I'm in the midst of obtaining an French Drivers License. I have had an American License from the States of Ohio and New York for almost 45 years, but NY State doesn't have a reciprocal protocol with France for simply exchanging a license. Some states do, like Michigan and Florida. So I am presently enrolled in a driving school in Terrasson. I have been checking out these Russian drivers education videos for some simple practical tips. I think they will assist me immensely.

Evening Of Light

Edited version of François de Menil's promo for Nico's song (shot in 1968).  Sit back and enjoy a little 60's French Noir cinema condensed into 5 minutes. Iggy Pop is the mime.

Biological Trash

As the 2014 Russian Winter Olympic Games opned, Sochi is ramping up its efforts to address the city’s large population of stray dogs — or as Alexei Sorokin, director general of pest control firm Basya Services, calls them, “biological trash.” This particular item caught the sympathy of the worlds animal rights organization. We all love doggies and kitty cats. But, this attitude about the unwanted, the unwitting victims of the monstrous mechanism of fascism is infecting not only Russia but most of the modern world. It's just that in Russia, the symptoms are so virulent and obvious. It's just not animals, it's people.

2,500 families have been displaced by the construction of what is being called the most expensive Olympic project in history. Some received compensation, some were placed in shoddily constructed housing, those who were compensated were cheated. Many were just evicted, received no compensation and were instantly classified as more biological trash. People were evicted from their homes which were bulldozed for the construction and forced to live on the streets.  Andrei Martynov and his wife Natalya Martynova were forced from their home in 2005 never received compensation and forced to live on the beach. The Russian authorities have totally stonewalled any legal claim they have attempted to be recognized and compensated. Natalya said a few months ago in an interview with The Nation, “We don’t want to be homeless…but no one wants to help us. No one wants to help us as fellow human beings. We don’t know how we’re going to live in the future.”

an excerpt from the Channel 4 documentary, Hunted
of torture and beating a kidnapped gay kid by a Russian
gang, who allowed Channel4 to film the proceedings because
the knew they would not face any legal action from
the Russian authorities.

But, then if you went to Brazil  or looked back at even Atlanta in their preparations for their moments of Olympic glory, you would see the same thing. People uprooted and ill compensated for having their homes taken and their lives destroyed. It's so easy to screw poor people. Just do it and let them try to pick up the pieces of their broken lives.
There is so much anti homosexual rhetoric all over the world, It's how we are conditioned to hate some one different than us. It's how we are distracted from what is happening in our lives. It's how we are divided and learn to hate each other. People who hate each other can never be united and are so much easier to subjugate and rule. That's what fascism is all about. America has a long way to go before it will have hands clean enough to honestly criticize the Russians. America is a huge place and the very structure of the republic guarantees division, regional disunity and distrust. The states are autonomous entities. It's always been like that. Violence, religious self righteousness, and hate of the other.
That's why this recent documentary of BBC is so powerful. This is the ugly brutal reality of hate in Russia, but how far removed is it from our own ugly brutal reality. Update, I had the entire BBC4 Documentary posted here, but it was pulled down, it depicted a truly obscene reality, but here is an excerpt that is still on line:

Russia is officially welcoming gay athletes and spectators to the Sochi Winter Olympics. But in a country where it's thought only 1% of gay people dare to live completely openly, it appears to be a hollow gesture.
This extraordinary Dispatches documentary has gained unique access to the vigilante gangs that target gay men and women. The film depicts a country troubled by disturbing violence and distressing intimidation.
Six months after the Russian parliament unanimously passed a law to protect children from 'non-traditional' relationships, this film explores the terror that gay people in Russia are calling 'hunting season'. Humans officially treated as "biological trash". Don't let yourself feel so smug and superior, this is a contagious disease. Check your self for the warning sign before it's too late.

The New 2014 Reality Cable TV Show Version Of The Bible

Banned In The USA

 On January 26, 2014,  former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sat down for an interview with German television network ARD. The interview has been intentionally blocked from the US public, with virtually no major broadcast news outlets covering this story. In addition, the video has been taken down almost immediately every time it’s posted on YouTube. I was able to find it on Live Leaks, and I think it is available on the French Video site, Daily Motion.
In contrast, this was treated as a major political event in both print and broadcast media, in Germany, and across much of the world. In the interview, Mr. Snowden lays out a succinct case as to how these domestic surveillance programs undermine and erode human rights and democratic freedom.
He states that his “breaking point” was “seeing Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress” denying the existence of a domestic spying programs while under questioning in March of last year. Mr. Snowden goes on to state that, “The public had a right to know about these programs. The public had a right to know that which the government is doing in its name, and that which the government is doing against the public.”
It seems clear that the virtual blackout of this insightful interview is yet another deliberate attempt to obfuscate the truth from the view of the American public. The media has continually attempted to shill the official government lies about mass domestic surveillance programs, justifying them as necessary to fight the “War on Terror”, while attempting to painting Mr. Snowden as a traitor.

Oh, uhhh, great, Mormons.....

ROBOTA

An award winning short film by Marc Beurteaux.

This is Marc's own explanation of the film and how he made it:

Robota is a stop-motion film done entirely with Lego and Mega-bloks. I shot this film in my basement studio and worked on it on and off for three years. A lot of the Lego is from sets I had saved from when I was a younger. I also bought a whole bunch of new sets. The story: In a Lego underworld, a down and out robot searches for a quick fix.

I loved it because when I was very young, I created my own Lego worlds. This rocks!

Witnessing A Miracle

Fucking magnets, how do they work?And I don't wanna talk to a scientist

Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed

Solar eclipse, and vicious weather

Fifteen thousand Juggalos together

From the Insane Clown Posse classic, Miracles. I'm pretty sure that the ICP boys were indulging in some level of ironic sarcasm here, but the sorry ass reality is that majority of the idiots they pander to just don't or never will get it.  If you have any questions as to how magnets work, just google it, this link should answer all of your questions...It's not like I don't believe in "miracles". It's how you define a miracle. I think I witnessed evidence of a miracle, or at least I read about it and watched the video in Wednesday's February 5, 2014 issue of The  Guardian Observer in their report on Bill Nye, the Science Guy debating Australian Creationist, Ken Ham. So I was thinking about this earlier, and it seems to me that, in the question of whether or not creationism is a viable scientific field of study, despite Bill Nye's very good, factual answers, it was Ken Ham the creationist who delivered the miracle, a decisive blow in the debate. Alas, for young earth creationists, it was against Ken Ham.
When asked what would change their minds, Ken Ham's response was, in effect, "nothing". "Well, I'm a Christian," he explained. And that was indeed explanation enough: evidence does not and cannot trump belief. By contrast, Nye responded with "evidence".
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the difference, the only answer you will ever need to "is creationism science?" Scientists reshape ideas to fit evidence, not the other way around. Nye responded as a scientist. Ham responded as a zealot. Ham has every right to be as zealous and as closed-minded as he likes. But that is not science. It is a direct rejection of science and rational thinking.
So I would say that Ken Ham, even more than Bill Nye, delivered the decisive answer in this debate: no, creationism is not science. It is a belief system based on a literal reading of select parts of a scientifically inaccurate book. Nothing less and certainly nothing more. The fact that it was stated so cleanly by Ham was the real miracle!

Unedited Silent Footage of The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb

This is pretty incredible to view. How it finally was declassified for release, I will never know. These are the comments from the person who posted it on YouTube:

This silent film shows the final preparation and loading of the "Fat Man" bomb into "Bockscar," the plane which dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. It then shows the Nagasaki explosion from the window of an observation plane. This footage comes from Los Alamos National Laboratory. I have not edited it in any way from what they gave me except to improve the contrast a little — it is basically "raw." I have annotated it with some notes on the bombing and what you can see — feel free to disable it if you don't want it.

I suggest leaving them on. This is the first time I've ever seen a video benefit from YouTube annotations! [via Nuclear Secrecy and MeFi]

Turkey Unplugged

Turkey's brutal new Internet law grants the Turkish Telecommunications Directorate the power to arbitrarily censor Web-pages to the individual URL level, much like the Great Firewall of China -- meaning that specific articles that are critical of the state can be censored while leaving the remainder of the site intact. It criminalizes "harmful" Internet messages and hosting "harmful" content, and requires long-term data-retention by ISPs, meaning the state and police will be able to access records of your entire online activity. It will also mandate the use of deep packet inspection to detect and disrupt technologies for evading censorship and maintaining privacy.
The law was passed in a process rife with corruption, secrecy and other undemocratic irregularities. Turkey's #OccupyGezi uprising galvanized a diverse opposition that took to the streets against corruption and repression, spread using the Internet. It documented police brutality that shocked the world and uploaded the videos to Youtube. As the forces of reaction and oppression in Turkey move to consolidate their power, it's clear that this law is intended to prevent any further use of networks to organize and publicize opposition movements.
On Medium, Ahmet A. Sabancı has posted a poignant farewell to the Internet from Istanbul. Read it and weep: 

We, as people from Turkey, had a great time with you. You teach us so many things that we couldn’t learn from anywhere else. We had lots of great memories with you. You were always there whenever we needed you. But we have to say goodbye.
Turkish parliament passed the bill which is going to kill you. Maybe it’ll not kill you directly but you’ll be crippled and we can’t do everything we want together. There’s a little chance for you -presidential veto- but like I said, it’s a little chance.
I know you’re not ready for this but I have to tell you what will happen after tonight. I know hearing this will hurt you but you have to get ready for these. Because these seems inevitable.

Reinfestation

Via Al Jazeera:
A judge has once again ordered no jail time for a Texas teenager in a drunken-driving crash that killed four people and maiming two others.
Ethan Couch was given probation last year when he first stood trial on counts of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault. He was back in court Wednesday after prosecutors requested 20 years in jail on charges related to the two injured people.
The hearing was closed to the public. Defense attorney Reagan Wynn told reporters afterward that Judge Jean Boyd ordered the teen to be sent to a rehabilitation facility paid for by his parents.
The judge didn't identify the facility. However, the family previously offered to pay for a $450,000-a-year center in California.
Couch's blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit and there were traces of Valium in his system when he lost control of his vehicle, plowing into a group of people helping a woman whose car had stalled.
Seven passengers were in Couch's truck at the time of the accident.
The light sentence has stirred debate, as has a defense expert who said that Couch's wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility. The expert termed the condition "affluenza."
A California lawmaker proposed a bill in January that would prevent legal teams from invoking an "affluenza" defense in the wake of the national outrage that ensued over the defense and light sentence.

If this had been a poor black kid with the same track record as this little rich white spoiled brat had, you just know that they'ed be speeding him through the process and prepping him for his lethal injection before his appeal got heard. Cause Affluenza trumps Povertyitus any day of the week.  The judge would be snortin and chucklin as he tells the kid, "Boy, y'all gots a nasty case of povertyitus and we jes gonna have to give you a little shot afore you gits any of your nasty poverty pus on us."
I've written about the twin epidemics of Affluenza and Povertyitus earlier.

been there, done that.....

Seven Souls

William Burroughs would have been 100 today. One of the 20th century's most difficult humans, but at the same time one of the most visionary. He collaborated with Bill Laswell and his rather elastically conceptual ensemble Material on a number of projects. This is one of them. A reading by Burroughs with Laswell playing bass, keyboards and tapes from the 1998 recording, Seven Souls. Incredible cd, and there is an expanded version called The Western Lands with a pretty incredible roster of musicians.

Happy Birthday, Bill....

Welcome To Moldava

Zdob si Zdub...still one of the greatest bands on the planet.

So much of my present life involves the interaction of climate and agriculture. For the last 12 years, I have worked for over 2 months each year for Chateau Vieux Chevrol  near Libourne, France, involved in the various stages of producing a grand Lalande-de-Pomerol wine. This wine is almost totally dependent on traditional methods. No machine harvesting, no pesticides or fertilization. All of the major operations are done by hand. So, at this time of the year, I am especially wary of sudden temperature changes, the rainfall, the early budding of plants. All of these things are important in the new years harvest. I loved this GIF illustration:

How wine colonized the world – 6,000 years in 40 seconds. Also available as an interactive timeline. Pair with the indispensable scratch-and-sniff guide to becoming a wine expert.

How Banking Works

The incredibly ambient Funki Porcini explains it all for you.

Conservative Wankonomics 101...on line lecture #2

That's right kids, now you can sign up for enrollment for Microdot U on line's course in Conservative Wankonomics 101. When and if you successfully complete the course, you will recieve your diploma, artfully hand lettered on a real Kleenex brand absorbent facial tissue so you can clean up any of your embarrassing tell tale messes.

We have already presented the introductory lecture here along with the instructional video, if you need to catch up Today, we would like to focus on the philosophical principles guiding the methodology of the discipline of Conservative Wankonomic theory. We would like to thank the WSJ for their defense of Perkins. I have to ask, did this come directly from the desk of Rupert Murdoch? Perhaps this example by one of the zestiest if not the most intelligent defender of Wankonomic Theory, Tucker Carlson,, might be of instructional value in this lecture series. Remember it's the gusto, not the actual nutritional content that count when expounding upon, expanding and explaining Wankonomics to the ignorant masses.

Today, let's focus on the practical application of psychopathic personality disorders to enable greed, ignore reality and of course deny responsibility for our actions and shift the blame for any perceived negative results to the black negro socialist radical liberal illegally occupying our White House .

One of the guiding principles of Wankonomics is "Poor People Lazy and Deserve Their Fate".  It's very important to instill a sense of utter hopelessness and despair in a subclass. They do not deserve food stamps or unemployment benefits. They just are simply jealous and want to steal your stuff. Keeping them occupied with other things is a great technique. Here is a simple demographic map of the USA which might go a long way to help you understand the how the population occupies itself:

Simple demographic map illustrating porn preferences and average time spent on line
broken down state by state

 As this map illustrates, most people do not care what goes on outside of the confines of the sweaty cubicle or special place in the trailer they have set up for a little personal time. Most people just want to keep their jobs, get a job, pay off their crippling student loans and try to decipher the latest barrage of disinformation about health care sent from the head office of The GOP. Most of all, they just want to make sure they can pay off their NetFlix bills and the internet keeps linking to their favorite porn sites. They want to make sure that people poorer than they are don't get their pathetic stuff, so they buy lots of guns. Sure, religion plays a big part of this, but we have discovered that we have better results if we keep mentioning the impending ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!  Simple. eh?
A very good illustration of the principles of Wankonomics is the Tea Party fueled GOP defunding of the SNAP program. Lazy poor people want free stuff. Who pays for their free stuff?  We do! Why should we pay for their free stuff, like food or what passes for food if you are poor...Cheetos, Twinkies, beer and potato chips? So cut food stamps and unemployment benefits at the same time. It's a curious side effect that the corporate giant which has put most of the small markets out of business in the USA, Walmart, is complaining that their stocks have dropped almost 10 bucks a share in the last few weeks. The lazy poor shoplifters aren't buying enough junk food! 
Sure, Republicans only called out those eating with government money; called them lazy.. and un-American. Those seeing the whole picture, were more concerned with how the economy would react... We predicted that some businesses would experience a 10% decline in food sales, matching the 10% decline in food stamps...

So why is Walmart the most affected? The answer is because it is cheaper. If one is receiving SNAP (or Food Stamps) one is already poor and on a tight budget. It makes good sense if one has only $700 to spend a month, to try and get as many calories as possible for that amount of money. The best place to do that is Walmart.
Walmart did this to themselves. As one of the biggest funders to the Tea Party, Walmart is one of the few corporations responsible for putting the Tea Party Republicans in office. Ironic then that the Tea Party chose to repay the favor by costing a few Walmart executives their jobs, through the cutting of SNAP... Walmart should have lobbied their friends much harder to shelve or vote against it. They and all other grocery chains now, should have both advertised to the public and lobbied the Senate, NOT to pass the Farm Bill with 8 billion of further cuts to that program. But they didn't....WHY? Answer this question for 10 extra points!

The damage caused to all of society by not fully funding SNAP is severe compared to the consequences that would occur, if that money was saved by raising taxes on the wealthy..but then again the object of this lecture is that none of this is fault of the real victims, the super rich 1%! If the poor aren't buying enough junk food it's because they are like the Frikin Notzies persecuting the victimized 1% causing a kind of trickle down holocaust, because if the 1% suffer, then they are just going to have to let some of the servants go...and if you haven't been paying attention. It's not their fault! They only want to keep the poor lazy masses from taking their stuff! Like all real Americans! It's the fault of those damned socialists like Obama and uhhh...FDR. Here, I want you to succeed in this on line class, so I've already taken some notes for you as a study aid. Just copy them into your note books and remember kids, study hard!