A Rather Filthy History Lesson

A Filthy History

By Eric Holthaus and Chris Kirk

Which countries have emitted the most carbon since 1850?

To get a sense of how ridiculous carbon pollution has become, going back in time gives some perspective.

So, hit this link and let’s time-travel

Been there, done that....

Pollo alla Diavolo

This was incredible! My barbecue last night and my variation on the Italian classic Pollo alla Diavolo, or the devil's chicken! The chicken is split and butterflied "en crapaudine".Pretty simple. I take my big chefs knife and stick through the chicken and cut one side of the backbone by pushing down on the top of the chicken. Then I open the chicken up and cut out the other side of the backbone and slit the sternum so it opens flat. I marinade the chicken for at least 6 hours, but i did this one over night. I used approximately 1/2 cup of lemon juice...2 lemons should give you that amount. A teaspoon of black pepper. A half cup of olive oil. Most recipes will tell you to use red pepper flakes. I need more heat! So, I used two big soupspoons of chinese chili garlic paste. The garlic paste is a little salty, but I think in a marinade, you need a little more. I put the chicken and the marinade in a freezer bag and use a tie to close it, squish it around and put it in the fridge. The marinade in the bag technique is a great idea. I get a pretty hot barbecue going and I had the chicken in the broiler rack on the top level of my barbecue. My chicken was almost a kilo and it cooked in about 25 minutes. Test it with a fork where the thighs meet the body and when the juices run clear, it's cooked. I want a little crispy blackness in places. I also baste the chicken with the rest of the marinade as it cooks. Take it out of the rack, I put it on a cutting board when it's done and chop it into 4 portions and it's gone in no time! I used a little fresh thyme for the food porn photo op, but that is not at all necessary.  I had the left over marinade soaked lemon halves in the broiler rack, because I love broiled lemons!

It's Fashion Week In Tel Aviv!

Here's a selection in the latest a la mode sniper wear t shirts that are all the rage in Tel Aviv!
I think this totally redefines the term, "FASHION VICTIM"!

Blue: Pregnant Palestinian woman with a sniper crosshair on her belly, under it: 1 shoot 2 kills

White: Palestinian child and slogan: "The smaller, the harder" (harder to hit)

LEFT: Samurai drawing and above it "We wont calm down till we confirm death

RED : destroyed mosque and above it written "Only God Forgives"

Imagine a palestinian wearing a shirt that has a drawing of a pregnant Jewish woman, and a sniper's crosshair targeting its belly. What would Israel make of it?

Now hit this link and read the story written by Uri Blau, the correspondent of the Israeli daily Haaretz.

LEFT: Palestinian woman mourning her killed child, and above it written ironically "Better Use Durex"

Let every Arab woman know that her child's fate is in my hand
Many thanks to Pete Karman of The Karman Turn for this link!
Again, here is the link to the piece in Haaretz!

A Much Better Idea

On Friday, I posted about how off base and insultingly wrong PETA was in their cheap publicity stunt offering to pay the water bills of 10 poor Detroit residents if they would consent to become Vegans.  As a person who will always consider myself a Detroiter, I was enraged. I was so enraged, I had to eat a hamburger. I have chosen to become involved in the Human Rights Violation scandal occurring in Detroit.  The unelected Republican appointed Corporate City Managers want to sell the Water and Sewage Services for immediate profit. To kill two birds with one stone, they raised the Water rates 80% in the last few years, the biggest hike coming just this year, after the decision to sell the Water services to a private corporation. This is also a major weapon in the war on the poor, the politics of eliminationism. If you take away their water and make it impossible to get it back, then they have to go somewhere else and die! Easy! Right? So, thousands of poor and middle class Detroit residents had their water services arbitrarily cut for delinquent payments, without due process and in many cases after they residents had tried to find a way to pay the bills. Meanwhile delinquent corporations are not being threatened and the crumbling infrastructure is wasting millions of gallon a month.  This is the ALEC plan! Let the poor suffer and pay for the fiscal irresponsibility of government and let corporate America reap the immediate profit. Here is a link from today's Detroit Free Press that is just a glimpse into the insanity of  Detroit's Corporately managed incompetent Water Theft. Canada has started to organize water relief for the poor and is advancing the effort to declare a human rights emergency at the United Nations. That's a few of the underlying reasons why I felt the PETA proposal was so utterly hypocritical. Well, a few bloggers have a much better idea. Last week the city magnanimously proposed a 15 day moratorium on shutoffs and began reviewing their illegal actions after discovering that they were being sued by a coalition of citizen rights groups. I read in the Washington Post that bloggers, Tiffani Bell, who lives in Boston and Kristy Tillman, who lives in Oakland, California and have never actually met in person, have started a real initiative to help Detroiters pay thy their water bills. They have launched the Detroit Water Project. They have set up a web site where Detrtoiters can fill out a form to verify their account and needs and a way for people to donate anonymously to pay the bills. As ocf yesterday, there were 1400 donors, most donating between $20 and $100, but some donations as high as $2500! 
The Detroit Water Project is not the only way that people can receive assistance with their water bill. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says there are two other programs to assist people -- the million-dollar Detroit Residential Water Assistance Program (DRWAP) and the nonprofit Wave Fund, which takes donations. To receive assistance, people must prove that they are at poverty level and in need. After providing documentation, people usually receive assistance within three to seven days, says Curtrise Garner, a spokesperson for the Department.
The moratorium on cut offs will end in 12 days, but if people owe now, they are going to be cut off when the moratorium ends. The Detroit Water Project plans to stay active as long as it takes to resolve this crisis. It's a real way for real people to really help real people with no strings attached!

Here is the link for the Detroit Water Project!

SNL

Wow, the new cast member they have doing Palin is pretty good, but this stuff is getting old now.  I think SNL needs some new writers.

Kowloon Jag 2013

This piece, Kowloon Jag was recorded originally in 1974 by Larry Coryell and his ground breaking fusion jazz ensemble, The Eleventh House. Here it is, 40 years later as Larry celebrates his 70th birthday with a band composed of himself, his son, Julian Coryell, who takes the first guitar solo, bassist Gary Brown,  George Brooks on Saxophone...Brooks is a remarkable musician who bridges the worlds of Indian classical music and jazz and the amazing Cindy Blackman-Santana on drums...who, if didn't know is married to Carlos Santana and plays on his recordings as well as with musicians as diverse as Buckethead, Bootsy Collins, Pharoah Saunders and Lenny Kravitz. I credit Coryell for inspiring me to want to learn how to play guitar. He is one of the words greatest guitarists and innovative creative forces. Starting as kid in Seattle playing rock, he soon began touring with Chico Hamilton and Gabor Szabo, then he became a member of Herbie Mann's group sharing guitar honors with the free jazz genius Sonny Sharrock. They both play on Mann's classic 1969 recording, Memphis Underground.  At the same time, he was part of the groundbreaking Gary Burton Quartet. He recorded some pretty amazing stuff with avant garde composer Michael Mantler.  Coryell was using a huge Gibson L-5...a full sized hollow body florentine cut away jazz guitar with f-holes that most guitarists stuff with foam to control the feed back it generates at high volumes. Coryell learned to use the feed back and Mantler wrote a piece for feedback and full orchestra on the first Jazz Composers Orchestra record from 1969. Being a jazz player with a rock background, he always played rock oriented music and after the break up of Cream, he formed a very interesting short lived band called FreeSpirit with Jack Bruce and Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer, Mitch Mitchell. They recorded one extremely rare record. But that was just the beginning of Coryell's journey into the future. He out together an ensemble in 1971 that is credited with the birth of the Fusion Jazz movement. They released a record called Spaces and the band included Miroslav Vitous on bass, who went on to become a founding member of Weather Report, Chick Corea on keyboards, who formed Return to Forever shortly afterwards and second guitarist, John Mcglaughlin and Billy Cobham on drums. Cobham and McGlaughlin of course formed the seminal Mahavishnu Orchestra later that year. I have to post a version his version of the Gabor Szabo composition, Gypsy Queen released on the recording, Barefoot Boy. Recorded on a stormy winter night in a studio in Manhattan when the rest of the band he assembled for the sessions couldn't make it except for a percussionist and sax player, Steve Marcus, it alone proves beyond a doubt that Larry was one of the most incredible players of his time. It is the complexity, instead of simple disjointed jazz phrases, he writes technically amazing short stories, riveting novellas of improvisation that have a beginning and an end. 

The entire recording, Barefoot Boy/Larry Coryell/1971

Your Daily Duchamp

In 1924, Marcel Duchamp devised a system to bet in Monte Carlo, but he needed some capitol, so he  and his friend, Man Ray formed a corporation which manufactured and sold bonds to raise 15,000 francs to finance the little escapade. Man Ray took the photo of Duchamp lathered in shaving cream and the legend "moustiques domestiques demistock" is repeated multiple times on the bond. It translates to domestic mosquitoes half stock. He did make a profit for himself and his investors, but if they had held onto the bonds...Well, one of the bonds recently sold at Christies for $1,082,5000....Below is one of the series of photos that Man Ray took for the bond.

F.U.C.K.P.E.T.A.

I had to think about this for a little while and cool down. Look, I belong to Greenpeace. I support positive militant environmental action. I believe in the power of people to make themselves heard and educate others by action. I oppose animal cruelty and militantly, more than ever support small farmers and now my fight against Monsanto has taken on a personal aspect. But, more and more, I believe the elitist frivolous group PETA is diluting and destroying the credibility of how the actions of responsible groups are being perceived. Today, they crossed the line of arrogance and self involved egotism with their offer to pay the water bills of 10 poor Detroit residents if they would become "vegans"for one month. 

Think about that. A rich wealthy elitist organization uses the human rights violation of the Detroit Water Cut offs as a propaganda tool to educate poor people in their concept of a healthy vegetarian diet. Most the PETA members probably have no idea of what it is like to live in an inner city poor neighborhood. They get their organic natural food from over priced markets in their wealthy communities. What PETA seems to miss in their vegan-as-a-bargaining-chip scheme is that it’s not easy for everyone to live on a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables like the kind PETA encourages. Some people — and especially lower-income residents like those in Detroit who are struggling to pay their bills — reside in food deserts where it’s not easy to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables all the time. Or they simply work too many jobs and still don’t have enough money to have the time to prepare fresh, unprocessed foods. In 2012, 18 million families in the U.S. were unable to get a sufficient amount of food to be healthy.

I think it is demeaning, hypocritical and insulting to the people of Detroit who are struggling to survive in a city that is engaged in the process of eliminationism as a solution to poverty. It makes me very mad that they have reduced poor Detroiters to the level of the cheap publicity stunts, making them another gimmicky photo opportunity  as the women often depicted naked, covered in “blood,” and trapped in cages for PETA promotional materials and events.

My problem with PETA is that they seem much more concerned with the sensational hype and emotional manipulation of animal cruelty than with the ethical treatment of humans and the people I have met who were militant PETA members and sympathizers seemed to have a very unreal relationship with reality.  If you want to really help the people of Detroit, keep the pressure on the real culprits. They are finally beginning to show a little restraint. The city just declared a 15 day moratorium on shut offs and actually began to turn the water back on to homes they have illegally cut off with out due process after a coalition of city residents and community groups filed a lawsuit against the Detroit Water and Sewage Department. Supporting the people and keeping the real pressure on works! The city of Detroit is cracking under the international attention and criticism it has received in the last month. Canada has filed a complaint with the United Nations for the Human Rights Violations of the Shut Offs and is actually delivering water to Detroit residents.  PETA's cheap publicity stunt only dilutes the protest and makes the plight of these people seem trite and silly.  I'd say FUCK PETA, but they seem to be doing a pretty good job of doing it to themselves!

Is It Genocide Yet?

Yesterday I read a brief accounts on the website, Mondoweiss, Al Jazeera and the Guardian Observer of an apparent massacre in the Palestinian village Khuza’a, a village east of Khan Younis and close to the Israeli border in Gaza. Apparently, the Israeli massacre of the inhabitants of the village is still going on 24 hours later! This is the only video I could find and it's from Al Jazeera. The Israelis are using the language of total annihilation to justify this genocidial action that is on tyhe level of the atrocities committed here in France in WW2, where entire villages were destroyed and the populations executed in the horrific insane vengeance of the Germans. The Israelis, however have twisted the propaganda line to portray the Palestinians as the ultimate evil which has to obliterated.

This was actually published in Haaretz by S. Daniel Abraham yesterday:
link to haaretz.com
“The Allies understood in 1945 that anything less than total surrender by the Nazis and the Japanese would guarantee their continued attempts to kill Americans and the other Allied forces. In those days, the Allies were far more indiscriminate in their bombing than Israel is today. Even prior to the use of the atom bomb, the Allied bombings killed some 25,000 civilians in Dresden, 42,000 in Hamburg and 125,000 in Tokyo.
Israel is doing everything in its power not to kill civilians, and it would succeed in that goal if not for Hamas’ demonic placement of its missile sites in the midst of Gazan residential neighborhood and population centers. When Israel is threatened by Hamas missiles, it sends its citizens into bomb shelters. Gaza doesn’t build bomb shelters (for one thing it doesn’t want to divert concrete from building its terrorist tunnels), because the Hamas leaders want civilians, children in particular, killed, thereby hoping to turn world opinion against Israel.
One day, the Gazan people will realize what the Italian people realized too late about Mussolini, that he was never their friend and he didn’t care if they died; that’s why it was Italians who killed him. And one day the Gazan people will realize what the German people realized too late, that the man who caused them more misery than anyone else in the entire history of Germany was Adolf Hitler. And one day the Gazans will realize that voting into power a government that places missiles mixed in among its citizens’ homes, thereby inviting attacks, is a government that despises them and despises their children.
Unfortunately, this realization does not seem to have come yet to Gazans. And that leaves Israel the responsibility of taking care of its own citizens. A world that is largely indifferent to the fate of Jewish lives can protest against Israel all it wants. But no country would allow another country – one which repeatedly announces its desire to destroy her and even puts that malevolent wish into its national covenant – to go on shooting missiles at her, and infiltrating terrorists past her borders.
What Israel is doing now is an act of self-defense, and if innocent Gazans die it is by accident on Israel’s part and by intention on Hamas’ part. How dare anyone, any country, condemn Israel for trying to protect its citizen’s lives? Israel sends its endangered citizens to shelters. Hamas makes no effort to build shelters for them. And that is all that one needs to know about the nature of the two sides in this conflict.
There is often ambiguity in wars. Rarely is it a question of a war between good and evil. This one is."

This what the Israeli people are being spoon fed on a daily basis and the same crap they are trying to feed the rest of the worldThe Gaza NGO Palestinian Centre for Human Rights included these details from Khuza’a in an daily report it issued  yesterday covering events from yesterday:

At approximately 12:30, Israel forces that had moved into Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis, fired bullets and artillery shells at hundreds of Palestinian civilians who attempted to leave the village as there were reports about a one-hour coordination to evacuate casualties. Israeli forces fired also at ambulances and prevented them from entering the village.
At approximately 17:00, 12 ambulances attempted to enter Khuza’a village, but Israeli forces prevented and fired at them.
At approximately 18:30, an Israeli warplane launched a missile at a house belonging to Dr. Kamal Abu Rujaila, which he uses as clinic, in Khuza’a village, as a number of wounded Palestinians went to the house seeking medical aid. A number of casualties were reported as a result of the attack. Apparently, one Palestinian was killed. Medical crews were not able to reach the house. A volunteer paramedic, who was wounded throughout the body while he was attempting to evacuate wounded Palestinians, has been trapped in the area since Wednesday morning, 23 July 2014, as medical crews have not been able to reach him. According to reports from Khuza’a village, Israeli forces raided a number of houses and turned them into military sites. They also arrested scores of Palestinians. At approximately 23:00, an ICRC crew and 10 ambulances of Palestine Red Crescent Society went to Kuza’a village, but they were not able to evacuate victims because the situation was extremely dangerous.
At approximately 21:00, an Israeli warplane launched a missile at a number of Palestinian civilians in Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis, killing 2 of them: Mohammed Barham Abu Draz, 24; and ‘Essam Ibrahim Abu Ismail, 23.
At approximately 06:50, Israeli forces fired at dozens of Palestinian civilians who raised white flags and attempted to leave Khuza’a village, and forced them to go back homes.
At approximately 07:15, Israeli forces fired at a number of Palestinian civilians who attempted to leave Khuza’a through a dirt road leading to ‘Abassan village. One of these civilians, Mohammed Ahmed Suleiman al-Najjar, 56, was killed by a bullet to the neck. Two civilians were also wounded.
Also at approximately 08:30, medical crews were able to recover the body of Fadi Yousef Ahmed al-Najjar, 27, who is physically disabled, from Khuza’a village. He was killed by Israeli shelling.
At approximately 09:50, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a motor cart on which a number of Palestinian civilians were traveling attempting to leave Khuza’a village. As a result, 4 civilians were killed and another 2 ones were wounded. The victims have not been identified as their bodies were burnt.

This account is consistent with social media. The most complete comes from Khuza’a resident Mahmoud Ismail who tweeted out updates from the village. They were translated by Mohammad Alsaafin who retweeted them. The updates read:

Account: My family & I made it out, light injuries. Hundreds of casualties, bodies in the streets. Many of the dead in Khuza’a bled to death because ambulances unable to reach. From my window I watched a 20 yr old die for hours. One doctor, Kamal Abu Rjeila, treated injuries that came into his clinic even after it was bombed & his father killed. The Israeli army used ten families as human shields. They took over their homes and wouldn’t let them escape.Home I was sheltering in with 50 others was bombed. I don’t know what happened to them but my shoes soaked in their blood. We escaped to our home under the cover of the dust from the bombing. Minutes later, it was hit by 3 artillery shells. We tried to escape on foot to Khuzaa’s exit, but helicopters fired on us. I saw a woman carrying her dead child in one arm and a white flag in the other. She used the white flag to wrap his body. As we walked I saw my uncle and his son, dead on the road next to their house. Snipers were hitting people in the legs. My other cousin died trying to save his bleeding brother in the street. They died on top of each other. There are corpses still lying in the streets, injured people waiting to become corpses, families who still haven’t escaped.

I am posting this information, because this is the stuff you will never hear in the American News Media as they try to equate and justify the Israeli actions. I have a lot of Jewish friends and relatives and many of them are as horrified by this as I am. What will be the total death count? How many people will be injured? Will we ever be allowed to know if Israel controls the flow information? There is and can never be a justification allowed for these atrocities. No mayter how Israeli tries to portray this, we can never forget the real root cause at the bottom of every excuse and justification:

IT'S THE OCCUPATION, STUPID!
and if that didn't work for you, read this!

Magic And Ecstasy/Snakefinger/1979

from the album

Chewing Hides The Sound

Misirlou/Martin Denny/Exotic Percussion/1961

Always remember, Beerliness is next to Godliness!

To all of my blogging friends who turned 60 today, you know who you are. I'm not a real doctor but I play one on the internets and as your physician, I recommend that you go take a nap.

Conservative Think Tank

I keep hearing the term, Conservative Think Tank and wonder what could this mean, because most conservative "thought" is a rather knee jerk visceral reaction. It's like trying to compare intellectual analysis to a reptilian anatomical response. The very concept seemed redundant, but after seeing this Conservative Think Tank deep thinker, Stephen Steinlight espousing his deep think tank type ideas, I think I get it. Stephen thinks Obama should be hung, drawn and quartered at the very least for his position on Immigration Reform... Well, I'm not sure what he really wants, because he claims that being hung, drawn and quartered would be too good for him, but his deep thought obviously hasn't gone deep enough yet to come up with the answer he is looking for.
A senior policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, which bills itself as the think tank of the anti-immigrant Right, told a Florida-based Tea Party group last week that President Obama not only deserves impeachment, but that “being hung, drawn and quartered is probably too good for him.”
The Center for New Community’s Imagine 2050 blog first reported on Stephen Steinlight’s remarks. Steinlight also said that John Boehner’s lawsuit against the president is a “political loser” and claimed that while Obama deserves to be impeached, such an effort would backfire on Republicans.
The Center For Immigration Studies describes Steinlight as “one of the nation’s most insightful voices on immigration” who provides “expert testimony” for government panels. I don't want to know if he even bothers to take the time to wipe his ass after "testifying".

Terrasson-Lavilledieu

A few days ago, my wife took her little video recorder to Terrasson-Lavilledieu. This is the nearest big town to where we live and where we go to do our shopping. It's about a 20 minute car trip. I went with her and we took a little trip on a boat on the Vezere River. Terrasson is a real gem. It probably is one of the longest continually inhabited places on Earth. It is situated on a hilltop and rises up from the river. There are 2 bridges in the town, the newer one was built around 1900 and the old bridge was built in the early 12th century. Looking out over the rooftops is a real architectural history lesson. I think she did a pretty good job with this...I am the tech support team.

It's The Occupation, Stupid.....

Washington

Dublin

Paris

Chicago

Aukland, NZ

There is not a lot any of us can do about what is going down in Palestine. We can only try to stay on the subject and let our voices be heard.  The pictures in this post are from just some of the pro Palestinian demonstrations all over the world in the last few days that you never heard about in the mainstream media, even though hundreds of thousands of people have been in the streets. Israel and it's apologists are doing everything in their power to erase ignore, obscure reality and deflect any argument and change the subject from the root causes of of the insane mess they created and now are trying to fix by obliterating it. The Palestinians were the inhabitants of Israel before the Israelis started their relentless expansion. Israel is not a brave new social experiment. It's a 60 year old oppressive regime bent on the destruction of the humans they have relentlessly tried to dehumanize and push into one of the most densely populated ghettoes in history. Of course they are having problems with the pesky survival instincts of a population driven to madness. People fight back when they are being exterminated. You want to scream in the faces of the aggressive apologists defending this atrocity, IT'S THE OCCUPATION STUPID! 

Rabat, Morocco

I have five comments:

Capetown, South Africa

1- The MOST IMPORTANT LESSON: Zion never want to leave one inch of Palestine (we now have prove-positive)
The events of the last few weeks, the last 50 years reveal a lesson that is not a military one. This is what Netenyahu said in hebrew just the other day.
Read it at link to timesofisrael.com.

2- It’s the occupation, stupid!
Regardless to the argument, the point, or the case of the zionists or their (very last few remaining) friends in the US and Australia, our answer must always be IT’S THE OCCUPATION, STUPID!
When they talk about the three teens that were abducted and killed. Regardless to their ages, whether they were settlers, whether they were soldiers, etc. etc. All of this does not matter. Engaging in any of these points misses the mark and dilutes our argument. The ultimate answer is IT’S THE OCCUPATION, STUPID! If there were no occupation, this would not happen. Address the root cause, not the symptoms.
When Netenyahu or others try to convince the western powers that their attack on Gaza is justified and provoked, and would they allow Paris, London, Moscow, Berlin, DC be under rocket fire. Again, engaging in any of these points misses the mark and dilutes our argument. Our answer is IT’S THE OCCUPATION, STUPID! If there were no occupation, this would not happen. Paris, London, Moscow, Berlin, DC are not occupying Palestine. Address the root cause, not the symptoms.
3- Hamas made great progress in its rockets

Nazareth

While the huge qualitative and quantitative advantages of the zionist military against Hamas are a given (for now), you have to appreciate and admire  what Hamas has achieved in missile weaponry. They have done under occupation much better than any other Arab country has achieved. They did not let occupation stop them from improvising and constantly improving the rockets without having the scientists, the labs, the space, the billions from the US to do the required research and testing to improve their rockets. What an achievement. With such rudimentary rockets and no guidance systems and radars and lasers and satellites, and drones, Hamas forced the Israeli population and the colonialists to run in the streets, to be fearful, and to learn what being scared means.
So yes the Israeli interception and preparedness resulted in very little injuries and damage, and no death. But they know that Hamas can disrupt their lives and ruin their economy. The Palestinians can force the Israelis to see them. Look! Don't ignore us. And they are not going anywhere.
4- Arab dictators and rulers, count your days

Bethlehem

All events have consequences. All actions and inactions have consequences. These awful and distressful photos of dead Palestinians are moving the Arab world. Maybe it’s not visible now but us Arabs we are a patient breed and the time will come (soon) where there will be changes in Jordan, Saudi, Kuwait, Emirates, other. Just look at who controls huge chunks of Syria and Iraq, and they are targeting Jordan next. These current events in Gaza will accelerate the toppling of the Syrian and Jordan regimes.

5- More and more young people all over the world are learning more and taking the Palestinian side,  speaking out and supporting the justice.
What is happening now with the Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza is in fact moving the world’s youth. Politically aware young people are becoming immune to the Israeli blackmail and their shameful use of the Holocaust for political and ideological reasons with the goal of stealing Palestine. Scanning the Internet on the topic of Palestine, one can clearly see a fundamental and radical shift towards Palestine.

The Arc Of History Never Stops
It's The Occupation, Stupid!

There is a much larger dossier of photos after the break

45 years ago today, Apollo 11 landed on the first humans on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent 21.5 hours on the lunar surface.

I Love A Man In A Uniform

Gang of Four/I Love A Man In A Uniform/1982

Germany

France

USA

Italy

Norway

United Kingdom

Spain

Australia

If the adage that an army marches with it's stomach is true, then I guess the French win hands down, but Italy does pretty good....Military ration packs, containing such delicacies as stuffed peppers, chicken-meat pâté, smoked sprats, Earl Grey tea, beans and bacon in tomato sauce, a golden oatie biscuit, Almond poppy seed pound cake, cranberries, spiced apple cider, pâté, cassoulet with duck confit, creole-style pork and a crème chocolate pudding.

 
Wire/Reuters/1977

brain police tip of the day!

Les Quatre Cents Coups-1959-Francois Truffaut

Hottest damn day of the year. Why did I decide to go on a 42 kilometer bike trip? Cause, I could have the nicest biggest coldest beer ever when I got home! AHHHHHHHHH!

Israelis Do The Darndest Things

As a temporary 5 hour cease fire seems to be in the works, most observers agree that this is only the prelude to Israel's next step in solving their Palestinian problem. An all out invasion and final seizure of Gaza is immanent. Over 100,000 people are being warned to get out of the way. What does this mean? Where do they go? This is Israel ignoring world opinion and humanitarian concerns. This is total appeasement  to the most radical elements of their society and government. This is their solution at any price. This is what they think they have been trying to do for over 60 years as they seized more and more Palestinian territory, dehumanized the Palestinian population and ignored the real reasons for the rage they incited against themselves.  We, on the rest of the planet have to suffer the consequences and blow back of this rage. This is going to get much more uglier very fast and America seems to be a willing abettor in this obscenity. We have been the enabler. We are caught in the web as willing victims and accomplices.  We have all been willingly or unwittingly stained by the blood of the victims. We watched Exodus when we were young. We were students of history and were scarred by the history of the Holocaust. But, Israel used us. They manipulated and twisted our compassion.  You have been used and betrayed.  I have many Jewish friends in the USA who have either participated or have been approached by the Taglit-Birthright Israel program to send their children to Israel to be educated for free and learn about their heritage. I have seen the results as kids with open minds come back parroting the vilest dehumanizing anti Palestinian propaganda I have ever heard.  This program is funded by billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Charles Bronfman among others. There is another side to this...American Jewish kids who resist the propaganda and learn to act with their conscience and think for themselves, but the consequences can be pretty hairy.
Footage has emerged of a brave young Jewish American speaking out against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the response by Israeli security officials is terrifying.
The young man uses clean language, barely raising his voice, and makes the simple statement that Israel is not acting in his name when it perpetrates violence against the Palestinian people. He calls for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the right to return of Palestinian refugees. The incident occurred in 2011, but it reflects the growing insanity of anti Palestinian hate existing in Israel now!
He is approached by security officials and law enforcement officers – he is then pushed, punched, knocked to the ground, handcuffed, thrown in a police vehicle and taken from the scene – while the public cheers on in the background. This was posted on June 9, 2014 and after a bit of searching, I found out that he is Lucas Koerner. You can read more about the arrest and the Jewish American delegation that was attacked for speaking out here! Check out Mondoweiss for real passionate reporting about what American Jews really feel about what is going on in the Middle East.

Christians Do the Darndest Things....

The Weirdest Trial in History,

One of the Popes of the 9th century, Pope Formosus’ reign was fraught with war, chaos, and political intrigue. During his five year reign Formosus made many enemies, among them was his predecessor, Stephen VI. Pope Stephen hated Formosus so much, that he would take weird to a whole new level in order to exact revenge on his former enemy.
In January of 897, about seven months after Formosus’ death, Pope Stephen ordered Formosus’ corpse exhumed from its grave and put on trial. In what would become known as the “Cadaver Synod”, Pope Stephen charged Formosus with a number of crimes including perjury and having ascended the Papacy illegally. During the trial, Formosus’ rotting corpse was propped up on a throne and clothed in Papal vestments. Stephen himself acted as prosecutor while a church deacon was appointed to serve as Formosus’ defense attorney. While judges were appointed from local priests, the synod amounted to nothing more than a show trial in which Stephen maniacally screamed, raved, and hurled insults at the dead corpse. Formosus’ was declared guilty on all charges. As punishment, his corpse was stripped of its Papal vestments, three fingers on its right hand were removed (the fingers used to conduct blessings), and all orders issued by Formosus’ were nullified. Formosus’ corpse was buried in an unmarked paupers grave. Later it was again disinterred and cast into the Tiber River.
The Cadaver Synod turned out to be Stephen VI’s undoing, as the people of Rome were too weirded out by his bizarre and insane behavior. He was quickly deposed and imprisoned, where he was strangled to death during the night. In the meantime Formosus’ corpse had been recovered from the Tiber and reburied in its proper grave at St. Peters Basilica. The next Pope, John IX, nullified the Cadaver Synod and issued a Papal decree banning the trial of a dead person.

Last Night In Paris

This was the first video up this morning. Here? The horizon and clouds were strobing away.

The distant roll of thunder, but we are really too remote to actually see any of the displays in the towns around us. Perhaps later there will be a video from Terrasson.

Well, of course Germany won the World Cup!
Argentina was never known for it's philosophers....