Not A GIF

Stop blinking, it's not moving, you are....

wOrd noV.30,2010

It's Good Thang!

This is a picture of a portion of the Bahnhof ISP in Stockholm which hosts Wikileaks servers. The spectacular installation is located in a nuclear bomb shelter built during the cold war under 30 meters of rock mountain. Solid rock walls and planted with greenery under growlux lights....
For a very entertaining 360 degree tour, check out Jann Lipka's gallery here.
You know, I really feel that the Wikileaks revelations are a good thing. We are entering into a new age of transparency and freedom. It is the old world that doesn't know how to react. It is the most entrenched, repressed and cloaked systems that are screaming in outrage. This is the new world. The rules have been rewritten. Sink or swim.
Much of what is revealed in the Wikileaks is merely personally embarrassing for certain personalities. Prince Andrew of The UK is an obnoxious bore. Ghadaffi gets botox...(WTF?) Nicolas Sarkozy is vain little impossible man, the "naked emperor"...Most of the diplomatic revelations come as no surprise to anyone who pays attention.
Now it's out there, straight from the horses mouths, so to speak. Diplomacy conducted behind closed doors by a privileged strata, decisions made which we will never know about, but could forever change our lives are now unveiled.
Wake up, it's a new day for freedom of information.
In, of all places, The Wall Street Journal, on Nov.29th, Andy Greenberg published a rare 2 hour interview with Julian Assange conducted by an interviewer from Forbes. In the interview, Assange reveals that the next big disclosure will be on a major American Financial institution and the fall out will be as devastating as the effect of the Enron emails in the collapse and criminal prosecution of that criminal enterprise.
This is a good, good, such a good thang, baby..........

1965

2 GOOD 2 B TRUE!

Big Mamma Thornton sings her song, Hound Dog backed up by the incomparable, Buddy Guy!

Live in 1965

She wrote it, y'all...
Thank You Dennis, for clarifying the writing credits,
of course it was Lieber and Stoller, those two white guys who had were able to channel the power of the blues and early rock so accurately.  I remembered that it was them when I was in bed and too lazy to get up and change it.

More Than Just One Little Letter

Question: What is the difference between Ireland and Iceland?

A year ago, the financial wags asked this question and the punch line was:
"One letter and 6 months......"
The Icelandic economy collapsed in the shambles of the world wide banking crisis and we were told it was only a matter of time before the same thing happened to Ireland.
Now, Ireland is bailing out the bankers and putting the burden of the crisis on the population by cutting social programs and raising taxes.
But look at the way Iceland reacted. The banks were allowed to collapse and the executives were prosecuted on criminal charges. The financial world at the time shuddered and predicted utter doom.
Today, 2 years later, Iceland is becoming a very smart place for investments. Their economy got better much faster because of their approach of identifying the real problem and harshly dealing with it.
Now, the citizens of Iceland, who said no to bailing out the bankers are being allowed to participate in writing the country's new constitution. Isn't this what America is supposed to be about?

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland's getting a new constitution - and it's really going to be the voice of the people.

The sparsely-populated volcanic island is holding an unusual election Saturday to select ordinary citizens to cobble together a new charter, an exercise in direct democracy born out of the outrage and soul-searching that followed the nation's economic meltdown.

Hundreds of people are vying for the chance to be among up to 31 people who will form the Constitutional Assembly slated to convene early next year - a source of huge pride for Icelanders who have seen their egos take a beating in recent years.

"This is the first time in the history of the world that a nation's constitution is reviewed in such a way, by direct democratic process," says Berghildur Erla Bergthorsdottir, spokeswoman for the committee entrusted with organizing the Constitutional Assembly.

Iceland has never written its own constitution. After gaining independence from Denmark in 1944, it took the Danish constitution, amended a few clauses to state that it was now an independent republic, and substituted the word 'president' for 'king.' A comprehensive review of the constitution has been on the agenda ever since.

Pressure mounted for action after the nation's economic collapse in 2008, an event punctuated by ordinary citizens gathering outside the Althingi, the parliament, banging pots, pans and barrels - a loud, clanging expression of fury. The meltdown was seen not only as a failure of the economy but of the system of government and regulatory agencies. Many came to believe a tighter constitutional framework - including a clearer division of powers - might have been able to minimize that damage, or even prevent it.

"It is very important for ordinary citizens, who have no direct interest in maintaining the status quo, to take part in a constitutional review," said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. "We are hoping this new constitution will be a new social covenant leading to reconstruction and reconciliation, and for that to happen, the entire nation needs to be involved."

wORd NoV.29,2010

“Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing. […]  I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact.”

Claude Levi-Strauss, who would have been 102 yesterday.

The father of Modern Anthropology

More Gypsy Punk

I featured the music of Gogol Bordello here earlier. He is an artist living in NYC and is highly visible as a Gypsy Punk Rocker, though this is very sophisticated music. I wrote a few posts back about hard times producing great music. The music coming out of Eastern Europe and its offshoots is some of the most inventive, passionate and creative pop being produced today.

This piece is called, Not A Crime! From Gogol Bordellos latest cd, Side One, Dummy!

Last week I posted a piece called Sarko vs. Gypsy by a Romanian band called VAMA. featuring the singer Raflo. It's still at the top of my hit parade....here's a chance to check it out again!

The History Of The Bicycle

I have posting a bit about bicycling and perhaps you might be interested in checking out this fascinating alternative history of the bicycle.
An early bicycle painted by Botticelli between 1492 and 1500 from his series of illustrations to Dante’s Divine comedy.

This is from a fascinating May 2009 issue of the Scientific Archevelogy. In the article  by Sandy Collins she reports about their sensational discovery of a remarkable preserved ancient bicycle during the excavations around the Lower Normandian Château-Gaillard.

woRd NoV.28,2010

The Power Of Black

I admit that the discovery of photoshop for me became an obsession. The fascination of being able to imagine an image and then realize it, the tool itself became spur to imagination. I was addicted, I neglected my true passions for this increasingly too easy instant gratification.
Then my old computer died. My new computer doesn't have photoshop. I have it ready to install, but I haven't yet. Meanwhile, I rediscovered my old friends. Graphite pencils.
I forgot how much I love the act of drawing. Drawing with pencils, the use of the eraser, conte crayons, pen and ink, charcoal, pastels and oil sticks. Paper, board, the tactile satisfaction of graphic materials on good hand made paper.
I have been rediscovering the inspiration that fueled my desire. One of my early and still favorite influences is the artist Georges Seurat. Seurat is best known for his optical impressionistic paintings. He invented the technique of pointillism. He used many points of the basic colors of paint to create form, light and the perception of complex and subtle tones. His best known paintings are huge works, such as Un dimanche apres-midi a l'Ile de la Grande Jatte.
Seurat claimed to be a scientist, but if you ever read any of his writings, you realize that he was more of a conceptual thinker with a sense of humor. He was influenced by other playful neo dadaists like Alfred Jarry and a parody of philosophy called Pataphysics.
Seurat lived a short life. He was born on Dec.2, 1859 and died on March 29, 1891 of diptheria. His great paintings were from the 1880's. They are still highly influential, but he is almost forgotten as an artist who produced a superhuman volume of work on paper using Conte Crayons. Almost all of his drawings are black crayon on a specific type of handmade paper. Michallet paper is a laid paper and one side is velvety smooth and the other is tightly ribbed. Seurat preferred the ribbed side. The academies taught one to respect and to work with the paper, but not to this extent. His black brings out the ribbing, as a kind of preparatory grid, then largely effaces it. By the end, its texture creates a kind of Pointillism in black and white.
His technique enabled him to be meticulously academic or impulsive to the point of abstraction.

He lived at the time when the modern world that we understand was being created and encroaching on the natural world. Factories and industrial landscapes began to become normal. Paris had been rebuilt as a modern city. He drew cafes and theater scenes. He was able to exploit the harsh artificial light and the artifice like no other artist had before.
Emotionally, too, Seurat lives on the edge. Monet faces up to modernity well enough, more indeed than early Modernists. He also finds joy in it. His almost abstract but also deadly accurate London skies need the fog of the industrial revolution to exist. His train station, with clouds of smoke billowing up to the glass and steel enclosure, conveys excitement. Seurat's darting Conté crayon accepts the ugliness of soot, freight yards, and ragpickers. He updates themes like Courbet's stone breakers and Millet's reapers, but without ennobling them.

I find something ambivalent, too, in Seurat's point of view. He can seem not simply formal but ice cold. I cannot think of a less sexy portrayal of a woman's waist than Seurat's profiles. He rarely makes eye contact, even with his own family. At the same time, he has more intimacy with his subjects than others of his time. He allows grown-ups to toil and children to suffer.

The drawings enhance that ambiguity, which may explain why they show Seurat at his most tender, accurate, and memorable. The black casts a haze over everything, but the luminosity invites one up close to penetrate it. One feels closest of all in his portraits, including a friend at work on his own art, his mistress in near squalor, or his mother embroidering. This art invites contemplation, and that, too, can imply objectivity or intimacy. It also leaves one unsettled, like Seurat in the Zone. Instead of shades of black, one could think of shades of blackness.

It is the blackness, the sureness of the power of the crayon in his hand, the consummate skill, the lack of hesitation that draws me again and again to his work. 

Almost Busted In Laredo

You could be in a coma and come out of it every 5 years to find that Willie Nelson was busted for pot possession again. He was busted yesterday in Sierra Blanca, Texas at an "Inland Security" checkpoint by Hudspeth County deputies when they stopped his tour bus and smelled something suspicious. Willie's 77 years old and a national icon and a true force for good in America. What ever your political persuasions, you have to like and agree with Mr. Nelson. I sure like his music. I predict he will get busted for pot again in another 5 years and again and again.  Finally, the papers will run out of ink to print up the stories...
He was released on $2,500 bond after admitting the substance found in his bus was his and allowed to continue after being held briefly. Here's a 2008 performance by Mr. Nelson of the song, Me And Paul, from his days as one of the  The Outlaws with Waylon Jennings & and Co from Country Musics first platinum album.....

"Almost busted in Laredo,

But for reasons that I'd rather not disclose,

But if you're stayin' in a motel there and leave,

Just don't leave nothin' in your clothes."

wORd NoV.26,2010

"Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking."

Aldous Huxley

Dust Breeding

Marcel Duchamp & Man Ray, Élevage de poussière (Dust breeding). 1920, Gelatin silver contact print, 7.1 x 11 cm

England's Dreaming

I'm not quite sure if this really makes sense, but somehow, this seems very rational to me in my own irrational universe.
Britain has always existed in its own little pop musical universe. It absorbs influences from all over the planet and then in its peculiar insular way, makes them totally undeniably, British.
American Blues? Jazz? Motown? Garage Rock?
Eric Clapton? The Northern Soul Manchester Sound? The Beatles and the Stones as the perfect examples...What could be more bizarre? Brian Jones playing the Bazouki or George Harrison and his Sitar? Yet, they both took the instruments of another culture and the sound and made it so very British...
I am beginning to see pop music as a barometer of the mood of the planet. When times are bad, the music is great. When times are good, the music sucks.
This is my attempt to co relate music and economics as seen through the microcosm of Britain.
1974: In America, Nixon resigns. The economy sucks and in Britain, there are miner strikes and power cuts. Roxy Music releases Country Life....
1976: Carter elected in America. Britain has to be bailed out by the International Monetary Fund. Things really suck. The hit single in America is The Captain and Tenniles, Love Will Keep Us Together, but in Britain, things get really good with the release of  The Sex Pistols first single, God Save The Queen.
The birth of punk as the economy slowly sinks!
1986: The economy is booming and Thatcher is is in power. The Rolling Stones release what is probablty their most forgettable record of all time, Dirty Work...it goes to #1, but can you even name a track?
1991: Recession sweeps the globe and one of the best rock records of all time is released. Nirvana'a Nevermind.
1997: New Labour and Blair come to power. We get Oasis with Be Here Now...need I say more?
2009: Capitalism collapses around our ears world wide, the music industry is eating itself, consumed by the technology it fostered....but things haven't sounded this good for years!
2010: The Tories retake the government and are caught in a hurricane of their own denial as the British economy collapses yet again. Their answer? Kill the poor with taxes and repression. I predict a glorious Punk Renaissance!

Yesterdays student demonstration in London which was brutally repressed by the police. Thousands of kids and adults were detained without charges while protesting the drastic hikes in education fees. Cick for article in The New Statesman

Coupon

William Burough's Thanksgiving Prayer

Burroughs recorded this in 1986. I am posting it in memory of:
Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson
27th February 1955 - 24th November 2010
Peter Christopherson, affectionately known as Sleazy, died peacefully in his sleep on the 24th of November at his home in Bangkok, Thailand.
The music and art world has lost a great talent whose unique approach ignored the conventions of the day and often challenged the status quo.
Sleazy's playful and inspiring creativity saw him pushing boundaries as a musician, video director and designer throughout his life. He had recently returned to Thailand from Europe, where he had played a short but spectacular series of live shows as a member of Throbbing Gristle and in the newly formed trio X-TG with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter.
Sleazy's visual art career included work as a member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis, creating iconic record sleeve artwork in the 1970s for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and, later, Factory Records. He took the first promo photographs of the Sex Pistols, created a highly controversial window display for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's clothing shop, SEX, and went on to design the logo of the hugely popular fashion company, BOY. In 1976 Sleazy met Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Genesis P-Orridge and together they formed electronic music provocateurs Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records, creating one of the first independent record labels of the era and laying the foundation for a new genre of music. The band was infamously described in the Daily Mail by Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn as "the wreckers of civilisation".

нет проблем

Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends!

and now a word from the sponsor

I have this 200 year old stone barn that was rapidly beginning to fall apart. The roof was caving in and the back wall began to collapse. I refused to let this happen and through imaginative financing and some very creative and cooperative builders here, we were able to repair the barn. We put a new roof on it and rebuilt the back wall. 
Finally, I had to replace the huge doors into the hay loft which are accessed by a ramp from the road. We are talking about church sized doors which had long tumbled out of their hinges and had to be totally rebuilt.
Thanks to my buddy, Marius, the doors are back in place. We used the old hardware, reset the hinge plates into the stone and made new doors out of totally recycled poplar from the old roof, huge pine beams for the end pieces and oak planks recycled from huge old wine vats. The final door magically went into place on Friday. I am presently painting them with used motor oil and some finish work....
I cannot thank Marius enough for his knowledge and effort. He had the plan and the know how to do this and the right tools. The very least  I can do is let you know about his innovative horticultural invention.
He invented it, manufactures it and markets it. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fertometer!

It is a hand held battery powered wand which one sticks into the soil of a potted plant and when you press a button, the lights let you know if your plant needs fertilizer. We tested one of the prototypes when he first developed it and I can say it really works. If you have house plants or are an (ahem) horticultural hobbyist, this is truly useful tool.

It gives professional results for a low price and all you have to do is change the battery every few years.

Click here to order the Fertometer directly from Marius.

He will ship it any where in the world you like!

WoRd NOV.24,2010

‘then what are we fighting for?’

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied ‘then what are we fighting for?’

l'Ecole des Facteurs

Perhaps after my last post on cycling, you might enjoy this 1947 short movie by Jacques Tati,  l'Ecole des Facteurs...The School for Postmen. The best collection of bicycle gags ever assembled. I hope it looks as good on your computer as it does on mine!

Urban Bicycling

It might seem strange that I write about urban cycling, as I live in a truly rural environment. I am, though a passionate cyclist and spent 25 years biking daily as a commuter in Manhattan, in all seasons and weather.
Before that, I biked in Toledo and Detroit. I always used a bike when I could. As a railroad employee, I carried my bike out to the middle of the Maumee River when I went to work at the night shift as a drawbridge operator.
I got to experience the major improvements in New York's biking environment when I was there in late September. When I lived there, biking was a dangerous sport. You learned to evolve a cab alert radar system and develop an enhanced vision movement detection system or die. I survived with only a few contusions and a dislocated shoulder...
Now, New York has added over 250 miles of bike lanes. A separate road system. To ride on Second Avenue to the intersection at Houston Street is pretty impressive.
The trails along the Hudson River, which enable you to ride unhindered from the Battery to above the George Washington Bridge is like being able to take a vacation in the midst of the urban insanity. I biked in comfort in places where years earlier, you almost had to cut your own trails anew each week.
It's fantastic that Manhattan has become a truly bike friendly place. Of course there are always those who resist change and cannot understand the necessity of pollution free and healthy city travel.
If you can't adapt, then the lanes seem to be a personal affront to your right to drive and park anywhere.
Then there was the protest by the Orthodox Jewish Community in Williamsburg who rejected the bike lanes because they brought scantily clad, sweating enthusiasts into their communities on the Sabbath.

I had a great ride in NYC along the Hudson using my buddy's new Elliptigo Cycle with no seat. I wouldn't recommend it for long distances, but we did a 30 mile ride and after a few awkward moments, I got the hang of it...I guess this is my "coming out" photo. Microdot on an Elliptigo.
Here are some other photos of the new bike lanes on the Williamsburg Bridge. The Bridge used to be a very scary place, in a constant state of disrepair and you never knew what you would find once you hauled your bike up the stairway....

Now you can ride your bike onto a beautiful lit bikeway suspended above the traffic and the subway cars.
But, New York is not alone as pioneering bike city.
It started in Amsterdam in the 60's with the idea of free bikes...an idea that of course was unsuccessful because it relied on the honesty of the people who took the free bikes.
I have seen the idea of urban "free bkes" working though. It started here in Lyon, France in the 90's.
Now with a little adjusting, there is a great Velolib System in Paris. The first half hour is free, you get a bike from a station using a credit card. Then you are charged a slight fee for any time over the half hour and damage.
I had a chance to take advantage of the system in Toulouse, which is turning into one of the most progressive green cities in France. The best new subway system, an extensive modern and green cheap bus system, a huge pedestrian oriented central city and a Velolib system which has been in use for 10 years now. The bikes are sturdy, with paniers built in for transport. They are a little heavy, but geared nicely. Toulouse is a relatively flat place so it's not a problem. Toulouse is also pioneering a energy generating sidewalk system which generates power by pedestrian traffic which is used for the street lights. On a dreary late fall day of nonstop rain and fog, I get pretty depressed. I am a solar powered being and I miss not being able to ride every day. I do try to ride when I can during the winter, but it's always an effort to psyche myself up. These memories go a long way to getting me fired up for some cold winter rides in the near future.

Marcel

One of my lifelong personal heroes, Marcel Duchamp, photographed by Man Ray as he prepares to be photographed for an official portrait of himself portraying Moses which was used to issue subscription bonds. He sold them to "investors" to raise funds to allow him to gambol at roulette in Monte Carlo.
He did this as a sort of "performance" art piece...Yes, he raised a lot of cash, he went to Monte Carlo and with his "system", he made money for himself and his investors and the bonds themselves became pieces of very expensive, coveted art. In the retrospective luxury of history (I mean we have lived through a few stock market crashes and world financial crisis and seen the value of the work of conceptual artists such as Damien Hirst crash through the stratosphere of your pathetic imaginations), could we dare to deny that he was a genius? 

mOrE WoRDs Nov.23, 2010

French Words With No English Translation

Dépaysement: The sensation of being in another country. My usual state of being.

La douleur exquise: The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have. Even a Sex in the City episode was named after it!

Chômer: To be unemployed, but because it’s a verb, it makes the state active.

Profiter: To make the most of or take advantage of.

Flâneur: As defined in the book Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals, it’s “the deliberately aimless pedestrian, unencumbered by any obligation or sense of urgency, who, being French and therefore frugal, wastes nothing, including his time which he spends with the leisurely discrimination of a gourmet, savoring the multiple flavors of his city.” 

Esprit d’escalier: The literal translation is staircase wit, but it means to think of a comeback when it’s too late.

Retrouvailles: The happiness of meeting again after a long time. Sortable: An adjective for someone you can take anywhere without being embarrassed.

Voila/voici: It’s so necessary that we use it all the time. “Voila” literally means “there it is” and “voici means “here it is.” Empêchement: An unexpected last-minute change of plans. A great excuse without having to be specific.

WoRD NOV.22,2010

Murdoch, Jobs Prepping iPad-Only Daily Newspaper

Greed is Greed, you want more than you need
When you're super rich, life can be a bitch
Cause you want more money and it's not real funny
When you find yourself in bed and your soul turns to lead
Cause the need to make a deal is a little too real

Why does Steve Jobs want to be a whore?
He has all he wants and he will never be poor
Selling his ass for Fox Daddy Murdoch
Watch  little Stevie's integrity sink like a rock

Maybe integrity is something he has never had
Maybe he had it, but sold it like an ipad
by the truck load, made in china
in the middle of the night,
once it's gone, it stays out of sight

Maybe money is comfort for low self esteem
Maybe money can make your heart feel clean
only for a few minutes, and then you need more
Steve Jobs is a junkie and just became a whore.

If I was John Lennon, a curse would rise from my grave
Once, Jobs was a man, now he's just Murdoch's little slave.

Where Were You?

I was a 12 year old kid in St. Monica's Catholic Grade School in Detroit. It was art class and I was sitting across from kid named Mark and we were supposed to be drawing each others faces. The tinny school announcement speaker came on and the principal, Sister Mary Edward announced gravely that the President had just been shot in Dallas.

There was a stunned silence and then Mark started to giggle, which in turn triggered a chain reaction of insane 12 year old idiotic giggling. The nun, Sister Mary Theonella went berserk, crying and screaming at the class to be quiet. But what could you expect? Things were never the same again.

WORD NOV.21,2010

Cynthy-Ruth

In 2007, The Detroit Metro Times named this song, Cynthy-Ruth as one of the 100 greatest Detroit singles, EVER! Incredible enough for any group to have achieved this acclamation in the legendary musical grail of Detroit Music! The Band, Black Merda recorded it in 1970.
Black Merda was formed in the late 60's. They were the stage and recording backbone of such legends as Edwin Starr *WAR*!!!! Good God Y'all, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing!...
In the late 60's the original members became heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix and as the band Soul Agents, cut a Detroit cover of Foxy Lady.
Black Merda (pronounced black mer-duh) went on to become studio fixtures, the backup musicians for Eric Burden and War and released a few records which were under promoted, but highly influential gems. George Clinton refers to them as a seminal influence that helped him evolve his Soul Vocal group, The Parliament into the Cosmic Mothership Connection of Funkadelic!
Here is Black Merda in 2009, under the production of Don Was re recording Cynthy-Ruth....
This owes more to Muddy Waters than Hendrix, but it don't get more funky than this!

History Replies

Committed warmonger and torture enthusiast Dick Cheney said on November, 16th  that "history is beginning to come around" on George W. Bush.

In refudiation, history called Cheney "a self-serving, delusional, dishonest shit" and "a goddamn fucking idiot."

WORD NOV.20,2010

“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules, but by people following the rules.

It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.”

Banksy

KILL THE POOR

(this was cross posted from reverend manny, thank you reverend!)
The Health insurance racket is a money beast that will not die. ThinkProgress just revealed that the Health “Industry” pumped over $86 million into the Chamber of Commerce to kill Health Care Reform. What is often forgotten is that there is another price to pay. It’s the price paid by those too poor to afford the health protection racket run by the health insurance companies and Big Pharma.
For example, in Arizona, about 98 patients who were waiting on organ transplants were short on their bills. So, doing the neighborly and humane thing, the Arizona state government agreed to pick up their bills. In the face of a $1.5 bil budget deficit, another 4.5 million to save nearly a hundred lives is a micro-drop in the karmic bucket.
But then, instead of raising taxes to make up for the budget gap created by insanely low taxes, Arizona instead decided to go back on its promise to those 98 families that thought they’d get a few more years to spend with their loved ones. Here it is from Truth-out
If you happen to be sick and poor and are among the 98 people in Arizona who are awaiting state-funded organ transplants, you’ve just been handed a death sentence.
This morning, NPR reported on cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the statewide health care provider for poor and disabled people. AHCCCS said it would pay for organ transplant procedures, then went back and reversed itself, citing risk evidence that critics say was tailored to give them cover for this unthinkable action.
Instead of trying to save the lives of these people, who had been told that they had a chance to spend a few more years with their families, the Arizona legislature has chosen to take away their hope in order to save an estimated $4.5 million.
Facing a projected $1.5 billion budget deficit, the state of Arizona has decided to make poor people pay with their lives instead of making rich people pay with their treasure.
Jan Brewer, paranoia-freak and Prison Industry lackey, is the hyper right-wing governor of Arizona. Her response? Blame it on Obama.
Republicans, with the financial help of the health racket, are in fact on a no-holds-barred attack on any government-provided or subsidized healthcare. Republican Senator and “Minority” (ha!) Leader Mitch McConnell is hoping to enlist the help of billionaire conservative legal creation, the Federalist Society, in fighting healthcare reform. Apparently it wasn’t enough to fraudulently present politicians with corporate-sponsored “citizen outrage.”
No such authentic rage can exist because it’s a painful and obvious fact how bad and expensive healthcare has become in America.
For all that money, though, a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund of the 11 modernized rich countries ranked America 11th in healthcare.
WASHINGTON: Americans are the most likely to go without health care because of the cost and to have trouble paying medical bills even when insured, a survey of 11 wealthy countries found on Thursday.
“The US stands out for the most negative insurance-related experiences,” the New York-based Commonwealth Fund, the private foundation that carried out the study, said in an accompanying statement.
The study found that a third of US adults “went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of costs,” it said.
That compares to as few as five to six per cent in the Netherlands and Britain, according to the study.
A fifth of Americans had “major problems” paying medical bills, compared to nine per cent in France, the next highest country, two per cent in Britain, three per cent in Germany and four per cent in the Netherlands, it said.
Americans were also the most likely to have disputes with their insurance providers or discover insurance would not pay as they had expected.
These are the same “Providers” that pretended to support Obama’s campaign for health care reform while duplicitously funding a wide and corrupt attempt to stall, break or reverse all health care reform.
The truth is, that despite all their high-paid whining, 2010 was a record-setting year for Health Insurance Companies.
The six largest investor-owned health insurance companies saw a 22 percent increase in combined net income in the third quarter, putting them on pace to break profit records for 2010.
According to S.E.C. figures compiled by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which lobbied Congress to pass March’s healthcare overhaul, the top six insurers made a total of $3.4 billion in profits during Q3, or $611 million more than they did during the same period last year.
So relax America… might that cough kill you? Sure.
But perhaps you forgot our national motto?
KILL, KILL, KILL THE POOR!

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Galileo Galilei

Canadian Air Travel Advisory

More Cheap Labor Conservative ILL- Logic

WORD NOV.19,2010

A Nation of sheep

Ruled by wolves

Owned by pigs

Bad Seed

Great Wayne Kramer Band Classic originally from his 1995 recording The Hard Stuff.
This is from the 1998 Live Performance recording LLMF....
(that\s Live Like a Mother Fucker)

Wayne realized early on that perfect incoherence was damn hard work!

Arthur Rimbaud

Rimbaud: A Life in Slideshow

It’s the life of the great French poet, Arthur Rimbaud, in a 10 minute slideshow. The video traces the arc of Rimbaud’s short life (1854–1891), stitching together images from 19th century France, photos taken by Rimbaud himself, and manuscripts scribbled by the poet. In the background, Joan Baez reads lines from Rimbaud’s famous collection, Illuminations, which appears in the Poetry section of the Free Audio Books collection. Project Gutenberg also makes his complete works available in French.

Download the free e-text right here.

WORD NOV.18,2010

Practice Makes Perfect

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell - Begin the Beguine from The Broadway Melody of 1940

I know, I dared you all to be incoherent, but on the other hand,

Practice Makes Perfect....
In other words, there is a big difference between being just incoherent and
on the other hand perfectly incoherent...

Poulet Saute aux Olives

I haven't posted any recipes for quite a while...not that I haven't been cooking or thinking about food....
but I have been obsessed with recreating a very simple recipe that I really love. A Poulet Saute Aux Olives and not just any version, but the version of a certain Madame Parret who lives in Neac, France.
I think I have nailed it.
I took a nice red label chicken and cut it up and sauted the pieces in a little butter and olive oil until they were just golden. I took some of the fat out of the dish...I sauted the pieces in a big iron baking casserole that had a cover. 
I only used salt and pepper. Then I smashed a few garlic cloves into the hot dish and put in almost 200 grams of pitted green olives that I had rinsed to get rid of the excess salt. After a few minutes of being heated together on the stove, I covered the pot and put it into a 350 degree farenheit oven.
Meanwhile, I had cut up some potatoes,  Spuntas from my garden of course, rubbed them with olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper and had them roasting in the oven on the lower rack.
After approximately 25 minutes in the oven, the chicken was done, the olives were browned a bit and there was a nice crust on the bottom of the dish. The potatoes were almost done.
I took the chicken out and put it on a dish. Then I put the pot on the stove, and deglazed the bottom, with the olives still in the pot with a glass of white wine. I put a large teaspoon of flour in the sauce and scraped all of the brown off the bottom...after a minute, the sauce began to thicken.
Then I was able to serve the potatoes, all roasted brown and crispy with the chicken and olives and the sauce with some olives on the side....
It will never be as good as Madame Parrets, but I came just "this" close and I know how to make it better the next time...of course the next attempt will be with a duck..................
Bon appetit, bien sur!

WORD NOV.17,2010

Ce n’est pas la conscience des hommes qui détermine leur existence,

c’est au contraire leur existence sociale qui détermine leur conscience.

Karl Marx 

(Oeuvres Économiques)

Russia In 15 Seconds

Pretty Cool, Eh?

The Spot

Philip Charles Lithman, born in 1949 and died on July 1, 1987, was more popularly known as Snakefinger. He was a multi instrumentalist artist, who was best known for his violin and guitar work in collaboration with the American Surrealist Group, The Residents.

Snakefinger was a very important influence on me as a songwriter and as a musician. One night in sheer frustration in 1981, I screamed at the group of musicians I was working with, in utter febrile rage..."DARE TO BE INCOHERENT!" and they did. We were utterly incoherent and brilliant and I can only thank, Mr. Lithman for his inspiration........
Lyrics:
A pox upon a chicken or a fight about a bear, would not be worse than what I've seen and what I have to wear ;
It first appeared on my birthday, beneath an empty cocktail tray ;
I scrubbed but found to my dismay, a spot that would not go away.

I GOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . .

"Oh what the hell !" I seemed to say, and laughed a little bit ;
But when I saw the spot had moved, I nearly had a fit !
A fever froze me in my place, but when I found it on my face ;
Curdling my blood I screamed, "Be gone or be some heinous dream !"

I GOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . .

Oblong it interacted with my folicles of hair, and now it grows in magnitude and sits upon a chair ;
It sleeps upon my only shirt, and smiles at me when I get hurt ;
"I can't believe that blotch is there !" But still I cover it with care.

I GOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . . . THE SPOT . .