Sunday, April 30, 2006

Camp Bart

Lisa: Bart! I thought you were going to call it Camp Freedom!?

Bart: Eh--this had more zing.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Sun Noir

Saw Brick. Brick good.

Flight 93

or whatever is directed by the same guy who did Bloody Sunday...a pretty amazing film. Maybe I might check it out.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Q: Are we not Men?

A: We are devo.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Les Blank Clips

If I have a fast connection I can download these.

Interesting

When the fascists get ahold of Herzog.

Really, Herzog is remarkably apolitical.

Monday, April 24, 2006

From the personal to the monumental

Today is my third and last day at the telemarketing temp job. I thank God on my knees that I don't have to go back after today. I will pretend I'm Werner Herzog on the phone today. "I have a monumental, ecstatic opportunity for you today, Mr. Lopez. How would you like to reduce your rate on your mortgage?"

Speaking of which, there's a pretty good article about Werner Herzog in April 24th Issue of The New Yorker. I find its lack of pure reverence mildly offensive, but the additional knowledge that I gained from it offset its blasphemy.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

The Post-Spin Zone

Another frum cursor.

Quick, Cheap, and Hardworking

North Korean Slaves in Russia.

I've been reading this:

It was written after bombing Afghanistan but before Iraq 2. Most of it I knew already, but it lays it out very clearly; much more so than a Noam Chomsky. It probes the root of our present Imperial situation in the US and UK's role in 1960's Indonesia, and works neatly through Vietnam, and then rolls on through the CIA's creation of Saddamn's Regime in the 70's to 1991 when he had the gall to defy our Bushocracy. I haven't finished it yet, but I will very soon. Go find it and read it. (THOD is saying, DUHHHH! Oh, snap, I forgot to do that favor for you; I promise I'll do it tomorrow.)

My new hero

George Williams.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

A cruise towards proper nutrition

I'm not providing the link. Just google cruise and placenta.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Tomorrow I go back to work



So I won't have so much time on my hands. Look at this. And THIS I DON'T get at all!

Also note, that there's a little action on the group blog, The Ghost of Sebastian Shaw.


And then, there's my band. Set to hit NY in a year. Who's on board?

Sudden paranoia

About myspace and google.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Search for the perfect hat: Forget the Astrahkan

Man, Hamid Karzai's "karukul:" it's made out of a sheep fetus, dude.

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Hamid Karzai's Famous Hat Made From Aborted Lamb Fetuses
Wednesday, April 24, 2002


STORIES

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KABUL, Afghanistan — It's the rage in Kabul and is getting attention in Milan and Paris, but the ultra-chic hat made famous by Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has a rather unpalatable origin -- it's made using the downy fur of aborted lamb fetuses.

The karacul hat, a football-shaped, fez-like construct with ripply baby-soft fur, has been popping up everywhere in Afghanistan's capital since Karzai was appointed interim prime minister after the fall of the Taliban, as Afghans have sought to emulate the man charged with pulling their battered country out of decades of war.

"Since the change in government, many people are coming and buying karacul hats," said Aji Ali Mohammed, who has run a karacul shop for 40 years in a bustling bazaar next to the Kabul River, now dried up after four years of drought. "Business is getting better every day."

He says he's even sold two hats to Karzai.

"We chose the best pelts and we worked as hard as we could to make the best quality hat for him," the 57-year-old Mohammed said.

Afghans aren't the only ones taking a look at the fashionable headgear.

(Story continues below)

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At Milan fashion week in January, Gucci's Tom Ford dubbed Karzai "the chicest man on the planet" saying the karacul hat and flowing capes the Afghan leader wears give him a winning look that is "very elegant and very proud."

Silvia Venturini Fendi, head of styling for the Italian fashion house famous for its furs added: "I like President Karzai's fur fez because it is an intrinsic element of his way of dressing. He always wears it with great nonchalance and elegance. It's clear that, more than his way of dressing, it's part of his way of being."

The hat is expensive for ordinary Afghans, costing up to $35 for a really good one. That is more than a month's salary for many in this war-ravaged nation, and 10-20 times as much as simpler headgear like a turban. But despite the cost, the hats are omnipresent in the capital, a particular favorite among middle-aged men like Karzai.

It's a remarkable comeback for a chapeau that went out of style during the Taliban regime, which preferred black turbans or simple white skullcap to the more regal looking karacul.

"During the Taliban we sold only one hat a month, usually to an Afghan living abroad, but now we are moving about 50 every week," said Abdul Waseh, 52, another karacul shop owner.

Though the hats are unmistakably dashing, the method of their production is a bit stomach-turning. Shepherds in northern Afghanistan slaughter the mother and then remove the fetus, whose downy fur is incredibly smooth because it has never been exposed to the air or sun. Sometimes shepherds wait for the ewe to give birth before killing the lamb.

Each lamb is so small its entire pelt is needed to produce one hat -- and many pelts are needed to make the waist-length karacul coats.

"The best quality hats are made with the fetuses," said Mohammed, "They are extremely soft and they have a special shine to them ... it is as pure as a precious stone."

Culture and Information Minister Abdurahim Mokhdoom says he recognizes the process may seem brutal to outsiders, but he says they are part of Afghanistan's culture.

"As far back as you look, Afghans have been wearing them," he said, adding a word of advice for the squeamish.

"I would tell them to stop eating beef and lamb and then let's stop killing animals for this too," he said. "If you make one hat you will use it for maybe five years, but if you go and eat steak once a week for one year, how many cows are you eating?"

Karzai, whose easy style and good looks have helped make him one of the world's most recognizable leaders -- says he has several motives for wearing the hats.

"I wear them because they are very, very Afghan," he said at a recent military ceremony in Kabul. "And if it looks good, all the better."
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Sex, Lies and Incompetence

You gotta read this thing:

There will forever be four indelible photographic images of the George W. Bush epoch: an airplane crashing into World Trade Tower number two; Bush in a Florida classroom reading from a book about a goat while a group of second-graders continued to captivate him for another seven minutes after Andrew Card had whispered to the president, "America is under attack"; floodwaters inundating New Orleans, and its residents clinging to rooftops for their lives; and, two days after the hurricane struck, Bush peeking out the window of Air Force One to inspect the devastation from a safe altitude. The aftermath of the hurricane's direct hit, both in terms of the devastation and the astonishing neglect and incompetence from the top down, would appear to be unique in American history.


Civilization provides us with plenty of images as it's flushed down the tubes.

Hey kids! Is it Art? Is it dead bodies? It's both!

{{{{{{I just ran across this. While I'm on the subject, here are some links and a few comments about the Body Worlds Exhibit that's in Denver right now--I put together this post a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to do more research, but it's all I can do right now.:}}}}}}


Brought to you by Dr. Gunther von Hagen.

I went and saw this exhibit. I'm still formulating my reaction to it. I'm trying to separate the gross-out factor from the exploitation factor.

But I have to say there's something sick about letting kids see flayed plastinated bodies of other kids. Here is a summary of legal accusations from wikipedia:


Von Hagens has a guest professorship from Dalian Medical University and a honorary professorship from Bishkek State Medical Academy. In publications, he often uses the title "Professor". In 2003, the University of Heidelberg initiated legal action against him, claiming that he had misrepresented himself as a professor from a German university in a Chinese document, and that he had failed to state the foreign origin of his title in Germany. After a trial, he received a fine in March 2004. On April 25, 2005, a Heidelberg court sentenced him to a fine of 108,000 euros (equivalent to a prison term of 90 days at the daily income assessed by the court) for one count of using an academic title that he was not entitled to, but acquitted him on four other counts.

In 2003, an animal rights organization filed a complaint alleging that von Hagens did not have proper papers about a gorilla he had plastinated. He had received the cadaver from the Hanover Zoo, where the animal had died. German authorities demanded the removal of the gorilla during the 2004 exhibition in Frankfurt, but von Hagens prevailed in court and the animal was restored.

Hamburg prosecutors investigated charges of disturbing the dead, based on his photographing plastinated corpses late at night all over Hamburg.

There were legal proceedings against von Hagens in Siberia regarding a shipment of 56 corpses to Heidelberg.

In October 2003, a parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan investigated accusations that von Hagens had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric institutions and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, some without prior notification of the families. Von Hagens himself testified at the meeting; he said he had received nine corpses from Kyrgyzstan hospitals, none had been used for the Body Worlds exhibition, and that he was not involved with nor responsible for the notification of families.

In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired some corpses from executed prisoners in China; he countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies and went on to cremate several of the disputed cadavers. German prosecutors declined to press charges, and Von Hagens was granted an interim injunction against Der Spiegel in March 2005, preventing the magazine from claiming that Body Worlds contain the bodies of executed prisoners.

In February 2004, the German Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed earlier reports by the German TV station ARD that von Hagens had offered a one-time payment and a life-long pension to Alexander Sizonenko if he would agree to have his body transferred to the Institute of Plastination after his death. Sizonenko, reported to be the world's tallest man at 2.48 m, formerly played basketball for the Soviet Union and is now plagued by numerous health problems. He declined the offer.

Anger directed at Hitler and his cronies

I'm fed up with Hitler. Would somebody kill that guy? He's a motherfucker. Look, he's in Iran. Look, he's in the Whitehouse. Look, he's on the Supreme Court. Look, he's a state senator. Look, he's Charles Lindbergh. Look, he's the Turkish Government. Look, he's Kenneth Lay. Look, he's WalMart. Look, he's Osama bin Laden. Look, he's Ariel Sharon. Look, he's Arafat. Look, he's Stalin. Look, he's on the TV. Look he's in the history books. And Goebbels. Look, he's Bill O'Reilly. Look, he's Noam Chomsky. Look, he's Rush Limbaugh. Look, he's Michael Moore. And Eichman. He's the people who died in the twin towers. He's William Safire. He's Paul Krugman. And the holocaust happens everyday because of theses guys. It's happening in Bagdad, it's happening in the South Bronx, it's happening all over Africa, in Nepal, in the 21st century, and don't forget the holocaust of the 20th century, The Holocaust, you know, the one in central Europe? And the one by JFK and Nixon and Kissinger and the French and the British Empire and the Holy Roman Empire and Nero and Caesar and King Solomon and Gary Gygax and George Lucas and Mussolini and Philip Larkin and Hitler in the same breath. I can't believe people aren't outraged about this! Let's get rid of this guy!!!

UPDATE: Add Chavez. Don "Hitler was elected" Rumsfeld. Yeah, and GW was too?!!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Bomb stuff


Media bomb. Whiskey bomb. Bob bomb.

Friday, April 14, 2006

That crazy "new" jazz.

Philip Larkin, despite his literary talents, gets on my shit list.

Perhaps he would prefer some Frank Zappa.

UPDATE: Larkin died two decades ago. He's still on the list. He was apparently a rightwing bigot as well.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Corruption

Like moving to the Louvre to the Versailles. Nice analogy.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Correction


The brand new spankin' baby is not mine.

My new favorite blog

Lenin's tomb.

Double Wow

Just got back from the hospital. I'm dead tired, but I thought I'd preserve this moment. I'm truly nonplussed. My definition of nonplussed would be the condition of a person being fazed, when that person normally considered him or herself as unfazeable. I know I'm not unfazeable. But I try to act like it. And I was definitely fazed. Tonight, at 11:20pm my sister-in-law gave birth to my brand-spankin' new baby, Meyer Edward Power Jackson. The nonplussed component of the experience arrived the moment I saw my brother brushing his fingers lightly across the arm of his son; this moment I witnessed from behind glass, as he was in the nursery; the baby's eyes glistened and opened and father and son saw one another. Or at least, father saw son, and son saw something. I don't know what newborns can see, if anything at all. But, nonetheless, its first antediluvian impressions were being formed. Then the baby was carted to its mother. And after the grandmothers, a grandfather, the mother and the father, I, the uncle, was allowed to hold it. I looked at it, and I told it, "You and me, Meyer, are gonna cause a lot of trouble." And I swear that as I said his name--this lump of proto-human--he looked squarely right back into my eyes.

So, congratulations, Drew and Amelia. I am so very glad that I moved back to Colorado, just for these moments. To be an uncle. For family's sake.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Wow

JC's got a new site. Done by Gina the Genius.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Tom Tancredo is the shame of Colorado

I can say that about our homegrown David Duke now that I live here. Read this Orcinus post.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Meltdown Expected

Still Dangerous: Long live The Clash!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Not civil war, OCCUPATION

Read this about Iraq.

Then, if feel like getting more sad, read about the brand spankin' new wall in my spiritual homeland at Jews Sans Frontiers.

story I wrote on litchaos

Under my new nomme de plume!

Saturday, April 01, 2006