Tom Delay is connecting all the dots; Barack Obama is a Marxist Theologian

I love this intercourse between Tom Delay and Chris Mathews.

As Crooks and Liars quotes:

"He must agree with the Marxist theology of black liberation theology."

"I tagged Barack Obama as a Marxist months ago. [...] He's a Marxist, or a socialist at best."

He claims that Barack Obama is a Black Marxist Theologian.

Ahem. I want to know how Obama can reconcile Marxism with a Creator.

He says Obama is more left than Gore and Kerry combined. How you transmute a quanlity like 'liberalism' into a quantity.

Also, the real Barack Obama is coming out. Although, why he would come out before the election, I don't know. That's some October surprise.

I think Tom Delay was one of those kids who had one of those connect the dots books, and he didn't just connect the dots that made out the outline, but made a big scribbley mess connecting EVERY SINGLE DOT. Come on guys. The consensus seems to be that McCain is losing because the Republicans could never rally around a single narrative. I think they could switch things around if they just say Barack Obama is MC Ren.

But seriously, when the Republicans lose (as Sarah Palin is counting on,) everyone is going to blame McCain. And he has been running a truly incompetent campaign (just think of what he'd do to this country?--it'd be worse than Bush, though Bush set the bar.) I doubt that the Right and the Washington Press Corps will give the credit due to Obama for running a brilliant campaign. As a wanna-be Marxist Theologian (which conflicts with my Jesus wanna-be aspirations, not to mention my Jesus aspirations), I find Obama too conservative for my tastes. I mean, he taught at the law school at the University of Chicago, the most prestigious right-wing law school in the US. But I can certainly appreciate his political aptitude. I think he's brilliant, and if he loses, it will be due to a conspiracy.

SO SAYS I.

It seems that humanity is at a crossroads

It can go either here, or here.

Art in the Universe, Yoko Ono, Remembering Charles Lloyd's words

This may very well be one of the most beautiful things you will ever hear. Or it may sound like Meltmaster was at it in the studio. Is the sun in Bflat? How did the producers of Star Trek know?

But it can it produce music as awsome as what I heard from the Tops Field Fair last week?

What a show! Only one wasn't the orignal member. And the biker dude was teased through out the show. They kept on calling him "Rehab". It's not easy being them. 100 million albums later (according to them) you would think it was!!

An idiot romances the dance.

Why socialism isn't an epithet?

Why are sci-fi people self-hating? (Because most sci-fi is terrible.)

Cursor.org is out of money. Sucks. I used to check it several times a week. I think I even gave them twenty dollars once.

The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon is still awesome.

Wired magazine tells me that blogs have been outmoded. It's been replaced by twitter and facebook. Don't bother starting a blog, says they! For some reason they seem to think the only reason to write a blog is to become famous.

Go Here For a Random Website!

Here is a random paragraph generator. Haven't come up with a good one yet, though. Getting some good ones from the random sentence generator. This settled scientist leans on top of an alleged nuisance. A blurb pretends. Any era wets the kernel. A finer stare betters the directive.

Another random website generator.






Here is the article Naomi Klein references in the NYT.

My MFA is even more worthless now

Robo coffee makers at the Korea Robo World 2008:



Of course they don't got one that teaches English. Yet. But I think I may even fail the Turing test at my online job, so it all evens out.

Freee Million-dollar idea:
Robo bar

Socialism and Public School

Talking with a colleague at work (ok, my only colleague), I stated that I thought that it was taken for granted that public education is a form of socialism. As many people from the states, she didn't seem to want to go so far to say that. Why not? This isn't an isolated thing. If you talk about socialism with lots of Americans, they get nervous. So I'd first thought I'd share with you, via haphazard googling, this snippet of wisdom from someone who is very much against anything socialist. To wit:

Other famous supporters of public education include Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao Zedong, Mussolini, and every other 20th-century dictator, as well as virtually every politician throughout the entire world. It is thus truly amazing that private education has not been almost completely eliminated by now.

And then this telling bit:

Chase asserts, “We live in an age that glorifies the market.” Boy, you sure could have fooled me. If what he says is true, then why do we find that the government is extensively involved in virtually every human activity, including providing pornography to the general public by means of the “romance” novels that are available at public libraries?

I think it is time for people who believe in public education, health care, and political rights start seeing that education IS a form of socialism. Just listen to this libertarian:

I am amazed at how often my online arguments must detour to define socialism for people who vehemently support its principles yet just as vehemently deny that they are socialists. Therefore, to head off confusion, I'll put a working definition up front:

Socialism: "Government mandated social engineering (shaping society or shaping individuals to conform to a societal ideal)."

On the political left, that especially involves economic control up to and including collective ownership and operation of commercial enterprise. If you have a different or better definition, or if you can help me to refine mine, please let me know.

They idea of socialism from this point of view seems abhorrent from the point of view of self-described individualists--who somehow in this ideal free market thrive automatically. But it just seems delusional to think that excising all forms of so-called "collectivism" will cure all of of society's ills. (If I'm allowed to use the word society, that is.) But what I'm concerned about is not this open form of anti-socialism. As far as I'm concerned, if you are an avowed libertarian, more power to you. What I'm concerned about is self-avowed moderates or neo-liberals, or even self-avowed lefties who cannot bring themselves to utter the word "socialism." There is some visceral gut revulsion that seems to pervade all levels of political discourse. I guess partly that's part of the American Individual ideal, the frontier spirit and all that. And then it's been bolstered by neo-liberalism of the Reagan years. These people who read neo-liberal publications like The Economist and the works of Thomas Friedman see the underpinnings of the ideal free-market as a logical extension and improvement over the previous, naive New Deal and Great Society. We are talking about extremes of point-of-views here, but they are somehow reconciled in a strange way in the US. For example, take this statement, by a commenter from this website:

"Boot the Socialist Government out. Vote as if your life depends on it, because it does! I know what lies behind the generous marxist rethoric because I was born and raised in the Socialist Republic of Romania. Everywhere Marxism gets to Power, it brings Poverty, Ruins the Economy and reduces human beings to Slaves. South America, Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe - are all a living testimony for those who think Marxism is a great idea. You cannot be a Marxist and a Christian in the same time. They are pro-aborts and the biggest persecutors of Christian Faith. The daughters of Romania have become the prostitutes of Europe and the Middle East, as a result of Socialism's systematic cultural destruction post WW2. Can you feel my pain ? Vote McCain-Palin and Rebuke an Obamic Marxist today. Freedom requires action."

This is decidedly non-sober and reactionary, but in the US socialism for neo-liberals it is basically the same thing as Marxism. You could try to go into the history of socialism and try to point out that it wasn't Marx who invented socialism. But once you go down that road, most Americans will immediately tune you out. The magic word socialism and its connotations immediately drown out any other opportunities for clear thought. It is a visceral reaction that I've seen countless times.

If you look at homeschooling websites, it appears that the idea that Public Education is Socialism is at the heart of the whole movement.

Some say the socialist sabotage of school in America began centuries ago, long before the America that we know was established. Socialism itself began centuries ago and it is this philosophical and political view that many claim have the heart of America in its sights. Socialism promotes a general education for all, paid for by the government: the opposite of home school ideals. This can be traced back to Karl Marx himself who claimed that abolishing the family was necessary because it was the breeding ground of Christian and capitalist ideals. Without the family, there is no home school.

There's a host of things that this makes me want to scream and rant about, but what I want to ask my fellow liberals, is SEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?!!? Do you support the idea of public school? Do you support the idea of regulation of industry? Regulation of industry means TRANSPARENCY. Public education means equal access to the tools of political empowerment. Public education is the foundation of democracy. No system is perfect, but we shouldn't nip grassroots tools in the bud just because they have the taint of abstract concepts that have been incessantly vilified.

UPDATE:

It's confirmed. School vouchers are socialist too. The commies in Sweden have them. Wait! I'm confused! Wait I'm thinking! Okay, I've stopped thinking. I'm not confused anymore.

UPDATE 2:

Here's a guy who doesn't regret voting democratic in 2004, but has disavowed socialism:

What socialists fail to realize is that if everyone is entitled, nobody is working. If I’m entitled to three “free” meals a day, “free” healthcare, “free” education, “free” housing, “free” daycare and a big screen TV, who the heck is paying for it? It certainly isn’t me, because if I can get everything for “free”, I’ve honestly got no incentive to work. If I didn’t have to earn a living, I wouldn’t. If I didn’t have to pay bills, I’d sit around writing for my blog all day every day. And by golly, if I’m educated enough to know how to write words in a sensible manner, doesn’t that entitle me to get everything for “free”? Of course not! I don’t feel that anyone deserves anything more from society than they put into it. And if I’m not willing to get off my arse and work, I don’t deserve jack. Yes, you heard me–I just said I’m not a socialist. The great thing about my upbringing is that those values that I was taught as a child are very near and dear to me. I may have been led astray, but I’ve returned.

Somehow he survived Missoula--but just barely. He was almost brainwashed into socialism. Of course, he seems to have had access to education as a kid and an opportunity to politically empower himself. Nonetheless, he's against the very system that gave him those tools. If his parents were so libertarian, I wonder why they allowed him to go in the first place? And EVERYBODY knows that FREAKING Missoula is commie-breeding grounds--who let him and his tender young mind go there? Close call!

Anyhow, as I attempt to doff my cloak of sarcastic obfuscation, I'll try to point out that this sort of attitude is the common thread in the fabric of US discourse about socialism. Any sort of socialism is a refutation of the "individual," the independent gains of one are shat upon by the institution of enforced collectivism. Any nod to the need for some sort of collective interest is in effect pissing and shitting all over the face of the worker and his mother and their attempts to get along by their bare knuckles. The public school is a public bathroom, stinking of slapdash applied disinfectants, filth from lazy people; I would rather die trying to get rich than live a life in the waste of the indolent. (So much for losing the sarcasm.)

Sarah Palin as Berklee School of Music Senior Thesis

I wish all TV was like this.

Obama as the Manchurian Candidate

I don't understand how he could be the Manchurian candidate. McCain is the one who was the POW! Of course, in the movie it was Korea, not Vietnam. So there you go.


Still, the Hannity movie is hilarious. (In a scary kind of way.)



UPDATE: Here's the background.

The Amen Break: A Short Doc

It's amazing what's been done with this little scrap of recorded time.

Here's the original:

NWA makes the AMEN angry.

early drum n bass


early dark drum n bass, Ed Rush:


But it's in the dark and in the mellow tunes. Examples abound. How about Oasis with the Amen? Much better!


The Amen break goes in and out of fashion. Around the time of Pendulum, circa 2005, it was coming back. They use it in really fresh ways. (If you're into that sort of thing.)


Venetian Snares, my favorite of the breakcore/idm amen-breakers. Most every song of his seems to have the amen break.


And so on.

Here is a link to some of mine.

Banjo Brain Surgery!!!!

And there's a few funny jokes in the comment sections. To boot.

Castanets and Ero Gray

Ero is famous in my book. He's on metacritic!

City Of Refuge by Castanets
The fourth album for the indie rock band features guest appearances by Jana Hunter, Sufjan Stevens, Dawn Smithson, Scot Tuma, and Ero Gray.

Here's the AMG listing.

The More Massive the Planet

BIG STUFF

We're now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet...

The more massive the ALIEN TRACTORS.

The Stuart Davis Show

Denver-based clones.

Comic Book Characters and their associated religions; VP picks and the third wave

The third wave is always the most trashy:

via this
Check and see who your favorite comic book character worships.

Celebrate today in case we only have the morning to live...

I don't really understand what it is supposed to do. But maybe this will explain it...


Now she makes it seem that they are all in control....however...let's say someone allows a little glitch to occur....who knows:



Or- worse case scenerio:

Great Vaction Ideas..be there or be square

...And another good reason to visit America......All Angry and Sloppy heads it's your duty to fulfill the true purpose of this site and attend this "ceremony"....

Back on the saddle...

It's been a long time Angry and Slopites. After a blackout on rush hour trains, MRIs, echo cardiograms, x-rays, and a brief misdiagnosis of Lyme disease I'm back. No worries, it was only pneumonia - nothing a weeks works of antibiotics couldn't heal- though the after math is another story. the whole experience has taught me that blacking out during rush hour does not bring out the compassion in others as one would think.

Here's what happened: After gaining consciousness and waking up on a seat (I was standing before I fell) I awoke to a bunch of people staring at me, and only after I asked three times "why are you all staring at me like that?" did someone finally speak. A moment later someone yelled, "Can we go now, he looks fine?" I'm glad someone cared...! Was this the government attempting to wipe my mind clean? Do I know too much about the Alien Black Market? Were they behind this incident? And, who was the creature behind me on the train with the green skin? I ask this now because I was left clueless of the incident until two EMT people arrived on the scene and walked me off the train. They were nice people and patient with my confusion. They stuck an oxygen tube in my nose and asked me questions about dates, names and identity. We were also stuck in the elevator due to poor gurney technique and then stuck in rush hour traffic due to improper driving tactics; we should have taken the highway to the hospital. I spent weeks in isolation, tired in contemplation all the while cursing the contagious viral illness that plagued me.

I tell this story as a cautionary tale. Be aware of the trains you pick to sit in. Choose the ones which may contain people who are willing to help, not stare. Look for people wearing scrubs, look for grand mothers looking for someone to tend to, and look for shamans, new agesters, and hippies.

Much has happened in the world in the last month. But the big event has yet to occur. And for those keeping score - September 10th is the date you should recognize. It's the date all answers about who we are may be answered. It's the date of multidimensional universes may be reveled - or at least the steps to such answers will begin....

Welcome to the world of the Harden Collider.

I love the photos of Korea Sarc. And Thod's video of Dennis K.- Awesome!!

And for those willing to pay a small fee- ONLY TEN DOLLARS - willing to explore travelling in time travel this is your site. By investing now they will put your money and invest it. When time travel occurs they will send some one in the future take you there and you will get the ten dollars PLUS all the interest!! WOW, you might have millions waiting for you 500 years from now...They have it all figured out. Anyone up for the challenge? Funny thing is I told a friend about this site three weeks and no one has seen him since. Last thing I heard was that he had borrowed ten dollars from his mother...

As Sun Ra says: Space is the Place.

(Time travel earnings or new economic programs from Obama and McCain..?

Grammar is rubbish

Looky here:

8. How about "none of them is" and "none of them are"? Most people would use the latter whereas the former is correct. "None" is short for "not one" therefore "not one (none) of them is" would be used. Most newsreaders still get it right though - on the BBC anyway!
Emily, Bristol

NOTE: Fowler's Modern English Usage says that "none" is not short for "not one" and although using a singular verb is more common, using a plural verb has also been an acceptable option since the reign of King Alfred.

OHHH thank you King Alfred. Since they were doing it in King Alfred's day then it's okay if WEEEE DOOOO.

UPDATE

Okay, I agree with this one:

11. I find the increasing, incorrect use of "literally" annoying.... "I literally went blue with anger!!" "Really?" I ask.
Ned, Wallingford

'Literally' has literally losts its meaning.

Geek Love

I think I blog about my dreams sometimes, and vice versa. Last night I was at some informal party and Laurie Anderson and Yoko Ono were talking. I sort of edged closer to them and Laurie Anderson was talking about how she got married to Lou Reed because they wanted a family for their kids. I don't know if they have kids in real life, but that's what she said in the dream. Yoko was asking Laurie about being a married artist, and Laurie talked about incorporating Lou in some of her nude video installations. It was weird at first for Lou, she said, but he's gotten used to it. Then I sort of insinuated myself into the conversation as I edged closer and closer to the casually-chatting superstar artists, and I asked Yoko about the old New York days. She said she liked John Cale's work. I asked her if she liked La Monte Young. She laughed and said "Like La Monte Young?" Apparently she thought he was a real asshole, but she liked his work.

Amy Goodman Arrested

Disturbing footage of an authoritarian state in action. I don't know what the exact context of this was...

Update: Here's all the info you need.

I am in the news lag zone, here in Korea.

Dennis Kucinich in Denver. At the Skylark

UPDATE. You're too late. You missed it. We've scrubbed the slop.

Clinton supporters for McCain

Straight-up racists.

Adkins says the group itself didn't support or oppose a specific candidate — the members just wanted to take Obama to task for comments they felt denigrated Christianity. Adkins, who says she's an independent who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, has much stronger feelings about Obama.

"I truly fear an Obama presidency. This guy's so dangerous, who needs al-Qaida?" she told me.

Speaking of which, here's a post about neo-nazi's infiltrating the army. Christ! Effying Tom Tancredo says we should be concerned. I don't know what that means!

McCain and Universal Healthcare

From CNN:

"A health care policy adviser for the McCain campaign told a newspaper reporter that nobody in the United States is technically uninsured, because everyone has access to hospital emergency rooms.

"So I have a solution [to the health care crisis]. And it will cost not one thin dime," John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published Thursday.

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

Hospital emergency rooms cannot technically turn away anyone for financial reasons.

"So instead of producing worthless statistics that people fling around in vacuous editorials and pointless debates, the Census Bureau should produce meaningful numbers, identifying all of the sources of funds people will draw on if they need medical care," said Goodman, who helped write McCain’s health care plan.

That plan would use a combination of tax incentives and market competition to make health care more affordable. It is not a universal health care plan – it does not guarantee insurance coverage for every American.

DNC road blocks

Denver DNC: hope in the police state

I did some wondering around and attended some events. Tent city, which is where groups such as Amnesty International and Iraq War Veterans for Peace are housed are a good 40 minute walk from the Convention Center--a warm walk hidden by highways, hills and vegetation. Yesterday I saw a small protest of about 10 people with only 3 signs on the 16th Street Mall. There were at least 8 police in riot gear with the protesters and 4-5 more across the street. Enjoy the future of hope and change my friends!

I went to an AFL-CIO speech-fest. It was a speech-fest for working families and Obama.

The women's caucus sponsored by Lifetime networks felt like a very corporate Obamarama. I got a free tamborine!!

I attended some Jewish-related events. Many focused on emphasizing over and over again that Obama is Israel's friend in that sort of emotional 'we gotta let Israel do whatever it wants' kind of tone. However, I went to a J-Street event last night, which was encouraging. J-Street is a pro-Israel, pro-peace and one could even say pro-Palestinian lobby group that recently started up and is getting a lot of attention and works with an organization I work with called Brit Tzedek v'Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace). Hurrah!

However, the highlight of the entire week for those who don't know was at the Skylark Lounge (namesake of Kerouac's Denver dive) where I stood for at least 1 hour only 3 feet away from Dennis Kucinich. It was awesome. Video is to come in the next week or so.

A German dude and 70,200 samples

This German artist has made a song using 70,200 samples from 70,200 different sources, and he is trying to get permission to have it played. (Well, he's using it as an excuse to get some attention. But it is attention deserved.)

Ulleungdo, Dokdo Museum

For my 3 day vacation I went to Ulleungdo, an island on the east side of Korea. From Ulleungdo, it is possible to go to the disputed (with Japan) island of Dokdo. It was not possible for me to go to Dokdo. In fact, it was not possible to go back to the mainland because the weather turned bad and the ferry service was cancelled. I went to Ulleungdo on Monday, and I only wanted to stay on Ulleungdo for 1 or 2 days, but there was no return ferry until Friday morning, 5:00 am.

I had a chair, but others had better ideas for the rocky ride to Ulleungdo.

Look how happy Ulleungdo immediately made me. This was before I realized that my minbak had no hot water.










Do you know Dokdo?


Their t-shirts read, in English, "Do you know? Dok-do is a part of Korean territory."


This place will tell you how Dokdo is part of Korea, and not Japan.


This tells you how Dokdo is part of Korea, not Japan.

This map is among many, many maps that show you how Dokdo is part of Korea, not Japan.

This car was parked right outside the Dokdo museum. Hello Kitty is a Japanese cartoon character.


Ulleungdo is land of the squid. Or island of squid, I guess.




I made some friends on Ulleungdo. The blurry guy seated next to me is Lee. He ordered us these gigantic mussels. He told me to eat the hairy part along with the meat. I was drunk, so I obliged.


These concrete breakers posed for me. I think they are in love.

WFMU

It's awesome. Check out this blog entry featuring classic, painful, vintage interviews with Johnny Lydon and John Cassavettes.

I have spoken of my fanship for The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon. It's sort of a This American Life for pallid pseudo-troglodytes. The latest one was quite amusing. It is a podcast I recommend. Someday I hope to be listening live when he does a call-in show so I can call from Korea!

And make sure to check out the 365 project. Erogodyte introduced me to this great resource of novelty records and outsider curios for free download. Here's one of my favorites as of the moment.

Georgia Conflict is

"death and ruin for multitudes who have nothing to do with the violent aggression of corrupt elites on every side." From here.

via cursor.

Meltmaster on the Radio

Little Fyodor's Under the Floorboards keeps on playing my stuff! Here's the playlist. Awesome. Every other Saturday night on KGNU, Boulder.

It is so nice to know that my awful singing has been broadcast to the deepest recesses of space. (Via the tune The Canadian Dollar.)

Here's the link to the podcast feed.

PBR supplant BUD as the great American Beer [sic]

Even though PBR is made in Miller factories, which is owned by a South African company?


Who cares!