Monday, April 29, 2013

It's Too Late

There are some songs which are just too evocative, like an Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole, you tumble into another world, another time,  doors are unlocked and open to memories in closets which have been closed and forgotten. Carole King wrote a lot of great music, she recorded her first hit in 1960 and then went on to write over 118 top ten records in a career that lasted 50 years and recorded an album in her own voice, the 1971 recording, Tapestry which stayed in the top ten for over 6 years! This was not cynical pop methodism, this was passion and a singular genius. She had a knack for melodies that transcended the formulas...that's part of what made her so unique. I just have to listen to the 1965 Beatle's recording of Chains to make me appreciate her genius.
 It's a traditional pop song, it does the changes, but then there's something else. The phrasing, the placement of the emphasis of the words go beyond poetry. King created music that was emotionally powerful because she understood that there was something beyond poetry, uniting the words to the chords and beat, creating an emotional language that was able to evoke universal feelings in who ever listened to it. On one hand, I would dismiss her big hit, It's Too Late, from her 1971 recording Tapestry as pure pop fluff, but it became the soundtrack of the early 70's and the artistry of what she did still works. I can't help but hear this and relive the time, the emotions of that part of my life.
That's why it's the all too perfect soundtrack for the lame regretful backwards statement by Sandra Day O'Connor who  provided the fifth vote to install George W. Bush as president, is now having second thoughts about that decision:
Looking back, O’Connor said, she isn’t sure the high court should have taken [Bush v. Gore].
“It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue,” O’Connor said during a talk Friday with the Tribune editorial board. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’”
The case, she said, “stirred up the public” and “gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation.”
“Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision,” she said. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.“
If nothing else, Bush v. Gore demonstrates how justices who are determined to reach a certain result are capable of bending both the law and their own prior jurisprudence in order to achieve it. In Bush, the five conservative justices held, in the words of Harvard’s Larry Tribe, that “equal protection of the laws required
giving no protection of the laws to the thousands of still uncounted ballots.”
The Court’s decision to hand the presidency to Bush stunned many legal observers, some of whom were O’Connor’s fellow justices. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens once recounted a story where he ran into fellow Justice Stephen Breyer at a party while a relatively early phase of the case was pending before the Court. According to Stevens, “
we agreed that the application was frivolous.”
Indeed, Bush’s own lawyers were skeptical of the legal theory that ultimately made up the basis of the Court’s decision in Bush. As Ben Ginsberg, a top lawyer on Bush’s presidential campaign, explained in 2006, “just like really with the Voting Rights Act,
Republicans have some fundamental philosophical difficulties with the whole notion of Equal Protection.”
And, yet, O’Connor and four of her fellow Republicans joined together to embrace a particularly aggressive reading of Equal Protection — at least so long as it could put George W. Bush in the White House.

Oh, yeah, Cause it's too late baby, just too late...Cause we really just tried to make it...Something inside just died and I just think that I just can't take it....It's too late, baby! Baby, just too late.....

More George!

George Jones about 1957. Check out Joe Maphis on that big double neck Gretsch!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Pin The Tail On The Jack Ass

Rick Perry, The Republican Governor or Texas is demanding that the California paper, The Sacramento Bee fire their editorial cartoonist, Jack Ohman over his cartoon mocking Governor Good Hair for the lax enforcement of regulations which created the conditions which led to the disasterous fertilizer plant explosion last week in West, Texas. He claims it insults the victims of the disaster his policies enabled.
Texas Lt. Governor Dewhurst has publicly
 called for Ohman to be fired, saying his cartoon mocked the victims of the West fertilizer plant explosion.
But the California newspaper appears to have no plans to apologize or fire their cartoonist.
Stuart Leavenworth, the editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee, said the cartoon illustrated Perry’s “disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas as a place where industries can thrive with few regulations.”

This is the typical way these jerks deal with criticism. It's too damn painful and bothersome to deal with reality, so just deflect the blame. He blames the cartoonist for the victims his own policies created. I would say that this cartoon truly pins the tail on the jack ass!

Shit Finger

So, yesterday, my wife is all out of shape because of an article in the French Press about Obama being the recipient of $41,000 of gifts from Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni in 2011. It was reported that way in the French version of The Huffington Post..as well as in the French magazines .and it's quite a list of swag....
Black lack Hermès golf accessory bag: Valued at $7,750.00 (January 2011)
Pink outfit and green outfit by Bonpoint: Valued at $360 (January 2011)
Set of seven Bonpoint Paris perfume, skincare lotion, soap products: Valued at $401 (January 2011)
Baccarat 'Our Fire' crystal table lamps: Valued at $5,500 (January 2011)
Lacoste white classic men's polo shirt, bottle of Christian Drouin Pays d'Auge, S.T. Dupont black and silver fountain pen, 14 inch blue-gray glass sculpture of Bucephalus, Alexander the Great's horse: Valued at $15,083 (May 2011)
Frédéric Malle soaps, candle and Cologne Bigarade: Valued at $435 (May 2011)
Hermès orange cotton canvas travel case, Hermès cotton terrycloth beach towel, Forge de Laguiole letter opener: Valued at $1,994 (May 2011)
Crystal golf statuette by Baccarat of a golfer with his iron pitched over his head. Baccarat statuette of golfer with his iron out in front in a follow-through posture. Black Hermès golf travel bag: Valued at $1,650 (August 2011)
Silver watch with black wristband made by B.R.M., Lancel brown leather woman's wallet, Lancel black leather folding toiletry bag, His and hers Dior bathrobes, Lancel black leather suitcase, Christian Dior black leather clutch purse, Men's Dior hygiene products: Valued at $6,191 (November 2011)
Black leather Neo Igor Louis Vuitton men's business bag, embossed with 'B.O.' Valued at $2,310 (December 2011)

I thought it was pretty strange because as I understood it, Obama didn't really like Sarko and he didn't like him...Carla, on the other hand...She's the ultimate high priced groupie. Super Rich Italian Nobility who in her rise as a model went from Mick Jagger to Eric Clapton...then became the mistress of Socialist Prime Minister un der Mitterand who is now the present Socialist Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius. She has been linked to quite a few French Pop musicians in her attempt to create a career as a musician. She was introduced to Sarkozy by his ultra right wing strategist, Claud Gueant as a perfect match after his Marriage to Celia collapsed after his election to the presidency. Carla took to dressing up like a Jackie Kennedy Barbie Doll.  I would say right off, anything from Sarko is like a poison apple. He is the king of sleaze incarnate. He's desperately trying to raise his public image here at the expense of The floundering Socialist administration of Hollande. His Right wing UMP Party is trying to regain credibility in a very frantic Tea Party type putsch. Racism, homophobia, blaming the Socialists for the fallout from his own failed economic policies, ultra right wing nationalism...what ever works. But, the reality, even with all the PR that Sarko is mustering and his behind the scene manipulations, he has to deal with the ever mounting legal fallout of the scandals he was able to avoid as President of France. So, he's a lawyer now and moving to Morocco with Carla...who is trying to jumpstart her music career with her new lame dead in the water CD of Bo Toxed surgically enhanced generic pop tunes.
But the reality, is that Sarko is a compulsive manipulator. He has to try to influence everything he comes into contact with. Unfortunately, for him, he seems to be cursed with the Shit Finger syndrome. What ever he touches has systematically turned to shit over the last 8 or so years. You have to read the real history of this creep to begin to get the scope of his vile corrupt touch of evil that he seems to infect everything around him with. The Chiracs hate him, but the curse of right wing politics made him necessary to Jacques and Madame Chirac...why do they hate him? in the 1990's Nicolas seduced their daughter, Claude and they blame him for the suicide of their son in law. The Sarkozy mess is deeper still when you realize that he rose to power with the help of the CIA. His step mother married Frank Wisner, Jr, the #2 of the CIA in the 1970's...that is just the tip of the sleaze...you can read it here in Operation Sarko by the great French Journalist, Theirry Meyssan.
Mr. Obama, don't touch any of the shit the Sarkozy's gave you! It's infected with pure evil. Actually, I had to research this story. And I realized that the French Press and Huff Post printed the sensationalized version of the events. Yes, Carla and Nicolas gave the Obamas a lot of swaggy presents after the G-8 Summit in 2011, but in reality, they were never really acknowledged by the Obamas. In fact he was told that to return or refuse them would be a diplomatic faux pas. So he turned them over to the National Archives and the General Services Administration. He did declare them which is how the press got wind of the Sarkozy's largess. Even just receiving this pile of expensive crap carried a curse, because though, it was reported accurately in the foreign press, in France, Sarko and Carla are still trying to play it as if the Obamas are their buddies...Obsession, Oh the stench of it!

GORT KLAATU BARADA NIKTO
Hmmmm....This might explain the real origins of "Ron" and "Rand" Paul....

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Hard Workin' Man....

I was trying to remember where this song was from...I heard it years ago and still had it echoing in my head...Why yes...it's the opening credits to the 1978 Richard Pryor Movie, Blue Collar....Captain Beefheart and Ry Cooder...Really great film, check it out....

Friday, April 26, 2013

All Too True Tale...

George Jones died today. He was 81. This song was released in 1996. You know he got busted twice for  driving his lawn tractor to the liquor store. Once his wife, Tammy Wynette took his cars keys away and and again after he lost his license for driving drunk, but you know what? You just can't keep a good man down!

Creationist Anti-Science Fair 2013


C'mon kids! It's that time of the year again! What time is is? Why we are getting ready for the 2013 Brain Police Creationist Anti-Science Fair! It's time to put on your tin foil anti-thinking caps and get your projects ready for this years creationist calvacade! I got ALDO, Our Creationist Mind Control Robot Mascot out of storage and we are pounding out the dents, buffing the rust spots and oiling him up. We will present all of the submissions to the Fair here on TheBrainPolice as they come in and you can vote on a winner!
We don't want to be left in the dust, because the really cool kids in Hugoton, Kansas are already hard at work learning about the real hip cool creationist stuff that the science nerds in the wacky world of reality never get to know! Their Bored of Education is making them attend a series of events presented by the Creationist Truth Foundation. The communistical UnAmericanly Godless ACLU is trying to stop this and censor our Religious Freedom to ignore reality, because, you know, they hate our Freedoms. You know, you don't want to be left in the dust...here are some of the awesome science tests from 4th grade students in South Carolina! The start 'em early there!
Here is just some of the cool stuff that the ACLU is trying to suppress:
Dinosaurs and Man Peacefully Co-existing
“Most scientists claim that the T. Rex lived over 65 million years ago. However, there is evidence that there were Tyrannosaurs living fewer than 100,000 years ago.”
Evolution Lies! Prehistoric Babes were much more sexy
than fundamentalist Kansas skanks today!
“God made dinosaurs, or land dwelling reptiles on day six. These are just lizards. I call them God’s Gospel Lizards.”
“God created these creatures along with other land dwelling creatures on day six and they lived with men.”
“It is possible that a few of these creatures [dinosaurs] could [still] exist.”
The Unfortunate Incident
“Dinosaurs aren’t mysterious, strange creatures. They are creatures that God created to help Adam and Eve and they did until Adam sinned.”
This year as part of the BrainPolice Creationist Anti-Science Fair we are featuring a series of dramatic, educational dioramas that depict humans living along side dinosaurs on a newly created planet where all living things live peacefully side by side.
They will prove that the Earth is only 10,000 years old and the fossil evidence that evolutionists claim to have is just the remains of sinners and unbelievers that were punished in the great flood which laid down all sedentary rock strata on the planet. They also will demonstrate that the faulty evolutionary theory of the progressive stages in mans development are patently false and supposed specimens of neaderthal man are only deformed and sickly specimens of humans who developed severe arthritis the great flood.
If anything, this diorama of cave women fighting over who has the right to cook dinner for their lord and master, cave man, proves the theory of de- evolution to me, because these cave ladies are much foxier than any normal Kansas female of the fundamentalist persuasion today!
The next diorama is a tribute to the self proclaimed creation scientist, Dr. Richard Paley, a teacher of Divinity and Theology at Fellowship University and his ill fated expedition in the summer of 2000 in which he set out to prove that pterosaurs are still alive and flying! Only now, the truth can be told! Dr. Paley is back at his job and the investigation into what happened to three of his intrepid team members is still ongoing. This diorama is an attempt to explain the strange nonsense syllables he keeps uttering over and over.
The final diorama I am going to show you in this preview of the excitement we are preparing for this year BrainPolice Creationist Anti Science Fair might be probably the most controversial. It not only proves that dinosaurs existed at the same time as man, but modern cars have existed for at leat 10,000 years! Well, this car isn't so modern, it resembles a 1955 Chevrolet, which might as well be 10,000 years old! This disproves the popular nonsense images we all have in our heads of the Flintstones and their Lincoln Log Continental! In this incredible image, a dinosaur of the subspecie cottonus
cottonus sweatsockasaurus attacks prehistoric Chevy
type vehicle!
sweatsockasaurus actually attacks and tries to eat the prehistoric proto-Chevrolet like vehicle! Luckily for primitive man, the sweatsockasaurus was easily detectable from a long distance by its very distinctive odor.
Now if that isn't proof!

C'mon, kids, send me your art work, your experiments, proposals, essays, what ever you think will show the world that science is just a reality based conspiracy to deny the biblical facts! 
For example: Prove that women are anatomically designed to be subservient to men and don't deserve equal pay! Intelliigent design will show that they were designed to load washing machines and wash dishes and cook!
Or: Prove that Noah's Ark was possible by seeing how many gerbils you can pack into into a small box and how long they can stay alive! 
Whynot put a piece of carbon, assorted minerals and purified water into a sealed mason jar and leave it in the sunlight for a few weeks and pray that God doesn't decide to spontaneously start life in there to mess up your experiment and fuck with your minds?
These are just a few hints at the wide range of subjects out there waiting for your closed little minds to mold to your predestined conclusions!
Now, C'mon kids, I'm counting on you to make thebrainpolice Creationist Anti-Science Fair 2013 the biggest and most awesomest ever! You can send your entries to me: 18speed@gmail.com!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

ReRun

So I have been trying to follow the story of Paul Kevin Curtis, the Elvis impersonator, and conspiracy theorist...something about a government plot to harvest human organs...who was arrested in for sending letters containing Ricin to the White House, a Mississippi judge and US senator, but was released yesterday and has already embarked on his promotional tour to cash in on his newly minted 15 minutes of fame...So, now the focus of the investigation is on a Taekwando instructor who is somehow a rival musician of Paul Kevin, who has a band called Dusty and the RoboDrum....among others...
But then I realized I had already seen this movie......

Time To Upgrade The Software Of Our Society

I got the link for this video from an old Detroit Buddy, Wayne Kramer...
this succinctly makes the point about the real nature of the gun debate in America. I have never advocated taking guns away from people. I believe in your right to bear arms and the right to own guns.
What I do sincerely believe is that the Constitutional Right is based on a flawed and hacked operating system. I believe that the Arms manufacturers of America are driven by pure greed. I now that the guns for sale on the streets of Mogadishu come from America. The arms used by jihadists in Mali came from America. The idea that that you need to have all the ammo, the most destructive guns you can afford is a sick fetish fueled by the propaganda of thew NRA. The American Constitution is like the Operating system of your computer. It can be hacked and it has been and it will be. We have to take the ystem that we live by into the 21st century. Other countries have. Government is not religion, it is us!

Taubira!



I profiled this wonderful woman, Le Garde de Sceaux, The French Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira a few months ago. Here is the remarkable emotional and historic Speech to the National Assembly after the passage of the bill opening marriage and adoption to same-sex couples two days ago:
Mister President, Mister Prime Minister, Congresswomen and Congressmen,

I must admit that I am overwhelmed by emotion. Still, I hope that I’ll be able to say a few words. I am extremely thankful to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic for giving us the opportunity to pass this beautiful reform. We passed it with force. We passed it with the constant support of the government. We passed it with your active participation. You all improved this bill. You enriched it. You were there during the long nights of debate. You were there. You were stoic, sometimes in the face of hateful speeches that were against our deeply held values. But there were also great and beautiful expressions of democracy. In the opposition, we had speeches from congresspeople who fought against this bill and who made their firm objections known through their arguments. We are grateful to them as well, because their objections will also be recorded by history.
In passing this law, we know that we built something together. We know that we did not take anything away from anyone. When the first signs of dissent sprung up in society, we asked ourselves questions. We asked ourselves if our beliefs were enough. We attentively listened to the fears and protests of the opposition. We responded. Lucidly. Clearly. Frankly. And we pointed them towards the content of the bill. We asked ourselves what the most precious things in the lives of heterosexual couples and their families are. And we did not touch those things.
That said, we have improved the exercise of parental authority. We have made it easier to share parental authority. We have protected thousands of children. We have made it easier to maintain the link between children and their parents in the case of conflict between the parents, even outside of the institution of marriage. We have made it easier for future brides and grooms to choose the location of their marriage.
We know that we have not taken anything away from anyone. On the contrary, we have recognized the full rights of our fellow citizens, whose rights were being surreptitiously undermined.
We have granted full rights to all couples.
Without any doubt, the bill that we have passed today is a generous bill. And we are so very thankful.
We also know that we must speak to the men and the women who were hurt in this process by words, gestures or actions. We know that we must tell them that they are fully a part of this society. We know that the responsibility of our public power is to fight against discrimination. Our Republic demands this. Fighting against discrimination means opening equal rights to all of our fellow citizens. It means sharing one of our Republic’s most beautiful institutions with our fellow citizens.
Tonight, we would especially like to speak to the adolescents in our country - boys and girls - who have been hurt during this debate. We speak to those children who found themselves in the midst of deep and frightening chaos. They discovered a society where a wave of selfishness led many to loudly protest against the rights of others.
We simply want to tell these adolescents that they are at home in our society.
We recognize them in this society. We recognize their contradictions, talents, shortcomings, qualities and fragility. These are the things that make each and every one of us unique. Regardless of any sexual issues, each one of us is unique. That is the strength of our society. It is even the basis of our society. It is the basis of our relationship to society. So we tell these adolescents: if you find yourself losing hope, sweep all of those thoughts out of your minds. They are only words. One day they will float away. Stay with us and keep your heads high. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We say that loud and clear, with our all the strength in our voices. As Nietzsche said: Truth kills. And if you repress it, it will kill you.

Thank you all.


Last night on the French program, Le Petit Journal, a reporter interviewed Taubira as she rode her bike through Parisian traffic, as she does ever day. The reporter asked her vies on marriage in general and she laughingly replie, "I'm not the one to ask. I've been divorced twice!"

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Les Restes


Poussière de ville et visage de vent arrivent à la Fin Du Monde - Appel dans l'aube lointaine trempée dans les nuages, grelottant dans la muqueuse du monde.- William S. Burroughs, La machine molle
A stop motion animated film by the Quebecois Surrealist, Alex Fatta from 2012.
Fatta seems to embody so much of my personal esthetic. Max Ernst Dada collage and a surreal unconscious stream of evocative images. He uses sound as a tool to further enhance the experience.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

What Mama Said

Jeff Beck Group 1999 live in Tokyo. I really believe that Beck has done more to promote the status of brilliant women in rock over the last 25 years than any other man. He worked and composed with the techno guitarist Jennifer Batten for almost 5 years. She became his alter ego. They played some incredibly brilliant music together. I am transfixed by Becks technique. He really seems to have formed a symbiotic relationship with his instrument. The sickest, sweetest, most evocatively human instrumental voice I can think of. Yet he has been in the for front of the use of the sonic tools since 1965. I'm painting furniture tonight and this is the sound track...full blast!
Ahhh...Nature!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Into The Fire

This is a "Crowd Released" documentary and by sharing it, you become part of the distribution network. This is a compassionate look at yet another side of the damage created by austerity economic policies in Greece. How racism and anti foreign prejudice is being fueled and enabled by the mass hardships imposed on the Greek population. The ultimate victims are the immigrants who come to Greece and how they are treated. This xenophobic fascism finds its kindling with the Golden Dawn Party which has infiltrated the Greek Police Organizations. Even the United States State Department has issued a travel advisory for Americans who might be thinking of a Greek Vacation. If you are not white, you could face some serious consequences. American tourists have been detained, had their passorts confiscated and physically abused just because they are the wrong color or ethnic profile.
Into the Fire is being crowd-released today: All over the internet people are embedding Into the Fire on their website or blog. With everyone who participates the audience and distribution network will grow. Are you participating? http://intothefire.org
A hard hitting documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants in recession hit Athens, Into The Fire is a film with a difference.
Shot and edited with sensitivity and compassion, it doesn't pull its punches and makes for harrowing viewing in parts. It is the product of crowd funding, dedication, self-sacrifice and a burning sense of justice.
On 21 April, Into the Fire is simultaneously released on websites, blogs and other platforms around the internet. The film will be available in various languages, including Albanian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish. There are a number of public screenings planned in several countries in Europe and Northern America. To participate in the release or organise a screening see
http://intothefire.org/publish
This strategy is being used to maximise the audience, in the hope that the audience will become active participants, commentators and amplifiers when it comes to opposing the conditions visited on the victims in the story.
The premiere of Into the Fire on 29th April, 6:30pm will be hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies. The filmmakers will be joined for discussion by Habib Rahman of the Join Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
In times of severe austerity things look bleak for Greek people, but they're far worse for those who have recently arrived. Without housing, legal papers or support, migrants in Greece are faced with increasing and often violent racism at the hands of the growing Nazi party Golden Dawn and the police in Athens. Many are trapped by EU laws and legislation of other EU countries meaning they'd be returned to Greece if they managed to get to another member state, they are desperate to leave the country.
This film gives incredible insights to the reality faced by people who simply want to lead peaceful, normal lives.
Having been to Athens to shoot footage about austerity in April last year, Reel News video activists started talking and working with a young Somalian refugee, they made many contacts in the migrant world and those contacts gave them access to a huge number of untold and shocking stories.
Funded by small donations from friends and organisations, the film makers are once more turning to their supporters and allies in the UK to distribute the film online and through screenings to grassroots groups across the country. No one has been paid to work on this film.

Les Saints de Glace

Well, here's what I was doing today. My wife took the picture from my upstairs window. I got to use my neighbor. Dede's Massey Ferguson tractor to turn over the garden. I can almost make straight lines now! Last year, I couldn't do this until the middle of May! The turned over ground will dry out for a week then it gets cultivated. Hopefully, I will have potatoes in the ground by next week end! I have Spuntas this year. Once spring starts happening...It's hard to stop, but caution! Here in the country we pay attention to the La Lune Russe, the lunar phase that also dictates the date of Easter...This is the lunar cycle that determines the safe dates for planting. On clear moonless nights, you can have serious frosts that will destroy young plants. This year the cycle started on April 10th and will finish on May 9th. We also pay attention to Les Saints de Glace, The Ice Saints. They are three saint days  in the beginning of May that traditionally mark the last days of a frost. They are  Saint Mamert, Patron of May 11 who died in 474, was Archbishop of Vienna. St. Pancras, Patron of May 12, died in Rome at age 14, as a martyr. Servais, Patron of 13 May, bishop martyr who died in 384. Last year had such a warm winter that many people ignored this ancient wisdom and then had a big disaster when the big freeze happened near the end of April. I have flowers on my strawberry plants already and many seeds starting in the little green house. It's been a slow, but pretty normal spring here. I hope you all are putting your gardens in now!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

 I Feel Better Now
I Feel Good, I Feel Very Good
I Feel Better Than James Brown!


Thursday, April 18, 2013

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

I have been blocked for the last few days because of the Boston Marathon Bombing and my reaction to it. I admit that for me, it is a little traumatizing. I wrote on this blog in the past of my all too up close World Trade Center Experience. I resolved a few years ago to not dwell on it. I told the story, the past is the gateway to the future. I want the future, a better future. I am not writing about the Boston Bombing because I am disgusted with the brain fart tweets, the paranoid hate, the brainless reporting I see on both the right and the left. I can't comment until I have some real facts.
I will say again, that the World Trade Center Disaster became a gateway for me for understanding. I resolved to open my mind and heart and try to become a bridge in some way. I will never surrender to hate. I never thought about looking over the wall of Islam until post 9/11. I knew Muslims and had some friends, but never really thought about who they really were or what they thought.
The next year, in 2002, I found myself working with Algerians and Moroccans as equals. It was my first year working at Chateau Vieux Chevrol and I was just another grape picker. I spoke really lousy French. One of the workers, a Moroccan named Achmed, demonstrably let me know that he hated me because I was an American. He became my first victim of my wily plot. I was always next to him making bad jokes in my lousy French and trying to start conversations with him. At lunch, I sat down next to him and jabbered away. Pretty soon the rest of the workers got the hint and made sure my seat next to Achmed was reserved. Afte 4 days, he found himself working with me cutting grapes and he asked me in French if I had lived in New York and if I had seen the WTC Bombing. I started to try to tell him my story in my lousy French...his eyes bugged out of his head and after a few sentences, he stopped me and said quite clearly, "You know, I can speak English well."
I started to laugh and so did he! In fact he spoke english much better than he spoke French. He had worked all over Europe and was quite an interesting guy. We became pretty good friends. He and his cousin, Momo both liked to drink beer. Over 10 years later, we are still friends and Momo and his family are now like my relatives. We work together almost 2 months a year and I am always invited for dinner to their house. The first step to understanding is to admit that you don't understand.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Smells Like?

22 years ago today, the first public performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
This is beyond music, it is timeless. This is emotional Morse Code.
Curt, Kris, Dave...Nirvana.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

My Favorite Maniac

One of the most magnificent maniacs to walk on the planet earth.
Jonathan Winters died at age 87.
 Finally With English Subtitles!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

You've Been Having A Rough Night, Huh?

More from the Orquestra Was soundtrack, Forever's A Long Long Time.
A rough night? I'm having a rough day with a nasty little stomach flu...
Give me a few hours, I'll recover or die.....

The Church Of What's Happening Now!


For all of you who are interested in the fine world of motorcycle culture, I would like to give a plug for this months issue of Cyclesource Magazine, which has a very fine feature on my little nephew, Tommy Granger and a visit to his rather infamous New Jersey Garage, The Church Of What's Happening Now, out back of his house. It's the April Issue, out now. If you want to check it out on line here's the link! There's a picture of his 1926 Studebaker Contraption Hot Rod which he arrived in great style at my wedding in Manhattan a few years ago! (The Contraption was featured in a few Bruce Springsteen photo shoots...Tommy was a bartender/bouncer at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park for years) Tommy is one of Americas true originals and I had to let y'all know just how proud I am of the youngster.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Miss Maggie


Renaud - Miss Maggie par Brownsugar18
The 1985 French Version of Margaret Thatcher by Renaud.
(It took me a few hours to translate this and I know I could have done a better job. I met Renaud once in the 1980's and I still have brain damage.)
Woman in the world or hell
Which are often the same
Normal woman, star or black pudding,
Females of any kind I love you
Even the last of bitches,
I want to dedicate these few lines
From my disgust men
And their moral warrior
Because no woman on the planet
N 's'ra so stupid that his brother
Or prouder or more dishonest
Except perhaps Thatcher

Woman I love you because
When sport is war
There's no or very little chick
In the hordes of supporters
These fanatics, crazy-mad
Watered hatred and beer
Deifying goons in blue,
Insulting bastards green
There's no female hooligan,
Stupid and deadly
There is none even in Great Britain
Except of course Thatcher

Woman I love you because
A sitting at the wheel
You don 't get as stupid as
These poor nerds who bump
A lighthouse a little messed up
Or a finger pointing up high
They are people who go to gun down
To save their radio
The honor of these arms bastards
No woman is quite common
To use it with a vengeance
A share can be Thatcher

Woman I love you because
You will not die in war
Park 'that the sight of a gun
Not shiver your ovaries
Park 'in the ranks of hunters
Who dégomment doves
And occasionally Beurs
I've never seen a female
Not a woman is pretty pathetic
To polish a revolver
And feel invulnerable
Except of course Thatcher

This is not a female brain
What exit the atomic bomb
And not a woman has on her hands
The blood of the American Indian
Palestinian and Armenian
Demonstrate the merits of their graves
That genocide is male
As a SS, a bullfighter
In the fucking humanity
Assassins are all brothers
Not a woman to compete
A share can be Thatcher

I love you above all women finally
For your weakness and your eyes
When the force of man is
In the gun or in its tail
And when will the last hour
Hell s'ra populated by morons
Playing football or war,
A person who pissing
I'll change into a dog if I can stay on Earth
And as daily street
I offer myself Thatcher

Self Righteous Self Defeating Tea Brained Idiocy In Action



On April 4, 2013, the ACLU of Ohio released The Outskirts of Hope, a chronicle of blatantly illegal debtors’ prison activity across the state of Ohio and the many lives that have been impacted.

In conjunction with this report, the ACLU has sent letters to seven Ohio courts, calling for an immediate end to these illegal debtors’ prison practices. We have also sent a letter to the Ohio Supreme Court, asking them to enforce the law with statewide guidelines to stop this terrible practice in Ohio.
Something must be done! The Ohio Supreme Court governs the conduct of these local courts. They must make a clear plan for ending debtors’ prison practices in Ohio and they must hold these courts accountable for flouting the law.
You can help! Take a minute to urge the Ohio Supreme Court to end debtors’ prison practices in our state. It’s fast and easy! They’ve already prepared the language to get you started!
Hear how two Ohioans have been impacted by this practice:
This is not a problem that is just a local Ohio issue. This has been a trend that has been exponentially growing all over America, in states with an electorate that has been duped into electing tea brained conservatives who have convinced them that they are libertarians who want to protect them from both Big Government and the huddled masses of the angry poor. What happens? Government just gets bigger and the poor get angrier. I have been destitute a few times in my life, but I always expected to be treated with the same dignity that I gave others. This is the utter denial of dignity. This is the kind of repression that breeds hate and rebellion.  I wrote about this regressive, simplistic and fascist approach to appeasing the upper classes while not even attempting to deal with the real issues almost a year ago. This is just another festering infected carbuncle on the fat ass of America. It's the conservative, corporate prison culture that has made America #1 in the percentage of incarcerated citizens in the world! The time to stop this is now!
18th Century Debtors Prison by William Hogarth
More ranting after the break!!!!!

BDSM Sklavin Zuchtigung im dunken Hobbyskeller teen Fesselspiele?

Was ist das?
In the interest of "science' Torrent Freak was been looking at the BitTorrent video-downloading from the small pool of downloaders in Vatican City, and they've reported in with the Vatican's favorite pornography. I was going to post a link to some of the films posted here, but, then if you are that interested, go google yourself! I can safely say though, that there are a few commandment that are being ignored here. I believe the curiously titles, RS77_Episode 01 handily violates any number of commandments all at the same time in just a matter of only a few minutes. But then, I'm hardly an expert, Torrent  Freak documents it here.
Torrent Freak tried to find a Vatican expert to comment and apparently the Pope was “busy” yesterday. On a Sunday?

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Bettye LaVette

I'm in love with this voice. Another of Detroit's Natural Wonders.
She's been doing this since the early 60's...
What a great band, great interpretation of the Gnarls Barkely classic, Crazy!

If I Ever Grow Up

If I ever grow up, I wanna be Bootsy....
I think this was a pilot episode for a cartoon series that never happened...
Sometimes, I wish I could be a cartoon character.

Love? Hate?


What ever...if you ain't a rich teabrain crook like Dave, You Already Lost!
Montana desperately is trying to get back in the running for the lead for the most extreme whack teabrained legislators in America. Todays leader of the pack is Republican Representative Dave Hagstrom. Not only is he against abortion rights, he most definitely, sir, doesn't want to pay to take care of premature babies who are already born, no siree!
Read this letter in which a House Republican mocks single mothers and hungry kids and tells his tenants they should die sooner.

This month, Dave Hagstrom (R-Billings) sent his tenants one of the most bizarre and distrubing letters you might ever read. Hagstrom works for the Affordable Housing Development in Billings.In a lengthy letter (that is very much worth reading and can be found(HERE), Hagstrom tells his tenants – you know, the people who pay him rent every month – that they are living “a fairly-tale life-style.” What “fairly-tale” means remains a mystery. Maybe Hagstrom meant to write “fairy-tale.” I kinda think his version of a fairy tale is a movie that starred Bob Mitchum....let's face it, this letter gets pretty bizarre and more than just a little creepy when Hagstrom write, “I feel it would not be loving of me not warn you about” the impending social crises facing Montana.
Hagstom contends that the root of all our problems “is a very bad practice” of providing “free healthcare services at Riverstone Health, more money for food in schools for the kids, more money to help pregnant single moms stop smoking, more money to help elderly people get out of nursing homes and get individualized care in their own homes, etc.”
If that weren’t enough, the Representative from Billings goes on to mock single mothers. The government “creates a mindset that if I have kids and their dads are dead-beats, the government should buy my groceries and help me get a job while they provide day-care for my kids and send me to school to educate me so I can get a better job.”

You literally can’t make this stuff up. For good measure, Hagstrom also mocks school programs that feed hungry kids.
In Hagstrom’s closing, he makes five recommendations to his tenants. The first is the most notable and disturbing. He recommends that “you accept that not everyone, including yourself, needs to live as long as they currently do, or as ‘comfortably’ as they currently do.”
That’s right. Go and die as soon as possible.
UPDATE: Hagstrom was also one of three legislators to
vote against assisting veterans returning home with affordable housing. This from the man who works for the Affordable Housing Development in Billings.
Personally, this is
my favorite part of his letter:
One of the ways this problem has become real to me is that in Helena, I am being asked to vote for many bills that spend money from the Federal government for programs and services that are in fact real to all of us in the neighborhood. These would be bills that provide free healthcare services at Riverstone Health, more money for food in schools for the kids, more money to help pregnant single moms stop smoking, more money to help elderly people get out of nursing homes and get individualized care in their own homes, etc.
There are literally dozens and dozens of government programs to help people who have health issues, transportation issues, housing issues, criminal issues, addiction issues, etc. And though it could be argued that the intentions of these programs are good, the practice of printing money to pay for these programs, in my opinion, is a very bad practice.
Among the many reasons it is a bad practice is that it creates in the mindset of the people a dependency on the government to meet all their needs. It creates a mindset that, if I have a premature baby, the government should spend Whatever it takes to keep it alive. It creates a mindset that if I have committed a crime while on drugs, the government should give me a treatment program rather than send me to prison.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Dead Movie Stars

Wayne Kramer, Guitar and vocals. 
1996 from the CD, Dangerous Madness.
Spoken Word Jazz/Rock Improv Performance Art.

If this is real, I might even pay to see it....

Robert Reich Explains Chained CPI


Watch this video by Robert Reich, then please sign this petition. I just did!
The Chained CPI, deceptively portrayed as a reasonable cost of living adjustment, is a cut to Social Security that would hurt seniors. Robert Reich concisely explains why Chained CPI is so stingy in this video. Please sign his SignOn.org petition to President Obama at: 

The DPRK Game

A 30 year old man sits at the head of the Armed Forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
I've been making some very silly gifs lately reflecting how I feel about what he is doing and why. Yes, though I feel that Kim Jong-un is a veritable puppet and he is not in any way in complete control of North Korea, the North Korean Regime sits on very shaky ground trying to maintain the iron fisted Stalinist ideological absolute physical and mental control of their starving population.   I don't feel as if he is competent enough to take any kind of action to assume control, but the bottom line? His finger controls the trigger. He is a very dangerous person through his inexperience and incompetency.
This young man had had some foreign education. But what he has NOT had may make all the difference in the world for millions of people.
He’s grown up as a child of extreme privilege, doing basically whatever he wanted to do, with little restraint. He’s never moved in the circles most of us move in, and probably has no idea of what life is like for the common prole. Nor, of course, would he have any real concept of consequences.
For perspective, let’s review the life of this fellow’s grandfather. His grandpa had been a guerilla for decades when he rode into Pyongyang at the head of the Soviet occupation army. Like the present leader, his grandpa was a young man when he took over as leader, though he did indeed have a couple of decades of fighting under his belt. In spite of the horrors of war that his grandpa knew all too well, his youthful inexperience with being a leader led him to conclude that he could win a military campaign to bring the southern half of Korea under his leadership. And that young man’s gamble cost at least 3,000,000 Korean lives, and left the entire peninsula utterly destroyed.
This over privileged inexperienced young man knows nothing of war. As a result, I’d wager that he’s more likely than even his grandpa was to gamble a little. He is also very open to the loudest, most ambitious mouth in his coterie of flatterers.
There is some positive news coming our of Pyongyang...in spite of all the bluster, Pak Pong Ju, the former prime minister who was responsible for many of the economic overtures to South Korea was reappointed. He had been in political "exile" for years. The Obama Administration is actually holding talks with the Chinese over their concerns about the noise coming from Pyongyang. China has been the sole lifeline that has kept the DPRK afloat for decades. The Chinese are beginning to get alittle pissed with Kim Jong-un.
But, I keep seeing these political cartoons that highlight the supposed weakness of the DPRK, and the buffoonery of its leader. This completely ignores that, weak or not, the DPRK has thousands of hardened artillery sites within range of Seoul.The warning for a sudden release of an artillery volley on Seoul can only be measured in seconds, not minutes. Win or lose an actual war, the DPRK can utterly flatten Seoul before anything can be done to stop it from happening. At least tens of thousands will die within minutes, and the economy of the Republic of Korea will be destroyed. Whatever happens to the DPRK at that point is almost irrelevant.
Those of us in America seem to think that the situation in Korea is some kind of a high-tech video game. It isn’t. Millions of lives are on the line. This is nothing to be joking about.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Excuse Me Colonel, Could I Borrow Your Newspaper?


1997, Orquestra Was,
Soundtrack from Don Was' short movie collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, Forever's A Long, Long Time. The movie starred Kris Kristofferson and Sweet Pea Atkinson and the soundtrack featured songs by Hank Williams that somehow became jazz, techno and R&B. Some of the Musicians were Merle Haggard, Herbie Hancock, Don Was and Wayne Kramer. I've posted a very bad quality version of the film on this blog. This piece, Excuse Me Colonel, is a fairly incredible techno/jazz piece featuring  a rather magnificent guitar freakout by Wayne Kramer.
Please turn you computer speakers to 11 and a half!

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Slow Down

Hey, why isn't this guy a superstar? Sweet Pea Atkinson, one of Detroits Natural Wonders...
An unstoppable force of nature. He was a member of Was/not was for 27 years, sung with Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett. Iggy Pop, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson. One of the greatest voices I've ever heard.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

When Your ATM Runs Dry........

One solution....
Last week, I wrote a piece called When The ATM Run Dry about Cyprus and what is going on there. 
But, it's not just a Euro Problem. Yes the Cyprus story is linked to the offshore "Treasure Island" banking industry phenomena and specifically, the economic panic in Russia that has forced the very rich to stash their money in off shore accounts.
But way beyond this, it is a huge story, and it takes very little to tell it. This is a story that affects you personally and the regulations and lack of regulations that control the money in the bank you think you have it securely stashed in. These are the basics on deposit confiscation and how we got there:

■ You know that the EU-forced solution to the failure of banks in Cyprus is to require the Cypriot government to confiscate (“tax”) deposits. That news is everywhere you look; it’s not in dispute or doubt. The latest has depositor losses at 60% due to the bailout-related “one-time” tax.
■ “Confiscating deposits” is exactly the opposite of “insuring deposits,” which is what is required in the EU, and also offered by the FDIC (as the ads say, “your deposits are insured up to $250,000″).
■ The next monster taxpayer-financed bank bailout could spark a revolution. Find me anyone who isn’t a friend of Money who doesn’t hate the Bush-Obama bailout. Dem, Republican, Libertarian, frog-on-a-rock — no one liked the bailout.
■ This takes a taxpayer-financed bailout off the table as the next way to make bankers whole when the stumble.
■ But bankers are going to stumble soon, and big. The derivatives market is huge, and they’re aggressively reversing the tepid Dodd-Frank derivatives regulations as we speak. Of course, friends-of-big-banks in Congress are helping.
■ So the next big bailout (which is coming) will have to come from somewhere else.
Guess where that “somewhere else” is? Deposits.
Nations have already started to institute rules that enable deposit confiscation
There’s an international move by national governments to write regulations that permit deposit confiscation in the case of bank failure. This is exactly the Cyprus model, and if the news stories are correct, confiscating deposits was being considered or enabled prior to Cyprus bank-failures.

Just check out what's happening in New Zealand!
The National Government are pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today.
Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English’s favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank’s bail out.
“Bill English is proposing a Cyprus-style solution for managing bank failure here in New Zealand – a solution that will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman. “The Reserve Bank is in the final stages of implementing a system of managing bank failure called Open Bank Resolution. The scheme will put all bank depositors on the hook for bailing out their bank.
“Depositors will overnight have their savings shaved by the amount needed to keep the bank afloat.
Here’s what the New Zealand government says about “Open Bank Resolution” :
What is an OBR?
The Open Bank Resolution policy is a tool for responding to a bank failure. It allows the bank to be open for full-scale or limited business on the next business day after being placed under statutory management (as a result of, for example, an insolvency event). This means that customers will be able to gain full or partial access to their accounts and other bank services, whilst an appropriate long-term solution to the bank’s failure is identified. …
Why should depositors bail-out banks?
The OBR policy is designed to ensure that first losses are borne by the bank’s existing shareholders. In addition, a portion of depositors’ and other unsecured creditors’ funds will be frozen to bear any remaining losses. To the extent that these funds are not required to cover losses as more detailed assessment of the position of the bank is completed, these funds will be released to depositors. At a high level, this outcome replicates the outcome that would apply in the event that a failed bank was liquidated. The primary advantage of the OBR scheme, however, is that depositors would have access to a large proportion of their balances throughout the process. This contrasts with what would happen under a normal liquidation, where depositors might not have access to any of their funds for a significant period.
Why aren’t deposits guaranteed?
During the recent global financial crisis the government took the decision to put in place a temporary guarantee on retail deposits. On 11 March 2011 the Minister of Finance announced that further guarantees would not be provided following the expiry of the existing scheme. Furthermore, the Minister ruled out the possibility of introducing a compulsory deposit insurance scheme.
Read the rest if you like. That’s a government of New Zealand publication.
Deposit confiscation is being planned in the U.S. and the U.K.

Just as the New Zealand plan has been in process for a while, so is a similar plan in the U.S. and the U.K. This piece is making the rounds and making waves. 

It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors
Posted on March 28, 2013 by Ellen Brown

Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few Eurozone “troika” officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated December 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds. …
Although few depositors realize it, legally the bank owns the depositor’s funds as soon as they are put in the bank. Our money becomes the bank’s, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay. (See here and here.) But until now the bank has been obligated to pay the money back on demand in the form of cash.Under the FDIC-BOE plan, our IOUs will be converted into “bank equity.” The bank will get the money and we will get stock in the bank. With any luck we may be able to sell the stock to someone else, but when and at what price? Most people keep a deposit account so they can have ready cash to pay the bills.
The 15-page FDIC-BOE document is called “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.” It begins by explaining that the 2008 banking crisis has made it clear that some other way besides taxpayer bailouts is needed to maintain “financial stability.” Evidently [the writers anticipate] that the next financial collapse will be on a grander scale than either the taxpayers or Congress is willing to underwrite …
No exception is indicated for “insured deposits” in the U.S., meaning those under $250,000, the deposits we thought were protected by FDIC insurance. This can hardly be an oversight, since it is the FDIC that is issuing the directive. …
December 10, 2012 was pre-Cyprus. Deposit-confiscation wasn’t something cooked up on the fly. It’s been in the works for a while, by all the international Bigs. Note that the source of the negotiations is “the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland.” This is indeed international.
Bottom line
This proves three things, I think:
Major governments exist, in part, to make sure no banker takes a loss anywhere in the world, regardless of risky behavior on the part of the banks. The world and its governments serve the bankers.
The next banking crisis is anticipated to dwarf the last one, and the Bigs have been making plans to bail it out with depositor funds, not taxpayer funds. Cyprus is just the first implementation.
Loss of deposit insurance is coming to the U.S.

Are You Paying Attention, Kids?
Remember,The Rich vs. the Rest. They re  ally have convinced themselves that  “All your money are belong to them“ indeed. The outcome and again, I quote the master, The Grand Master Flash and The Message has bloodshed written all over it. Don't Push Us Cause We're Close To The Edge!

Bottom Line? What can you do? Learn about the place you trust to keep and invest your money. There are banks and credit unions which do not play this game. They are owned by the investors. It's your money and your choice and you are the one who is ultimately responsible! Every dollar taken out of the banking system and responsibly saved reduces the power of the big banks! I have been using a Union Bank for the last 25 years. It's really a credit union, yet I get better hands on money management than you could ever expect from a big commercial bank...Plus, even here in Europe, there is a system of free ATMs supported by my bank. Even when I use non supported ATMs, the fees are nominal compared to what you would pay if you had a CitiBank or Bank of America type of account.