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?!!

Bomb stuff

Media bomb. Whiskey bomb. Bob bomb.

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.

Corruption

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

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.

Wow

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

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.

Meltdown Expected

Still Dangerous: Long live The Clash!

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!

So THAT'S why people buy Hummers.

The American Dream.

To the BBC News:

Maybe they went back in time.

I only read ten percent of this article

but I gather it has something to do with Bryant Gumbel being psychic.

Treehouse of Horror #5

Why, in The Simpsons Halloween Episode #5, does Homer say, with peculiar emphasis, that he's the "first Non-Brazilian to travel through time"? I found this explanation--basically it's a reference to Carlos Castenedes. That might be all we get. My brother has season five on DVD, maybe he can find out on the commentary.

ITMFA

ITMFA.

I like the fact that there's an MFA in IT.

Heat death of the universe

Two related articles via the BBC.

Hamburger A.

Hamburger X.

Hunter-warriors--uh...remember Columbine?

This is almost as bad as the government taking over American Idol and monopolizing the pop industry and putting subliminal messages in the music that tells us to exercise more.

Good poems

by Nina.

Would you marry a turtle?

A BOX turtle, at that?

Scents and Prejucidity

Hey! it's Dan

Hey! how is going? I know I haven't talked to you in awhile. Man, life has been weird lately. I've been listening to my iPod alot. I said a funny joke the other day. I said, you know, I like that I've downloaded a billion different music things off of limewire and I don't really have musical taste anymore. I just listen to whatever is on my iPod. The bands I used to listen to used to be integral to my identity. Like, I would say, "I only listen to Sonic Youth and Wire, everything else is derivative." My brother was around when I said that. It was a joke. But it's kind of true. And it was funny! We laughed! Wire was kinda the Velvet Underground of the 70's (do not dispute this! It's true, trust me.) Sonic Youth was kinda the Velvet Underground of the 80's. And Velvet Underground was the The Velvet Underground of the 60's. But we're sorta beyond that. But what was the Velvet Underground of the 90's? Why, The Beatles of course!

And everybody is linking to this and I want to be somebody so

This. (It's what all the gloating the hawks were doing three (3!!!!!!!)(fucking) YEARS AGO.)

Angry and sloppy links from Atrios

Angry. Sloppy.

154

Everything else is derivative.

The Wild Blue Yonder

The Wild Blue Yonder is a Herzog film that came out last year and, as far as I can figure out, has not been released anywhere--besides festivals. It is reported to be a "mockumentary-drama" about a man who is an alien and comes down to earth. I WANT TO SEE THIS THING. Also, according to the only official and authentic Werner Herzog website (see links to the right), Herzog has finally published the diary he wrote during the making of Fitzcarraldo. Hopefully, someday, it will be translated into English.

Perfection

Perfection. Perfection is a very useful concept.



Somedays I feel like I should change my name to Ruy. Ruy Tarkka.

On the Whole Foods online test: how am I supposed to answer these damn questions?

It is usually your own fault when something goes wrong
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
You don't trust someone who seems too perfect
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree
When someone is rude to you, you get over it quickly
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly agree

Hot, Angry and Sloppy

I should sue this guy. Or change the name of my blog.

Lob

The original "ster."

(Or in this case, crabster. Kiwaida? Come on. It's a crabster.)

Brave New World pt. 2

PharmAmor:

The narrator says, "She may show no symptoms, but in her brain, irrational fear and dislike of global pharmaceutical manufacturers is overwhelming her very peace of mind."

US

Brave New World

1984

Martha

hokej

My friend in Slovakia emailed this to me.

It's about hockey, I guess. Anybody want to interpret this for me?

Nomad

I've arrived in Dnever-never land. I'll have Martha pictures (the nihilist white turkey) soon.

I miss all my New York friends terribly already. I'm in my mother's house. I'm doing my laundry. I don't have access to broadband. But that's probably good. I'd just download free music all day.

I will petition for addresses from the sympathetic, the curious, and the likeminded that I have come across in my travels in an individual email. I'm hoping to learn something from all of this. I think I am. I hope I am not going to learn something I didn't want to learn. Or maybe that's good. I don't know. I'm really at a loss right now. I have to crawl out of this hole and see what I find.