wife? And talking her out of leaving his ass? Now, if you saw tonight's CNN debate in South Carolina, you'da seen how smooth talkin' Barak was in answering the inane question on whether or not Bill as the 1st nigga president.
Now, I’m not Clinton hater by any means. Bill Clinton is my boy; yet think there will never be an opportunity for America to put a Black man in office, and a lot of it has to do with Obama’s designate for being An Agent of Change.
As we get closer to Super Tuesady, Barak Obama's putting out his campaign platform -- which is gonna be critical to get white people to vote for him in the numbers to overshadow the Latino vote -- which isn't going to hook a Person of Color, let along vote for a Democrat. It's a known fact that Latins are really under the GOPs thumb, and claim white -- that is if they're not illegal and able to vote in the first place!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA, part one of a series
Last night I was trawling through the Ralph’s on Sunset near La Brea, and after I finished making my selections of butter, marmalade, English muffins and Jameson, I made my way to the check-out station. I couldn’t use the automated one (why don't those things work at night?), so I had to rely on the late shift people. Not one of my favorite things to do, as it takes an inordinate amount of time to scantron your items the later and later it becomes at night.
Anyway, I usually read the weekly news magazines or fitness mags as I wait in line. But I noticed a curious thing – every fucking magazine in the Ralph's was some piece of shitrag gossip tabloid! All booming the same sad, "I-don't-give-a-fuck" story – the mental collapse of that uber-cum dumpster Britney Spears (talk about your walking nuclera waste zone), with such headlines as “Time Bomb” or “Mental Disaster” plastered beneath either the destructive, current pictures of the has-been songbird or next to images of her former squeaky-clean self (which are funny to see now).
The thing about Spears is, she’s not even cute. Just an average bitch who you wouldn’t look twice at if she was standing in line behind you at your local Ralph’s. I mean, even in her heyday, I couldn’t get hard to jack-off to her when I was between girlfriends. Didn’t matter what photo it was, my dick stayed limp - even that so-called hot one fro the cover of Esquire which was a bite of an Angie Dickinson cover (ain't that a name for a hot bitch?).
But back to the plethora of bullshit in the check-out line... there is no excuse for that, none what-so-ever! It all goes back to the fact that Americans are probably the most ill-informed and perhaps overall stupid populace in the entire developed world. And we rejoice in that fact.
What’s the deal with all that? Why do Americans, as a general rule, eschew education, intelligence, quest for knowledge and other things that signify anti-idiocy? Even though the term “the dumb jock” is bandied about with a bit of derision, people still suck the dumb jock’s cock when he’s at the height of his popularity in high school. Someone was telling me the other day that in China 30% of the students in the University level of education are getting math & science degrees, whereas in the US only like 5% of the student body is getting down with the hard sciences.
Come to think of it, all things about the shamelessness of our adult lives stem from the bullshit that takes place in high school. I’m surprised high school isn’t more socially controlled than it is, because too much psychically damaging shit happens during those 4 years that affect the rest of your life the way no other 4 years in your entire existence can or do.
Reap what you sow Amerikka, reap what you sow.
AMERIKKKA'S SINN
You probably wonder why I haven’t weighed in on the so-called Racist remarks that emerged from the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign.
Well, why the hell should I?
It’s expected that I do, and so I’m not.
Of course this backstabbing is just a dangerous foreshadowing of what the GOP are going to do to Barak Obama, should he receive the nomination. I honestly believe that once the Democrats get closer to choosing Barak or Hillary, and the GOP narrows their field to two candidates, GOP media-assassination gangs (like the people who developed the Willie Horton advert or the Swift Boat shit) are going to slowly leak racist and misogynistic negative ads on the internet, so that by the time the Democratic National Convention rolls around there’s going to be an undercurrent of anti-Black and anti-Women throughout the South.
Take a look at what’s being done to Barak Obama right this fuckin’ minute!!! He’s being accused of ibeing of Muslim (which I guess it tantamount to being a card-carrying Communist in the Cold War Days), of clandestinely using a Qu’ran instead of a bible during his swearing in/oath of office ceremonies, and of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (which is something I haven’t done since I was 15, nor I have I sung the so-called national anthem) at any time! Uh… doesn’t a supreme court justice hold out the bible for swearing in Senators?!?! And hasn’t Barak led the charge in the Senate for time to time when presiding over the Senate, and how could he be a Muslim, when he’s been seen at church??! What happened to freedom of religion? Oh, I forgot if it’s not a Western European approved religion, then you best back the hell up!
These are the type of attacks that are insidious, because they are completely unable to be proved, and yet what do they do? They impugn Obama’s integrity, call into question his patriotism and associate him with “the evil ones” in the minds and eyes of the weak-fucks who believe being a Christian – especially an evangelical one – is paramount to presiding in the Oval Office. Dubya’s debacle of a presidency had “strong Christian values” as one of its cornerstones, yet the pure evil, vindictive attitude and shockingly amoral behavior that was vomited out from his command center is truly oxymoronic; even his 2000 catch-phrase of Compassionate Conservative smacks of embracing a Southern Christian flair. Said flair is close in blind spirit to the Taliban and other foolish Islamic fundamentalists.
The GOP are just sharpening their knives for Hillary and Obama – either one enables the GOP dirty trick purveyors to have a field day. They must be jacking off now (or in the case of Anne Coulter, fist-fucking herself with a dock-workers glove) with glee, because they will challenge themselves by having to be shrewd and not come across as racist or anti-female as the get ready to rip.
Obama's message for CHANGE is what the world needs. For the country not to get behind him means that we deserve everything we get over the next 10 years -- whether it's three more terrorist attacks, a depression fueled from a run on the dollar, trade deficits that are sky high, loss of all manufacturing within the continental United States, mass exodus of money and brainiacs... expect it all and then some.
Well, why the hell should I?
It’s expected that I do, and so I’m not.
Of course this backstabbing is just a dangerous foreshadowing of what the GOP are going to do to Barak Obama, should he receive the nomination. I honestly believe that once the Democrats get closer to choosing Barak or Hillary, and the GOP narrows their field to two candidates, GOP media-assassination gangs (like the people who developed the Willie Horton advert or the Swift Boat shit) are going to slowly leak racist and misogynistic negative ads on the internet, so that by the time the Democratic National Convention rolls around there’s going to be an undercurrent of anti-Black and anti-Women throughout the South.
Take a look at what’s being done to Barak Obama right this fuckin’ minute!!! He’s being accused of ibeing of Muslim (which I guess it tantamount to being a card-carrying Communist in the Cold War Days), of clandestinely using a Qu’ran instead of a bible during his swearing in/oath of office ceremonies, and of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (which is something I haven’t done since I was 15, nor I have I sung the so-called national anthem) at any time! Uh… doesn’t a supreme court justice hold out the bible for swearing in Senators?!?! And hasn’t Barak led the charge in the Senate for time to time when presiding over the Senate, and how could he be a Muslim, when he’s been seen at church??! What happened to freedom of religion? Oh, I forgot if it’s not a Western European approved religion, then you best back the hell up!
These are the type of attacks that are insidious, because they are completely unable to be proved, and yet what do they do? They impugn Obama’s integrity, call into question his patriotism and associate him with “the evil ones” in the minds and eyes of the weak-fucks who believe being a Christian – especially an evangelical one – is paramount to presiding in the Oval Office. Dubya’s debacle of a presidency had “strong Christian values” as one of its cornerstones, yet the pure evil, vindictive attitude and shockingly amoral behavior that was vomited out from his command center is truly oxymoronic; even his 2000 catch-phrase of Compassionate Conservative smacks of embracing a Southern Christian flair. Said flair is close in blind spirit to the Taliban and other foolish Islamic fundamentalists.
The GOP are just sharpening their knives for Hillary and Obama – either one enables the GOP dirty trick purveyors to have a field day. They must be jacking off now (or in the case of Anne Coulter, fist-fucking herself with a dock-workers glove) with glee, because they will challenge themselves by having to be shrewd and not come across as racist or anti-female as the get ready to rip.
Obama's message for CHANGE is what the world needs. For the country not to get behind him means that we deserve everything we get over the next 10 years -- whether it's three more terrorist attacks, a depression fueled from a run on the dollar, trade deficits that are sky high, loss of all manufacturing within the continental United States, mass exodus of money and brainiacs... expect it all and then some.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Now that it's 2008, and we can see the end of the Dubya era, I can start back on this blog. First off, I'll put my hat in the ring about who should be president -- obviously it's Barak Obama, but not because he's black and because I happen to be a notorious negro agitator. No, it's not that at all -- it's because Obama represents serious change and that elusive concept of Hope. The public good and the Public's trust in his capacity to do "good" (what ever the fuck that means), and what he needs to do though to guarantee a better shot a getting assassinated on his path to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, is define what it means to be the Spirit of Hope, and not just embody it 'cause "We The People" are so got damn jaded.
The thing about being jaded about the political machine is that is exactly what The über-Class wants -- they want you to be apathetic to what's going on in the world, in the country, in what ever state you live in, in the county and city that you call home and pay taxes into. That's why you're more interested or at least sucked into believing there is something fascinating about the coke-fueled shenanigans of a entertainment industry dilettantes.
Don't think Brittany's meltdown was planned by certain people.
Comments of were Entertainment Is Headed
Please listen to David Lynch, notably director of BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY, and co-creator of that wacky show, "Twin Peaks".
He is completely right about an audience experiencing a film -- what is immediately lost by watching a film on a smaller and smaller portable screening is that a lot of the new technologies -- that cost money -- are lost, namely sound design and the improved definition from HD video, also the vaunted VFX that make movies so important to today, but date the hell out of them for tomorrow. Let alone all the dap that people want from digital projection, nor will new exciting tech like 3D be experienced at all on the iPhone.
Filmmakers don't want their films to migrate to the small screen -- the ability to affect one's emotions thru the use of various lenses and editing is effectively lost on such a small screen, and I honestly don't believe the audience does either.
However, muthafuckas don't have time to check out flicks at some digital projected cushioned the-ater seating! Like the ArcLight in Hollywood.
But I think that the media conglomerates just want to find continued revenue streams for a product that is ultimately mean for enjoyment, not so much as cash cow. However, think about this so much of what is driving the US economy - hi-tech, based on upon how consumers are going to watch filmed entertainment. All the consumer electronic companies want shit to play on their razor thin screens. If you didn't hear, Panasonic has acknowledged the fact that they need to get in lock-step with the entertainment companies, but not really have any creative input.
The WGA Strike isn't helping things 'cause it's having people find other forms of video entertainment.
I'll keep writing and directing, but all forms of entertainment are getting reduced to the level of a commodity, which isn't good because quality doesn't win out at the point. Not that it has recently, as the "yes" men just churn out whatever they want to see and that is something that has to continue to propagate what's always been.
Take a look at Leon Wynter's book AMERICAN SKIN for some dap on this.
However, money for advertising and celebrity endorsement is what will get people to watch whatever. because I don't think the viral quality of a YouTube clip is worth the emotional commitment you can get from a film. If you notice what gets the big views on YouTube is low-brow comedy and shit that shocks (like Saddam Hussein's execution)
Tune in this time next year.
MEDIA ASSASSIN on HBO
Early this month we saw the return of HBO’s THE WIRE, expertly created by former newspaper man David Simon. This fifth season also happens to be the final season for the most under-appreciated show that has EVER been on television – a show that after four gut-punching seasons has received no industry praise/acclaim – no Golden Globes or Emmys (which means those awards are right up there with the Oscars as shams, rigged jack-off moments for Hollywood and Upper Manhattan) wins, let alone nominations (this I could be wrong about, but I highly doubt it. Only the entertainment press acknowledges that this show is amazing of the public, whetherh it's the NYTimes or Entertainment Weekly or just some kid you talk to in line at the laundry mat the show is a word of mouth show like no other.
This season on THE WIRE the focus of attention is on THE MEDIA, most specifically a fictionalized version of the Baltimore Sun (coincidentally Simon’s alma matter) -- and how they don't have enough money to cover even the most basic of news in a city that has a dwindling readership and a dwindling financial base to provide the money to make the journalist have some morale.
It's interesting to watch the opening chapter of this show each season, because it doesn't tell you AT ALL what the whole series is going to be about. You get reacquainted with the people that you know and love, or just know and respect or down-right hate. And you're introduced to the new people -- this time it's the editor of the City Desk at the newspaper that's going to be forced to kill some key story because of politics; that I can see coming already, because that's the one thing that would kill a newspaper man -- the death of freedom of speech and the deep-sixing of a national news story (which reporters love, because they can get book deals as a result of the celebrity, take a look a Billy Wilder's ACE IN THE HOLE for the type of shit that can happen to a report in his (or her) quest for that one scoop that'll make THEM news (which is what they all eventually want any way).
But what do I know? I'm just a huge fan of this kind of television... more like this kind of storytelling, because it explores the human condition in a way that is unparalleled -- even a documentary doesn't do it as well, because it's dispensing facts as it entertains, as opposed to entertaining whilst sneaking in facts. I'm mean The Wire has the immediacy and heartbreak of that one dope as fuck documentary about inner city youths HOOP DREAMSYou'd be hard pressed to name another piece of filmed entertainment that tells it like it really is.
After "MORE WITH LESS", I was once again hooked with the show -- with the gestalt of the show. Can't pinpoint any one thing at this point, but I'm always happy to see "The Bunk" and "Omar" grace the tube.
In the second episode, the show begins to unfold with signs of a man going down the abyss and liking what he finds there because it serves his purpose of what he believes is a greater good - an ends justifies the means scenarios -- which is going to have nitroglycerin on a bumpy road results.
Check the show out! If you value what entertainment is supposed to be, and not the shit that Hollywood pumps out to keep you dumb; soma has risen from the fiction pages. Believe that!
Also, you might be wondering why I’ve been posting so much recently? Well, I’m not in the homeless situation that I was for such a long period of time. I’m living in a boarding house, so I’m not entirely out of the woods yet – soon though, very soon.
DEATH TO INTERNAL COMBUSTION
Apparently, and this has to be verified, the Toyota Prius outsold a certain model of SUV in the most recent quarter or over all of last year.
This is good news.
The one thing that rankles me about the rise of the hybrid car is that the German automakers haven’t jumped into the mix. I’m never buying an American car, which means most of the upcoming hybrids are American made, and I’m not a fan of Japanese cars either – I’ve never had a “good” ride in one. What they are good for is that they address a shitload of creature comforts, but the seating isn’t good for my back and I get back strain (that Doan's Pills don't help) and become quite tired quickly when driving in a Japanese car (Hondas, Acuras and Lexuses). Hence, why I want a German car... the thing that Porsche should have done is teamed up with Telsa Motors when Telsa was out searching for a car company to put their vaunted electric engine in! Telsa chose Lotus to make the bodies for the Telsa. Granted Porsche would have undermined part of its consumer base and it would have undercut the one key thing Porsche has a rep for – strong as fuck engines – but the auto companies are the part one of the two part firewall that’s blocking the transference away from gasoline powered vehicles.
People need to get with the program and get the fuck off of gas for car transpo, because as oil reaches its peak and then begins to plunge, the one thing that petroleum only needs to be used for is the manufacture plastic.
Just take a quick gander around your house, the room you're reading this in and take register of what is made of plastic or coated with plastic or treated with plastic.
I don't know about you, but I'm looking to put my money behind those who are about diggin up landfills and recycling plastic that's be sitting and moldering for decades.
This is good news.
The one thing that rankles me about the rise of the hybrid car is that the German automakers haven’t jumped into the mix. I’m never buying an American car, which means most of the upcoming hybrids are American made, and I’m not a fan of Japanese cars either – I’ve never had a “good” ride in one. What they are good for is that they address a shitload of creature comforts, but the seating isn’t good for my back and I get back strain (that Doan's Pills don't help) and become quite tired quickly when driving in a Japanese car (Hondas, Acuras and Lexuses). Hence, why I want a German car... the thing that Porsche should have done is teamed up with Telsa Motors when Telsa was out searching for a car company to put their vaunted electric engine in! Telsa chose Lotus to make the bodies for the Telsa. Granted Porsche would have undermined part of its consumer base and it would have undercut the one key thing Porsche has a rep for – strong as fuck engines – but the auto companies are the part one of the two part firewall that’s blocking the transference away from gasoline powered vehicles.
People need to get with the program and get the fuck off of gas for car transpo, because as oil reaches its peak and then begins to plunge, the one thing that petroleum only needs to be used for is the manufacture plastic.
Just take a quick gander around your house, the room you're reading this in and take register of what is made of plastic or coated with plastic or treated with plastic.
I don't know about you, but I'm looking to put my money behind those who are about diggin up landfills and recycling plastic that's be sitting and moldering for decades.
CRIPPLING SoCal AND THE HUGE EXPORT ECONOMY
So the Writers Guild of America Strike continues into its 10 week – with no end in sight, and the affects on the Los Angeles county economy have to be staggering; imagine this, something $150 million off missed payments aren’t been funneled into the narrow economy that comprises La La Land where the ramification of that missed income doesn’t service the debt on one of the country’s most over-heated housing markets. Hundreds of people are missing their mortgage payments and will probably put a fair of the $600K and above homes on the foreclosure list.
The thing about the WGA Strike is that they’ve made a side deal with David Letterman and just today with CBS News, which means that the WGA is looking to stick it to the media robber barons (and who wouldn’t, given the chance?) at the expense of several things – their members, the non-creative people in the industry (by alienating their lot due to lay-offs and award show cancellations), and foreign sales buyers.
To have the Golden Globes get scuttled and the same possibility for the Oscars is quite interesting because of the all the extra revenue those TV broadcasts funnel toward those movies and TV shows (the Golden Globe winners, that is). There’s box office bumps of millions of dollars from the films that are nominated and then win these awards. Yet the real kick in the nuts is to the people who sell Hollywood internationally. Huge sums of money come from the foreign market, huge fucking sums!
Interestingly enough the scuttling of the Golden Globes will cost Hollywood $80 millions from the cancelled parties and other crap that’s required to have the even go on – freelance hair dressers, clothing boutiques, caterers, etc.
Well... no one said sticking it to the Corporate Supercapitalists was going to be easy.
The thing about the WGA Strike is that they’ve made a side deal with David Letterman and just today with CBS News, which means that the WGA is looking to stick it to the media robber barons (and who wouldn’t, given the chance?) at the expense of several things – their members, the non-creative people in the industry (by alienating their lot due to lay-offs and award show cancellations), and foreign sales buyers.
To have the Golden Globes get scuttled and the same possibility for the Oscars is quite interesting because of the all the extra revenue those TV broadcasts funnel toward those movies and TV shows (the Golden Globe winners, that is). There’s box office bumps of millions of dollars from the films that are nominated and then win these awards. Yet the real kick in the nuts is to the people who sell Hollywood internationally. Huge sums of money come from the foreign market, huge fucking sums!
Interestingly enough the scuttling of the Golden Globes will cost Hollywood $80 millions from the cancelled parties and other crap that’s required to have the even go on – freelance hair dressers, clothing boutiques, caterers, etc.
Well... no one said sticking it to the Corporate Supercapitalists was going to be easy.
CAN'T TRUSS IT
So the Vaunted Political Polls were drastically inaccurate in predicting Obama’s smashing of Hillary in the New Hampshire primary (one of them polls has Barak up 13 points! Like that was ever to be believed?! I would have shit on that poll result the minute I saw it).
The innate problem with using matrixes to predict the outcome of anything is that one is dealing with a limited sample, and you can never never never never ever predict the behavior of the surprised –
Even though a certain swath of the American electorate wants Obama, they were not going to allow a nigga whup up on a political stalwart in such a critical time. And most likely throughout the rest of the democratic campaigns, there will but those whites, blacks and other people of color who will subconscious steer away from Obama – will shouting his name, mind you – and his candidacy.
But he's not the only one having to overcome a certain level of discrimination. When Hillary hecklers yelled “Iron my shirt!” at her in Salem on Monday, it stirred sisterhood and she claimed a whole buncha chicks who were thinking about the svelt Mr. Obama – white, black, brown, didn’t matter they all wanted to bask in the glow that is Barak Obama, they HAD to vote for Hillary, especially after she exhibited her "choked up" moment.
The funny thing about Obama is, all the little jokes that Black comedians have been making since Bill Clinton was in office (when he was dubbed the “black president” by some), i.e. eating only fried chicken from the White House kitchen and usin’ Black ‘n Milds as sex toys, don’t seem to work with Obama being the one being dumped on. His blackness isn’t in question, but his ghetto-fabulousness, niggadom most definitely is – and SHOULD be; because that hyper-stylized form of so-called “blackness” might represent what is considered “real” in the hip-hop world, but is suspect in the military-industrial world that churns the nation’s economic backbone.
The innate problem with using matrixes to predict the outcome of anything is that one is dealing with a limited sample, and you can never never never never ever predict the behavior of the surprised –
Even though a certain swath of the American electorate wants Obama, they were not going to allow a nigga whup up on a political stalwart in such a critical time. And most likely throughout the rest of the democratic campaigns, there will but those whites, blacks and other people of color who will subconscious steer away from Obama – will shouting his name, mind you – and his candidacy.
But he's not the only one having to overcome a certain level of discrimination. When Hillary hecklers yelled “Iron my shirt!” at her in Salem on Monday, it stirred sisterhood and she claimed a whole buncha chicks who were thinking about the svelt Mr. Obama – white, black, brown, didn’t matter they all wanted to bask in the glow that is Barak Obama, they HAD to vote for Hillary, especially after she exhibited her "choked up" moment.
The funny thing about Obama is, all the little jokes that Black comedians have been making since Bill Clinton was in office (when he was dubbed the “black president” by some), i.e. eating only fried chicken from the White House kitchen and usin’ Black ‘n Milds as sex toys, don’t seem to work with Obama being the one being dumped on. His blackness isn’t in question, but his ghetto-fabulousness, niggadom most definitely is – and SHOULD be; because that hyper-stylized form of so-called “blackness” might represent what is considered “real” in the hip-hop world, but is suspect in the military-industrial world that churns the nation’s economic backbone.
The Assassin's Creed
I wish this was about that new UBISOFT video game for Playstation 3, but unfortunately it’s not. This is about political enforcement because an assassination is quite different that straight up murder. The Assassin’s Creed is simple – your sense of what is right and wrong is sublimated by an exterior code; typically that code takes the form of cold, hard, cash; sometimes that code takes the form of an ideology. Either way one’s sense of morality is circumspect and therefore dangerous.
To that end one has to wonder what is in the mental make-up of an assassin, especially an assassin who turns into a suicide bomber! The news that quite literally rocked the world today was the successful assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was heading up the opposition party to the military regime that’s been running Pakistan for close to a decade. The current Paki Prime Minister Musharef is a military strongman who only recently gave up the army garb for a suit and tie, but we all know that he’s a G.I. Jaleel at heart.
A first hand account of the assassination indicated that Bhutto gave a speech today, and then drove off in her death-proof motorcade. However, following her routine of waving to her crowd of supporters after a speech, Bhutto asked her security to allow her to pop her head through the bullet vehicles sunroof. She was inexplicably granted this request, and when Bhutto stood up to greet her people, at least three shots were fired directly at her. As she tumbled back inside the suicide bomber unleashed his coup de grace assault which rocked the car. It was stated the Bhutto was bleeding heavily from the face, and never regained consciousness as her staff rushed her to a nearby hospital.
The Assassins, the Jackals, the International Bogeymen probably rejoice at the success that which one of their brethren had artful executed a Status Quo Agitator. However, as more and more details spill out from the crime scene, it appears the Bhutto’s people (and her) were woeful negligent with their understanding of the security threat toward the charging politician. Hence, her untimely death.
To that end one has to wonder what is in the mental make-up of an assassin, especially an assassin who turns into a suicide bomber! The news that quite literally rocked the world today was the successful assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was heading up the opposition party to the military regime that’s been running Pakistan for close to a decade. The current Paki Prime Minister Musharef is a military strongman who only recently gave up the army garb for a suit and tie, but we all know that he’s a G.I. Jaleel at heart.
A first hand account of the assassination indicated that Bhutto gave a speech today, and then drove off in her death-proof motorcade. However, following her routine of waving to her crowd of supporters after a speech, Bhutto asked her security to allow her to pop her head through the bullet vehicles sunroof. She was inexplicably granted this request, and when Bhutto stood up to greet her people, at least three shots were fired directly at her. As she tumbled back inside the suicide bomber unleashed his coup de grace assault which rocked the car. It was stated the Bhutto was bleeding heavily from the face, and never regained consciousness as her staff rushed her to a nearby hospital.
The Assassins, the Jackals, the International Bogeymen probably rejoice at the success that which one of their brethren had artful executed a Status Quo Agitator. However, as more and more details spill out from the crime scene, it appears the Bhutto’s people (and her) were woeful negligent with their understanding of the security threat toward the charging politician. Hence, her untimely death.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
A VICTORY FOR A NIGGA
I wonder what Chuck D of Public Enemy fame said late last night when it was announced that Barak Obama had won the Democratic Iowa Caucasus? I’m sure the epic anthem music from PE’s seminal album Fear Of A Black Planet came cascading into his brain.
The biggest ideological message delivered from the Winner’s Circle, is that Americans – typically apathetic in national elections over the past three decades – came the fuck out and voted for CHANGE. Is change such an alien concept to anybody with a long pedigree in politics? And it’s not just any change we’re talking about, we’re talking about change of the way America perceives itself and the way America is perceived by the rest of the world. The concept of a seasoned political veteran is needed to run the most powerful quasi-democracy in the history of the planet. After 8 years of having an all-but-self-admitting mediocre man be president and wreak HAVOC with the country’s future, the desire to reclaim a sense of greatness has galvanized people to look past the major open sewer of a wound that has plague the United States since its inception – race – and consider what direction the country needs to go.
My argument against anyone who says that, “we have to an experienced leader” in the White House as means to discount Obama’s presidential bid is talking complete and utter boolshit! Dubya had no experience successfully running shit; in fact quite the opposite, old boy was known for running businesses into the ground; which he’s seemingly done with United States and besmirched the Land’s good will. Dubya was, is and will forever be a chump of the highest magnitude. It’s hard to catalog the farce of his presidency, but one this categorically undeniable his had no experience on doing anything and surrounded himself with his Daddy’s friends… like he’s always done. Where Prescott’s Grandson failed as a leader, is his own inability to analyze critical material and make an coherent, informed decision – not a decision that his underlings convince him is the best course of action.
Now that you’ve won a state’s delegates, the first time I think anyone Black has done such a thing, Barak keep your head inside the motorcade’s bulletproofing and hide your family in another country.
The biggest ideological message delivered from the Winner’s Circle, is that Americans – typically apathetic in national elections over the past three decades – came the fuck out and voted for CHANGE. Is change such an alien concept to anybody with a long pedigree in politics? And it’s not just any change we’re talking about, we’re talking about change of the way America perceives itself and the way America is perceived by the rest of the world. The concept of a seasoned political veteran is needed to run the most powerful quasi-democracy in the history of the planet. After 8 years of having an all-but-self-admitting mediocre man be president and wreak HAVOC with the country’s future, the desire to reclaim a sense of greatness has galvanized people to look past the major open sewer of a wound that has plague the United States since its inception – race – and consider what direction the country needs to go.
My argument against anyone who says that, “we have to an experienced leader” in the White House as means to discount Obama’s presidential bid is talking complete and utter boolshit! Dubya had no experience successfully running shit; in fact quite the opposite, old boy was known for running businesses into the ground; which he’s seemingly done with United States and besmirched the Land’s good will. Dubya was, is and will forever be a chump of the highest magnitude. It’s hard to catalog the farce of his presidency, but one this categorically undeniable his had no experience on doing anything and surrounded himself with his Daddy’s friends… like he’s always done. Where Prescott’s Grandson failed as a leader, is his own inability to analyze critical material and make an coherent, informed decision – not a decision that his underlings convince him is the best course of action.
Now that you’ve won a state’s delegates, the first time I think anyone Black has done such a thing, Barak keep your head inside the motorcade’s bulletproofing and hide your family in another country.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Arab Oil Barons smack the US into submission
The cost of a barrel of black gold –literally black gold – topped the $100 mark yesterday, and guess what? We’ll never see it drop below unless a new fuel source is adopted – and pretty damn quick!
The problem with $100/barrel oil is that America WASTES, yeah I said wastes, oil by using it damn near exclusively for transportation – sure we have some electric cars, but they don’t have any market penetration and hybrids still use gas and some modified form of one of the most dangerous inventions known to man – the internal combustion engine. Cars are the worst muthafucking pollutant-producing technology – that doesn’t have to be the way it is, sure it’ll take the auto companies to financial task and the brink of ruin (as if they’re not already there) to create cars that don’t use gasoline or use limited gasoline but why isn’t that on the tip of every presidential candidates tongue? Congress could just pass a law – to sell cars in America you need to have X mpg, but since we all know that Detroit can’t design or manufacture technology of that quality, Detroit should be given a tax break to enable it to produce the updated cars. Japan and Europe won’t be able to get the tax breaks, because they’re not American incorporated companies.
I said in a previous post, gas prices aren’t what people really need to worry about – technology and a mindset shift will get us all on alternatively powered vehicles. Where ever-rising oil prices are really going to slice the planet’s dick off is in the manufacture of plastic.
The fact that recycling isn’t a LAW that has severe financial punishment for non-compliance is a crime in itself. Just last night, I was cleaning up my filthy rooming house bathroom and kitchen, and there was like 5 trash cans with mixed garbage throughout – and at least 30 beer bottles (my housemates waste a LOT of disposable cash on beer and wine, especially considering that one of them is a alcoholic Russian chick who fucks for money and sustenance, but that’s another post) and maybe 12 to 15 soda cans – and as I live in Los Angeles there’s that CA Redemption value on all these recyclable materials. Yet no one thought to cull the items that could generate enough loose change for a bottle of laundry detergent.
Recycling plastic needs to be of paramount important, and finding was to reclaim plastic from landfills or when it’s supposedly non-recyclable is where there needs to be R&D at the major university labs.
You know what’s really FUCKED UP? Americans junk around two millions tons of electronics into landfills
Tech waste is the environmental problem du jour, replacing Styrofoam and disposable diapers. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation: If recycling it doesn't really result in it being recycled, and tossing it out just clogs landfills, what, exactly, are we supposed to do with this stuff?
That’s a question that Global Warming Environmentalists don’t talk about, and it’s where more and more R&D needs to be spent. In fact computer and electronics manufacturing companies should come up with the solution through some sort of legislation, something akin to the Green House Gas Credits concepts. Or maybe there should be extreme Tax Breaks offered to companies that can come up with ways to recycle all that plastic-coated wire and solder.
Now I might seem like a socialist or an extreme left-wing liberal by proposing all that the flawed, corrupt, “in the pocket of big business like a fascist regime” and bullshit-to-the-core American government pass laws to help with the environment. But let’s not kid ourselves, big business DOESN’T GIVE TWO SUCKS ON A DEAD DOG’S COCK about doing anything but maximizing profits, so fact CEOs can have 10s millions in bonuses.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich stated in his book SuperCapitalism that we are supremely foolish to believe that big business will do anything for the public good. They might align themselves with public sentiment if that sentiment means more cash flow (i.e. the whole jump on going “green”) – otherwise, it’s more raping of the public while the public subsidizes its own sodomy!!!
The problem with $100/barrel oil is that America WASTES, yeah I said wastes, oil by using it damn near exclusively for transportation – sure we have some electric cars, but they don’t have any market penetration and hybrids still use gas and some modified form of one of the most dangerous inventions known to man – the internal combustion engine. Cars are the worst muthafucking pollutant-producing technology – that doesn’t have to be the way it is, sure it’ll take the auto companies to financial task and the brink of ruin (as if they’re not already there) to create cars that don’t use gasoline or use limited gasoline but why isn’t that on the tip of every presidential candidates tongue? Congress could just pass a law – to sell cars in America you need to have X mpg, but since we all know that Detroit can’t design or manufacture technology of that quality, Detroit should be given a tax break to enable it to produce the updated cars. Japan and Europe won’t be able to get the tax breaks, because they’re not American incorporated companies.
I said in a previous post, gas prices aren’t what people really need to worry about – technology and a mindset shift will get us all on alternatively powered vehicles. Where ever-rising oil prices are really going to slice the planet’s dick off is in the manufacture of plastic.
The fact that recycling isn’t a LAW that has severe financial punishment for non-compliance is a crime in itself. Just last night, I was cleaning up my filthy rooming house bathroom and kitchen, and there was like 5 trash cans with mixed garbage throughout – and at least 30 beer bottles (my housemates waste a LOT of disposable cash on beer and wine, especially considering that one of them is a alcoholic Russian chick who fucks for money and sustenance, but that’s another post) and maybe 12 to 15 soda cans – and as I live in Los Angeles there’s that CA Redemption value on all these recyclable materials. Yet no one thought to cull the items that could generate enough loose change for a bottle of laundry detergent.
Recycling plastic needs to be of paramount important, and finding was to reclaim plastic from landfills or when it’s supposedly non-recyclable is where there needs to be R&D at the major university labs.
You know what’s really FUCKED UP? Americans junk around two millions tons of electronics into landfills
EVERY FUCKING YEAR!!!
Can you honestly believe that? The lack of recycling of dead electronics is shameful, because there’s some many chemically dangerous, but no doubt reusable parts in that old PS2 or large screen tube TV that can save on the continued use of raw resources – but NOOOOO, we’re not about recycling that shit. I seem to remember some story in The Economist or maybe BBC Online about how in African countries – the dumping ground for a tremendous amount of dated electronics – people operate slipshod smelting furnaces spewing a noxious smoke cocktail the world is in denial about in their backyards to cull bits and pieces of copper, mercury, coltran (that ever-expensive metal needed for wireless communications) and aluminum; they risk their health for these dangerous metals that were no doubt strip-mined from their country in the first place 24 months prior! Not to mentionTech waste is the environmental problem du jour, replacing Styrofoam and disposable diapers. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation: If recycling it doesn't really result in it being recycled, and tossing it out just clogs landfills, what, exactly, are we supposed to do with this stuff?
That’s a question that Global Warming Environmentalists don’t talk about, and it’s where more and more R&D needs to be spent. In fact computer and electronics manufacturing companies should come up with the solution through some sort of legislation, something akin to the Green House Gas Credits concepts. Or maybe there should be extreme Tax Breaks offered to companies that can come up with ways to recycle all that plastic-coated wire and solder.
Now I might seem like a socialist or an extreme left-wing liberal by proposing all that the flawed, corrupt, “in the pocket of big business like a fascist regime” and bullshit-to-the-core American government pass laws to help with the environment. But let’s not kid ourselves, big business DOESN’T GIVE TWO SUCKS ON A DEAD DOG’S COCK about doing anything but maximizing profits, so fact CEOs can have 10s millions in bonuses.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich stated in his book SuperCapitalism that we are supremely foolish to believe that big business will do anything for the public good. They might align themselves with public sentiment if that sentiment means more cash flow (i.e. the whole jump on going “green”) – otherwise, it’s more raping of the public while the public subsidizes its own sodomy!!!
Friday, November 09, 2007
INTELLECTUAL PROPRETY THEFT
As many of you might have heard the Writers Guild of America is on strike out here in the Land of Broken Dreams. And the big thing is do you really know what the strike is about? Sure you're going to miss your favorite TV shows, and you probably think that Hollywood scribes are overpaid -- and many are, but no more so than any other author that you can think of -- music or book included, yes I'm including songWRITERS in the category -- as they get a nice royalty check anytime a song is played on the radio or a CD is bought or a song is legally downloaded.
Here's a video that breaks down what's really going out and why the so-called high priced writers are on strike.
http://weblogs.variety.com/wga_strike_blog/2007/11/writers-strike-.html
As a WGA member in bad standing (i.e. I haven't paid my dues in over a year, because I haven't had a WGA job in longer than that), I feel for the writers who are losing their jobs, but not that much.
Although the one thing that kills me is how shitty Hollywood producers and executives STILL treat us. Think about it this way -- projects GO FORWARD when the writing has reached a level to attract the necessary talent and to excite the marketing people.
Actors who make $20 million a movie (plus all the other obscene bonuses like first dollar gross and shit like that) forego all the ego-driven shit and will work for scale (roughly a few grand a week) IF AND ONLY IF said talent responds to the words on the page put there by none other than the writer!
Not the wily producer, not the studio executive, not the director (unless he's the writer) and the lawyer or marketing whiz or the D-Girl with the big tits who'd suck someone's dick to get a better job - THE WRITER, the scoffed at person who creates the words that come out of the rugged star's mouth those words that make the heroine swoon and all the women in the audience wet with envy.
Maybe the writer's ARE greedy for wanting $.08 instead of $.04 on EVERY DVD sold - at the retail price. Considering how they got ass-raped by VHS sales and the previous DVD boom (which now ain't shit, as people aren't interested in having movie libraries too much anymore).
The sad thing is that the producers were supposed to pay the writers back from the pay cut they took back in the early days of VHS... and that's NEVER going to happen. that money has been snorted, pissed, smoked, driven and built up, up and away for the rapaciously wealthy producers, actors and studio people.
And they'd all be nothing without the writers concocting stories.
I tell you whats going to happen, is that we'll have another year like 2005 -- when everyone thought that the movie industry was a few steps away from the grave because of ALL THE SHITTY MOVIES that got released in late '04 and throughout '05. See, back in late 2002 there was the threat of a WGA strike, so the studios stockpiled all these scripts and rushed them into production without really getting them ready or just buying shit and doing films so producers could get stuff in the distribution pipeline. Now that strike was averted, but not before some of the worst and expensive films were releases, stuff that was so bad the media were claiming that Hollywood was over.
But all that really happened is that the audiences were sick of gagging on the shit that was being spooled out weekend after weekend with huge marketing campaigns... if you remember during 2005, there were some great films -- BATMAN BEGINS, WEDDING CRASHERS, CRASH... to name a few, that really underscored the point -- if you make a great movie, people will come.
And where does a great movie start, from a writer staring at a blank page deciding where and how to begin.
Drinks On You
Ever notice at those do-it-yourself soda machines people blend up the wildest concoctions of soft drinks? Just this afternoon I was at the Trimana Grill in my office building (incidentally for those who’ve been an avid reader of this blog, I’m no longer homeless and I have a job in tony Century City to pay bills and get back on my feet), and this woman is playing chemist with the soda machine – mixing Hi-C Pink Lemonade with Coke and Fanta orange… yeah, that’s what I said, “Fanta orange?” Maybe Fanta cherry for a poor muthafucka’s Cherry Coke, but caramel flavoring and orange, who knew? Not I, that’s for damn sure!
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Damage Control Presidency
So the 2008 Presidential Race is all about damage control. It's like that one mid80s Marvel Comic called "Damage Control" 
, where the people in the comic were tasked with cleaning up New York City after a superhero whupped the muthafuckin' ass of a super villain.
I was remarking that Benazir Bhutto became head of state in a gender repressive country, and it's tripped out because the US -- the bastion of freedom and democracy -- is having trouble electing a female head of state. And even if Hilary Clinton wins the White House, her presidency will be effectively dealing with the skunkshit that she's going to be inheriting. And if she can't really make heads of the mess, do you think the GOP will allow another female President? Unless it's Anne Coulter!
, where the people in the comic were tasked with cleaning up New York City after a superhero whupped the muthafuckin' ass of a super villain.I was remarking that Benazir Bhutto became head of state in a gender repressive country, and it's tripped out because the US -- the bastion of freedom and democracy -- is having trouble electing a female head of state. And even if Hilary Clinton wins the White House, her presidency will be effectively dealing with the skunkshit that she's going to be inheriting. And if she can't really make heads of the mess, do you think the GOP will allow another female President? Unless it's Anne Coulter!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
An Environmental Nobel Prize
So Al Gore won the Noble Peace Prize a few days ago for his work to educate the global public on the dangers of unbridled human activity (all in the name of greed?), and yet I have to believe what ever he's saying as a persuasive message to get people to change their behavior is falling on deaf ears.
In every house I've been in since his documentary AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH came out last year, I haven't seen anybody use compact fluorescent light bulbs to at least cut down on electrical energy consumption, which would have a trickle up effect. And the number of gas guzzling SUVs - those rude rebukes to anyone claiming "green" status -- hasn't seemed to decrease on the roads of Los Angeles -- where regular gas is now $3.19/gallon!
I work really hard to recycle all the plastic bottles and aluminum cans that I can, and any kind of paper product - because
Although the public is more concerned that Britney lost her children (and doesn't want them back!) or that Jennifer Aniston FINALLY told Brad, "I hate you" (I would have thought knowing he was dicking down Angelina when they were married would have prompted that response! Shows what I know) than paying more than water cooler talk about the environment.
Some how talking about environmental issues falls into the category of politics and religion -- taboo public subjects... and I have to ask myself, what the FUCK is that about? We need to have the most open dialog possible about environment impact issues. But I guess like every other social issue of the day, Americans refuse to have an open public discourse about the environment -- and we do all we can to ignore how bad we're pissing on it with Syphilis-infected urine!
I was taking one of those online quizzes about my carbon footprint, and I have to say it wasn't that good, and I make an effort to reduce wasteful consumption of all sorts of shit. The move is to actively find ways to conserve, not just cut back and then foist those views and behavior modifications on those closest to you, who will listen and won't think you're a quack.
In every house I've been in since his documentary AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH came out last year, I haven't seen anybody use compact fluorescent light bulbs to at least cut down on electrical energy consumption, which would have a trickle up effect. And the number of gas guzzling SUVs - those rude rebukes to anyone claiming "green" status -- hasn't seemed to decrease on the roads of Los Angeles -- where regular gas is now $3.19/gallon!
I work really hard to recycle all the plastic bottles and aluminum cans that I can, and any kind of paper product - because
Although the public is more concerned that Britney lost her children (and doesn't want them back!) or that Jennifer Aniston FINALLY told Brad, "I hate you" (I would have thought knowing he was dicking down Angelina when they were married would have prompted that response! Shows what I know) than paying more than water cooler talk about the environment.
Some how talking about environmental issues falls into the category of politics and religion -- taboo public subjects... and I have to ask myself, what the FUCK is that about? We need to have the most open dialog possible about environment impact issues. But I guess like every other social issue of the day, Americans refuse to have an open public discourse about the environment -- and we do all we can to ignore how bad we're pissing on it with Syphilis-infected urine!
I was taking one of those online quizzes about my carbon footprint, and I have to say it wasn't that good, and I make an effort to reduce wasteful consumption of all sorts of shit. The move is to actively find ways to conserve, not just cut back and then foist those views and behavior modifications on those closest to you, who will listen and won't think you're a quack.
Women In Power Positions
Today former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Karachi after 8 years of exile... now it's hard to believe that a woman ran a Middle Eastern Muslim theocracy, but it happened (ironically enough, we'll probably not a see a woman in the White House for at least another decade if Hillary Clinton loses, if she wins and her One Term presidency is a fiasco because she'll be forced to clean-up Dubya's supreme fuck-ups, then we'll probably never have another one in my lifetime -- at least another 50 years!).
But back to Bhutto... apparently she had to come to some sort of "arrangement/agreement" with current military strongman Parviz Musharif, the current Paki president in order to return -- otherwise, her assassination or imprisonment would be all but foreordained.
it's hard to believe that woman was in the position of supreme power in a Muslim state, considering that just next door in Afghanistan women -- under the Taliban rule -- where treated like the worst type of garbage! Truth be told in almost all Muslim states (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria) women are 3rd Class citizens (maybe camels get more love?), it's dictated by the Qu'ran (or so I'm told, I haven't read that tome of freedom masquerading as a tool for oppression).
if you think about a woman on top, it's not such a bad proposition... why? Because they're a little more group oriented when it comes to decisions. My experience is that they consult their peers more than men when it comes to making a decision.
And when a woman's on top she can control men and women... in different ways. They can use their sexuality in ways that men can't to invite suggestion... although female sexuality engenders a greater amount of Haters for irrational reasons.
Does Bhutto represent the future of world politics in the world's most troubled region? We'll only know that when we know what her Side Deal for returning is with the current leader. I would suspect that what ever that deal was, she's going to break it in a matter of months; once she solidifies her power base and re-establishes herself as an alternative voice. And when she gets some clandestine supporters inside Musharif's organizations.
Jail time could occur, but it seems unlikely. However, you can never rule anything out in a Muslim country. Suicide bombers can damn near make anything happen.
But back to Bhutto... apparently she had to come to some sort of "arrangement/agreement" with current military strongman Parviz Musharif, the current Paki president in order to return -- otherwise, her assassination or imprisonment would be all but foreordained.
it's hard to believe that woman was in the position of supreme power in a Muslim state, considering that just next door in Afghanistan women -- under the Taliban rule -- where treated like the worst type of garbage! Truth be told in almost all Muslim states (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria) women are 3rd Class citizens (maybe camels get more love?), it's dictated by the Qu'ran (or so I'm told, I haven't read that tome of freedom masquerading as a tool for oppression).
if you think about a woman on top, it's not such a bad proposition... why? Because they're a little more group oriented when it comes to decisions. My experience is that they consult their peers more than men when it comes to making a decision.
And when a woman's on top she can control men and women... in different ways. They can use their sexuality in ways that men can't to invite suggestion... although female sexuality engenders a greater amount of Haters for irrational reasons.
Does Bhutto represent the future of world politics in the world's most troubled region? We'll only know that when we know what her Side Deal for returning is with the current leader. I would suspect that what ever that deal was, she's going to break it in a matter of months; once she solidifies her power base and re-establishes herself as an alternative voice. And when she gets some clandestine supporters inside Musharif's organizations.
Jail time could occur, but it seems unlikely. However, you can never rule anything out in a Muslim country. Suicide bombers can damn near make anything happen.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Keeping It Interesting... Part II
As I mentioned in the last post, I'd was going to be talking about injecting a little S&M in a long standing relationship. When I previously wrote on this topic, I wasn't in a serious relationship and any S&M experiences I had where with Pro Dominatrices...
S&M is the ultimate role-playing, and role playing adds a certain spice to a couple's sex life that is not only fun, but creative and re-explores one's inner child.
Unless you're really into kink, then light S&M is the way to go -- who hasn't thought about using handcuffs or ropes to immobilize their partner, so they can have their way with him or her? Imagine tying up your man, and then sitting on his face? He's licking and flicking and sucking and poking for as long as it takes the woman to cum... and maybe she wants a few oral orgasms before sucking the life out of his painfully erect cock or riding him like a jockey in the Kentucky Derby!
Conversely, blindfolding, handcuffing and tickling your woman with a feather will not only get her pussy super-lubed up, hearing her slowly moan with pleasure will stiffen your dick just the way you like.
Other light S&M activities -- including but not limited to -- such as using a crop or a whip or a cat o-nine tails, candle wax, ice cubes, etc., add a different dimension to the sexual encounter.
And who doesn't want to have the encounter be as charged as possible? Who, damn it, who?
S&M is the ultimate role-playing, and role playing adds a certain spice to a couple's sex life that is not only fun, but creative and re-explores one's inner child.
Unless you're really into kink, then light S&M is the way to go -- who hasn't thought about using handcuffs or ropes to immobilize their partner, so they can have their way with him or her? Imagine tying up your man, and then sitting on his face? He's licking and flicking and sucking and poking for as long as it takes the woman to cum... and maybe she wants a few oral orgasms before sucking the life out of his painfully erect cock or riding him like a jockey in the Kentucky Derby!
Conversely, blindfolding, handcuffing and tickling your woman with a feather will not only get her pussy super-lubed up, hearing her slowly moan with pleasure will stiffen your dick just the way you like.
Other light S&M activities -- including but not limited to -- such as using a crop or a whip or a cat o-nine tails, candle wax, ice cubes, etc., add a different dimension to the sexual encounter.
And who doesn't want to have the encounter be as charged as possible? Who, damn it, who?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Keeping It Interesting...
As one gets older, one begins to think about the softness of a woman's pussy... and how to keep it the prized place to go and be
As a man you have to ask yourself, do you want your woman to stay in radically good shape throughout her 50s? So you can enjoy sex with her continually? The answers is hell fucking yes!
Doing yoga with your woman (or having her do it on her own) and working on those tantric breathing exercises, probably is the best way to keep her (and you) in the best possible physical shape and in her sexual prime for a lot longer than people realize.
The thing about men, women and sex is that finding ways to prevent it from getting stale is the key to not just making the relationship last, but to continually strengthening and enhancing it.
As humans we're going to be tempted by others outside of our main relationship... that's just going to be it. The way I see it exploring tantric sex, role-playing, some light S&M and If possible) threesomes will most likely add that extra dimension to a couple's sex life to keep it vibrant.
Threesomes perhaps pose the most alluring but potentially damaging sexual adventure -- for obvious reasons; if it's two girls and a guy, you have to make sure that the woman in the relationship has bisexual tendencies and make sure she is comfortable with the fact that another woman (probably of her choosing) will be interacting with her sexual partner. We all know how territorial women are when another woman comes into the mix, so treading lightly is an understatement. Although, to make a threesome most effective both partners in the couple need to have bisexual tendencies.
Why do I say this? Because to explore the sexual energy of a threesome, the couple needs to engage in the activity at least twice -- once with 2 girls and a guy, and the other 2 guys and a girl -- where all participants have bisexual tendencies. The desire, or should I say curiosity, to be with someone of your same sex needs to latent to enable a truly enjoyable and most memorable experience.
Now, if you're reading this and you're a guy, you're no doubt saying to yourself -- I don't want another man's dick around me or my woman. However, if you talk with people who have had homosexual flings, therefore consider themselves "straight" there tends to be a heightened level of intellect associated with the choice to explore that kind of energy exchange.
Here's the thing about sexual intercourse -- it's an energy exchange that leaves and indelible mark on who ever is on the receiving end of it... such that any man who knowingly and willingly accepts another man's cock (or maybe a woman wielding a strap-on) is looking to explore an abnormal sexual energy change. Even though I say abnormal, I say that with most non-judgmental tone -- in that the norm is cock into dick slot (i.e. pussy), so cock into ass (whether its a man's or woman's) is a little abnormal. Also, taking cock in the ass isn't as unpleasant an experience as everyone would claim it to be, otherwise women and gay men wouldn't do it. Nor would it be a staple of many S&M encounters (dominatrix pumping a strap-on into her male sub's willing ass). Sucking dick though... that's another matter.
The down-side to a 2 girls and a guy threesome, is that the man is going to give it hard to the woman outside of his relationship, and probably dick down that new woman in a way his current partner isn't getting the dick (or doesn't remember getting dicked down that way with that kind of intensity). It doesn't have to happen, but it could and if it does then there might very well be resent and budding animosity about enthusiasm to another woman -- when the threesome has broken up.
The extra titillating element of this combination is the girl-on-girl action -- watching a woman eat out another woman... besides being a male (and female) fantasy, the male could learn a thing or two about pleasing his woman from this encounter. The interloper woman will also show the man a good time in a way that the woman in the relationship could learn from.
The down-side to a 2 guys and girl threesome is that the man must see his woman get fucked by another man, sees his dick go in and out of her pussy, and watch her luscious lips devours another man's fuckstick. She might get pleasured in ways he might not know how to do for his woman -- and that can and will spell the anagram of the trouble mentioned above.
It the threesome goes down with energy and excitement and physical bliss, then all is good, and the core relationship is probably heightened and solidified even more than what was thought from the outset... however, this might only happen 33% of the time. It works as an adventuresome experiment if their isn't any staleness in the core relationship, and this jaunt is just that... if the relationship is rocky or isn't as stable as the couple believes, a threesome can expose the weaknesses and perhaps tear the relationship apart.
Bringing S&M into the mix... (that's for the next post)
As a man you have to ask yourself, do you want your woman to stay in radically good shape throughout her 50s? So you can enjoy sex with her continually? The answers is hell fucking yes!
Doing yoga with your woman (or having her do it on her own) and working on those tantric breathing exercises, probably is the best way to keep her (and you) in the best possible physical shape and in her sexual prime for a lot longer than people realize.
The thing about men, women and sex is that finding ways to prevent it from getting stale is the key to not just making the relationship last, but to continually strengthening and enhancing it.
As humans we're going to be tempted by others outside of our main relationship... that's just going to be it. The way I see it exploring tantric sex, role-playing, some light S&M and If possible) threesomes will most likely add that extra dimension to a couple's sex life to keep it vibrant.
Threesomes perhaps pose the most alluring but potentially damaging sexual adventure -- for obvious reasons; if it's two girls and a guy, you have to make sure that the woman in the relationship has bisexual tendencies and make sure she is comfortable with the fact that another woman (probably of her choosing) will be interacting with her sexual partner. We all know how territorial women are when another woman comes into the mix, so treading lightly is an understatement. Although, to make a threesome most effective both partners in the couple need to have bisexual tendencies.
Why do I say this? Because to explore the sexual energy of a threesome, the couple needs to engage in the activity at least twice -- once with 2 girls and a guy, and the other 2 guys and a girl -- where all participants have bisexual tendencies. The desire, or should I say curiosity, to be with someone of your same sex needs to latent to enable a truly enjoyable and most memorable experience.
Now, if you're reading this and you're a guy, you're no doubt saying to yourself -- I don't want another man's dick around me or my woman. However, if you talk with people who have had homosexual flings, therefore consider themselves "straight" there tends to be a heightened level of intellect associated with the choice to explore that kind of energy exchange.
Here's the thing about sexual intercourse -- it's an energy exchange that leaves and indelible mark on who ever is on the receiving end of it... such that any man who knowingly and willingly accepts another man's cock (or maybe a woman wielding a strap-on) is looking to explore an abnormal sexual energy change. Even though I say abnormal, I say that with most non-judgmental tone -- in that the norm is cock into dick slot (i.e. pussy), so cock into ass (whether its a man's or woman's) is a little abnormal. Also, taking cock in the ass isn't as unpleasant an experience as everyone would claim it to be, otherwise women and gay men wouldn't do it. Nor would it be a staple of many S&M encounters (dominatrix pumping a strap-on into her male sub's willing ass). Sucking dick though... that's another matter.
The down-side to a 2 girls and a guy threesome, is that the man is going to give it hard to the woman outside of his relationship, and probably dick down that new woman in a way his current partner isn't getting the dick (or doesn't remember getting dicked down that way with that kind of intensity). It doesn't have to happen, but it could and if it does then there might very well be resent and budding animosity about enthusiasm to another woman -- when the threesome has broken up.
The extra titillating element of this combination is the girl-on-girl action -- watching a woman eat out another woman... besides being a male (and female) fantasy, the male could learn a thing or two about pleasing his woman from this encounter. The interloper woman will also show the man a good time in a way that the woman in the relationship could learn from.
The down-side to a 2 guys and girl threesome is that the man must see his woman get fucked by another man, sees his dick go in and out of her pussy, and watch her luscious lips devours another man's fuckstick. She might get pleasured in ways he might not know how to do for his woman -- and that can and will spell the anagram of the trouble mentioned above.
It the threesome goes down with energy and excitement and physical bliss, then all is good, and the core relationship is probably heightened and solidified even more than what was thought from the outset... however, this might only happen 33% of the time. It works as an adventuresome experiment if their isn't any staleness in the core relationship, and this jaunt is just that... if the relationship is rocky or isn't as stable as the couple believes, a threesome can expose the weaknesses and perhaps tear the relationship apart.
Bringing S&M into the mix... (that's for the next post)
I'm Playing Hookie with the Negroes, Ma!
Well, well, well -- Dubya has just been outed in the WORST possible way. It seems that the transcript to his United Nations script was leaked to the media and there is phonetic spellings throughout the whole damn thing!!!
The kindergarten-esque spelling was mainly for countries and WORLD LEADERS, but still... it makes you think that Prescott's Grandson always needs... needs "assistance" when he gives speeches to the public.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said it was "not unusual" to include phonetic spellings for various countries in the speech though when asked if the president had a hard time pronouncing some of those country names Perino declined comment saying, "I think that's an offensive question."
Uh, Dan, the fact that Dubya is our president is offensive to me, and more than half of the voting public, not to mention 90% of the rest of the globe!!!
How can you, Dan Perino, sleep at night, fuck your wife or play with you kids while you serve such a gianormous ass-wipe like Prescott's Grandson?
The kindergarten-esque spelling was mainly for countries and WORLD LEADERS, but still... it makes you think that Prescott's Grandson always needs... needs "assistance" when he gives speeches to the public.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said it was "not unusual" to include phonetic spellings for various countries in the speech though when asked if the president had a hard time pronouncing some of those country names Perino declined comment saying, "I think that's an offensive question."
Uh, Dan, the fact that Dubya is our president is offensive to me, and more than half of the voting public, not to mention 90% of the rest of the globe!!!
How can you, Dan Perino, sleep at night, fuck your wife or play with you kids while you serve such a gianormous ass-wipe like Prescott's Grandson?
Four Months Later... NBC's HEROES
So the biggest hit of last season returned to the Fall line up, and I was extremely disappointed.
As a serious comic geek there are things about the show that I absolutely love, but then again there are things about the show that I find insulting -- until I realize that 90% of the audience probably didn't read comics (seriously I mean), so they're amazed by the show. And most viewers who are under the age of 25, probably never read a comic.
The things about HEROES as a show is that it's interestingly apolitical, when it really could be -- look at Fox's "24" or HBO's "The Wire" -- shows that tap into the country's zeigeist and exploit one way or another.
In the days of yesteryear, when superheroes were first created they stood for some piece of the American Ideal, the American Dream.
However, in today's age where selfish motivations are the overriding impetus for damn near everything we do, I'm surprised that we don't see a HERO who is doing things for himself, who is essentially a villain because he uses his special gifts for personal gain instead of serving humanity -- and he's not swayed by the so-called voice of reason.
In the new season, we've been introduced to Maya, a Latin American refugee with special gifts, and we already know from the way her story is unfolding she's going to be ending up on the side of "good." This a little ho-hum to me, because she could be like like Hugo Chavez, and have a mindset of a revolutionary, who is looking to use her powers for reasons that don't jibe with the North American halcyon view of things.
That would be cool... will Tim Kring and his people go down that road? Odds are "nah", but we'll see... it would make the show that much more interesting.
As a serious comic geek there are things about the show that I absolutely love, but then again there are things about the show that I find insulting -- until I realize that 90% of the audience probably didn't read comics (seriously I mean), so they're amazed by the show. And most viewers who are under the age of 25, probably never read a comic.
The things about HEROES as a show is that it's interestingly apolitical, when it really could be -- look at Fox's "24" or HBO's "The Wire" -- shows that tap into the country's zeigeist and exploit one way or another.
In the days of yesteryear, when superheroes were first created they stood for some piece of the American Ideal, the American Dream.
However, in today's age where selfish motivations are the overriding impetus for damn near everything we do, I'm surprised that we don't see a HERO who is doing things for himself, who is essentially a villain because he uses his special gifts for personal gain instead of serving humanity -- and he's not swayed by the so-called voice of reason.
In the new season, we've been introduced to Maya, a Latin American refugee with special gifts, and we already know from the way her story is unfolding she's going to be ending up on the side of "good." This a little ho-hum to me, because she could be like like Hugo Chavez, and have a mindset of a revolutionary, who is looking to use her powers for reasons that don't jibe with the North American halcyon view of things.
That would be cool... will Tim Kring and his people go down that road? Odds are "nah", but we'll see... it would make the show that much more interesting.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Play Yourself Like the White Trash You Is
I never would have thought that one of our favorite cumdumpsters would embarrass herself any more than she has than what she did at the MTV VMA's -- a place where she was known to rule the masses, instead she showed her ass -- the pink of it!
The fact that Entertainment Weekly was shouting "The Horror, The Horror" in its best Marlon Brando voice circa Apocalypse Now!, just reinforces the fact that pop loves to rip the shit out of its icons more than it likes to the prop them and seemingly put them beyond reproach.
Truth be told the woman never had any talent anyway, a new fangled Milli Vanilli if you ask me -- just a marketed chick with high sexy appeal -- when squeezed through the manufactured beauty machine.
Is it sad?
It's sad that we care more about her than the credit crisis that will spell the death knell for hundreds of families.
The fact that Entertainment Weekly was shouting "The Horror, The Horror" in its best Marlon Brando voice circa Apocalypse Now!, just reinforces the fact that pop loves to rip the shit out of its icons more than it likes to the prop them and seemingly put them beyond reproach.
Truth be told the woman never had any talent anyway, a new fangled Milli Vanilli if you ask me -- just a marketed chick with high sexy appeal -- when squeezed through the manufactured beauty machine.
Is it sad?
It's sad that we care more about her than the credit crisis that will spell the death knell for hundreds of families.
On the Road To The UN
So President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is coming to the UN to spit vitriol and then he'll head uptown to Columbia University to continue his verbal tirade's only he'll have questioning students assault him with logic and moral understanding... something that he's not presented with in his native Persian empire.
Some people wonder if this man, this dictator, should even be allowed in the country... and maybe he shouldn't as it is US State Department's MO to deny Middle Eastern political player to come to the US in order to address the UN General Assembly.
Ahmadinejad isn't your typical head of state, he's a member of the "revolution" who rose up the ranks and eventually became master & commander. Outside of China's Gang of Five (or Four), I can't think of any leader who was part of the so-called "Revolution" and survived long enough to then become head of state -- I don't think Khruschev was part of Lenin's inner circle or part of the Stalin's gang -- and the idiots in the Khmer Rouge never succeeded Pol Pot because they country disintegrated when VietNam invaded.
Ahmadinejad is a recalcitrant one, though, as he demands Persian nuclear weapons to go along with their obscene and trenchant brand of Shi'ism. Even new French Prez Sarkozy wants sanctions slapped across the mouth of this fool. And when a Frenchie is talking tough -- especially about an Iranian -- then you know the man and his followers/sycophants are really bad for the planet.
Still, I'd be curious to be in the Columbia University lecture hall to hear the man rip the United States and the West in general a new asshole -- the type of dick-slapping of the current regime that would NEVER be allowed in his country, under any circumstances. Because once he's done, he's going to have to answer some questions from the student body and others in the audience... and they're going to break his jaw and shit down his throat... but it a nice way, a way that'll make Ahmadinejad look like an idiot.
Some people wonder if this man, this dictator, should even be allowed in the country... and maybe he shouldn't as it is US State Department's MO to deny Middle Eastern political player to come to the US in order to address the UN General Assembly.
Ahmadinejad isn't your typical head of state, he's a member of the "revolution" who rose up the ranks and eventually became master & commander. Outside of China's Gang of Five (or Four), I can't think of any leader who was part of the so-called "Revolution" and survived long enough to then become head of state -- I don't think Khruschev was part of Lenin's inner circle or part of the Stalin's gang -- and the idiots in the Khmer Rouge never succeeded Pol Pot because they country disintegrated when VietNam invaded.
Ahmadinejad is a recalcitrant one, though, as he demands Persian nuclear weapons to go along with their obscene and trenchant brand of Shi'ism. Even new French Prez Sarkozy wants sanctions slapped across the mouth of this fool. And when a Frenchie is talking tough -- especially about an Iranian -- then you know the man and his followers/sycophants are really bad for the planet.
Still, I'd be curious to be in the Columbia University lecture hall to hear the man rip the United States and the West in general a new asshole -- the type of dick-slapping of the current regime that would NEVER be allowed in his country, under any circumstances. Because once he's done, he's going to have to answer some questions from the student body and others in the audience... and they're going to break his jaw and shit down his throat... but it a nice way, a way that'll make Ahmadinejad look like an idiot.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Modern Day Citizen Kane
You know I had been avidly following the story behind Rupert Murdoch's battle to acquire Dow Jones, and it's flagship publication The Wall Street Journal, and it just smacked of something out that Orson Welles classic piece of cinema.
it doesn't bode well for the "fairness" of the business press when a far-reaching business owns one of the top international media outlets for so-called "hard news" with a business slant to it.
Will we really see the change in the way news -- particularly news that could adversely affect any of Murdoch's other business ventures -- be covered differently? No, the change in editorially will be glacial and then maybe in 5 or 6 years from now the new face of the Journal will only be apparent those who style mavens who exude a talent for pattern recognition.
it doesn't bode well for the "fairness" of the business press when a far-reaching business owns one of the top international media outlets for so-called "hard news" with a business slant to it.
Will we really see the change in the way news -- particularly news that could adversely affect any of Murdoch's other business ventures -- be covered differently? No, the change in editorially will be glacial and then maybe in 5 or 6 years from now the new face of the Journal will only be apparent those who style mavens who exude a talent for pattern recognition.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Retreat!?!? From what Objective...
Today I was listening to some Veterans of Foreign Wars speak about the much-ballyhooed Pull-Out of American Forces from that nasty quagmire formerly known as Iraq.
What people keep saying is that we can't leave until we've finished our mission, finished our objective... my question is, what the fuck exactly is our mission?
The fact that it can't be pitched Hollywood style in less than three sentences is the reason why it's a cluster fuck in the Middle East and Iraq specifically -- people are dying, money is being wasted, and animosity is being generated, because there really isn't any concrete plans, benchmarks and goal breakthrus for the military, the government or the U.S. citizens to monitor the successes and failures of Dubya's War...
A pull-out just needs to happen, because we can't keep soldiers there for years at a clip... at least rotate people from places like Europe and South Korea to the region, to give those poor souls who are getting heat stroke on the regular a break and a chance to see their families.
It's hard to tell what success in the country would constitute, and since that's not an ideal state to be in, it's best to figure that out so we can then turn tail and run AND STILL save face.
Obviously preventing the ripping apart of the country is the only major goal/mission -- but that's not something the US or anything cabal of countries could prevent from happening IF the Iraqis wanted to happen.
Pull out as soon as possible, eat the shit the Dubya has been concocting in a pot and waiting to serve since instigating the invasion, and see who America withstands feces-breath for years (if not decades) to come... 'cause the Brits are already on their way out, and we'll be the last man standing, holding the lion by the tail as the whirlwind comes a-reaping...
What people keep saying is that we can't leave until we've finished our mission, finished our objective... my question is, what the fuck exactly is our mission?
The fact that it can't be pitched Hollywood style in less than three sentences is the reason why it's a cluster fuck in the Middle East and Iraq specifically -- people are dying, money is being wasted, and animosity is being generated, because there really isn't any concrete plans, benchmarks and goal breakthrus for the military, the government or the U.S. citizens to monitor the successes and failures of Dubya's War...
A pull-out just needs to happen, because we can't keep soldiers there for years at a clip... at least rotate people from places like Europe and South Korea to the region, to give those poor souls who are getting heat stroke on the regular a break and a chance to see their families.
It's hard to tell what success in the country would constitute, and since that's not an ideal state to be in, it's best to figure that out so we can then turn tail and run AND STILL save face.
Obviously preventing the ripping apart of the country is the only major goal/mission -- but that's not something the US or anything cabal of countries could prevent from happening IF the Iraqis wanted to happen.
Pull out as soon as possible, eat the shit the Dubya has been concocting in a pot and waiting to serve since instigating the invasion, and see who America withstands feces-breath for years (if not decades) to come... 'cause the Brits are already on their way out, and we'll be the last man standing, holding the lion by the tail as the whirlwind comes a-reaping...
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