Tell~A~Vision = Why Not Try Love Again?
FlyingSnail Links & Archives
Boptime with Even Steven + The Legends of Wilmington Jazz
Saturday, 6 AM Eastern time, 3 AM Pacific time:
MP3 Stream ~ Low 24K ~ High 128K ~ Real Audio ~ Low 24K ~ High 128K ~ Windows ~ Low 24K ~ High 128K
Z.. Unfinished Story
Once upon a time ~ Click to view picture story in progress
Paul Krassner ~ The Realist/Writer/Comic/Investigative Satirist
Is There a Doctor in the House?
by Paul Krassner, for AlterNet
Although Coachella Valley in Southern California has become synonymous with music festivals, Goldenvoice, the company that produces those events, also helped sponsor the first massive four-day health clinic this year. Free medical, dental and vision care was provided to nearly 2,500 uninsured patients at the Riverside County Fairgrounds.
According to the California Healthcare Foundation, this state now has the largest number of people without health insurance -- 6.9 million –- more than any state in the country. More than 20% of Californians remain uninsured. Employees in businesses of all sizes are more likely to be uninsured in California than any other state. About 60% of the uninsured population are Latino.
Pamela Congdon, president of the Remote Area Medical’s California affiliate (RAM CA) and Volunteer Coordinator, told me:
“The California Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (CALAOMS) helps sponsor RAM CA. They allow us to use their office, use our staff, including myself and our Associate Director, without any charges. I work for CALAOMS, and when I asked if they would help us bring RAM in Northern California, they agreed. Stan Brock asked me to start the affiliate -- RAM CA –- which ran the clinic in Coachella. Please say that the clinic is run by the greatest group of volunteers.”
Indeed, over 1,200 general and healthcare professionals volunteered to provide more than 10,000 individual services with more than $1,000,000 in value. Over those four days, twelve hours a day, an estimated 600 custom pairs of eyeglasses were cut, 750 medical exams administered, and 1,300 dental patients treated.
There were 615 general volunteers, 395 dental professionals, 60 vision professionals, and 190 medical professionals of all kinds. There were 1,766 dental patients, 1,435 medical, and 798 vision. One patient hadn’t seen a doctor for seventeen years. Of the 2,419 patients, 1796 were Latino. Oh, yes, and 234 stuffed animals were handed out to children.
One patient sent this message:
“My name is Jennifer and I wanted to say thank you from the deepest of my heart! I found out about RAM in Indio at 11 p.m. on Thursday. By 2:30 a.m., I had made my way across the valley, and joined in line with the rest of the people you helped. Not a SINGLE person I interacted with was anything but kind, courteous, and understanding. No one judged us for being there, no one thought we were a burden.
“I had all of my wisdom teeth pulled, something I avoided due to an overbearing phobia of dentists in general. Both my dentist and the dental assistant were comforting, and made the procedure almost painless, and fast. I am almost in tears as I write this email, due to the overwhelming gratitude I have for everyone involved in this amazing project that has changed and saved so many lives, including my own.”
***
I’m writing this in the middle of the Open Enrollment time frame, during which my wife Nancy and I finally signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan. Stemming from an old police beating, I use a cane to walk from room to room, and a walker outside the house. The new healthcare plan includes free access to a gym, and I picture myself using my walker on a treadmill. That image reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon depicting a group of people on stationery bicycles in a park.
In the process of enrolling in the Medicare Advantage plan, we were told that we would have to pay a penalty because we hadn't joined a Medicare (or any other “creditable”) prescription drug coverage. We were never informed about that requirement, which began in 2006.
Since we’ve always avoided taking prescription drugs, we never felt the need for it. I called the Health Insurance Counseling Advocacy Program and learned that the penalty would be $32 for each of us. That means $64 every month for the rest of our lives. It seems somewhat absurd and unfair that we could be penalized for not taking any prescription drugs.
Ironically, “This penalty is required by law is designed to encourage people to enroll in a Medicare Drug Plan when they are first eligible,” yet we had no way of knowing there was such an option to consider. Another irony is that Medicare doesn’t cover any dental procedures, even though rotten teeth and gums can cause internal illness that Medicare does cover.
I asked RAM CA volunteer Dr. Peter Scheer, a world-renowned oral surgeon, about that. His response:
“In regard to Medicare and covering dental needs, it has always been an issue. Medicare stands strong in only providing benefits for services that are deemed medically necessary and has always excluded anything related to dentistry, surgical or restorative.
“Yes, there are situations where a patient may have an atrocious dental infection that can become life-threatening if not treated. The times where this situation really hits a grey area is when the patient also has other medical issues that may be affected by the infection or contributing to it. Unfortunately, most instances we come across are a decrease in the quality of life due to a poor oral condition rather than a life-threatening event.”
However, a research team from Columbia University’s School of Public Health has just released the results of a three-year study of 420 men and women, concluding that the improvement of gum health can help slow the development of atherosclerosis, the build-up of cholesterol-rich plaque along artery walls, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Meanwhile, Goldenvoice has invited RAM CA to return next year. I asked Pamela Congdon, “Will the Affordable Care Act affect that event, or is it too early to tell?” She replied, “The ACA won’t affect the event in terms of people needing service. We are going to have the Borrego Community Health Foundation there to help people sign up for the ACA.” As inspiring as this year’s four-day free clinic has been, in a truly compassionate culture, there would be no need for its existence.
But the insurance industry has a pre-existing condition known in technical terminology as greed. Not to mention the pharmaceutical industry; the annual turnover of revenue for prescription drugs by the top ten companies is estimated to be worth $700-billion dollars. In my new Medicare Advantage Enrollment Kit, there are listed a few thousand prescription drugs, from Abacavir to Zyvox. Okay, now cue that soothing voiceover to recite all their side effects, from anal leakage to zits.
As for me, I owe my longevity to never taking any legal drugs.
Another Reason Why NONE of the ABOVE
should be a choice on VOTER BALLOTSand Nobody should be President
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness
Why honest self education is important:
[Politician] promotes bill to strengthen NSA's hand on warrantless searches
take Project Censored == For Example
Need expanded Project Censored reference material == Use the search box at siteor take Peter Byrne For Example
Plus (these take a few moments to load):
And:
The effects of Obama’s refusal to investigate Bush crimes
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Politicians Are Destroying DemocracyNobody Cares & None of the Above
should be a choice on Voter BallotsPlease read this article about a treaty negotiated in secret between 12 nations (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, and Brunei) that would trample over individual rights and free expression.
Telecom Crimes & Punishment
Click to view source of Telecom Crime & Punishment
Violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution
Violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution
Unlawful electronic surveillance or disclosure or use of information obtained by electronic surveillance in violation of 50 U.S.C. §1809.
Unlawful interception, use or disclosure of Class communications in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2511
Unlawful solicitation and obtained disclosure of the contents of communications in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a)(1) or (a)(2)
Unlawful solicitation and obtained disclosure of non-content records or other information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a)(3)
Violation of the Administrative Procedures Act
Violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers
Time For A Corporate Death Penalty?
ARPSN Seismic Heliplots ~ Seismic Activity & Weather at Seismic Site
3.3-magnitude quake reported near The Geysers
Steven Leech ~ Writer/Poet/D.J. ~ Broken Turtle Blog
Get Under the Wedgehorn free in PDF
To get your free copy of Steven Leech's The Wedgehorn Manifesto, write us at:
publisher@brokenturtlebooks.com
Also, Leech is now making a number of his other works in new editions available in PDF format.
What others have been saying about The Wedgehorn Manifesto:
Leech's writer's voice is from the heart, carrying lots of knowledge without pretension. He has a poets's feel for the way words work, and a jounalist's sense of the significant. Wedgehorn Manifesto marks, I hope, a turning point in the effort to preserve from destruciton the habitat in our collective memory of the many talented story tellers, poets, picture makers, and musicians who helped make life bearable for innumerable ordinary folk, and in fact made possible the fine cuture of the luckier few. ~ Jonathan Bragdon (Wilmington born artist now living in Amsterdam, Netherlands)
The Wedgehorn Manifesto is a call to action, a demand, an impassioned plea for the recognition, respect, and support of Delaware's artistic cultural past, present and future. ~ Pat Gibbs (columnist, The Wilmington SPECTATOR)
Keith Lampe ~ Co-Founder of YIPPIE and Progressive Activist Groups + YouTube Video Channel
Vocal Energy Health
Keith Lampe (Ponderosa Pine), Vocals and Doug Adamz, Tibetan BellPart One: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/pinevesone.mp3
Part Two: http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/pinevestwo.mp3
With VEH (Vocal Energy Health), after a few sessions of imitating these sounds, one can start doing them alone or--even better--with others; creating an effective practice that requires no gear. - Ponderosa Pine
Paul Krassner ~ The Realist/Writer/Comic/Investigative Satirist
Grateful Dead Story ~ Egypt 1978
by Paul Krassner
In 1978, when I got fired from Hustler, Ken Kesey had invited me to come to Egypt with the Merry Prankster, where the Grateful Dead would be playing at the pyramids. Now, Cairo was buzzing with pedestrians--some barefoot, others wearing platform shoes from the Third World Dumping Ground Bazaar. Automobiles were busy trafficking in anarchy, and taxicab drivers hailed you. Donkeys were pulling carts, bicyclists were avoiding goats, and kids were playing soccer on dirt roads in front of stores selling gold souvenirs.
The same merchants who were suspicious that Israel's Six Day War had been a convenient way of testing U.S. weapons would gladly sell you a bomb casing which had been engraved with hieroglyphics and was now an umbrella stand for your foyer. And the same tourists who swatted away beggars trying to sell simulated scarabs for pennies were quite willing to pay a few bucks for a glass of 7-Up.
Suddenly an incongruous quartet of semi-trailer trucks invaded the rhythm of the city. They were bearing sound equipment lent by the Who to the Dead. Kesey's Day-Glo sneakers were peeking out from under his galabea--a long skirt-like piece of clothing worn by Egyptian men. We each chose our own fabric. Kesey described rock impresario Bill Graham's fabric as "the wallpaper on the upper rooms in the old Fillmore." I had a resistance to buying a galabea but I stood reluctantly on the measuring table.
"Okay," I said, "I'll get one to wear here in Egypt, but I'm definitely not gonna walk down Castro Street with it on."
So there we were, the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Deadheads, a roving gang of professional weirdos in tie-dye T-shirts, foreigners in our own country yet serving now as unofficial good will ambasadors while, simultaneously, Jimmy Carter was bringing Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin together at Camp David. But we had our own agenda--to make the Sphinx smile.
This trip was a personal vision of the Dead's manager, Richard Loren, who had been to Egypt five times. He had read the Koran thoroughly and had built this musical pilgrimage from the bottom up, just the way the Pyramids themselves were originally constructed, with a foundation held together by a combination of sweat, manure and dedication.
Bob Weir looked up at the Great Pyramid and cried out, "What is it!"
Actually, it was the place for locals to go on a cheap date. The Pyramids were surrounded by moats of discarded bottlecaps. The Dead were scheduled to play on three successive nights at an open-air theater in front of the Pyramids, with the Sphinx looking on. A bootleg tape of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis doing filthy schtick was being used for a preliminary sound check. Later, an American general would complain to stage manager Steve Parish that the decadence of a rock'n'roll band performing here was a sacrilege to five thousand years of history.
"Listen," Parish said, "I lost two brothers in 'Nam, and I don't wanna hear this crap."
The general retreated in the face of those imaginary brothers. But there were a couple of real injured veterans. Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann had fallen off a horse and broken his arm. The horse was unscathed but recommended that Kreutzmann be shot. However, he would still be playing with the band, using one drumstick. Or, as an Arabian fortune cookie might point out, "In the land of the limbless, a one-armed drummer is king."
Basketball star and faithful Deadhead Bill Walton's buttocks had been used as a pincushion by the Portland Traiblazers so that he could continue to perform on court even though the bones of his foot were being shattered with pain he coudn't feel. Having been injected with painkilling drugs to hide the greed rather than heal the injury, he now had to walk around with crutches and one foot in a cast under his extra-long galabea. Maybe Kreutzmann and Walton could team up and enter the half-upside-down sack-race event.
The proceeds of the three concerts would go to the Department of Antiquities and Madame Sadat's Faith and Hope Society, a charity for handicapped children. The official program had an Arabic translation of Grateful Dead biographies. An air of incredible excitement permeated the first night. Never had the Dead been so inspired. Backstage, Jerry Garcia was passing along final instructions to the band.
"Remember," he said, "play in tune."
The music began with Egyptian oudist Hamza el-Din, backed up by a group tapping out ancient rhythms on their 14-inch-diameter tars--pizza-like drums--sooned joined by Mickey Hart, a human butterfly with drumsticks, then Garcia ambled on with a gentle guitar riff, then Kreutzmann, then Phil Lesh, Donna, Keith, and as the Dead meshed with the percussion ensemble, basking in total respect of each other, Bob Weir segued into the opening chords of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away."
"Did you see that?" Kesey said. "The Sphinx's jaw just dropped!"
Sound engineers John Cutler and Dan Healy had attempted to wire the Pyramid for a special echo effect. They set up an FM transmitter on top of the Sphinx, a battery-operated receiver on top of the Great Pyramid, and ran cable around two sides and into the King's Chamber where the acoustics were most favorable. But it didn't work. One theory was that the permission of the gods had not been sought, but Cutler blamed it on tourists who had trampled on the cables.
"I'm a total realist," he said. "I don't believe in any magic or supernatural power ascribed to the Pyramids. I know it's an unpopular attitude around here, but I paid no attention to Pyramid power. Maybe next year."
I had heard that the sound of the universe was D-flat, so that's the note I chanted while sitting in the tub-like sarcophagus at the center of gravity in the Great Pyramid after having ingested liquid LSD that a Prankster had smuggled into Egypt in a plastic Visine bottle. It was only as I breathed in deeply before each extended Om that I was forced to ponder the mystery of those who urinate there.
Outside, I interviewed a camel named R2D2 after the Star Wars character.
Q. What's your theory on who goes in there to urinate?
A. I don't know. And what's more, I don't gve a dung.Q. Why are you so bitter?
A. Well, if you must know, my testicles still hurt. My master squeezed my scrotum between a pair of bricks.Q. Jeez, what a terrible accident.
A. Accident, my hump! He did it on purpose so that in my painful response I would skwoosh up enough water to last for twenty days. The lazy bastard!Q. Wow, I guess it's not easy being a camel.
A. You ain't kidding, pal. These Pyramids may represent the cradle of civilization to you, but to me they are simply reminders of 5,000 years of oppression.Q. Things haven't improved much for you, huh?
A. We have always been the victims of human chauvinism. Did you know that the first interuterine birth control devices were used in camels? My great-grandmother had pebbles put into her uterus to prevent her from getting pregnant on long journeys.Q. Well, at least it wasn't permanent sterilization. I mean you're here, right?
A. Yeah, and I have the freedom to piss wherever I want.Q. Except inside the Pyramid.
A. Listen, you seem like an okay guy, so I'll answer your question. It ain't sacrilegious visitors who take a leak inside the dead king's temple, it's just jaded guides. Hey, you wanna go for a ride now?Q. Sure, why not?
A. [Singing] I'll never be your beast of burden....Every morning, my Prankster roommate, George Walker, climbed to the top of the Pyramid. He was in training. It would be his honor to plant a Grateful Dead flag on top of the Great Pyramid. He attached it to a wooden pole at the peak of the pyramid where the stone block that should've been the final piece was missing. It was a thrill to see that flag waving in the breeze. Athough the skull-and-lightning-bolt image was now an international symbol, the Dead remained a purely American band--they had performed at benefits for the San Francisco Diggers, the Black Panther Party, the anti-Vietnam-war movement--and so now the planting of this flag was our Iwo Jima.
* * * * *
There was something especially magical about the third concert on Saturday. I had a strong feeling that I was involved in a lesson. It was as though the secret of the Dead would finally be revealed to me, if only I paid proper attention. Kesey had arranged for a full eclipse of the moon, and Egyptian kids were running through the streets shaking tin cans filled with rocks in order to bring it back.
"It's okay," I assured them, "the Grateful Dead will bring back the moon."
And, sure enough, a rousing rendition of "Ramble On Rose" would accomplish that feat. The moon returned just as the marijuana cookie that Bill Graham gave me started blending in with the other drugs. Graham no longer wore two wristwatches, one for each coast. He now wore one wristwatch with two faces.
There was a slight problem with an amplifier, but a sound engineer said that it was "getting there."
"Getting there ain't good enough," Jerry Garcia replied. "It's gotta fuckin' be there."
His sense of perfectionism was matched by his sense of absurdity.
Between songs, I said to him, "I'm from the Jewish Defense League, and we demand equal time. Never again!" Garcia looked puzzled, so I added, "Well, maybe sometimes?"
He shrugged and said, "Once in a while."
This was a totally outrageous event. The line between incongruity and appropriateness had disappeared along with the moon. The music was so powerful that the only way to go was ecstatic. That night, when the Dead played "Fire On the Mountain," I danced my ass off with all the others on that outdoor stage as if I had no choice.
"You know," Bill Graham confessed, "this is the first time I ever danced in public."
"Me too," I said.
That was the lesson.
The next day, a dozen of us had a farewell party on a felucca--an ancient, roundish boat, a kind of covered wagon that floats along the river. Garcia was carrying his attache case, just in case he suddenly got any new song ideas. There were three guides who came with our rented felucca: an old man whose skin was like corrugated leather; a younger man who was his assistant; and a kid whose job was to light the "hubbly-bubbly"--a giant water pipe which used hot coals to keep the hashish burning.
We were all completely zonked out of our minds in the middle of the Nile. The Egyptians kept us dizzy on hash and we in turn gave them acid. The old man mumbled something--our translator explained, "He says he's seeing strange things"--and he gave me the handle of the rudder to steer, which I managed to do in my stoned stupor. The felluca was now the vehicle of our cultural exchange.
My psyche had become a study in paradox on this trip. While I was still unwinding from my experience at Hustler, I was simultaneously adapting to Egyptian consciousness, where a woman had to be clothed from head to foot with a chador so that only her eyes were showing. The mere sight of her flesh was officially barred because it could create anxiety and excitement in a man. A woman was not permitted to worship with men because her presence would serve as a distraction from Allah.
Although I had never driven a car by choice, if I were a Moslem woman, I wouldn't even be permitted to learn. I would be allowed to walk, but it would have to be several feet behind a man. While the men in my family were enjoying a hearty meal in the dining room, my place would remain--literally--in the kitchen. I would not be allowed to vote, let alone run for office. If I wanted to go shopping, I would not only have to be accompanied by a man who would make the purchase, but I would also have to keep my gaze down because eye contact might upset the shopkeeper.
The women in our group were indpendent, though. I went to a hashish parlor with Mountain Girl and Goldie Rush, and the men there stared in disbelief because this was usually an exclusively male stronghold. Nikki Scully decided to walk around the streets of Cairo wearing chador. She said that the non-verbal message she kept getting from her eye contact with Egyptian women was: We are one! We are one! We are one! Of course, she might well have been projecting her own feminist attitude.
Coincidentally, Ruth Carter Stapleton was visiting Egypt. She had been conducting prayer meetings and inner healing sessions. When Washington Post reporter Rudy Maxa told her I was in Cairo, she asked him to invite me to meet with her.
"After all," she said, "mine is supposed to be a ministry of reconciliation, isn't it?"
But when Maxa wrote in the Post, "Only the inability to determine Krassner's whereabouts saved him from a dose of inner healing at the base of the Pyramids that afternoon," he had no idea that I'd been tripping on acid and chanting inside the Pyramid that same afternoon.
On the return flight from Egypt, many of us ate whatever dope was left, and we had an extremely pleasant trip. I joined the Mile High Club, making love with Mobilia Growlight in the airplane bathroom.
"This," said Mobilia, "is really flying United."
Back in the States, I wrote to Ruth Carter Stapleton, expressing my surprise that she wanted to meet me inasmuch as she had previously asked Larry Flynt to fire me. She phoned in response to my letter.
"I want to apologize," she said. "I had been advised that you were not the correct individual to change the image of Hustler, but I shouldn't have judged you before I met you. I don't usually judge people before I meet them."
"Well, if you were a true Christian," I teased, "you wouldn't judge me even after we had met."
She laughed graciously. Then we talked about the blatant contrast between Hustler and Egypt.
"I went from one extreme to the other," I told her. "It was like getting out of a hot sauna and jumping into the freezing snow."
"How do you mean that?"
"Well, I had gone from showing pink to wearing chador."
[Pro Patria] Remembrance Sunday -- A cartoon by Martin Rowson -- Source
The Guardian, Sunday 10 November 2013 18.18 ESTDurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 8:58amA piece of graffiti from Richmond Castle, where 16 conscientious objectors were held in 1916:
"The only war which is worth fighting is the Class War. The working class of this country have no quarrel with the working class of Germany or any other country. Socialism stands for Internationalism. If the workers of all couintries united and refused to fight there'd be no need for war"
Ronson can make money out of his cartoons, but when in 2000 during a Reclaim the Streets demo, someone graffitied over the cenotaph's "The Glorious Dead" "No glory in war" - everyone from Ken Livingdeath to The Daily Maul to George Monidiot were horror shocked, and loads of people were arrested. A cartoon is easy - but offend the ruling scum without making a career out of it and you're condemned by all right-thinking pseudo-champions of freedom.
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 9:36amGood to see someone for once honouring Durruti by spelling his name properly & not just coat-tailing the Situationist poseur pop band. Personally I didn't condemn that Reclaim the Streets action, and did a cartoon at the time for Time Out (not in my visual archive) of Blair pissing over the base of Churchill's statue (turf mohican and all) in Parliament Square , with the caption "You're pissing over your shoes, Tony". Just setting the record straight. Oh, and I got paid for it too.
peace and love
Martin Rowson
DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 10:19amIt's a classic defence aimed to take the wind out of someone's pertinent critique by half-agreeing with what they say whilst complacently mocking them ("Oh, and I got paid for it too") and trying to pacify the critique with an attempt at endearment like "peace and love". If you ever took your anger seriously, you'd go beyond the security of your career. Sadly, though, nothing is serious when it's all reduced to a cartoon.
But if we're ever to get out of this increasingly sick world it's going to involve taking practical risks - like self-organised wildcat strikes, riots, occupations, a lot of heavy arguments, sabotage, graffiti with content, or mutinies (as happened particularly during the last year of WWl) - all of which involves subverting our own complicity with this world, including getting paid for a mere aesthetic of opposition - the thrill of refusal combined with the safety of submission.
You mention the Situationists - though in relation to a pro-situationist band promoted by the entrepreneur TV boredcaster Tony Wilson (the ultimate in radical chic - as if being polite on TV was compatable with any genuine situationist subversion) - but if the Situationists' contribution to opposing capitalism in the late 50s and 60s has anything still useful it's in their critique of art and culture. Unfortunately, those unnecessarily compromised will be too indifferent to take a look at these texts - "Closed window onto another life" ....., this chapter from Society of the spectacle ....and this book on the surrealists by Vaneigem.
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 10:36amAnd there was me trying to be nice and agree with you. Um, your point? Are you suggesting that transactionalism invalidates all criticism? That payment automatically corrupts all comment, and therefore that only unpaid - and therefore presumably starving - satirists or cartoonists are qualified to criticise? In which case, you're far too pure for me and, I'd suggest, almost everyone else, though good luck to you.
That said, I slightly bridle at your implication that I am, de facto, merely a lying and impotent collaborationist pretending at a critique. That's far too glib, and also far far too dismissive of everyone except yourself, and hints at creeping Bonapartism (as well as another fine old evocation of Freud's lovely old trope about the vanity of small differences). Be careful that you don't reduce yourself through your virtue into a movement of one - before, of course, betraying yourself by buying a Mars Bar or something.
Doubtless you'll entirely dismiss this response. Your right, though exercise it with care before I start accusing you of being worse than Hitler for actually using a computer containing systems and programmes exclusively developed by our oppressors in order to exploit us.
Oh, and get your head out of your arse and do a bit of research. In engaging with posters below the line I ALWAYS sign off
peace and love*
Martin Rowson
*And most of the time I mean it too.
DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 11:51amI write (here, for instance) but don't get paid for it. What I get paid for I keep separate from my attacks on current social relations. There are loads of people who comment without being rewarded with money for their comments - almost everyone, in fact. Most of them are not starving. Your reaction to me is to parody me.
You cannot (nowadays) be a satirist or cartoonist and not have your comments be "corrupted" (though that tends to imply some moral attitude - I prefer "unnecessarily compromised"). Maybe in Swift or Hogarth's time... . Maybe in the time of early Brecht or Masereel...But certainly ever since the early 60s with "That was the week that was" satire has been part of the spectacle of opposition - "rebellion" is an innate part of smug "opposition".
It's not a question of "purity" but of a minimum of integrity. And of not wanting commentary to be integrated into this world that prides itself on freedom of speech as long as it has no practical consequences....into a a world where "critique" just draws passive admiration (as your cartoons invariably do).
Nor is this the "narcissism of petty differences" (how this Freud's remark is usually translated) - there's a world of difference that's not at all petty between ideas and actions that attack this world, and the role of professional cartoonist. We are all trapped in the contradictions of this world - but some contradictions are a contradiction too far. This has nothing to do with the caricature of me by liking my perspective with an attitude which would consider eating a Mars bar or using a computer as self-betrayal. Your caricatures of politicians are better than your politically manipulative caricatures of my ideas ("creeping Bonapartism" etc.).
The social movements developing against this world could either repeat the failures of the past by failing to contest those who co-opted critique into a role or into a profession or pressure them to make some practical stand...
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 12:35pmYou are clearly an engaged citizen. I am a professional cartoonist and have been for 32 years. Am I then only allowed to comment as a citizen if I'm unpaid? What career should I then choose to pursue instead so that I'm free to comment without being compromised? After all, if I've got you right you seem to be saying that every journalist, cartoonist, comedian or anyone else who "comments" and receives money for it has willingly embraced a "contradiction too far". Are there any exceptions? Pretty certain Dario Fo picks up his royalty cheques. Think Nestor Makhno got paid for his 3 volume memoir too.
Believe me, my friend, you are being entirely too touchy. You think my matey tone is taking the piss out of you. Maybe I'm just being matey. And maybe I parody you because you parody me in your demand for purity. Which is just fine and dandy and - again - good luck with that. But once again, beware of creating entry requirements and measuring other people's purity by your own lights. That's just another way of creating different but equally invidious and exclusive hierarchies. I thought we were against them, or have I got that wrong too?
Oh, and don't leap to the Chomskean syllogistic conclusion that inclusion in - come on, let's say it - The Mainstream Media instantly equals collusion with it. Has it occured to you that just maybe WE'RE exploiting THEM? You know, like Brecht in Hollywood. Still, if diverting your energies into aiming at a nice soft target like me makes you feel better, be my guest and spread the love.
Peace etc
Martin Rowson
PS I'm not getting paid a sodding penny for using up a lot of my morning debating with you, by the way. I'll invoice you later.
DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 1:26pmI suspect your invoice would be at least 10 times mine if we invoiced each other for the equivalent of our respective day jobs.
As for Brecht - well, there was nothing that he did that exploited Hollywood - he supported the war. But at least he faced something you'd never face - expulsion from the country (only then to become a Stalinist fellow-traveller).
As for Makhno's memoirs - I doubt he made much if anything out of them. He was in exile in Paris working as a waiter, and was hardly given any credibility given the enormity of the Stalinist propaganda (which Brecht, by the way, largely went along with; his purely cultural critique meant he refused to support the steelworkers' uprising of 1953 when they came to him, and subsequently felt so guilty it weakened him to the extent of having a heart attack 3 years later that killed him; this, at least, is what my dad , who knew him and his wife, thought).
As for Dario Fo - yes - he's a recuperator in the Situationist sense. Puts on a play "Can't pay won't pay" (a slogan stolen from the Italian movement of the 70s) for which everyone had to pay even if they couldn't. And accepting the Nobel prize for literature is hardly an act of rebellion.
As for taking the piss - it's obvious you are, and not merely through your matey tone. Surely all the stuff about Mars bars and Boinapartism couldn't be construed as simply a "matey tone".....
But enough of this - if you do something interesting I'll applaud you and maybe even emulate you; but certainly not until then...
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 2:06pmYou have the advantage over me, as you, like almost everyone else here except me, are hiding behind an assumed name and are therefore engaging in that well-honed Stalinist passtime of anonymous denunciation. This means I have no idea who you are, what you do or whether you're actually a hedge fund manager acting as an agent provocateur. This means I'm unable to gauge the layers of irony at play when you invoke your day job, but we'll let that pass.
But you need to lighten up a bit. Who cares if you construe my use of the words "Mars Bar" as matey or aggressive? Such touchiness will play you false when confronting a genuine enemy. Oh, and Makhno ended up as a carpenter working backstage at the Comedie Francaise, and his wife & daughter were interned by both the Nazis and, once "liberated", by the Soviets too, so be vigilant.
Still, assuming you're a genuine anarchist and not working for Special Branch, you'll understand that true freedom is about the primacy of personal autonomy and the recognition of its primacy in others too. I therefore wholly and comprehensively reject your tyrannous claim that you will withold your applause from any of my enterprises. Such a claim is a disgusting and foul attempt to oppress me and deny me my dignity and autonomy. To rectify this vile situation and save you from the trap you've dug yourself, I'll do you a simple favour to allow us both to retire with grace, thus:
I forbid you to applaud or emulate me or ever look at my work again in case it draws you into further temptation. You are now free. Live in peace.
love etc
Martin Rowson
DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 2:57pmI'm pretty sure he also worked as a waiter - but really - getting your information off Wikipedia doesn't entitle you to some pretension that you're more vigilant than me. And besides, you avoid the essential thing that he certainly didn't make anything more per hour from his memoirs than he did off his waitering or carpentry, and almost certainly considerably less. The point is he didn't get paid for being an anarchist (though, frighteningly, people in Ukraine are now being paid in coins bearing his name and image).
But beneath all the fake benign "jokes", the complacent self-satisfaction and the easy dismissive put-downs, I suspect you feel a little riled as you semi-consciously realise somewhere that I'm basically right.
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 3:24pmWrong.
CartoonistRowson -> DurrutiColumn2013
11 November 2013 4:02pmFinished now - just an apology for not being clear in a previous posting. I wasn't warning you to be vigilant in getting all your Mahknovite facts right - to coin a phrase, who frankly gives a fuck - but once more trying to be friendly by pointing out the vindictiveness of the dirigistes on right and left, so we all gotta watch it.
Significant you thought I was point-scoring. Then, once more, both aggressively and slightly offensively, you denigrated my use of humour - that terrible thing humans always use - as a way of defusing your aggression, leavening the demagogy and making our rather petty squabble a tad more digestible to passers-by. This makes me conclude that you're actually either
a) an algorithm
b) just another solipsistic digilefty taking a break from preening online to your own reflection to collect a "mainstream media" scalp or
c) someone near a computer who should, by and large, be spending more time paying attention to your job. You know, an air traffic controller or someone at GCHQ or something.
Anyway, it's been real - except it's been anything but.
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Martin Rowson
The Egg
by Andy Weir
You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off. Trust me.
And that's when you met me.
"What... what happened?" You asked. "Where am I?"
"You died," I said, matter-of-factly. No point mincing words.
"There was a...a truck and it was skidding..."
"Yup." I said.
"I... I died?"
"Yup. But don't feel bad about it. Everyone dies." I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. "What is this place?" You asked.
"Is this the afterlife?"
"More or less," I said.
Are you god?" You asked.
"Yup." I replied. "I'm God."
"My kids... my wife," you said. "What about them? Will they be alright?"
"That's what I like to see," I said. "You just died and your main concern is for your family. That's good stuff right there."
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn't look like God. I just looked like some man. Some vague authority figure. More of a grammar school teacher then the almighty.
"Don't worry," I said. "They'll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way.
They didn't have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it's any consolation she'll feel very guilty for feeling relieved."
"Oh," you said. "So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?"
"Neither," I said. "You'll be reincarnated."
"Ah, so the Hindus were right."
"All the religions are right in their own way," I said. "Walk with me." You followed along as we strolled in the void.
"Where are we going?"
"Nowhere in particular," I said. "It's just nice to walk while we talk."
"So what's the point, then?" You asked. "When I get reborn, I'll just be a blank slate right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won't matter."
"Not so!" I said. "You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don't remember them right now."
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. "Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic then you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It's like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it's hot or cold. You put a tiny part or yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you've gained all the experiences it had.
"You've been a human for the last 34 years, so you haven't stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for longer, you'd start remembering everything. But there's no point doing that between each life."
"How many times have I been reincarnated, then?"
"Oh lots. Lots and lots. And into lots of different lives." I said. "This time around you'll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 A.D."
"Wait, what?" You stammered. "You're sending me back in time?"
"Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from."
"Where you come from?" You pondered.
"Oh sure!" I explained. "I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you'll want to know what it's like there but you honestly won't understand."
"Oh." you said, a little let down. "But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, could I have interacted with myself at some point?"
"Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own time span you don't even know it's happening."
"So what's the point of it all?"
"Seriously?" I asked. "Seriously? You're asking me for the meaning of life? Isn't that a little stereotypical?"
"Well it's a reasonable question." you persisted.
I looked in your eyes. "The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature."
"You mean mankind? You want us to mature?"
"No. Just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature, and become a larger and greater intellect."
"Just me? What about everyone else?"
"There is no one else," I said. "In this universe, there's just you. And me."
You stared blankly at me. "But all the people on earth..."
"All you. Different incarnations of you."
"Wait. I'm everyone!?"
"Now your getting it." I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
"I'm every human who ever lived?"
"Or who will ever live, yes."
"I'm Abraham Lincoln?"
"And you're John Wilkes Booth, too." I added.
"I'm Hitler?" you said, appalled.
"And you're the millions he killed."
"I'm Jesus?"
"And you're everyone who followed him."
You fell silent.
"Every time you victimized someone," I said, "You were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you've done, you've done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you."
"Why?" You asked me. "Why do all this?"
"Because someday, you will become like me. Because that's what you are. You're one of my kind. You're my child."
"Whoa." you said, incredulous. "You mean I'm a god?"
"No. Not yet. You're a fetus. You're still growing. Once you've lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born."
"So the whole universe," you said. "It's just..."
"An egg of sorts." I answered. "Now it's time for you to move on to your next life."
And I sent you on your way.
Why are Corporations Poisoning Women?
Groundbreaking Report Exposes Chemicals
Linked to Cancer in Feminine Care Products
Tampons are used by up to 85 percent of menstruating women and may contain dioxins or pesticide residues linked to cancer, hormone disruptors, allergens and irritants from fragrance.
Click to read PDF report from Women’s Voices for the Earth
P&G: Remove Toxic Chemicals from Tampax and Always
Our new Chem Fatale report finds toxic chemicals commonly used in feminine care products like pads and tampons. Unfortunately, because pads and tampons are regulated as “medical devices” and not “personal care products,” companies aren’t required by law to disclose any of the ingredients used in these products. We know that Procter & Gamble uses some toxic fragrance chemicals – and we have a right to know what else they’re using in pads and tampons.
Toxic chemicals have no place in pads and tampons. Period.
Tell Procter & Gamble to list all ingredients and remove harmful chemicals!
http://vimeo.com/47420554
Notes from ~@~
Estimated 3-hour Planetary Kp-index
The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth's magnetic field with an integer in the range 0-9 with 1 being calm and 5 or more indicating a geomagnetic storm. It is derived from the maximum fluctuations of horizontal components observed on a magnetometer during a three-hour interval. The label 'K' comes from the German word 'Kennziffer' meaning 'characteristic digit.' The K-index was introduced by Julius Bartels in 1938.
Estimate Planetary Kp 3 days, 3-hourly values ~ SourceOrange and/or red bars displayed in the above graph would signify an increase in magnetic field disturbance.
I am going to need a captain... to sail my yacht.
That son of a bitch, he got a boat.
Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation-SF Newsletter
ASIFA~SF NEWSLETTER
November 2013
UNUSUAL ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE INCLUDE:Animation Block Party -- A Festival Review by Corrie Francis Parks
Editor's note: I found this article to be disturbing so I contacted friends living in NYC to find out...
An "Atlantic Monthly" article asks, "Why Must Animated Kids' Movies Promote Self-Esteem Myths?"
The National Film Board of Canada's latest releases are amazing!
Possibly good news if you hate advertisements in movie theaters before a feature.
Celebrating 20 Years of KROKING Down the River: KROK International Animation Film Festival - Odessa to Kiev, Ukraine by Nancy Denney Phelps
Notes from ~@~
Should we drop daylight savings time?
Last week the UK changed the clocks, and this weekend it's time for the US to do the same. But a substantial amount of research suggests daylight saving time may not be beneficial – and in fact, might be harmful. Is it worth keeping?
theguardian.com, Friday 1 November 2013 14.30 EDT, Article Source
Is daylight savings time outdated? Photograph: Darren Staples/ReutersShould we no longer have daylight savings time?
68% = YES and 32% = NOThis poll is now closed
Mike Wilhelm ~ Charlatans, Flamin' Groovies, Loose Gravel, and more
High Curtis,
I've added a new Charlatans facebook page in addition to my Mike Wilhelm band/musician page. Could you link these up on my scrapbook page? It would be nice if I could solicit some "likes" on facebook from my site.
Happy trails, Mike Wilhelm
Click to view to Mike Wilhelm MP3 music on flyingsnail's Podcast page.
ARPSN Seismic Heliplots ~ Seismic Activity & Weather at Seismic Site ~ Click to View
Added Weather Station at Meadow Seismic Sensor Site
Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck In the Middle With Who
One can lead humans to water, but cannot eliminate
their television induced short attention span apathyOriginally, this site was intended to showcase new art, music, science, and personal friends.
The majority of people who participate here are US veterans.
These pages gained a lot of readers and eventually achieved a page rank of 7. Evil Google, by insinuation, has now forced a page rank of 3 on flyingsnail.com.
On October 3, 2000, during the first 'Bush/Gore Presidential Debate' George W. Bush said, "If we don't have a clear vision of the military, if we don't stop extending our troops all around the world and nation building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road, and I'm going to prevent that."
I believe we all remember Mission Accomplished George and 5 (Draft) Deferment Dick, whose foul records were destroyed, allegedly, by FOX's Karl Rove.
When Stanford Hoover Institute fellow Donald Rumsfeld called Vietnam veterans stupid for not finding a way out of the Vietnam war (??? like Bush and Cheney ???) Dahbud and the rest of the vets here went ballistic and attempted to show the public that politicians had become tools of corporations, government was no longer honest, and neither could be trusted.
In conclusion, Nobody cares enough to fix broken government and NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on VOTER BALLOTS !
It has all, for the most part, been said before:
I now regret eliminating earlier flyingsnail pages. ~ Dahbud Mensch
2013
2013.11 ~ 2013.10 ~ 2013.09 ~ 2013.08 ~ 2013.07 ~ 2013.06 ~ 2013.05 ~ 2013.04 ~ 2013.03 ~ 2013.02 ~ 2013.01
2012
2012.12 ~ 2012.11 ~ 2012.10 ~ 2012.09 ~ 2012.08 ~ 2012.07 ~ 2012.06 ~ 2012.05 ~ 2012.04 ~ 2012.03 ~ 2012.02 ~ 2012.01
2011
2011.12 ~ 2011.11 ~ 2011.10 ~ 2011.09 ~ 2011.08 ~ 2011.07 ~ 2011.06 ~ 2011.05 ~ 2011.04 ~ 2011.03 ~ 2011.02 ~ 2011.01
2010
2010.12 ~ 2010.11 ~ 2010.10 ~ 2010.09 ~ 2010.08 ~ 2010.07 ~ 2010.06 ~ 2010.05 ~ 2010.04 ~ 2010.03 ~ 2010.02 ~ 2010.01
2009
2009.12 ~ 2009.11 ~ 2009.10 ~ 2009.09 ~ 2009.08 ~ 2009.07 ~ 2009.06 ~ 2009.05 ~ 2009.04 ~ 2009.03 ~ 2009.02 ~ 2009.01
2008
2008.12 ~ 2008.11 ~ 2008.10 ~ 2008.09 ~ 2008.08 ~ 2008.07 ~ 2008.06 ~ 2008.05 ~ 2008.04 ~ 2008.03 ~ 2008.02 ~ 2008.01
2007
2007.12 ~ 2007.11 ~ 2007.10 ~ 2007.09 ~ 2007.08 ~ 2007.07 ~ 2007.06 ~ 2007.05 ~ 2007.04 ~ 2007.03 ~ 2007.02 ~ 2007.01
Totalitarianism Sucks
NONE of the ABOVE
Should Be A Choice On Voter Ballots
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. ~ Tom Smothers
Myths of Mass Deception ~ Thanksgiving ~ Christmas
Thanksgiving Is A Celebration of Genocide
The End of American Thanksgivings
The Black Commentator ~ Issue 66Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving. It is reserved by history and the intent of "the founders" as the supremely white American holiday, the most ghoulish event on the national calendar. No Halloween of the imagination can rival the exterminationist reality that was the genesis, and remains the legacy, of the American Thanksgiving. It is the most loathsome, humanity-insulting day of the year - a pure glorification of racist barbarity.
We at [Black Commentator] are thankful that the day grows nearer when the almost four centuries-old abomination will be deprived of its reason for being: white supremacy. Then we may all eat and drink in peace and gratitude for the blessings of humanity's deliverance from the rule of evil men.
Thanksgiving is much more than a lie - if it were that simple, an historical correction of the record of events in 1600s Massachusetts would suffice to purge the "flaw" in the national mythology. But Thanksgiving is not just a twisted fable, and the mythology it nurtures is itself inherently evil. The real-life events - subsequently revised - were perfectly understood at the time as the first, definitive triumphs of the genocidal European project in New England. The near-erasure of Native Americans in Massachusetts and, soon thereafter, from most of the remainder of the northern English colonial seaboard was the true mission of the Pilgrim enterprise - Act One of the American Dream. African Slavery commenced contemporaneously - an overlapping and ultimately inseparable Act Two. [Continue reading at]:
http://www.blackcommentator.com/66/66_cover_thanksgiving.html
Thanksgiving, Celebration of Genocide
Native American Holocaust Absolution by PilgrimsSkipping past the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the first concerns of the new arrivals were finding something to eat and a place to settle. After anchoring off Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, a small party was sent ashore to explore. Pilgrims in every sense of the word, they promptly stumbled into a Nauset graveyard where they found baskets of corn which had been left as gifts for the deceased. The gathering of this unexpected bounty was interrupted by the angry Nauset warriors, and the hapless Pilgrims beat a hasty retreat back to their boat with little to show for their efforts. Shaken but undaunted by their welcome to the New World, the Pilgrims continued across Cape Cod Bay and decided to settle, of all places, at the site of the now-deserted Wampanoag village of Patuxet. There they sat for the next few months in crude shelters - cold, sick and slowly starving to death. Half did not survive that terrible first winter. The Wampanoag were aware of the English but chose to avoid contact them for the time being.
In keeping with the strange sequence of unlikely events, Samoset, a Pemaquid (Abenaki) sachem from Maine hunting in Massachusetts, came across the growing disaster at Plymouth. Having acquired some English from contact with English fishermen and the short-lived colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in 1607, he walked into Plymouth in March and startled the Pilgrims with "Hello Englishmen." Samoset stayed the night surveying the situation and left the next morning. He soon returned with Squanto. Until he succumbed to sickness and joined his people in 1622, Squanto devoted himself to helping the Pilgrims who were now living at the site of his old village. Whatever his motivations, with great kindness and patience, he taught the English the skills they needed to survive, and in so doing, assured the destruction of his own people. [Continue Reading at]:
http://www.tolatsga.org/wampa.html
Native American Issues & Causes & NDN News Website - http://www.ndnnews.com/The Thanksgiving Myth
by John Two-HawksLet me begin by stating that thousands of years before the 'official' Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by Governor Winthrop of the Massachussetts Bay Colony in 1637, North American Indigenous people across the continent had celebrated seasons of Thanksgiving.
'Thanksgiving' is a very ancient concept to American Indian nations. The big problem with the American Thanksgiving holiday is its false association with American Indian people. The infamous 'Indians and pilgrims' myth.
It is good to celebrate Thanksgiving, to be thankful for your blessings. It is not good to distort history, to falsely portray the origin of this holiday and lie about the truth of its actual inception. Here are some accurate historical facts about the true origin of this American holiday that may interest you [Continue Reading at]:
http://www.nativecircle.com/mlmThanksgivingmyth.html
Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites
In an 1868 treaty, drafted at Fort Laramie in Sioux country, the United States established the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. However, after the discovery of gold there in 1874, the United States confiscated the land in 1877. To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. government and the Sioux.
I'm Sorry You Have Taken So Long to Say You're Sorry
by David Pego"I think America clearly knows the atrocities - the holocaust, the land theft, the boarding school experience completely wiping out the language and cultures of our Native brothers and sisters."
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/politics_law/pego_apology_bill.asp
Podcasts:
Robbie Basho (Wounded Knee) Click-to-play
Laura Allan (Native American Ceremonial Song) Click-to-play
Cree Prophecy
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.
NSA files -- live coverage of all developments and reaction
Welcome to our hub for all Edward Snowden, NSA and GCHQ-related developments around the world, as controversy over revelations leaked by the whistleblower continue to make headlines. As arguments rage over how much of our day to day life should be monitored in the name of security, we'll be tracking the growing global debate about privacy in the digital age. We'd like to know what you think about the whole NSA story, what you're worried about -- and any new areas you'd like to read more about [Click Here to Continue Reading]
The NSA files: how they affect you
The NSA files and GCHQ revelations have sparked huge debate about surveillance and spying around the world. With all the talk of Prism, Tempora and encryption, it can seem quite a technical topic to some ... but this really isn't just a story for geeks. Here's why
Nick Hopkins, Jonross Swaby and Paul Boyd,
theguardian.com, Monday 21 October 2013, SourceCall For New Corporate Top-level domain: nsa
Examples of Possible Second-level domain names:
google.nsa | apple.nsa | microsoft.nsa | facebook.nsa | aol.nsa | at&t.nsa | yahoo.nsa | snapchat.nsa | sunmicrosystems.nsa | verizon.nsa | paltalk.nsa | skype.nsa | twitter.nsa | youtube.nsa | gnu/linux.nsa | freeBSD.nsa | solaris.nsa | apple/darwin.nsa | etc.
Integrity ~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy, in that integrity regards internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.
Hypocrisy ~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie.
Judas Iscariot ~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Judas Iscariot is infamously known for his kiss and betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief Sanhedrin priests in exchange for a payment of thirty silver coins. His name [Judas] is often used to accuse someone [or a corporation] of betrayal.
From: http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/background.shtml:
SELinux Background ~ Researchers in the National Information Assurance Research Laboratory of the National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) to develop a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture based on Type Enforcement, a mechanism first developed for the LOCK system. The NSA and SCC developed two Mach-based prototypes of the architecture: DTMach and DTOS. The NSA and SCC then worked with the University of Utah's Flux research group to transfer the architecture to the Fluke research operating system. During this transfer, the architecture was enhanced to provide better support for dynamic security policies. This enhanced architecture was named Flask. The NSA integrated the Flask architecture into the GNU/Linux® operating system to transfer the technology to a larger developer and user community. The architecture has been subsequently mainstreamed into GNU/Linux® and ported to several other systems, including the Solaris™ (Sun Microsystems/Oracle) operating system, the freeBSD® operating system, and the Darwin (Apple) kernel, spawning a wide range of related work.
Images Via Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhy? = Because Loyal Users Should Know Who Sold Them Out
The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants [who sold out their users?].
The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under [Republican] President Bush and renewed under [Democrat] President Obama in December 2012. ~ via Dahbud Mensch
Yes We ScanTime For A Corporate Death Penalty?
Alternative eMail, Search, & Translate Sites
Yandex eMail
Click if one wants a new, locally accepted, email addressYandex Search
Click if one wants to search Web, Images, Video, or needs TranslateDuck Duck Go Browser Search
Closing Argument
[Ed. Note: The video keeps vanishing, so here are the words]
Boston Legal, "Stick It" ~ Season 2, Episode 19 ~ Broadcast: March 14, 2006
James Spader as Alan Shore, Shelley Berman as Judge Robert Sanders, and Scott Paulin as U.S. Attorney Jonathan ShapiroAlan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretapping's, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?
*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.
Alan: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
Judge Robert Sanders: Please get out of the chair.
Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
Judge Robert Sanders: Get out of the chair!
Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un American.
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentially, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!
Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say, please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.
Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her.
A copy of this video can be found here: Speech on America
One Can Lead A Horse To Water, But...
Until there is a solution for this, where one solution has been provided, Nobody will bring Peace to Our Times, feed the hungry, care for the sick, and bake apple pie better than Mom. (otoh) If None of the Above was a choice on voter ballots, it would be a huge step towards recovering U.S. political control, and Nobody gets it.
None of the Above
should be a choice on Voter Ballots
George Carlin, The American Dream ~ http://vimeo.com/37487342
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ Message by Michael Pinder
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice.
And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know.
So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there"
Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.