All Dressed Up......

.....and no where to go!

“It bordered on science fiction to think that someone as liberal on as many issues as Rudy Giuliani could become the Republican nominee,” said Nelson Warfield, a Republican consultant who has been a longtime critic of the former mayor. “Rudy didn’t even care enough about conservatives to lie to us. The problem wasn’t the calendar; it was the candidate.”

Ed Koch, the 3 term loved mayor of NYC said yesterday, "The Beast is Dead! Florida drove a stake in it's heart.." Koch went on to say that being mayor of New York inspires political ambition. John Lindsay had presidential ambitions. Koch, himself and Fiorello LaGuardia both made failed gubernatorial runs. Robert Wagner was two times,a vice presidential candidate and failed in both attempts. Being mayor of New York is the kiss of death politically...it's a mystery.
Koch wrote a book on Giuliani during Rudys mayorship called, "The Mean Man".
Giuliani's failed campaign strategy is being called one of the biggest flame outs in modern American politics.

I hope this is the end of 9/11 politics. You can only play the fear card for so long

Elephant Art!

My wife spent the last 2 weeks in Thailand with her nephews who live there and traveled around a bit. One of the things she took pictures of was the Elephant Conservation Camp in Chaeng Mae in Northern Thailand. She told me about seeing the elephants perform and most amazingly, watching them paint!

She said they really took their time and produced paintings that were esthetically pleasing and figurative and abstract. Tonight, quite by coincidence, I ran across a link to the Elephant Art Project. This organization raises money for the Comservation Centers by promoting and selling Elephant Art. They also have books and videos available. There are a number of video clips at the web site.

I found the above clip at YouTube and there are a number more if you are interested.
To watch the elephants paint is really provocative. You can train animals to repeat tricks, but this goes beyond tricks. Each painting is unique and from what I understand, once the elephant begins to learn to paint, they become more and maore involved in the process and improve. They all seem to have a different style.

Just watching the delicate "handling" of the brush is mind blowing!

Death Of A Blog

The video is John Cleese's euulogy for Graham Chapman, which is some how more than appropriate for this post!


I have posted on a lot of blogs and after a while, begin to feel like I have a rapport with some of the other bloggers. I've made some internet friendships with people I've never met. In the last year, I have been posting regularly on an International French Blog and developed a rapport with some of the members and shared opinions and got to express my whacked out sense of humor with people who were as seriously silly as me.

Last June, a fundamentalist christian blogger who posts occasionally on this page and obsessively posted on some Ohio blogs followed me to the French blog and began to blog there. It started politely enough, then more and more combative, lengthier and lengthier posts...soon avalanches of multiple posts of thousands of words and entire sections of the bible translated into French and Russian. This was not a daily thing, it was hourly.

We were treated to extensive lectures on the physical dangers of gay sex and how in spite of the fact she condemned homosexuals for what she claimed was their sinful deliberate choice, she loved them, thoughm if one of them got himself killed, maybe he incited some nice straight boys to do it.

We heard about how she loved Islamic people, even though it was predicted in Ezekial that the war between Israel and Iran was inevitable and Islam was a religion of evil,
really bothering some of the Islamic members of the blog.

She tried to moderate blog behavior and language. The administrator of the blog is a very tolerant guy who last wish is to block or hurt someone. The blog members responded by an ever growing tidal wave of insane humor and anger.

One by one, the blog members stopped posting and checked back once in a while to see if she was still there. She was, and one would have to wonder when she slept, ate or took care of her personal matters.

Now the blog is dead. We all check in from time to time to see if she is still there..She is ranting about how we all went crazy and got offended by her innocent rightousness. She's there all by herself. The blog administrator called me and asked if he should just shut the blog which has been running for 5 years, down. For now, it's up and it's sort of an obscene performance art piece, by the way do you want to know about her brilliant children, their allergies to pets or her weight problem?

I'd give you the address but I made a mistake by posting it in the first place.
We all wish she would just go away. It makes you really think about tolerance, freedom, where does yours end and mine begin?

I know if she ever posts here again, I will without a drop of regret delete her comments.
I already have her ridiculous guilt infused emails going direct into my trash.
A very bad experience which made me write this about blogging:

I cannot make anyone stop responding to pointless or nuisance comments. You have to want to restrain yourself, because you understand that the only way to get rid of them is to fail to give them the attention they want. A "troll" is not just someone whose comments you disagree with, or even just a nasty or badly-worded comment. A troll is someone who does not, under any possible set of circumstances, care what you think about him or his comments. He merely wants attention. Negative attention will do. The more you disagree with him, the more he is able to tell himself that he is persecuted and victimized or the only voice of reason or one of the elite few who has the God's-eye view of the world or whatever his current delusion is. If he isn't merely a narcissist who thrives on feeling attacked, he's just some putz who enjoys irritating other people. Therefore, you "feed" the troll by paying any attention to him at all. It does not matter what you say in response. Any response to a troll just encourages the troll.

Any thoughts? Not you, Madame Voldemort.

What's Goin On/What's Happening Brother?

A live performance by Marvin Gaye interspersed with reality street video. Some how it seems too appropriate regarding the destructive dialogue going on inside the Democratic "Debates". It would seem to me that the forces of destruction are pushing the direction of the discussion.... Thank you Marvin!
Regard, James Jamerson, doing his thing, the greatest visionary of the electric bass at work, with a few fingers and masterful fretting, he was an entire string section, a symphonic demon genius!

George Jr.s Legacy Part #2

Legacy, oh yeah, babe, we got your legacy right here and we're workin on it,
Gimme a break, I got one fuckin year now, yer bustin my balls!
Meanwhile here's a little present, Ya gotta love me!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008! This just in!
In a surprise move, the Federal Treasury announced that the 500 Dollar Happy Meal will now include a Big Angus 1/3 pound Burger with CHEESE!, super sized fries, a 1 liter soft drink of your choice and HOT APPLE PIE!
This should get the markets jumpin'!

Michelles Inferno....

Representative Michelle Bachman, Republican from Minnesota presents her vision for the American Economic Recovery, adding,
"I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota.. We're the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.."

This is obviously her version of the American Dream, working two full time jobs and still struggling to get by.
By Golly, Americans like working two jobs so corporations can get tax breaks!
Aren't you glad that there are two Americas?

DRAFT MIKE BLOOMBERG?

I recieved an email to sign the Draft Bloomberg Petition. Now, I have some pretty set views at this point as far as the limited possiblities Americans can take in the next election to begin to reclaim the trashed nation that Bush&Co are leaving behind.
I want to take steps that really work and accomplish something positive. I believe in a multiparty system and I would like to see America become a place where there could be a wide palette of choices and a real democratic process that would allow voters to narrow the field down from a wide spectrum of opinions and ideas.

But in this present climate of Money driven Special interests politics in America, I don't think it is a possiblitity.

I really like Bloombergs commitment to ecology and what he is really doing to make New York one of the most green cities on the planet. He is going far beyond in a visionary sense regarding the commitment to change and the willingness to implement it. Unfortunately, if he leaves the leadership of NYC after this term, will the next mayor have the commitment or the moral compass to resist the forces of corruption to continue with his program?

I actually like and respect Mr. Bloomberg as far as liking and respecting one of the wealthiest men on the planet could actually be a valid statement. I should qualify that with the comment, I like the porcine strain 284-E of the influenza virus as far as liking a virulent disease can go.

So, my blog buds and buddets, your mission is to please tell me why I should or shouldn't sign Mr. Bloombergs petition. To demonstrate how "catch-a-fire" this movement is, after 4 days, the petition has less than 2000 signatures.

COLUCHE PRESIDENTE!

This was the man, the late great Coluche. He actually ran for president of France in 1982 and got a real per centage of the votes. He is/was Frances best loved, greatest comedian and lives on in the Restos du Couer, an organization which provides millions of meals each year to the needy here.
Who cares if you don't speak or understand French! Coluche understood you!
COLUCHE! AMERICA NEEDS YOU!

A Real Life Hero!

There has been a lot written about Genetically altered organisms. The first glowingly optimistic news about plants and other life forms that could be engineered or modified to operate to our needs and specification made it seem that we were on the verge of being able to conquer disease and solve many of the worlds problems with the growth of staple foods and thereby conquer starvation.

Then the rush to cash in this new goldmine started. In the few short years that we have had genetically modified technology, we have seen some of the biggest players in forcing untried, and unsafe techniques on the world jump into the game. The biggest example is the Montsanto Coporation. In the last half century, we have seen the Montsanto Corporation go from the worlds biggest producer of Asbestos, which after causing hundreds of thousands of cases of Lung Cancer, long after they knew the problem existed, declare bankruptcy, walk away from legal liability through legal loopholes, go into the plastics business and after the products they sold became the source of health problems, they declared bankruptcy again and reorganized and went into the next get rich quick monster science scheme, Genetically Modified Organisms.

They quickly investigated the research being done and realized that they could patent the organisms that were created. The patent laws could be interpreted to give them the control of any hybrid plant or animal that contained the genes of one of their patented engineered organisms.

So, if you were a farmer and Montsanto was able to sew a field next to yours with their genetically modified soybean or rape seed and the bees which pollinated both fields, distributed the Montsanto pollen to your plants, the resulting seed would be in violation of Montsanto's patent and they could sue you. Which is what they have done many times. The biggest case so far is the case Montsanto brought against the Canadian Farmer, Percy Schmeiser. He lost his farm because his rape seed was pollinated by bees that pollinated a Montsanto test field.

Mr. Schmieser's case dragged on for a few years. It was the story of a farmer fighting the legal resources of an amoral Multi national Corporation trying to set a legal precedent. Percy lost the first round in Canada's Supreme Court, but he won an appeal but Montsanto has very deep pockets.

So, the seeds which Monsanto markets are engineered to be herbicide resistant, toxic to insects and super productive. The herbicide they are specifically resistant to is Montsantos own RoundUp, which is one of the most aggresively marketed herbicides on the planet. In tests which have been proven to have been rigged for results, the Monsanto plants are resistant to insects, but are now suspect in being toxic to the very bees which would pollinate them under normal situations and also carry their patented genetic material to "unauthorized" plants.
The super productivity has been dramatically shown to be at a cost to the very soil itself. In Iowa, farmers now, who have made dramatic profits from the use of Montsanto Corn, are now suffering because the soil of their fields is so damaged that the fields will have to lay idle for years to recover.

The money being made quickly by the giant agro business farmers is from the sale of their product to the political pork barrel of ethanol. The production of ethanol is being touted as the miracle answer to our dependance on foreign oil. Suddenly, Ethanol plants are being federally subsidised and fortunes are being made quickly buy insiders. The real cost?

The diversion of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to the production of what would normally be a food crop, for the production of Ethanol..
The rapid degradation of this land by hyper efficient nutrient using altered plants which destroy the structure and the fertility of the soil.
The detrimental effect to the eco system because they are toxic to insects.
The destruction op natural strains of plants by the totally unavoidable cross pollination of plants.

The European Union has put the entire Genetically Modified Organism program back on the table for study. They realize that the immediate gains of the production of Ethanol will have serious detrimental long term effects for our planet.

Even here, in France, the GMO program has been halted and Jose Bove had been on a hunger strike since the third of January and ended it when the EU announced their decision..Segolene Royal as President of the Pouitou-Charente region, attempted to outlaw them 2 years ago. The mayors of villages across France have outlawed their use.

Mr. Bove has spent months in jail for civil disobedience in protests which he and his
Confederation Paysanne and other eco groups destroyed fields of OGM crops. He has never stopped fighting this monster and deserves a lot of credit for keeping the worlds attention on it.

We Need More Heros Like Him!

MASTERS OF CHAOS

For Immediate Release: Today, the Heavy Metal Group, The Masters Of Chaos announced the release of their 12th CD, titled New World Order!
Unbelievably, in spite of lack of sales and general critical disapproval, the legendary
group forges on. It's hard to believe that this group of aging dinosaurs, unable to fill concert halls, let alone a school cafeteria was able to muster up the label support to release this collection of bombastic repititious trash!
The tracks include the blues influenced, "Ayatollah Yo Mama", the John McCain penned classic, "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!" and lead singer, Handsome Big Dick Cheneys anthem,"Don't Step On My Oxblood Cordovans, Boy, or I'll Shoot Your Sorry Ass!"
When asked about the longevity of his group inspite of lack of interest and low disapproval ratings by the public, guitarist Furious George said, "Gee, uhh, beats me, but I have a real strong feeling in my gut, that this will be the big one!"
Keyboard Player, The foxy Condi, chimed in with,"When the Freedom loving people of the world hear the fresh air of Democracy that our music is portraying and the terrorists are playing our CD of Freedom in their foxholes of gloom......" at this point, Condi started to nod off and Handsome Big Dick roared,"No one said they liked our last records but that never stopped us and now they all can just sit back and shut up, because we rock!"
The new rythmn section, two Mexican guys named Vinnie and Larry nodded furiously in agreement. "They better agree", Big Dick growled,"I'm holding their Green Cards!"
NEW WORLD ORDER! by THE MASTERS OF CHAOS!
OnSale Today, whether you like it or not!

LEGACY

You know folks, sometimes, sometimes, don't you just get so disgusted that you just plain disgust yourself? You sit through a week of American pundits and two bit self proclaimed opinion makers discussing Hillary Clinton getting emotional. Then we have Rudy Giuliani, the king of bathos, admitting he even gets "teary" when he thinks about 9/11, because he was there at 9/11 and if you don't elect his corrupt ass, don't expect him to get "teary" if there is another 9/11!
Then we have the obscene spectacle of George W. Bush in Israel at the Holocaust Memorial getting "teary". We know he did because his press secretary swears she saw it happen. George told us earlier this week that he is confident in that in the future, his legacy as a great American president will be recognized. This after all is his legacy year, in which he will shore up his great achievments for the broken planet he leaves behind. Here's a photo of the legacy he left to the the Arab world.
Ohh well, you can't score 100% all the time, not even a gentleman's "C" if you know what I mean. So I am disgusted, and my disgust disgusts myself and to drag you all into my deep, deep cycle of disgust, I want to invite you to George Bush's unveiling of his legacy, and perhaps, he'll shed a tear or two, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the George W. Bush Torture Legacy Memorial! How could we have allowed ourselves to sink so low. May we never forget!

WAKE UP AMERICA!

America has to be ready! We are ready and prepared for any threat from Iran when we figure out what it is that they are really up to! We showed them that we were ready to meet the threat of their Nuclear Arms Development agressively, should they ever get it in their heads to do it! We have mobilized the world to declare sanctions on them already just in case they actually were going to think of doing something funny!
The Congress of The United States of America officially declared their Revolutionary Guards to be a terrorist organization on the word of our Vice President, Dick Cheney and you know when Dick Cheney gives his word, it's gotta be true!
Just this last weekend, as our brave President Bush flew fearlessly to Israel with his message of Peace, our naval destroyers were put under a direct threat, a clear and present danger, by the advanced Iranian speed boat technology!

Here is a photo of an aggressive Iranian speedboat as it insolently and menancingly cavorts under the nose of an American Destroyer which might have or might not have been in Iranian naval territory, but who's quibbling when we have identified and defined this clear insult to our national honor....
My next piece of undeniable evidence is a picture of the latest perfidious Iranian Islamic development. We have uncovered their super secret plot to use flying saucers to infiltrate the inner sanctum of Americas' security network. Obviously, the advanced Shiite technology has made great leaps inspired by their fanatical desire to hoard their glut of petroleum deposits and deny the
needs of the American People! This utter despotical greed has to be stopped! America needs oil, these godless rug headed sand rats obviously don't need it...ooops, sorry, edit that out, please.....
Here's a picture of our Brave Vice President, who is laboring under an extreme medical condition, his Cheneytron 2000 exoskeleton support system requires constant maintenence by a staff of 150 trained technicians , The Honorable Dick Cheney, conferring with the supreme Christian American Patriotic Defense Wing of the Pentagon, bringing them up to date on the latest developments. How can the menance of Iran be stopped? Obviously, we can't rely on reality! The skies over Washington are darkening as the clouds of Islamic Saucers thicken. There is too much subversive truth corrupting this great land! Wake Up America, it's almost too late!

MICRODOT A VOTEZ!

As the media warms up for the next election cycle, I feel as if it the beginning of the nextbig sporting event, Le Coupe de Monde! Isn't it like that in America? Our American Democracy shining bright, as a beacon to beckon the way for the rest of the world!
But what kind of a beacon have we provided, really?
Today it seems that the results of almost every election in a new or "emerging" Democracy is contested around the world. Today in the Republic of Georgia, last week in Kenya, a debacle which unleashed the horrors of pent up intertribal rivalries which erupted into genocidial massacres.
Benizar Bhuttos' Party had announced only hours before her assasination that they had proof that Musharrif was going to steal the election..
If elections aren't out and out stolen, then there is the spector of the freelance electoral consulting firms, such as that run by the professional cynical bastard, James Carville, who has exported the the PR and dirty politcal attack techniques of Karl Rove to Europe and Central America and made millions of dollars in consulting fees in the process. We are suffering from the effects of a Rovian inspired political campaign now here in France as the nations slowly wakes up and discovers that their mystery date president, Nicolas Bling Bling Sarkozy is not at all the product they thought they had purchased.
In other words, more crudely, Shit flows down! The compromised electoral process that exists in the United States now can hardly be considered a glowing example.
We have lowered the bar globally. After 2 seriously flawed presidential elections and the development and perfection of swiftboat smearing techniques in which a heroic service mans record can be twisted and used against him and the examples have been evident in both parties, Americas electoral debacles can only inspire the the bullies and the cheats of the planet to go as far as they dare.
What can we do? After all the controversy and proven charges about the hackability of our computer voting system of the future?
That's right, we still are going ahead with an election system in place that will allow almost 1/2 of the votes to be "registered" by compromised, hackable systems that have been tampered with in the past and will only be more hackable in the future.
Face it, there is no system that is safe from the the ingenuity of greed and corruption.
That's why it is imperative to make sure that in this upcoming election there are safe guards in place to insure there is a physical record of each vote cast.
There is a bill in congress now that needs your support, you can sign an online petition at moveon.org to let your representatives know that you want action!
If you want a quick lesson on how voter rights are being supressed, I suggest you visit The Man with the Muckrake for his primer on voter "caging" and other elementary techniques used to deny voters the right to vote. A very good discussion about the vunerability of the present technology was presented in Sundays New York Times.
The most common argument used to defend the present use of the Voting Machines is the cost already spent in investing in contracts with the firms that have provided this technology. That is an empty argument. If millions have been wasted in creating a corruptible system by cynical politicians who thought they were setting up a real cool scam to insure their power, tough!
We need a totally honest unquestionable way to cast our votes. I live in a little village..
At election time, you walk into the Mayors Office. You register.. You select your ballot and walk up to the clear glass ballot container. The official states your name as you walk up and after you drop in your ballot in plain view of everyone, the official concludes with, "a votez!"
What could be cheaper and more transparent than that!

FurgoNaranja

I think I just saw my next car. I put us on the list to be notified when they
go on the market in 2009.
These are the MDI Air Cars. They represent the cleanest auto technology to date.
They actually clean the air minstead of pollute it.
The car is powered by a cutting edge compressed air engine.
At this point in development, a full tank of air is good for 200 kilometers.
The city cars are totally air powered and have a top speed of 50 km/h.
The road cars are hybrid and and have a fuel powered engine that kicks in at speeds
above 50 km/h. The radical design of the hybrid engine can attain a top
speed of 220 km/h and has a fuel efficiency that at current fuel prices should be
about 1 Euro for 100 kilometers.
The air tanks can be filled at any service station that has compressed air for tires.
There is also an onboard compressor to keep the tanks full.
The air used to power the car must be filtered to protect the engine, so a
radically different air filtration device was invented. This means that the air used by the car is actually cleaner than it was before it was put into the tanks!
Because the compressed air exhaust temperature is between 0 and -15 degrees, it is
a totally free byproduct that will be used in the air conditioning system.
The on board electronics are charged once a week by plugging the car in for 4 hours
to an electrical outlet.
Guy Negre, the developer of the car has been an innovator in energy efficient
engines for a few decades now. He designed Formula One racers and has a few radically different engines in production by other companies.
The MDI Air Car has been in development since 1993 and he has envisioned and put inot motion a radically different production and distribution system.
If you are technically minded and would like to know more,
see the Web Site!

C'mon! Meet Some Of My Friends!

This is a herd of horses living down hill from here in a place called Bernissoux.
I get to see them everyday for the next three weeks!

Hmm...survived another one. A little older, not sure about the wiser part.
I think I will listen to my Greatest Hits of Funkadelic CD today!
Somehow, I need to hear the piece,
Standin On The Verge Of Gettin It On!

This is going to be George Bush's last year as President, oh, he might go kickin and screamin and try to wangle some sort of terrorist fear inspired extension, but it ain't gonna happen! What is going to happen is that America will elect a new president!
If we can only keep our act together, it will be a Democrat!
That's a good enough reason to be thankful and optoimistic for 2008!
We can do it! This could be a good year! Sweep out the nasty demons in the corner!
Never tolerate intolerance no matter how saccharine sweet coated
it pretends to be!
Knowlege is the greatest weapon against Fear!
Throw off those shackles, stand up in the light
and embrace the new year!
My Best, deepest, heartfelt wishes for 2008!