New logo found scrawled on napkin:
Friday, August 08, 2003
ENRON: Genetics at Work OR Why California Fell
Why California Fell...
New logo found scrawled on napkin:
New logo found scrawled on napkin:
Dope-Smoking Son-of-a-Nazi Runs for California Governorship
Dope-Smoking Son-of-a-Nazi Runs for California Governorship
and other news...
It All Depends on What You Mean by 'Have'
By STEVE MARTIN
The war in Iraq is just starting
By JON CARROLL
Arnold's Nazi Problem
Why won't he repudiate Kurt Waldheim?
By Timothy Noah
The Movie Arnold Doesn't Want You To See
Where Arnold lights up a fatty...
The Clinton legacy and America
By TODD GITLAND
5 Foes of Bush Form PAC in Bid to Defeat Him
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Thursday, August 07, 2003
This is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history
The ghost of Al Gore comes back to haunt Chimpy
"This is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history."
- 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerlof
"What we have here is a form of looting" - George Akerlof
AL GORE DELIVERS REMARKS AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ON PRESIDENT BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY
Thu Aug 07 2003 11:48:22 ET
The 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics,
George Akerlof, went even further last week in Germany
when he told Der Spiegel, "This is the worst
government the US has ever had in its more than 200
years of history...This is not normal government
policy." In describing the impact of the Bush policies
on
America's future, Akerloff added, "What we have here
is a form of looting."
(It is one for the history books. Think Tom Paine...)
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Flash-mobs and Flascism: What Would Kant Say?
Flash-mobs and Flascism: What Would Kant Say?
Flashmobs (flash-mobs, flash mobs [reverse-order]) are everywhere.
Here are just a few headlines today:
Flash mob fever
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - 17 hours ago
Hundreds Flock to Coop for Local 'Flash Mob'
The Harvard Crimson, MA - Aug 1, 2003
'Flash mobs' spread to Europe
CNN - 9 hours ago
Internet-organized 'flash mob' makes Twin Cities debut
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN - Jul 22, 2003
A flash-mob is when and where people, notified by email, gather at a chosen place and time for a variety of reasons. So far, there hasn't been (as far as I have seen) any real negative consequences from this social innovation. I hope it stays that way...but I'm too reminded of certain intimidatory thugs who flash-mobbed vote-counters in Florida...
People can start to think they are invisible or lacking in responsibility as the throng swells around you. Floors are built to hold limited weight. Perhaps the appeal is just that the unexpected can happen...and is certainly more likely to.
But even though bad things may come of this trend -- and come they certainly will -- good and even great things can also occur. And not just Art. Healing can also occur.
'Twill be interesting (in the Strunkian sense) to see what new forms of flash-mobs come to fruition. I will check back now and again.
Zzzzzzz.....
Monday, August 04, 2003
Nicotine Beer: or Hath Hell No Basement?
An Addicted Customer is a Customer For Life
I've heard of stupid things before. In fact I have written about stupid things. Lots of 'em. In fact I am doing so right now.
But I also did several years ago -- 16 years ago in fact -- when I was writing a quasi-humorous pamphlet called Proper Gander, within which I had a "news item" the headline of which read:
Traces of Cocaine Found in Beer, Cigarettes
The point of the seemingly ludicrous item was to bring to attention the lure of addictive products, and the strange bedfellows who share business models.
Flash-forward seven odd years...
A crooked line of CEOs are all testifying to Congress that nicotine is not addictive. A joke then, and a joke now. A bad joke. A joke that kills and enslaves. Who knows which is worse? And yet here they are again. Double-whammy this time. Alcohol AND Nicotine. Why not cocaine too while they're at it?
Did you know that Blockbuster Video covers their video cases with angel dust?
And that when you touch the video, you become addicted?
Well, that is because they don't do that. It would be heinous, and the perpetrators of such a scheme would surely do time.
Adding addictive substances to products should be illegal...but it is clearly not. Soft drinks contain unnecessary caffiene, cigarettes are super-charged with additional nicotine and lord only knows what other kinds of designer additive/addictives.
Sure it is profitable. But only for a handful, and at the expense of the enslaved.
Slavery has been abolished.
We just need to keep reminding ourselves.
MORE ON NICOTINE BEER:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles.html
Thursday, July 31, 2003
Weapons of Goliath
In 1991, Noam Chomsky spoke of some of the atrocities of the first war in Iraq:
When I hear about the graves of dead soldiers we now keep "finding"...whom should I assume put them there? Questions, questions...
There was an awesome demonstration of this in Iraq./ Military operations were designed so that no battles took place...When U.S. troops entered Kuwait they were led by a battalion of engineers using bulldozers. These were used to bury possibly thousands of Iraqi soldiers alive in their trenches. They simply drove the bulldozers over the trenches and buried the soldiers alive. This is a horrible war crime, but nobody cares. Nonetheless, it does reveal something about U.S. military planning. If you attack someone who can defend themselves, you don't send bulldozers into battle. This makes it clear that the United States had prepared everything in such a way that there was never going to be a war. And effectively, there never was a war, only slaughter and atrocities.
-Noam Chomsky
When I hear about the graves of dead soldiers we now keep "finding"...whom should I assume put them there? Questions, questions...
The Edge
The Edge
Edge Foundation, Inc., was established in 1988 as an outgrowth of a group known as The Reality Club. Its informal membership includes of some of the most interesting minds in the world.
The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.
Edge: The Third Culture
The third culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.
Edge: The Reality Club
From 1981 through 1996, The Reality Club held its meetings in Chinese restuarants, artists lofts, the Board Rooms of Rockefeller University, The New York Academy of Sciences, and investment banking firms, ballrooms, museums, and living rooms, among other venues. In January, 1997, The Reality Club has now migrated to the Internet on Edge. Here you will find a number of today's sharpest minds taking their ideas into the bull ring knowing they will be challenged. The ethic is thinking smart vs. the anesthesiology of wisdom.
Through the years, The Reality Club has had a simple criterion for choosing speakers. We look for people whose creative work has expanded our notion of who and what we are. A few Reality Club speakers and/or Edge presenters are bestselling authors or are famous in the mass culture. Most are not. Rather, we encourage work on the cutting edge of the culture, and the investigation of ideas that have not been generally exposed. We are interested in "thinking smart;" we are not interested in the anesthesiology of "wisdom." The motto of the Club is "to arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves."
Including ideas of Stewart Brand, Brian Eno, Howard Gardner, George Lakoff, Jaron Lanier, Marvin Minsky, Todd Siler and others...
Edge: Digerati
Who are the "digerati" and why are they "the cyber elite"? They are the doers, thinkers, and writers who have tremendous influence on the emerging communication revolution. They are not on the frontier, they are the frontier.
The digerati evangelize, connect people, adapt quickly. They like to talk with their peers because it forces them to go to the top of their form and explain their most interesting new ideas. They give each other permission to be great. That's who they want to talk to about the things they are excited about because they want to see if it plays. They ask each other the questions they are asking themselves, and that's part of what makes this cyber elite work.
Edge Foundation, Inc., was established in 1988 as an outgrowth of a group known as The Reality Club. Its informal membership includes of some of the most interesting minds in the world.
The mandate of Edge Foundation is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.
Edge: The Third Culture
The third culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.
Edge: The Reality Club
From 1981 through 1996, The Reality Club held its meetings in Chinese restuarants, artists lofts, the Board Rooms of Rockefeller University, The New York Academy of Sciences, and investment banking firms, ballrooms, museums, and living rooms, among other venues. In January, 1997, The Reality Club has now migrated to the Internet on Edge. Here you will find a number of today's sharpest minds taking their ideas into the bull ring knowing they will be challenged. The ethic is thinking smart vs. the anesthesiology of wisdom.
Through the years, The Reality Club has had a simple criterion for choosing speakers. We look for people whose creative work has expanded our notion of who and what we are. A few Reality Club speakers and/or Edge presenters are bestselling authors or are famous in the mass culture. Most are not. Rather, we encourage work on the cutting edge of the culture, and the investigation of ideas that have not been generally exposed. We are interested in "thinking smart;" we are not interested in the anesthesiology of "wisdom." The motto of the Club is "to arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves."
Including ideas of Stewart Brand, Brian Eno, Howard Gardner, George Lakoff, Jaron Lanier, Marvin Minsky, Todd Siler and others...
Edge: Digerati
Who are the "digerati" and why are they "the cyber elite"? They are the doers, thinkers, and writers who have tremendous influence on the emerging communication revolution. They are not on the frontier, they are the frontier.
The digerati evangelize, connect people, adapt quickly. They like to talk with their peers because it forces them to go to the top of their form and explain their most interesting new ideas. They give each other permission to be great. That's who they want to talk to about the things they are excited about because they want to see if it plays. They ask each other the questions they are asking themselves, and that's part of what makes this cyber elite work.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Advice for Democratic Candidates
Compromise is not necessarily a good thing.
The way to activate the seeds of your creation is by making choices about the results you want to create. When you make a choice, you activate vast human energies and resources, which otherwise go untapped. All too often people fail to focus their choices upon results and therefore their choices are ineffective. If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.
-Robert Fritz
Oh yes...and be like Dean!
>"...all that is left is compromise." Hmm... could he also be referring to the ersatz American Left -- which, in the main, is nothing more than those people who are not also corporations. The disinterested...although not uninterested...as some seem to mistakingly conclude. The unshowered hordes. You and me. (No, Ken Lay is not reading this.)
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
The High-Toned Old Christian Woman
by Wallace Stevens
Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven. Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.
We agree in principle. That's clear. But take
The opposing law and make a peristyle,
And from the peristyle project a masque
Beyond the planets. Thus, our bawdiness,
Unpurged by epitaph, indulged at last,
Is equally converted into palms,
Squiggling like saxophones. And palm for palm,
Madame, we are where we began. Allow,
Therefore, that in the planetary scene
Your disaffected flagellants, well-stuffed,
Smacking their muzzy bellies in parade,
Proud of such novelties of the sublime,
Such tink and tank and tunk-a-tunk-tunk,
May, merely may, madame, whip from themselves
A jovial hullabaloo among the spheres.
This will make widows wince. But fictive things
Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.
by Wallace Stevens
Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven. Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.
We agree in principle. That's clear. But take
The opposing law and make a peristyle,
And from the peristyle project a masque
Beyond the planets. Thus, our bawdiness,
Unpurged by epitaph, indulged at last,
Is equally converted into palms,
Squiggling like saxophones. And palm for palm,
Madame, we are where we began. Allow,
Therefore, that in the planetary scene
Your disaffected flagellants, well-stuffed,
Smacking their muzzy bellies in parade,
Proud of such novelties of the sublime,
Such tink and tank and tunk-a-tunk-tunk,
May, merely may, madame, whip from themselves
A jovial hullabaloo among the spheres.
This will make widows wince. But fictive things
Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.
Friday, July 25, 2003
Thursday, July 17, 2003
The Official Anonymosabbatical
The Official Anonymosabbatical
Gonna take a few days off and do some genealogy research. Please hang around though. Make some coffee. Envision world peace. Raise your kundalini. Think thoughts...
Be
Peace.
-Anon
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Busharoo Bonzai
Busharoo Bonzai
In the cult classic, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, there is a scene where Buckaroo, played by Peter Weller and who is a rock star, a martial arts expert, a neurosurgeon, and politically well-connected, sings the song "Since I don't have you" in a smoky lounge where sits Penny, who is beautifully played by Ellen Barkin.
Now George W. Bush is no Buckaroo Bonzai, so don't get me wrong.
He is a Lizardo...only having never possessed the cerebrum. But on second thought, maybe Lizardo only anticipates Chimpy. He is fond of calling people "Monkey-boy". But alas, that is soft science. I'll have to keep analyzing. Let me know if you discover a connection. In the meantime, enjoy Iddy's rendition of the song:
Since I don't have you - lyrics by Iddybud
The implacable George W sings these haunting words to his elusive desideratum, Saddam Hussein...aided by wonder-blogstress, Iddybud
LINKIn the cult classic, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, there is a scene where Buckaroo, played by Peter Weller and who is a rock star, a martial arts expert, a neurosurgeon, and politically well-connected, sings the song "Since I don't have you" in a smoky lounge where sits Penny, who is beautifully played by Ellen Barkin.
Now George W. Bush is no Buckaroo Bonzai, so don't get me wrong.
He is a Lizardo...only having never possessed the cerebrum. But on second thought, maybe Lizardo only anticipates Chimpy. He is fond of calling people "Monkey-boy". But alas, that is soft science. I'll have to keep analyzing. Let me know if you discover a connection. In the meantime, enjoy Iddy's rendition of the song:
Since I don't have you - lyrics by Iddybud
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Will Arianna Take On Arnold?
The Battle of the Accents
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
July 14, 2003
Hard to believe, but this fall those two accented icons, Greek-born Arianna Huffington and Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, may well be battling to the wire to take the California governorship away from sad sack Gray Davis, who has embarrassed himself to near unanimous public contempt in the state.
more
Blame Bush for California's Budget Woes
Blame Bush for California's Budget Woes
A reiteration of what we said before...
Federal energy regulators met or exchanged phone calls with Enron Corp. executives and lobbyists 25 times during 11 months when Californians endured soaring energy prices and rolling blackouts, according to records released yesterday by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Reuters
Susan Cornwell
February 22, 2002
Shortly after taking office, President Bush waged a battle against the imposition of federal price controls in California that allowed Enron to price-gouge consumers by extending the energy crisis in California, costing the state billions of dollars. Enron reported increased revenues of almost $70 billion from the previous year.
Los Angeles Times
January 2, 2002
Cultist and Infomercial Magnate, Pat Robertson, Practices Black Magic on Supreme Court
Cultist and Infomercial Magnate, Pat Robertson, Practices Black Magic on Supreme Court
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2909105,00.html
Monday, July 14, 2003
20 Lies About the War
20 Lies About the War
Falsehoods ranging from exaggeration to plain untruth were used to make the case for war. More lies are being used in the aftermath. By Glen Rangwala and Raymond Whitaker
Falsehoods ranging from exaggeration to plain untruth were used to make the case for war. More lies are being used in the aftermath. By Glen Rangwala and Raymond Whitaker
Sunday, July 13, 2003
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