The Price Of Ink

I found this graph pretty interesting. I have an HP Printer, which I unabashedly hate, but have to feed and coddle until I can find the one I want at a price I want to pay. Every time I have a printing project, it's a high tension situation. This has gone on for a few years now. I found that there are no bargains for HP Inks...Check out this link for even more comparisons of the prices of liquids! HP inks are more than twice as expensive than human blood!

Friendly Galaxy #2 by Sun Ra

This isn't the version I wanted to find...this is the original studio recording from the 1965 Secrets of The Sun album. The version I wanted to find was the live recording from the 1971 double album Nuits de la Foundation Maeght recorded in St. Paul-de -Vence. The live version of Friendly Galaxy #2 is simply one of the most sublime improvisatory orchestral compositions I have ever heard.

The Dream Machine

Workers Rights?

Again, the land of freedom and opportunity is not #1. The land of opportunity, upward mobility and exceptionalism is again a land of illusion and lost dreams. Americans tout their health system as the best in the world, but it's sort of true only if you are rich enough to afford to pay for it. In many ways, for the rest of us, it's #37 world ranking puts it below many third world countries. The same with education. Some of the very best schools, but they are more and more expensive and if you have to get a student loan, the GOP just killed a bill that would have reduced the interest rates and are pushing for even higher rates! If you are young and don't have a trust fund, you are selling yourself into an indentured slavery to financial institutions if want a good education. The public education system is being allowed to disintegrate, student aid is being cut and privatized corporate substandard charter school systems are being pushed on cities all over America. I keep thinking that it is the desire of the conservative oligarchs to create an uneducated work force that will allow them to compete with the uneducated, underprivileged work forces of the third world. The canonization of St. Ronnie legitimatized the demonization of the American Workers and by tapping into the meme cliche, "but he only said what we all are really thinking", gave the green light for the organized war on the idea of Labor Unions, but perhaps John Maynard Keynes the great British economist theorist inadvertently pulled the curtain open when he said, "Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all"
Another great modern economist, diplomat and philosopher, John Kenneth Galbraith, more succinctly stated, "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." That really nails it.
This world map, published in The Huffington Post, in an article on a report by the International Trade Union Confederation on the state of actual workers rights in 139 countries all over the planet, ranked the countries on a sliding scale from 1 to 5+. Click on the map to enlarge it, or go to the original Huff Post piece.  In the color coding, the darker the color, the lower the score. The USA scores a pretty dismal 4 indicating "systematic violations" and "serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers." According to this report, Russian workers have more rights than American workers. America ranks right up there with Iran, Mexico, Iraq, Mali, Indonesia and a few others. The bright spots were South Africa, Uruguay, France, Germany and Italy, Iceland, the Scandinavian countries which included the only country to get a perfect score, Denmark. America has to ask itself if the repression of workers rights and benefits really help the economy? Is this how you compete? Or is this just another piece of evidence of the triumph of greed, a fatalistic acceptance of defeat, the willful ignorant destruction of the future for short term profits? What can you do? Never give up the struggle. Never accept defeat, but at least here is a body of evidence to refute the next empowered conservative jackass who tells you that America is #1.

What? You don't own a pair of 3D glasses? Well, okay, here are some simple instructions for your enhanced viewing pleasure.

Here is a set of instructions that will get you into the anaglyph world in very little time. You just need a few materials and a pair of scissors and you will be seeing cool 3-D images like the one above.
Materials:
Heavy construction paper or card stock

Scissors
Glue or tape
Cellophane sheets (red and blue)
Download and print the instructions and this easy 3-D glasses template.

Ring Of Fire

51 years later and we're still falling into that same old  burning  ring.

NO FN!

The perfect image for last Sundays EU Elections here in Europe.

All across Europe the parties that tapped into the Euroskepticsm sentiment were the winners. But time will tell if they really were. Most of the big winners, including France were the far right parties. Interestingly enough, when the electorate was polled, the primary motivation for their vote was not economic solutions or concerns. It was anti immigration. Here in France, the vote was really influenced by apathy and abstentionism. The voter abstention figures were historic, 57%. I always tell my friends who say they aren't going to vote because they are disgusted with politics in general, "If you don't vote, you can be sure that someone who is much crazier than you will."  Here, a big motivation in the vote was not so much as embracing the policies of the far right manipulators, but a slap in the face in the traditional ruling parties. The majority of voters who elected the Front National delegates were very young, under 30 years old. They are the class most affected by the economic problems of Europe. The young people who see no future in following the elephants of the past. The UMP is totally corrupt, the Socialists are totally inept, so unencumbered by the memory of the past, they went for Systeme D....

In her rambling statements, after a probably too much champagne, Marine LePen thanked Francois Hollande for the victory. She also thanked the confused mentality of the French voters. We are in collective shock as this party which in effect has gained a few delegates in the EU, seems to be in the ascent. These are the remnants of Vichy France and are guilty of being allied with neo nazi and ultra nationalists parties all over Europe. Marine LePen has been actively courted by Vladimir Putin as a European political ally. They use the same tools, Hate and Religion for ultimate political power.  They used Racism and anti Immigration sentiments to manipulate the voters. Only last week, the patriarch of the Front National, Jean-Marie LePen publicly stated that "The Ebola outbreak in Africa was a good thing because there would be less black migrants coming to France." They exploited the economic incompetence of the last French Governments. But, as the UMP tried to exploit their base, they were disintegrating in a wave of corruption scandals. The head of the party, Jean Francois Cope had to resign yesterday after denying he had been at the epicenter of massive financial scandal involving millions of Euros after earlier this year declaring the party bankrupt and appealing to the UMP militants for donations. But that was the tip of the iceberg. Sarkozy is so beshat by a black hole of scandals and investigations  sucking him in deeper each week that he can never run again. In fact, the Sarkozy clan might have to move to Dubai if they want to escape prosecution.

The Socialist administration of Hollande is guilty of total ineptness. If Hollande had even made the pretense of pretending to be president, he would have done a better job than the simpering, unrehearsed actor that seems to be playing him. The most damning charge in the eyes of the French electorate is that he really hasn't kept any real promises he made when he was elected. The administration is totally knee jerk. Today, in a rather tragic knee jerk response, the police violently closed the immigrant camp in Calais, with no real plan as to how to responsibly deal with the hundreds of immigrants there who have risked their lives to get to France in hopes of maybe going to Britain. They are out on the street of Calais now with no place to go and no hope. This was as brutal as Sarkozy at his worst. There were some bright spots, Greece and Italy had leftist majority wins. They didn't dfo so bad in Spain either. We kept out Europe Ecologie Delegate, Jose Bove. My village didn't go that far right. The FN made some gains, but nothing real. I don't believe that France is embracing Fascism, but through manipulation, fear and apathy, we are having our Tea Brain moment. I found it interesting that only hours after the election results were in, the FN delegate from L'Orient who had won was forced to resign by the FN Party because she wasn't as hard line as the third place runner up, who gladly took her seat. This hints that this is not so much a political party, but a mini dictatorship in training. It is a family thing.

NO FN!

My Apologies...

For the time being, I am installing the administrator comment approval option on this blog. This is very unfortunate and I apologize for having to do this.

I don't want to be maudlin...but today my wife discovered this pic on her camera. The last picture of my buddy JJ, taken the day before he got sick.  It's been a week now since he died and it's still too damn quiet around here.

This year, I want to go to Amsterdam. Jan Christiaensz Micker, Aerial view of Amsterdam, 1652

Aurgghlll...I think I have the plague...maybe I'll feel better later today!

Girolles!

I think my immune system kind of went down this week...I had a touch of flue a few weeks ago, but I snapped right back, I had gone the entire winter without a cold. Last night I started to sneeze and I knew that it was happening. So, I took my trusted Chinese remedy...Yin Chiao and went to bed early. I had the cold when I woke up, but the sun was out, it was warmer and after the storms last week, there was feeling in the air. So, I followed my nose into the forest and a few hours later, I came home with the first girolles of the season! My favorite mushrooms! Earler than I have ever seen them before, but I knew they were in the woods, calling me. This was the first hike I took in the woods without my dog in many years. I blame my cold on losing JJ. But, I'm now contemplating what exactly we are going to do with these mushrooms. I have to eat them immediately! It's a celebration! I feel so much better!

Honey, I Fried The Rabbit

The original caption:

"Bre’r Rabbit taking a trifling 500,000 volts at 20 kilowatts, and liking it well, thank you! He held still for 20 seconds, only blinking once in awhile. He was not chained nor held down otherwise…He is still alive, so Sis needn’t worry that we killed him.”

From an article in The Electrical experimenter on “Cold Fire: charging the body with high frequency currents.” Because THAT sounds like a good idea.

This journal from the Smithsonian Library circa the 1920’s has some outstanding ads as well as wacky articles. You can enlarge this reader to browse several issues of the entire magazine. Don't miss the ongoing series entitled "My Inventions" by Nikola Tesla!

Hitler vs Baltimora

So transcendentally wrong that it's magnificently right.

NO FN!
The EU Elections are on Sunday here and I just drove through my village and saw the Front National poster on the wall on the road with the others. We are voting for Jose Bove, who is our present representative in the EU Parliament. Europe Ecologie/Green/European Free Alliance for the Sud Ouest. 

Encore, Groland reminds us to never forget who who the real enemy is.

Duct Tape Nation

Louisiana GOP Rep. Vance McAllister might have inadvertently hit the nail on the head when he defended the use of Duct Tape and trash bags to repair a leaking oil pipe line a wildlife preserve in Louisiana. "That's what America is!", he blustered when confronted at a hearing of of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs,  by Noah Matson, vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, who said that existing one-paragraph regulations were inadequate for protecting the National Wildlife Refuge System. To make his point, he presented a slideshow, including photos of oil pipes that had been covered with duct take and garbage bags at refuges in Louisiana. What makes the point even more relative, Matson pointed out that the makeshift, dangerous emergency repair had been left in place for over a year. When I was a kid, living in Detroit, my dad was the king of duct tape. It was the miracle magic solution to almost any life threatening household problem. We had a furnace with the aging heat pipes duct taped together. Plumbing? No problem! Hole in the wall? Duct tape it over and then put a coat of plaster over it and prime it! We moved into an apartment before the house started to actually fall apart from his fix it and forget it approach to home improvement. This was guy who swore by Vicks Vap-O-Rub as the ultimate cure all health product...sure, just mix some in hot water and drink it! This basically the Republican approach to fixing America. Stop bitching, drink your Vicks like a man and get out the duct tape.

Duct Tape Nation, a fitting analogy created by a Republican to defend shoddy make shift repairs to the infra structure of America. They wastefully spend billions on the Pentagon to earn their defense industry lobbyist kickbacks, but deny lunches to inner city school kids.  They wage a war on the unemployed, the poor and our Veterans and refuse to upgrade America's transportation system and crumbling infrastructure. They bitch about it, then oppose any real effort to address the issue by duct taping over it and blaming it on Obama.
Here’s Huffington Post’s account of the hearing, before the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs:
The GOP members seemed more concerned with the activities of the regulators and environmental groups than the drillers.
“I see those pictures, and understand how a picture is worth a thousand words,” said McAllister, who worked in the oil technology and pipeline business before he won a special election to Congress last year.
“You took a picture of someone who was innovative, and rather than leaving the fluid to drip on the ground, repaired it with duct tape and a garbage bag, and yet you seem to be very upset about that,” McAllister told [Matson].
“We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” McAllister added. “We take a garbage bag and fix it and keep it from leaking and yet you’re still not happy, and come to Washington and testify before Congress and want to throw fits because some guy took initiative.”

Duct tape Mt. Rushmore!

I mean, some of those plastic-bag repair jobs had been in place for as long as a year, so there’s clearly nothing to worry about. They probably used Glad, not those crappy off-brand garbage bags. Oh dear God, did someone make sure they used Glad?
McAllister, who is resigning after a video of him embracing a staffer went public, recently told Politico he might run again. Presumably,after his wife figures out how to do a little creative duct taping, he will be distributing bumper stickers with the slogan, “If you can’t duck it, fuck it,” and a picture of a national park. Maybe we could hire McAlister here in France to advise the SNCF on how to use Duct tape to fix their little 50 billion Euro error...see the new trains are the wrong size for most of the stations here....just a few silly centimeters...any suggestions, Vance?

Adieu au Langage / Goodbye to Language

This film premiered at Cannes yesterday. Jean-Luc Goddard! 64 years of being on the other side of the blade! He realeased his first film in 1950.  I can't wait to see this film.

Pitbull Terrier

The fuckin' future from South Africa, brought to you by Die Antwoord (The Answer). From their new recording, DONKER MAG, to be released June 3, 2014.  The future, bilingual, multi cultural, multi racial. Do you think that Yolanda and Ninja create offensive art? Maybe for many, their work is offensive. But it is the subconscious reality of the viewer that is the most frightening aspect as far as I am concerned. They have always been able to tap into that. If you have seen their earlier work, you would have met their artistic director and inspiration, Leon Botha, who was one of the oldest survivors of the disease of progeria, the premature aging syndrome. Botha died in 2011, but left a blazing trail of original art in his short 26 year life.
Here's a 2011 short film they made in collaboration with American film maker, Harmony Korine called 
Umshami Wam

Erik Satie (May 17, 1866 - 1925) was a French composer who ranks among the oddest figures in late 19th C./early 20th C. music. He preferred to be called ‘gymnopedist’ or ‘phonometrograph’ rather than ‘composer’, and his pieces - often bagatelles for piano with whimsical titles - have a hypnotic and addictive effect on the listener. They sound simple but are actually hard to perform properly (not as pretty little ditties, but as complex and minute variations on a minimalist theme - Vexations for instance calls for 840 repetitions). Sequences such Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes foreshadow later ambient music, as do the later pieces that Satie himself dubbed ‘furniture music’…

Today we remember him with a little cumbia version:

Chicha Libre: Gnossienne No.1 (Satie) - from Sonido Amazonico! 2009

The "Liberal" Media

Marine Le Pen, the daughter of the Jean-Marie Le Pen and present head of the ultra conservative neo fascist Front National Party here in France is on the cover of the upcoming issue of the European edition of Time Magazine.This is the party that is trying to become the kinder, gentler face of hate. She has been personally linked with neo nazi groups and personalities all over Europe. 6 years ago, the Front National was washed up, bankrupt and discredited. Her father had been the subject of multiple prosecutions for racism, personal attacks and hate crimes in France and barred from being a deputy in the European Union, but with the sensationalistic fascination of the attraction of hate, this party, which basically has no ideas, no program has gotten so much publicity that to sell a few more copies of their rag, Time is featuring her on the cover. She wants to destroy the European Union by taking control of it. She has managed to have towns in France deny food to Muslim school kids. This is what we have been fighting against for 50 years here. This is the false front of conservative catholic, fascism. This is the legacy of the Vichy Nazi Collaborationists who cling to their racist fantasies long after the end of WW2. The fomenters of violence against Jews, Arabs and any one different, but as a manipulative tool to attain ultimate power. They managed to gain some political clout in the late 70's and early 80's but blew it totally in a web of infighting and corruption.  The Le Pens are a very dangerous family dynasty and Time Magazine has sold itself out to become willing collaborators.  Just this week, the French government arrested a FN linked militant group in France-Comte called Blood and Honor C 18. The found a huge cache of arms. This image made me sick today.

By giving Marine Le Pen legitimacy and trying to sell magazines by glorifying this kind of racist hate, Time Magazine has become a willingly abbetting collaborator of the Neo Nazi Movement in Europe.  I will never forget the tragic death of Clement Meric, the Anti Fascist kid who was brutally murdered in 2013 in Paris by Jeune Francais thugs because he dared to stand up to them and intelligent ideas and truth are such a threat to these monsters that the only way to win an argument is to smash it with brass knuckles in an alley.

Here's a great documentary on the ongoing struggle on the streets here in Europe. Thebrainpolice is 100% ANTIFA! FOREVER!

The Very Best Dog

"Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills"

Voltaire

This is a post I wish I wasn't writing. Early Sunday morning, my best buddy, J. Edgar died. Any one who has a dog they love says that their dog is the best dog ever. JJ was the best dog ever. We were pretty inseparable for the last 8 years. I could take him on treks in the forest off leash. He would take off chase deer and rabbits and foxes, then come back to exactly where ever I was to tell me about what he had been doing. He usually ended up sitting in the creek.  I could just about get him to do anything just by snapping my fingers and pointing at what I was thinking about. There was a bond there way beyond simple communication. This picture was taken only a few weeks ago. He was totally normal, full of energy, playful and happy until around noon, last Monday. It went fast. We thought he had been poisoned, but on Saturday morning we got the blood test results back and it wasn't poison, it wasn't chronic kidney disease or a tick bite. The vet in Cherveix-Cubas was puzzled and we tried to keep his strength up with saline drips and injections, but I realized on Saturday that he couldn't keep this up. He would rally and then sink into total lethargy. The vet thinks it was due to the irresponsible application and dumping of Herbicides by the farmer who owns a lot of the adjacent land around us. I know, when we were out last Monday morning he was very interested in something in the drain pipe in the ditch under the tractor access in the culvert. He went in from both ends. We did all we could.

He was a rescue dog, abandoned as a puppy. A unique mix of border collie and tiekle, try to figure that out! He was everyones favorite dog. He spoke French better than I ever will. I have to admit, he taught me more than I could ever teach him. It's going to take me a while to accept that he's gone. I only have good memories of J Edgar, JJ, Stinky.  He was the very best dog!

Don't Think I'm Crazy, Cause I'm Not #2

No cut-aways, one take.

Crew members threatened to quit and begged him not to do it.

The cameraman looked away while rolling.

A six ton prop.

It brushes his arm as it comes down.

And he doesn’t even flinch.

Buster Keaton 1928

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

"There was a new thermobaric weapon that we tested for the first time in Fallujah. When you fire it into a house, the first thing it will do is suck all the oxygen out of the house, collapsing the lungs of any occupants. After that there is an extreme heat blast that fries anything in the vicinity."

Don't Think I'm Crazy, 'Cause I'm Not!

I think it would be really cool to move to Idaho and register as a Republican to vote in this primary.

I would like to actively participate in jumpstarting the true beginning of the decline of the American Empire. Just vote for any of these idiots and you could make a very important contribution to the collapse of The United States of America as you think you know it now! You can actively participate in the Beginning of The End! These idiots are still blaming ACORN for something or other....
I don't know about you, but I'm voting for the biker dude who was visited by the angel while living in Fat Larry's cellar after his wife kicked him out of the house.

VOTE REPUBLICAN! IDAHO #1, NOW!

You've heard about the Heartbreak Hotel...I am temporarily residing in the Palace of Depression in fabulous Vineland, NJ because my best buddy, J. Edgar, who everyone here knows as Stinky is seriously ill! I have been dealing with this all week...trips to the vet and dosing him with pills....I am getting ready to take him back to the vet in Cherveix-Cubas in a few minutes. He never really has gotten sick...I was afraid he had been poisoned or was suffering from Pliroplasmosis. He hasn't eaten anything for 3 days and is very weak and staggers around. The doctor says it is a very serious gastro infection. He seemed better today, he weakly barked at the facteur, his old buddy when le camion de la poste arrived. I offered him some ham at lunch. He still has no appetite. Here is my buddy Stinky, a very handsome exotic mix of border collie and tiekle. Think about him for me, okay?

Kronos Quartet feat. Asha Bhosle - Dum Maro Dum (Punk-a-Wallahs Remix)

The Rat Fucker

Karl Rove had been elected chief executive of the College Republicans in 1972, a skinny kid with lamb-chop sideburns, but he jumped into the job with relish, leading seminars in teaching young right-wingers wingers how to indulge in dirty campaign tactics. This led to a brief role in the Watergate affair, after the Washington Post reported on his seminars with a story headlined “GOP Party Probes Official as Teacher of Dirty Tricks,” leading to a brief investigation ordered by then-Republican National Committee chair George H.W. Bush, who in short order cleared him of wrongdoing. Rove remained associated with the Bush family thereafter. Who was Roves mentor? Remember, Karl Rove was linked to Watergate and then interviewed by Poppa Bush about it.

Karl Rove learned from his Richard Nixon days how to ratfuck his opponents, (political sabotage) which was coined by Donald Segretti in his years connected to the Committee to Re-elect the President (Nixon). Segretti famously coined the term 'ratfucking' for recruiting conservative members to infiltrate opposition groups (and/or misrepresent them through false flag activities) in order to undermine the effectiveness of such opposition. A very typical Rovian ratfucking episode occurred when Rove invented a uniquely injurious fiction for his operatives to circulate via a phony poll. Voters were asked, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain…if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”This was no random slur. McCain was at the time campaigning with his dark-skinned daughter, Bridget, adopted from Bangladesh.

Karl Rove, the heir apparent to Lee Atwater, who has a history of ratfucking political opponents is now trying to say he never used the phrase "brain damage' when discussing Hillary Clinton at an LA Speaking event last week, but only pointed out that she had serious health issues. He joined his home network, Fox News and refuted the claims made from Rupert Murdoch's tabloid NY Post. But did he really? He repeated used the term "serious health episode," over and over again while talking to host Bill Hemmer and them immediately pivoted on to smear her because of her age.

All you have to do is plant the idea into the media of something nefarious and let them go to work on it.

But he did that and more in his NY Post, then when called on it, tried to weasel his way by lying about what he had said, but then again, that is the strategy. The Ratfucking Lie. You say it, then you deny that you said it, but once you say it, the lie takes on a life of it's own.

Here's the footage of the accusation and the denial: 

Here is the transcript and some commentary, if you'd like to read it after the break!

Smells Like Bee Gees

At the 33 second mark, things go horribly sideways. 

Sekouban Bambino Diabate

Incredible cover of James Brown's It's A Man's World by Guinean guitarist/vocalist Sekouban Bambino Diabate. He was born in 1964 in the village of Kintinya, right on the border with Mali. His music is of the same Western African tradition as Mali. When he was 16, the President of Guinea heard him and encouraged him to become a member of the top Guinean group, Bembeya Jazz. He released his first solo recording in 1991. He has toured in Europe, but is relatively unknown outside of Africa where he is a superstar. I heard his 2002 recording of A Man's World from his CD Sinikan and was knocked out! After hearing it a few more times, I think it is the most incredible version of this song I have ever heard....well, maybe the live MC5 version comes close, but a totally different genre. I am a real fan of Western African Music. Some of the greatest guitarist on the planet came out of this rich tradition. 

I am still involved with the Groupe Coordination Aude Mali and we have updated the donation information in the sidebar of this blog.  Life has stabilized for many of the refugees and they are slowly coming back to their villages from the refugee camps in Burkina Faso and Mauritania. Life is still very dangerous for many because of the continuing unstable politcal situation, but we are helping to rebuild the school GCAM funds and classes have started again! I want to update the situation in another piece, but one good thing is that many of the great Malian musical artists who left Mali in fear of their lives when the Al Qaeda group banned music are able to go home again! GCAM was able to keep the Toureg villagers they support alive by helping them escape, feeding them and now helping them restart their lives in the traditional home. The donations we got through this blog went a long way in the emergency. GCAM is a very small NGO with virtually no overhead and administrative costs. There are a few people who have been on the ground for the last 30 years who are a part of the lives of the Toureg people. Nothing you donated was wasted.  If you feel like it, any small donation you give using the PayPal button in the sidebar will be used to help these people survive.

I just watched it for the 8th time!

I'm just here to help!

Medical ads from the 1903 Atlanta City Directory

Conservative History, Baked Fresh Just For You, Everyday!

You can laugh a bit and console yourself that it doesn't matter all that much if an Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice tells us the first Amendment only applies to Christians -- maybe even if you are like me, definitely not a Christian. It's only Alabama, right? This is a few days old, it might be old news, but it's more like bad wine turning to vinegar.
They didn't bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship, the Mayflower,
Justice Roy Moore announced to the mob at the Pastor for Life Luncheon. Maybe you'll remember that Jefferson owned one however and that he wasn't shy about warning us of religious tyranny. Maybe you'll remember Moore as the former justice who was removed from office for fighting to erect the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, but like that tumor you thought the chemo got rid of he came back two years later singing the same tune:
"Let's get real. Let's learn our history. Let's stop playing games."
I would agree with that, but as we know, to the religious right, history is baked fresh every morning. The English colonists brought slaves, white and black, and Moore's ideological ancestors fought like hell to keep them, Bibles in hand.
Buddha didn't create us. Mohammad didn't create us. It's the god of the Holy Scriptures,
said Moore with the authority not granted him by anyone in particular, and grossly misrepresenting Jefferson and Madison and the U.S. Supreme Court with a stream of non sequitur he insisted that freedom of religion is only for Christians.
A newly-released video shows him expounding all this and worse in Jackson, Mississippi last January to a group called Pro-Life Mississippi. Of course it's hardly a game he's asking us to end, it's secular democracy, the pride of the age of Reason and Humanism, and like a stag at bay it's destined to be torn to ribbons and its head displayed on some courthouse wall. For nothing in our Constitution is as important, as hallowed by the blood of patriots, as the cracks, the loopholes, the weak spots that may just allow traitors and secessionist sons of the Confederacy to eviscerate it, hang it from its heels, bleed it and gut it like an animal to be sacrificed to his tyrannical, bloody-handed God.

That's not the scary thing. The scary thing is that he's hardly alone. The man who thought it was funny to put pubic hair in a woman's soft drink thinks there's a weakness in the First Amendment wording because it only forbids the U.S. congress to establish a state religion. It's just fine if a state like Alabama were to do it on their own, says Clarence Thomas. Perhaps Thomas was too busy harassing female students when he was supposed to be reading about the Incorporation Doctrine and thinks that we are or should be back in the early days of the Republic. Or perhaps he just for some bizarre reason doesn't like equal protection under the law.
But what Thomas doesn't seem to address is the rest of the First Amendment. Does he think Alabama and the rest of the Confederacy has the right to make state laws "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Are the rest of the God-addled, functionally stupid secessionist Republicans going to pass laws silencing us, and the media, and imposing curfew and forbidding us to complain? Sounds like it!
Are we going to do something about this or are we going to go on making sure that nobody gets to say racist things in their own homes in private? Are we going to watch reality TV and endless discussions about Benghazi and missing airplanes while reality surprises us when it's too damn late?

Illustration: A rat, cat, and dog meat market in Paris during the siege of 1870-1871

"revolution sounds very romantic, you know, but it ain’t. it’s blood and guts and madness; it’s little kids killed who get in the way, it’s little kids who don’t understand what the fuck is going on. it’s your whore, your wife ripped in the belly with a bayonet and then raped in the ass while you watch. it’s men torturing men who used to laugh at Mickey Mouse cartoons. before you go into the thing, decide where the spirit is and where the spirit will be when it is over."

Charles Bukowski   Notes of a Dirty Old Man