The Full Monty

On Tuesday, the Italian elections fired a missel directly into the heart of the of the Financial Mafia that is working so ardently to control the words economy. I saw the results immediately as I watch the dollar/Euro exchange rate with bated breath every day.Hey, the day after the elections, my dollars gained 3 centimes.  Italian politics are a mess, but the immediate results of this election was the rejection of the Berlusconi austerity economic reforms. The British screamed in panic because the Conservative Government is sticking to its do or die stiff upper lip austerity program come hell or high water, in spite of what ever evidence to the contrary we see in the countries that have rejected austerity and have begun the struggle to recover their economic independence and expand their economies...Who are the real winners from austerity? Not you or me. When banks are bailed out, who makes the real profits?Who walks away with the profits? In most cases, the investors who profit from your economic purgatory are anonymous. Here's a link to a great documentary on ARTE...When Europe Saves The Banks, Who Pays? sorry that it is only available in French and German, but I am trying to find an English version on YouTube... Your economic future is a commodity. Once the deal is made, it's a game that you will never be allowed to participate in. Britain has been playing this game for a few years now and treading water. They acted as if they were somehow immune to the disease. They rabidly went for class warfare and the full monty of austerity as if they invented it
Last week, the United Kingdom received its first ever credit downgrade, as continued austerity has dragged down the country’s economic growth. Britain’s conservative government, however, is forging ahead. Finance Minister George Osborne yesterday called for the UK to “stick to its course.”
The UK, though, is a prime example for why austerity should be avoided in a weak economy. As this chart from Reuters’ shows, the U.S., which embraced stimulus after the 2008 financial crisis, is in much better shape than the European countries that went for austerity:




As this chart shows, the UK has not at all lived up to the projections for economic growth that were made in 2010: France is doing feebly better than the UK, but it would be a lot worse if the full brunt of the acceptance of austerity that Nicolas Sarkozy was proposing had been implemented. To Hollande's credit, he is trying to undo the damage. He seems to be walking a straight line in dealing with Angela Merkle. He does speak fluent German and they actually seem to like each other...It's interesting to watch the relationship of Hollande and Merkle develop. She is a Conservative Centrist and Hollande is Progressive Socialist. Together they represent one of the biggest economies in the world. Sarkozy was a Conservative opportunist who Merkle grew to detest, though on the surface, they would seem to idealistically aligned. Achtung, ein komik interlude! You vill laff, schweinhund! 

Maybe Sarko didn't go the full back massage route that George Bush pissed her off with, but he was even more of a touchy feely syncophant and Angele don't play that!

Austerity has actually had the opposite of its intended effect in the UK, killing growth while not bringing down debt. And that’s held true across Europe, as this chart from economists Paul De Grauwe and Yuemei Ji shows:

Let's try to learn from the success of countries, like Iceland which rejected the attempts of the IMF to impose austerity and chose instead to prosecute the financial criminals and after a few months of economic hardship started to retake control of their destiny and economic future. When we learn that the systems we have imposed on ourselves are totally compromised, outdated and hacked, and do something completely different, we will begin to move into the future. Constitutions, economic systems are like computer operating systems. hey are hackable and become outdated as fast as they are enacted. Most of us in this modern world are living with operating systems that were written before the telephone was invented. How lame is that? Iceland just enacted the first open ended, crowd sourced constitution on the planet.

The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves The Stage

1968, a rather bizarre performance but somehow prescience event involving the Mothers of Invention and the BBC Orchestra. Skip ahead if you must to about the 6 minute mark of this video and you will see the better, enhanced version of what happened today in Vatican City as Benny the Rat slunk off the stage...for your information, Roy Estrada, the rejected Mexican pope in this sordid little episode was an incredible artist. He had worked with Frank Zappa for years as a bass player extraordinaire, performance artist and asthmatic doo wop falsetto vocalist performing feats way beyond the dreams of mortal man...he went on to be the bassist/vocalist of the legendary band Little Feat, but here is a recording of Roy playing a bass solo originally created for Jack Bruce and blowing him off the map....

DJESUS UNCROSSED!

I used to watch SNL back in the day and put up with them through their various sometime lame mutations over the years...but this, my friends is what I expect from them and I hope it pissed all the right people off...I know it did...and to have Brad Pitt wailing "killin' Ro-mans!" was icing on the cake! Now I can't wait to see the Tarantino film, Django Unchained! extra added bonus, I did a piece of GIMP art...inspired by a blogger named Old Buzzard...which I want to eventually use to design currency for the Republic of Texas when and if they ever secede...hold my breath and cross my fingers? This will be on their 10 Peso Bills.....

Stephane Hessel

Stephane Hessel just this last December, 2012

Stephane Frederic Hessel was born in Berlin, October 20, 1917 and died last night, February 26th...he would have been 96 this year, but in the eyes of his admirers, Hessel had become timeless. He exuded an eternal youthful optimism, he seemed inexhaustible. In so many ways he was as young or younger than the millions of people who he inspired. He can very rightfully be called the Godfather of the Occupy Movement. His small 2010 pamphlet, Indignez-Vous sold over 4 million of copies world wide, translated into 18 languages. The English title is A Time For Out Rage. The title in French, Indignez-Vous became the genesis for the name of the non english speaking protestors who are the Occupy Movement. Les Indignes here in France or Los Indignados in Spanish. Here is a  link for a pretty good translation of Indignez-Vous! but, it is a little book and pretty cheap to buy for your self.
His next little book was called Engagez-Vous or in English, Get Involved!

But Hessel is a man who deserves his heroic legend, though, this self effacing man would never want to wear that cloak. His parents were intellectual Germans of Jewish origin, who moved to France after the first World War. They were involved in the post war art and literary world of Paris. His parents actually were the real life couple that Francois Truffaut based his classic film, Jules and Jim on. In this post War Parisian Intellectual World,  Stephane flourished. His chess instructor and friend was Marcel Duchamp. He graduated from the most prestigious French Schools in the late 30's, only to join the French Army in the mobilization of 1939.

Early on, Hessel joined the Resistance and became a propagandist and strategist with DeGaulle in London. He came back to France to take a more active role in the Resistance and was captured 3 times by the Germans, sent to Concentration Camps, tortured, sentenced to death and managed to escape and was finally spared death a third time when he was liberated by the Americans.
After the war, he became a career diplomat and in 1948, he worked with Eleanor Roosevelt in drafting the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  He has had a life long career as a diplomat involved with African and an outspoken and controversial advocate for the rights of the Palestinian People. On 5 January 2009, Hessel criticized the Israeli military attacks in the Gaza strip, saying "In fact, the word that applies—that should be applied—is 'war crime' and even 'crime against humanity'. But this word must be used carefully, especially when one is in Geneva, the seat of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who may have an important opinion on that issue. For my part, having visited Gaza, having seen the refugee camps with thousands of children, the manner in which they are bombed appears as a veritable crime against humanity."
His statement was applauded by human rights advocates, but condemned by the supporters of Israel. To his credit, Hessel never backed down or shied away from controversy and was always able to respond with intellectual rigor and calm good humor. He was heroic in a way most of us could only fantasize, but he did it naturally and gracefully. I have been writing about him for the last 3 or so years here on this blog, documenting his writing and human rights work and tireless promotion of his ideas and passions. This, his 95th year on Earth found him finally slowing down and becoming frail, but he did write his final book on Palestine which he finished days before his quiet death. It will be released in March. Stephane Hessel is one of my true heroes. He was a man of the 20th Century with his mind already in the 22nd....He fought passionately for his belief in our goodness and our future. His last wish was that his ideas would outlive his name. I believe they will, but I also will do everything I can to make sure Hessel is remembered. Tonight in Paris, there is a mass rally and in other French cities to celebrate Stephane Hessel. If a modern French citizen ever deserved to be enshrined in the Pantheon, he is the man. 

Hessel in 2012!

s'trooth!

Beer drinkers in the US have filed a $5m (£3.3m) lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its beer.
The lawsuits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on beer labels.
The suit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch beers including Budweiser and Michelob.
Anheuser-Busch InBev have called the claims "completely false", and said in a statement "our beers are in full compliance with labelling laws".
The lawsuits are based on information from former employees at breweries owned by the multinational.
"Our information comes from former employees at Anheuser-Busch, who have informed us that, as a matter of corporate practice, all of their products mentioned [in the lawsuit] are watered down," lead lawyer Josh Boxer said.
The complaint claimed that "Anheuser-Busch employs some of most sophisticated process control technology in the world to precisely monitor the alcohol content at the final stages of production, and then adds additional water to produce beers with significantly lower alcohol contents than is represented on the the labels".
The law suit contends that drinking American beer is like making love in a canoe...It's fucking close to water!

Between Clark and Hilldale

Live 2003, Arthur Lee recreates music from one of the greatest pop records ever made.

Forever Changes

Lee was too brilliant, too hip and intelligent and damn it too black
 to survive in a world of corporate white 1960's pop. He burned too damn brightly.

After a stint in prison he came back in the late 90's and made brilliant music and then died of leukemia in 2007. One of the biggest musical influences on my young life.

Let Me Take You Down.....

This rather disturbing video was made in 2010 by Italian investigative journalist and author, Carmelo Abbate. He wrote a book, published in 2011 called Sex and The Vatican. In the book, he documented taboo issues for the Roman Catholic church as the women who become priests' mistresses and the children they have (and those they abort). It details allegations of the rape of nuns by priests. And it concludes that large parts of the clergy are leading double lives because of the crushing burden placed on them by the Vatican's insistence that they lead lives of celibacy and chastity.

The video was shot as part of an investigation by Panorama Magazine and documented the double lives of gay priests in Rome. I found it because I watch a French News discussion program on France5 called C dans l'Air...and tonights discussion was about the resignation of Scottish Catholic Cardinal, Keith O'Brien, the highest ranking Catholic in the UK, over the growing revelations of his own tattered sex scandal on the eve of the Papal Enclave to choose the successor to Benedict XVI. The book by Abbate is has actually been in development as a French documentary which is to be shown later this year. Here is a PDF link to the 320 page book by Carmelo Abbate.

The book was actually 12 on the Amazon.fr best seller list and the first edition sold out in a week. He has been interviewed and written about extensively here, but in contrast, in Italy the publication of Sex and the Vatican has been met with a wall of embarrassed silence. It is as if it had never happened.
This only focuses on the dilemma of the Catholic Church in attempting to maintain it's medieval mentality of total control in a world that has evolved far and quickly beyond their ancient brutal methods. In reality, with in Vatican City the pope had the power to order executions as recently as 1969.  Though the last execution was carried out before 1900, the Vatican imported the French refinement of the guillotine in the Napoleonic era and over 800 people were executed by papal order in the 19th century. If you read history, some of the Renaissance popes personally administered truly blood thirsty brutal murders.
In the 1950's, the Catholic Church dealt with boys who were their sexual victims and had the audacity to complain by ordering castrations. The breaking Irish scandal in the CatholicChurch, The Medieval Nightmare of the Magdelene Slave Labor Laundries and how they evolved and the attempt at suppressing the bad press surrounding this scandal and failing miserably again illustrates just how out of touch with the21st century they really are. The discussions I have seen lately spoke of how the Vatican would try to suppress what they know,and protecting them selves by trying to maintain their medievally enforced fascist faith created fear wall of silence. So Benny the Rat learned how to twitter, or how to order his underlings to tweet for him. How Hip, How 21st Century is that? They still don't have a clue. Like the Republican Party being left in the dust in the last Obama/Mittens  presidential race, they may be aware of technology, but that doesn't mean they understand it or have a clue as to how to really use it.
Let's look at the line up the Vatican is trying to use in implementing it's crippled Conclave to select the next pope. Benny the Rat is going to resign on February 28. He is going become fallible again...damn...and the implications of the case in Rhode Island, focusing on Maciel Mariel which commenced last week is going to be his focus as he is drawn deeper and deeper into the web of sexual abuse, fraud and money laundering which brought about this present crisis. So are we going to see  a quick deliberation between the cardinals, eager to have a new Pope by the Easter holiday? In that spirit, here's a quick rundown of the men-or-women-no-no-not-women-who-would-be-Pope:
The People's Choice
Luis Antonio Tagle, hailing from the Philippines, is among the youngest and newest Cardinals, having been made one just this past November. His quiet reserve and respectfulness is very Pope-like, and while it would be nice to see a Pope who wasn't an old white man, bookmakers have him at 16-1.
Please, God, No
The boisterous Timothy M. Dolan doesn't stand much of a chance of being Pope, with America being a superpower and all, but his handling of the sexual abuse allegations (paying off priests to leave the priesthood instead of reporting them to the police), should disqualify him enough. Bookies have him at 50-1.
The Relunctant Canuck
The Quebecois Marc Ouellet described the possibility of becoming Pope "a nightmare" in a 2011 interview, but he is a theological conservative who is about the right age for Pope (a spry 68). Sometimes self-effacing in a progressive country with a declining amount of Catholics, the Cardinal is running at 4-1.
Home Cookin'
Italy's Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi is giving what amounts to the keynote address of the weeklong papal Lenten retreat, but his low-profile is overshadowed by his fellow countryman, Angelo Scola. He's running at 16-1.
The Charismatic Favorite
Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, is very similar to the outgoing Pope, except younger (at an unripe 71) and a little more progressive. He has focused on immigrants rights and outreach to the Muslim world. He's running at 7-2, so get used to this guy — he might just be the next Pope!
The Black Pope
Peter Turkson, Ghana's first Cardinal, has promoted abstinence as a solution to stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa. He's not going to be Pope. Strangely enough, the bookmakers I'm using for odds have him at 5-2. I would love to see all the living room walls of Boston with a picture of a black Pope on it. Oh god, I would love that.

For some reason, the money is saying that the Vatican is going to try to elect a third world pope...Turkson is running pretty strong right now. He's playing a fairly aggressive game as he talks his Macho African anti gay rhetoric...according to him, this faggy priest pedophile thing is basically a White thing...Black men don't play that....but as I am Sister Mary Noreen's worst night mare, I have to play the race card. If Turkson, or the Philippino, Tagle, were actually elected to pander to the disaffected legions of alienated Catholics who are leaving the church in droves, then conversely, the super conservative but ever shrinking core of the old time true believers would be forced to go deeper into the schismatic sects that already are claiming thousands of the conservative racist core of Orthodox Catholicism....In America and Europe, there is a long standing schismatic heritage of ultra nationalist, old time fascists who consider themselves the true believers. I mean what would Opus Dei say? Though they represent a fringe, it wouldn't take much for the conservative catholics in America to reject a black or hispanic pope. I really hope that the catholics step into the abyss and elect a third world pope, because that's what the sane world needs. We need a real schism in the catholic church. We need to see the real racist, fascist psyche bared.

Bring It On!

Wanna Buy My Underwear?

Hey, butt boy, I'll sell you my well used hot chili pepper boxers...

U Wanna C POSSSSED? 

These can be yours, guaranteed possessed! I am a certified
practicing licensed demon. Make me an offer.....

Make me an offer, Rev, and I will change your life.....
Now git down on yer skabby knees and pray!

Get That Kommunist, Ted....

The latest GOP Tea Brained Drama Queen, Texas (no surprise there) Republican Congressional Rep. Ted Cruz maintains that he has evidence, though, after repeated demands, all you get from him is that he has evidence, sir, how dare you call me or my mamma a liar? that 12 Harvard Law Scholl professors are Red Marxist Communist Socialistical Subversives...and you know what? Prezident Obama edited the Harvard Law Review and graduated from Harvard Law Skule....soooooooo.....I guess if your from Texas, it figures....

The music is a a 1954 cut by a band from New Zealand, Freddy Kreil and the Kavaliers....

Hallelujah

One more piece from the fabulous Portsmouth Sinfonia. I actually have the original vinyl. Their live triumphant concert performance of Handels Hallelujah Chorus in 1971. The performance was notable for the way the conductor dealt with his panic when over 200 more enthusiastic volunteers demanded to be included on stage in the chorus. Hey, deal with it, they did....

Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy

In 1974, Brian Eno released his second solo LP, Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. Eno's work always stood apart as he charted the course others would try to follow. Taking Tiger Mountain was like nothing I had ever heard before and Eno became one of my biggest musical influences. His own "strategy' in using and finding inspiration was Duchampian. There was so much chance. He even invented a "deck of cards" othat he titled "oblique strategies" to with ideas and phrases to be drawn by chance when creating in the studio with his own work or producing and collaborating with other artists. The Talking Heads/Eno collaborations, Fear Of Music and Remain In Light remain as perhaps the most powerful pieces in their catalogue and they acknowledge that his techniques were a way to open the doors of creativity. U2 acknowledged that the Eno oblique strategy method opened doors into thinking about music in a totally different way. He and Daniel Lanois have been responsible for some of their most radical reinventions of themselves like the brilliant Achtung Baby! recording. It allowed them to reinvent themselves again and again over their almost 30 year long collaboration. Do you remember the U2, Eno, Luciano Pavorati collaboration called Miss Sarajevo as they became the conceptual band, The Passenger Project?

Here's a link to an on line version of Eno's Oblique Strategies. Maybe it might help you in your next creative dilemma.
Here is The Chinese “model” opera that inspired Eno to create Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy after finding it in a book of postcards (such as the one pictured above) in San Francisco. I’ve always been curious, so it’s another marvelous artifact of the Youtubes that it’s here for easy perusal. A description of what we’re seeing via the Wikipedia:

Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (Chinese: 智取威虎山; pinyin: zhì qǔ wēihǔ shān) is a Beijing opera, and one of the eight model plays allowed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The story is based on the novel Lin hai xue yuan (林海雪原), which in turn, is based on the real life story of an incident in 1946 during the Chinese Civil War, involving a communist reconnaissance team soldier Yang Zirong (杨子荣) who disguised himself as a bandit to infiltrate a local gang of bandits, eventually helping the main communist force to destroy the bandits. Unlike other characters depicted in the opera and novel, the protagonists’ name and the bandits’ names were real.
A film version directed by Xie Tieli was released in 1970 and currently Hong Kong film director Tsui Hark is making a new version of it. His movie is scheduled to be released at the end of 2012.

And the instrumental Brian Eno composed as the title track of his LP. It was an amazing, unique recording. Here's the lead in track, Burning Airlines......

and of course, last but not least, before Roxy Music, Brian was an Art Major and in 1969/70 helped organize the legendary Portsmouth Sinfonia. A Sypmhnoy Orchestra which "played" the classics. It was composed of non musicians, most of who chose their instruments for some vague esthetic reason, but the results were like nothing ever heard before or ever again. Brians first effort as a producer and he is one of the clarinetists. Here, they do homage to Tchaikovsky with their "rendition" of The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy from The NutCracker Suite:

Drone Free?

This animated piece was published as an op ed by the NY Times on Tuesday, February 20, 2013. We have gone way beyond what was existential science fiction a few decades ago, a speculative vision of an oppressive future. 1984 is so old school.  Welcome to our Brave New Surveillance Society. It only illustrates how easily we are inured and conditioned to adapt and accept as long as it doesn't seem to directly affect us. If I'm not doing anything wrong, then what do I have to worry about? It's those "subversive terrorist criminal elements" By the way, have you updated your definition of "anything wrong" lately?

But drones have so many applications. You can own your own drone from Rotary Robotics for $250. A personal surveillance type drone with a camera that can be accessed and controlled from you laptop or iPhone...cool, eh? They call their project Drones For Peace.  We all know that drones have many industria and agricultural uses. Here in France and in the USA, farmers now use them to monitor crop conditions. They can gauge soil moisture and fertilization and monitor crop health.

My proposed coupon and a good reason why I am not allowed to
go near technical drawing pens....

But, heck, I know this isn't why you would want to purchase your own personal drone...The personal, perfect, anonymous way to settle a little neighborly dispute...unless your neighbor could ever invest in a personal missel defense system, and take my word for it, folks, the good scientists at Raytheon have been trying to sell you one for years and trying to get it to just work right, one time, at least...They have to justify the Billion plus buck welfare subsidy they have been getting form the Defense Department to just stay in business these days. Until they get the technology down and can sell it to your neighbor, maybe you'd like to take advantage of  my special offer...with my Chinese connection. We're working on a special discout discount coupon deal just for you. Today, you can buy your own personal predator drone system for say, $2,500.a piece, but I can get you a deal in quantiites.For the time being, you are going to have to work out the shipping arrangements with Mr. Zhang Xuejun at BMP. Bejing Micro Pilot. They do take Western Union Money transfers. So we all can have drones, drones for peaceful applications, the police can have drones for surveillance, you can have a drone to take out your obnoxious neighbor and the military/industrial complex is making money hands over fist as they market and sell and infiltrate your consciousness with the idea that this is normal?

Act Now! You can have the drone of your dreams, at a price
you can afford and I can get you a volume discount!

Now stop...imagine the world under Mitt Romney....his line up of neo con jackals in  charge of the military and security applications of drone technology. Imagine trying to reason with John Bolton, who would probably be Secretary of Defense now if the Bishop had been consecrated. I have a lot of issues with the Obama Administrations use of Drone technology as a tool of war fare...but this did not start under Obama...I have been writing about the use of drones as the presently most dehumanizing factor in modern war fare for a few years now. It's too easy, it's too sloppy, it's so convenient...and it's so uhhhhh....NOW! Drugs, video games, alienation,the ulitimate high powered assault weapons...except, instead of being trapped in your parents basement fantasy land, you are in a sealed locked down climate controlled environment some where in in fucking Nevada for 12 hours a day watching monitors and pushing buttons and destroying real lives real people, and making big mistakes, except there is no replay option....How fucked is that?
Here is an incredible piece of testimony in a January 3, 2013 article in the German Journal, Der Spiegel, by an American Military Us Air Force Drone operator, Brian Ferguson who one day realized what was happening to himself and had the guts and the intelligence to walk away. An incredible story, it begins: 
For over five years, Brandon Bryant worked in a elongated container the size of a caravan, without windows, at a constant temperature of 17 ° C, and the door was condemned for safety. Before the eyes of Brandon and his colleagues glittered fourteen screens. Their fingers, four keyboards. It was enough that Brandon presses a button in New Mexico for a man to die on the other side of the planet.
Inside the container, computers humming. This is the brain of a drone. In the U.S. Air Force, we call this piece a "cockpit". A difference that pilots do not fly container - they just fly. 
Please read the article.
What we can humans do? We can dream. We can create. We can use the survival skills that have kept us ahead of the game for a few hundred thousand years to create the reality and the space we need to survive. Because that is what we do best, survive. Long after the Military|Industrial Complex is decaying and risting in the dust, we will still be here....If we ever figure out how to use drone technology safely and in an energy efficient manner, we will be doing it. I have no doubt of that. It's just another one of those pesky evolutionary bottle necks we have always managed to squeeze through.
Here's a vision of a technically evolutionary realizable future scenario by an Egyptian writer, who calles himself Sepoy. He imagines a place named Shura City and how it can be impervious to present drone technology. Much of what he writes makes sense and he admits that he is not an architect or technician.Here is his proposal for Shura City and the PDF if you care to read it.

  An Architectural Defense From Drones by  

Every things fine, now....last night I spent 3 hours assembling a post which I tried to edit after posting it...a funny thing happened, it vanished, forever...I could just scream, to quote Joe Flynn who played Captain Binghamton on McHales Navy....Luckily, I had most of the links I had collected for the piece and I will try to recreate it today, when I have the courage!

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Last Night In Amsterdam

Last night February 17th in Amsterdam. Gary Lucas with the Metropole Orchestra performing the Captain Beefheart composition Suction Prints live. It was an evening called The World of Captain Beefheart...and it looks as if it was absolutely brilliant! More from this show in the next few days...but this is so good it burns...like Beefheart meets Basie!

TOP POPE 2013

So, like all of you, I am anxiously looking forward to the next big reality television show that has the buzz potential to be the media hit of the year... TOP POPE 2013! I was a bit disappointed though because I submitted my nominations for TOP POPE 2013 and they all got rejected. 
I thought I had a pretty strong list, but I can see why they might have rejected Dolly Parton, something about not only being a girl but a Baptist as well. Okay, but Cher? She'd be perfect for the costume bit and baptized as a Catholic, but I guess the bottom line was that she's a girl...okay, I guess that rules out my #3, Tina Turner, but hey, Tina did take Swiss Nationality earlier this year...that has to count for something!
The biggest mystery to me was why they flat out rejected my favorite, Barry White! How could they go wrong with Barry White? This Catholic Church seems to have some kind of loser syndrome going...okay, so they rejected Pope Barry, because, get this...he's dead! He's been dead for years...but frankly, who would notice?
Any suggestions? Nominations are open....

The Restored Version

Brilliant acting! Love the choreography.

Sleep Walk

Jeff Beck's 2011 live version of the classic Santos and Johnny instrumental.

The original was pretty incredible, but in Mr. Beck's hands, it could be the theme of a David Lynch film...

Wait, Benny's Last Gasp.....

As we wait for the next shoe to drop in the non event, faux drama of Benedict XVI's resignation, he shoves this in your face....

From todays update of the Nouvel Observateur:

Vatican Bank: a scandal last for Benedict XVI?

Baron Ernst von Freyberg is the new director of the Vatican Bank since February 15, but he is also a manufacturer of warships for the German navy.

On Friday, February 15, as one of his last acts as Pope, Benny announced the appointment of one of his good buddies, a German from a great aristocratic family of Bavaria,as director of the Vatican bank, Benedict XVI l. Ernst's background, at first glance, is impeccable.  Baron Ernst von Freyberg, 55, is the co-founder and director of the investment company DC Advisory Partners, a former analyst at London and New York. He is also a Knight of the Order of Malta and very active in organizing pilgrimages to Lourdes.

He also incidentally is the director of company that builds warships for the German Navy.  It's tough finding the proper candidate for this position, I guess, the last director ended up committing "suicide" in the Thames.

Benny The Rat

His little red slippers left a trail of bloody footprints from the scene of the crime. The serial cover up of the what is becoming the biggest most explosive in a series of Sex and Financial Scandals that will leave the Catholic Church staggering. Cardinal Ratzinger, who took the name Benedict XVI as the Catholic Pope was the enforcer, the man who was head of a 20th century inquisition. These are his  reasons for resigning from the papacy. 

Among the worst of the scandals were those involving the highly charismatic, sexually prolific, and Vatican-favored Fr. Marcial Maciel and his powerful organization the “Legion of Christ.” Pope John Paul II was a huge Maciel fan, Maciel was a money machine for the Pope (more on that below) and sent lots of his takings to the Pope, and Ratzinger at the time was John Paul’s “enforcer” with regard to sex scandals.
A tricky combo. Ratzinger and his Vatican organization the CDF (formerly know as “the Inquisition” — seriously) oversaw the response to all of the child-sex scandals, including the ones involving Pope John Paul’s golden goose, Fr. Maciel and the Legion of Christ. Ratzinger, John Paul, and Maciel are knee-deep in each other’s history.

We know what the Vatican response to decades of scandal looked like from the outside — an obvious and massive worldwide cover-up of global criminal activity. To read one example of how the Church responded to just one set of criminal revelations, try this: “Catholic Church enslaved 30,000 Irish women as forced unpaid labor in Magdalene Laundries until 1996” — horrible stuff; truly the devil at work. Or consider the cushy retirement of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law, or former New York Cardinal Edward Egan’s retracted apology for the child-sex scandal (Egan now says the church didn’t do anything wrong.)

Now thanks to a woman in Rhode Island, we may get a look at the Papal cover-up process from the inside. She has a lawsuit against Maciel’s Legion of Christ for defrauding her now-dead aunt out of $60 million, by influencing her to rewrite her will. This suit has been going on for years. A Rhode Island judge has just ordered all documents in that suit be made public.
That’s all documents; according to the lawyer for the plaintiff, there are “yards” of them — all depositions, all discovery, everything will be made public. If anything involving the Legion of Christ’s relationship with the Vatican — and in particular John Paul and Ratzinger — is in those documents, they will be public as well.
No one knows (yet) what’s in them except the lawyers, but we’re about to find out. For fans of fixing the Church, this is good news indeed. Again, click to see just how closely tied Maciel, John Paul, and Ratzinger were; it’s an interesting story all on its own.
News first, then some public speculation, then a glimpse of the scale of the alleged fraud itself.
■ First the news, from David Klepper at the AP, who’s been following this closely (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):
RI ruling means release of Legion of Christ docs
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Documents related to a disgraced Roman Catholic organization called the Legion of Christ could soon be unsealed and available to the public following a decision Thursday by the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
The state’s high court issued an order declining to delay the release of the sealed documents, which are related to a lawsuit contesting the will of a woman who left $60 million to the Legion. … The documents could be available as early as Friday [February 15]].
The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter had asked a Superior Court judge to unseal the documents, saying there was no justification to withhold documents that could shed light on the Legion’s operations. … Depending on how the documents are stored, some could be available Friday, according to Joseph Cavanagh, the attorney for the media organizations.
From another AP story on the release of documents:
[Plaintiff Mary Lou] Dauray’s lawyer, Bernard Jackvony, said Friday that the documents being released show an orchestrated effort by higher-ups at the Legion to get Mee’s money and cover up Maciel’s misdeeds. … Among the documents being released are depositions given by top-ranking leadership of the Legion, including the Rev. Anthony Bannon, who was once Maciel’s deputy, and the Rev. Luis Garza, current head of the Legion’s North American operations.
Keep in mind that the charismatic Maciel frequently abused (or seduced) the seminarians in the Legion itself.
■ For more on what this means, we have this is from the Global Post:
The release of the voluminous court records by Superior Court Judge Michael Silversteincame within days of the stunning resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, who ordered an investigation into allegations against Legion founder Fr. Marcial Maciel when Benedict played a powerful prosecutorial role in the Vatican as a cardinal and again in the early years of his papacy.
These documents are expected to shed new light on a scandal Benedict inherited from John Paul II, whose unwavering support of Maciel, even after allegations against him were filed in the Vatican in 1998, bolstered Legion fundraising campaigns. Pope Benedict’s trip to Mexico last year ignited a blaze of negative media coverage due to his failure to meet with sexual victims of the late Father Maciel, who symbolized the global scandal that has cast a shadow on Benedict and his papacy.

■ Even before he was made pope, Ratzinger was oddly touchy about his role in the Maciel scandal:
Then, four years ago, some of the men tried a last ditch effort, taking the unusual step of filing a lawsuit in the Vatican’s secretive court, seeking Macial’s excommunication.
Once again they laid out their evidence, but it was another futile effort — an effort the men say was blocked by one of the most powerful cardinals in the Vatican.
The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren’t asked a single question or asked for a statement.
He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABCNEWS in Rome last week with questions of allegations against Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter’s hand.
■ And for details of the alleged fraud itself, the Global Post article also points this out:
Fleet Bank, which later merged with Bank of America, facilitated the Legion’s access to the flow of money from Mee and the charitable trust of her late husband, Timothy. According to Jackvony, the bank should have maintained a wall between its duty to administer a trust and the Legion’s aggressive action to gain control of the funds.
“The Legion’s business relationship as a customer of the bank facilitated a sharing of information on the Mee trust that should have been kept in confidence,” Jackvony said. With access to the trust and Mee’s donations, the Legion bought a $35 million corporate campus from IBM in Thornwood, N.Y. in the 1990s.
The lawyer for the plaintiffs stated that the Legion used Mrs. Mee “like a piggy bank. They saw her as an economic engine and used her for $30 million in donations for 16 years. The defrauding of Mrs. Mee looms over this entire case.” Something needs to break the Vatican wide open. Let’s hope these documents will do it.
Side note:(and I must acknowledge the referens=ces and links to reporting by Gaius Publius on Americablog and thank him for his research!)  I agree with this commenter that we need to stop calling this behavior “sexual abuse” and start calling it by its real names — rape and torture. “Abuse” minimizes the horror that many victims went through. You can practice this as you speak about it. It’s not a “sex abuse” scandal; it’s a “child rape” scandal. In the case of the Magdelene Laundry children, it’s a “child slavery” scandal. Words count, which is why the other side distorts them so often. Where is this going? I'm going to follow it! 50 ears ago, a black hearted bitch named Sister Mary Norren dementedly bashed my head against against a tile wall in corridor in St. Monica's Elementary School in Detroit. On that day, I started to run,fast and as far away from the the scam of religion and never look back. I sincerely hope that I can live up to my ambition of becoming Sister mary Noreen's worst nightmare, because, actually, I am forever grateful to the black robed bitch for the moment of cosmic revelation she granted me!

Again And Again

The soundtrack is a 1965 recording of a band from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Michigan area called The Iguanas. The vocalist/composer and drummer on the cut is kid named Jimmy Osterberg who took the Iguana name as his own and became Iggy Pop, or Stooge....

I walked in step Past the old times i would fly In a long field of bleeding death And there was no sound at all And I moved fast to look around And I saw Stand beside me one another And the grounds steady Again & Again And I move fast oniy Back in the womb My eyes were wide open My feet were on the ground I knew what could never quiet me..... Felt so...Again and again...

I was compelled to post this because my friend, Clement from Montagne, France who has a great music blog called Musicoldnews published a post on Punk Music and focused a bit on Detroit, but the Detroit/NYC punk rock connection is so much a part of my life, even today. Check out Clement's post and leave a comment if you want! He writes in both English and French. I know that the people from the shittiest places will always make the best music. Jazz, Rock, Classical, Blues and Folk, it's how we survive!

ДАХ красотка!

Five Minutes Of Immortality

This is a British 10 Pound Note. An unusual example of a scientist rather than a ruler being represented on currency.  But it would be impossible to overstate his importance to modern science.  Modern biology, anthropology, paleontology, medicine, and countless other sciences are rooted in the theory of evolution, without which they could not even exist as we know them today.  Kings and Presidents and even nations come and go, but Darwin will likely be remembered and honored at a time when few people other than archaeologists even remember where the planet Earth was located.  Very few men in the course of intellectual history were able to change the debate, introduce radical new concepts that jump started and advanced our understanding of the universe we live in like he did. You could say that as far as visionary inspiration, perhaps Isaac Newton did the same for Physics, for even the greatest minds of our time, perhaps, Tesla and Einstein would be floundering in the dark with out the singular genius of Newtonian vision.
Earlier this week, on the 12th, we celebrated Darwin Day 2013. 

Marco, your 5 minutes of immortality in
 America are up, babe....because
this is all you will ever get....

The basic idea that simpler life forms have gradually developed into more complex ones over time dates back at least to the Romans. Darwin's theoretical contribution was to propose the mechanism by which this process happens. Any population of organisms contains some variation among its members, and some of these variations will be more conducive to survival and reproduction than others. As a result, the individuals which carry those variations will usually produce more offspring, and if those favorable variants are inherited traits (an important qualification), they will become more common in the population, so that over time the nature of the population changes.
It seems like a tiny effect, but operating over long enough spans of time, it can change a population of simple self-replicating molecules into a population of highly complex organisms such as you and me.
(Note that while the mutations that produce the basic variations are random, natural selection is not random. When you hear someone attack evolution as a "random" process, this is a sure sign that he lacks even rudimentary knowledge about it.)
Nor did Darwin stop at just proposing the idea. By his exhaustive study of animals he was able to assemble a great mass of supporting evidence -- the real meat and muscle of science. It's not enough to propose an idea that "rings true" or seems intuitively convincing. The real test is always the evidence supporting the idea, and how well that evidence stands up to challenges.
Darwin did not set out to attack religion, but inevitably his theory was one of the mightiest blows against religion ever delivered. However much of religion's specific dogma had been exposed as nonsense down through the centuries, the complexity, sophistication, and apparent purposeful design of living organisms had always been an unanswerable argument for the existence of some kind of guiding intelligence at work in the universe. By providing a real explanation for those phenomena, Darwin swept away this last seeming rational basis for belief in a supernatural creator.
The theory of evolution as we have it today is far more elaborate and sophisticated than what Darwin originally proposed, because we have learned far more in the meantime (genes and DNA were not discovered until long after Darwin's death, for example). This is how science works. It's only worthless belief systems such as religions that operate on the model of a one-time Revelation from the Master, immutably set in stone, to be "interpreted" but never improved or changed by the lesser men of later generations. Science is always seeking new data and testing its theories against those data to arrive at a more accurate understanding of reality. But the present-day theory of evolution is still rooted in the concept of gradual population change via natural selection which Darwin originated. And so massive is the amount of supporting evidence discovered since Darwin's time, that evolution now ranks among the most solidly-established facts in all of human knowledge -- for more on this, I recommend Richard Dawkins's numerous books on the subject. 
The day after Darwin Day was celebrated, we were graced by the media proclaimed Savior of the Republican Party, Marco Rubio who has made so many back sliding comments about science, evolution, creationism that I won't even begin to give you links, but on February 13, Rubio, while having his butt massaged on FOX while still basking the glory of his in his spa watered State Of The Union Rebuttal quest for power, The Republican Party’s newest champion took the time to shoot down the realities of climate change and the kinds of regulations that he himself once supported as the speaker of the house in Florida.
During his speech on Tuesday, President Obama called for a market-based approach towards solving the climate crisis, stressing the economic as well as environmental benefits that derive from investments in clean energy. In response, Rubio attacked cap and trade legislation as an economic menace that would cripple the recovery, and he repeated the claim again this morning:
RUBIO: The government can’t change the weather. I said that in the speech. We can pass a bunch of laws that will destroy our economy, but it isn’t going to change the weather. Because, for example, there are other countries that are polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are at this point, China, India, all these countries that are still growing. They’re not going to stop doing what they’re doing. America is a country, it’s not a planet. So we can pass a bunch of laws or executive orders that will do nothing to change the climate or the weather but will devastate our economy.
In fact, Rubio is wrong that “there are other countries that are polluting in the atmosphere much greater than we are at this point.” There is only one — China — and it is still a long way away from reaching America’s level of cumulative carbon pollution, and it is the total pollution emitted to date that drives climate change. That’s why it is so important America lead the way on climate action.
Rubio’s anti-science rhetoric is no surprise since he has also expressed skepticism towards the nearly universal consensus among scientists that humans have played a detrimental role in climate change.
While Rubio is right that America is not a planet, he is wrong to suggest that cap and trade — which has in the past enjoyed bipartisan support — would hinder economic growth. In fact, just last week a consortium of 9 northeastern states and the privately owned energy companies that power them announced they would be expanding a regional cap and trade system that has been in place since 2008, citing the positive economic and environmental benefits reaped over the last five years.
Rubio himself sought to turn Florida into “the Silicon Valley” of the green energy industry, lauding the state’s push for a version of cap and trade legislation as a potential moneymaker for Floridian businesses during a 2008 floor speech. There is also ample evidence to suggest that investments in renewable energy would help create millions of jobs and quicken the economic recovery, not hamper it as Rubio claims.
As President Obama noted in his address, other countries — China included — have raced ahead of the United States in the development of clean, alternative energy. And in Europe, countries like Germany have taken far greater strides than the U.S in solar energy, producing as much as 80 times more electricity relative to energy consumption through photovoltaic panels as compared to the United States.
Of course this only inspired me,  Rubio is the Republican Savior Flavor of the week! Hell, if he's making bucks off of becoming the next loser in chief of the Republican Party by trying to outdo Mitt Romney in pandering backsliding denials of every postion he ever supported in the past, then why can't I pick up a few Rubio Bucks...so put your orders in here, I am now downloading every speech and immortal"idea" Marco Rubio ever publicly uttered and having them printed up on this special archival paper, ready to be framed,traditionally hand set special edition printing which can be yours, and you know who you are, the discerning art owner at only 500 Dollars a roll!

Available in extra extra soft, absorbent and quilted for
 your comfort for only a few dollars more....

Where Are We Now?

This is a map of the places on the planet that were never invaded by Great Britain...
food for thought, I guess, but on the other hand, it only makes the first single from
David Bowie's new recording just that more poignant......

Happy Valentine Day

On this typically miserable Dordogne day of fog and rain, I am so full of joy that there is somewone in my life I can wish with all my heart, Happy Valentine Day. I love you Janet, my eternal ultra violet purple haired punkette...even though I will never know after almost 35 years what your true hair color is...... 

This is the original version by the Clovers....

The French Solution

It's a fact, 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions in France is cow fart methane gas. And to deal with this environmental threat, a French cattle feed company on Tuesday unveiled a novel form of carbon credits aimed at incentivising farmers to stop cows from emitting climate-changing farts.
Grass-chewing farm animals are an often-overlooked contributor to global warming, as their emissions are of methane, a gas that is two dozen times more efficient than carbon dioxide in trapping solar heat. 
I am acquainted with this phenomena all too intimately. I am surrounded by cows. I have to chase them off my property. My doggie is getting pretty good at chasing cows. 

My buddy, J. Edgar causing bovine panic....
(click on the photo to enlarge)

At a press conference, yesterday, the company Valorex said it would offer a carbon-credit bonus to farmers who join the “Bleu-Blanc-Coeur” (Blue-White-Heart) initiative, which promotes food products with higher levels of the valued protein Omega 3.
Valorex sells a trade mix that comprises corn, soy, lupin and linseed, which it says means cows emit 64-percent less methane, deliver better quality milk and need fewer vet bills.
A credit of 100 euros ($134) will be awarded for every tonne of CO2-equivalent gas that is saved from entering the atmosphere, said Valorex president Pierre Weill.
The credit cannot be used on the European carbon market, where the CO2 has collapsed to just a few euros (dollars) a tonne.
Instead, it has to be exchanged for goods and services provided by other companies which are part of a long-running “Bleu-Blanc-Coeur” (Blue-White-Heart) initiative.
The new scheme, certified as bona fide by the French government and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has so far notched up 8,365 tonnes of averted carbon.
Out of France’s 72,000 milk producers, 500 have joined Bleu-Blanc-Coeur, which requires them to follow strict guidelines  I really hope it works, we have to batten down the hatches when ever a cow goes off!

Ain't Superstitious

but this might a great beginning for Dan Brown's next novel....

Just Ask The Lonely

1965, when big men weren't ashamed to cry.  Big music, big voices, real emotion, real pain in under 3 minutes of pure solid minted golden Motown soul. The Four Tops. I posted this because it is an incredible live performance, but could you even begin to comprehend that this was recorded in a basement studio on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit in 1964? All of the orchestral parts were provided by moonlighting musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The rest was sheer Motown Magic....

Why Americans Pay More For Lousy Internet Service

Why US Internet access is slow, costly & unfair (video)

I don't know how much you are paying for your internet access, but almost everyone of my American friends complain of the usage restrictions, the slow connection and the over all price. The network itself has been slow to expand and offer access to rural and inner city America. As I have said, I live in a very rural part of France, but my ADSL service is cheap and extremely fast. We are at the end of the line here and the service is still via phone cables strung up along the road, so our biggest worry is the physical condition of the cables...About 2 years ago, I was having real problems with internet and phone connections. The France Telecom guys came out twice and then I was walking along the road and I heard a clicking sound over head...I found the problem, Mr. Boudy, the big farmer had strung his electrical cow line cable across the road using the phone pole! He was shorting out our service. So I called France Telecom, they came out again, fixed the problem and thanked me. Boudy was pissed because he got in trouble and had to come up with another solution for his cow line. The cow lines still cause me problems, but it's another thing all together. My neighbor has donkeys and his own electrical fence line which runs at one point along with Boudy's. When he first switched on his new system, my digital television service went out totally! The two lines in tandem were were broadcasting some kind of bizarre interference...it took a week to sort that out...I still have problems with AM, LW and Short Wave radio reception.

But I depend on the internet for so much now. I watch movies and stay in touch with the rest of the world and keep up to speed culturally all with the internet. Why is my service here so much better and cheaper than in the USA?

 A big part of the reason is that we have a lot more competition in here. It’s routine, in Europe, to get a broadband, phone, and cable TV package that starts at around $40 a month. And the phone package of course has unlimited calls domestically, and a lot of free calls internationally as well.
From Bill Moyers:

Susan Crawford, former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation, and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, joins Bill to discuss how our government has allowed a few powerful media conglomerates to put profit ahead of the public interest — rigging the rules, raising prices, and stifling competition. As a result, Crawford says, all of us are at the mercy of the biggest business monopoly since Standard Oil in the first Gilded Age a hundred years ago.
“The rich are getting gouged, the poor are very often left out, and this means that we’re creating, yet again, two Americas, and deepening inequality through this communications inequality,” Crawford tells Bill.