Balls and Walnuts
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Category Archives: Political rants
The hand that feeds
This is an old story from last May, but since some of you aren’t Trent Reznor fans, you may have missed it.
Trent’s band, Nine Inch Nails, had a spot on the MTV Movie Awards. They wanted Trent to perform The Hand that Feeds, the lead single from his new album, With Teeth.
Trent asked that a photo of George W. Bush be used as a backdrop for his performance.
Well, maybe not that photo. In fact, Trent has stated that the photo would have been “unaltered and straightforward”. I like the George-flipping-bird photo because it reminds us all what an uncouth jackass the man is.
Anyway, MTV refused to let NIN do this, saying it would politicize the Awards. Trent, stand-up guy that he is, pulled out of the festivities. Read more about this here.
Why did Trent want George’s mug as a backdrop? Oh, maybe because the song is all about Dubya. Here’s a bit of lyrics, and you can find the whole song here.
You’re keeping in step
In the line
Got your chin held high and you feel just fine
Because you do
What you’re told
But inside your heart it is black and it’s hollow and it’s coldJust how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?What if this whole crusade’s
A charade
And behind it all there’s a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine
Chorus.
D.
Blacks in America are Just a Tad Paranoid
“It didn’t really matter if these people were uncomfortable. It didn’t really matter if they were starving. It probably wouldn’t have really mattered a whole lot if a lot of ’em had died for one reason or another. They were gonna keep their laborers and that’s just ruthless contempt for human beings.” *
Where is this from? The speaker is talking about thousands of poor blacks who were surrounded by floodwaters from a broken levee. A few white people were stranded with them. Transportation was available with room to evacuate all the flood victims but only the whites were taken to safety. The blacks were left behind without food, water or shelter. Eventually they were put in refugee camps patrolled by the armed National Guardsmen. A Republican in charge of federal government relief efforts engaged in a coverup of the refugee scandal.
Quick AM followup to that last story
If you trust the New York Times, AP really did misreport the story on the first release. The police didn’t kill any of the Army contractors:
The convoy, which included officials from the Army Corps of Engineers and was being escorted by a group of police officers on an anti-looting detail, was crossing the Danziger Bridge, 10 miles northeast of the French Quarter, when the shots were fired.
W. J. Riley, the assistant superintendent of police in New Orleans, said a gunfight ensued between the police and a group of six men.
“All our officers said the assailants all had guns,” Mr. Riley said. Later, he said all the assailants were “neighborhood thugs.”
“Five of the subjects were shot,” he said. “Two were killed, three were wounded.” The sixth gunman was arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but none of the gunmen were identified.
Okay, that’s it for the news. Not even 8 AM and, thanks to Kate’s link to this story about Americans not holding Boosh accountable, I’m already depressed.
Back to creating funny business.
D.
Can it get much worse?
The army corps of engineers says the five or six people shot dead by police in New Orleans were contractors on their way to repair a canal.
I’m not sure why this is showing up first in the South African media, but I’ll wager it’s not a hoax.
No, I’m afraid it’s not a hoax. Here’s another link, this one from ABC news.
The story circling the blogiverse is: AP rushed to report the wrong story. Someone was shooting at the contractors; the police fired back, killing five of the shooters; none of the contractors was shot. Here’s the alternate story. Hopefully by tomorrow, we’ll have some sense of the facts.
P.S.: Thanks, Kate, for shouting out my bleached anus story. Personally, I think bleached assholes are a fine metaphor for the flock of ignorant Americans content with The Way Things Are. (Wasn’t that in Babe — “the way things are is the way things are”? And if a pig didn’t buy that logic, why should we? Ah, right. Babe was a smart pig.)
D.
Pucker up, pale face
So Lara Flynn Boyle got her anus bleached, and anal bleaching is all the rage in SoCal.
Let’s get back to that. My cortex still sizzles with political indignation over New Orleans, and anal bleaching figures prominently into this picture. First, let’s talk about Faux News, where Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith handed Sean Hannity’s head back to him when he tried to right-spin the disaster relief situation. What does it tell you when Big Brother’s Mouth spits vitriol in Big Brother’s face? (Yes, that is possible, given a stiff head wind. I’d say we have one, wouldn’t you?)
Last night, Karen and I talked about this, and she reminded me of the Wally George Show. George had one of the original right-wing-rage TV programs in the 80s. I think they continued to show reruns on into the 90s. Imagine O’Reilly with even fewer brain cells. George was a hideously ugly, feral subhuman with platinum blond helmut hair and a bile-bag for a brain.
Anyway. One day, he took a break from his usual parade of guests (transvestites, atheists, Planned Parenthood proponents, etc.) to interview a pair of women mud wrestlers. His all-male audience of Orange County cretins went wild. These gals came out in bikinis, oiled up from forehead to big toe, and they dished it back to George with humor and style. George initially did his usual schtick, spewing them with hatred, calling them wicked sluts and whatever else the censors would let him get away with, but they were unflappable. In a matter of minutes, they’d won over the audience. George’s face fell apart. He knew he was licked.
And he joined the other side.
He kidded those two women, did whatever he could to ingratiate himself, all because he couldn’t afford to lose his audience of Deliverance-era sycophants. And that, my friends, is the story at Faux News. What happens when a demagogue loses his audience? He changes his tune. How long before O’Reilly becomes openly critical of Mister Bush?
With the rats at Faux jumping ship, I know the end is near.
Speaking of ends.
Okay, so I can’t claim ownership of that asterisk-as-anus joke. Kurt Vonnegut beat me to it by several decades. Still, man. Still. Some jokes never get stale.
Why are women in Los Angeles getting their anuses bleached for $75 a treatment, and what connection does it have to the State of the Union? What photo-ops are these women expecting? And what other bits of precognition did Monty Python possess? (“Ano-Gum. To keep that OTHER smile white and bright.”)
I pride myself that I can get my head into just about any perversion imaginable. Not share that perversion, mind you, but understand it. And, yes, I can grasp the appeal of a bleached anus. If you’re engaged in sexual practices that require you to look at the blessed starfish, you don’t want to be reminded of its primary function. Dratted brown pigmentation! Isn’t there something you can do about it, doc?
Nevertheless, anal bleaching took me by surprise. I noticed a one-liner mention of it in this month’s Harper’s Magazine. Suspicious of a hoax, I googled ‘anal bleaching’. I invite you all to do the same. Go on, you know you want to. I’ll wait right here.
See? Satisfied?
Even though I can understand this latest thing, I can’t stop wondering what this implies for us as a civilization. Time for another detour.
I heard yesterday that doctors at Charity Hospital in New Orleans are having to decide who lives and who dies at the most fundamental level: apportionment of food and water. Despite what you might think of doctors, we really don’t want that kind of responsibility. My heart goes out to them, and I’ve done little but think (and fume) over their plight.
I also heard yesterday that evacuations were proceeding at New Orleans’ private hospitals, but had stalled for Charity. I’ve looked for recent news, and this report from Tuscaloosa’s WVUA is the best I can do. Admittedly, there may be a wealth of factors and problems here to which I’m not privy. But as best I can tell from this article, “patients, staff and family and guests” have been evacuated from Children’s Hospital and University Hospital, while “Charity Hospital’s evacuation stopped. [President and CEO of Acadian Ambulance Service Inc.’s Richard] Zuschlag said his pilots were afraid to land at the Superdome.”
Will someone please explain this to me? I can’t make heads nor tails from the WVUA article, but the mental picture I’m forming is mighty ugly.
Meanwhile, actresses in Los Angeles are getting their anuses bleached.
This morning, I had a long talk with my nurse anesthetist about this. (Yes, I’m working on a Saturday.) Dee had a great point. What happens when the upper crust of society has everything? Every wrinkle is collagen-injected or botoxed away; every food whim is satisfied; every sexual quirk can be begged for or bought; and we have a theopolitical government that says WE’RE NUMBER ONE militarily, religiously, culturally. (Sorry, Dee. Paraphrasing.) What does it say that we’re getting our anuses bleached at $75 a treatment while folks are dying by the thousands in New Orleans, and much of that suffering was preventable?
It says that our priorities, and our heads, are firmly up our puckered, bleached-white assholes.
D.
Assigning Blame
Forecasters predicted landfall and significant strengthening approximately 3 days in advance. Four out of five computer simulations showed a direct hit on New Orleans and they knew warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico would increase the hurricane to Cat 4 or 5. Given the topography of New Orleans, government agencies have known for decades that a direct hit by a Cat 4+ would swamp the area and possibly kill 40,000. Shortly before landfall, Katrina swerved slightly to the east so the strongest part of the hurricane struck to the east of New Orleans; the devastation could have been even worse.
I do blame the federal government for their inability to respond both prior to and in the aftermath of the hurricane. I simply cannot understand why they didn’t do SOME of the following BEFORE the hurricane hit:
a) Commandeer every single bus in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and use them to evacuate people without cars. On the return trip, bring in supplies to the shelters in New Orleans and other coastal areas for those who aren’t able to leave in time.
b) Set up refugee centers in schools, auditoriums and military bases in areas safe from the hurricane, and bring in supplies and relief workers.
c) Mobilize the national guard from other states.
d) Commandeer supplies from ALL the supermarkets, sporting goods stores, etc. in and around New Orleans and Biloxi, and put them in the Superdome, the convention center and other shelters.
e) Fill up every available container with water. For that matter, fill every bathtub in hotels near the Superdome, and other shelters.
f) Put together a command and control center to be deployed immediately after the hurricane passes. BTW, doesn’t FEMA have the equipment ready to go on whenever a disaster hits? If so, why did it take so long to implement it?
Approximately 25% of New Orleans residents are below the poverty line and 50% of the children live in poverty. I have not seen ANY news reports that the poor were offered the opportunity to leave. Hundreds of buses are evacuating people now; why didn’t they do that before?
As it stands now, the lack of a timely response WILL result in a larger death toll if the news stories are accurate. CNN and MSNBC are reporting that many people in the shelters have gone without water since the hurricane hit, and there are people still trapped in their homes by floodwater. The emergency is going into its 5th day and the refugees aren’t going to survive much longer without food, water and medical attention.
Bush is getting a lot of negative coverage in the media. A lot of the national guard and the Army Corps of Engineers are in Iraq but it’s unknown how that is affecting the relief efforts. Former goverment aid officials are severely criticizing FEMA for bungling the emergency, however. Congress is passing a bill for $10.5 billion for relief efforts but I’m suspicious that the money will be siphoned off to various corporations; I may be overly cynical but the Bush Admin hasn’t shown much integrity in awarding government contracts. In any case, a recent opinion poll shows Bush’s approval ratings on handling the crisis are very negative and gasoline prices are shooting through the roof which is not adding to his popularity.
The bottom line is that federal and state emergency planning and execution was lacking. Even Bush is admitting that the government response has been problematic which is an amazing admission from a man who never admits errors or takes responsibility for anything.
I also posted this comment on Pen and Sword:
Several months ago, the NOAA predicted a heavy hurricane season, currently projected at 20 tropical storms and 10 hurricanes where 6 of them become major hurricanes. There’s a distinct possibility that the gulf states will be hit by more hurricanes before the season ends on Nov. 30th.
Because Steve says it a hell of a lot better than I can
I can’t be funny about the mess this country is in, and I can’t rant about it half as well as Steve Gilliard can.
While you’re at it, check out the masterful coverage Jeff Huber has provided today.
Karen, thank heavens, handles the political thinnin’ around here, so I don’t have to.
If you are in the ever-shrinking minority that thinks Mister Bush is doing a fine job, don’t bother following these links. Just keep your head in the sand.
D.
Aid for New Orleans
If I get started on a rant, I’m going to stroke out. I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut about this because (A) this isn’t a political blog, and (B) I’ve never been very good at expressing political opinions.
I’ll focus on what matters. Here’s where we made our donation:
America’s Second Harvest, the Nation’s Food Bank Network
They promise that 100% of your donation will go to disaster relief efforts. The American Red Cross, of course, is another worthy agency.
At least I’m not alone in my fury. Over at Daily Kos, there’s a pertinent article concerning the President’s approval rating with respect to his handling of the disaster. Guess what: he’s tanking.
Impeachment, anyone?
D.
Lost Languages
Before resuming my brief review of Afghani history, I should make a few comments concerning the Proto-Elamite and Indus Valley civilizations. Both cultures rose to prominence alongside the great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. Afghanistan lay at the crossroads of those cultures’ trading routes.
Although the Proto-Elamite and Indus Valley cultures had significant roles in the development of civilization, relatively little is known about them since their written languages have not been deciphered.
The Proto-Elamite civilization developed one of the first written scripts (3050 BCE). This language is unlike Sumerian cuneiform (3300 BCE) even though the two cultures lived in close proximity. However, it is uncertain whether the Proto-Elamite spoken language was related to Elamite and no bilingual inscription like a Rosetta Stone exists. Currently, two elements are needed to decipher a written language: 1) Knowledge of the spoken language and 2) A sample of text translated into a known language or a substantial number of text samples and knowledge of the underlying culture. More than 1500 texts exist but they seem to be accounting/trade records; the text may not correlate well with the actual language. Proto-Elamite script was used over a far larger area than the kingdom of Elam. Samples have been found as far east as Afghanistan, which clearly indicates that trade extended into that region.
In the case of the Indus Valley civilization writing, even worse problems prevent decipherment. Only very short samples of text exist in the form of carved stone stamps and insignia on pottery and metal objects. For whatever reason, they did not write on walls, tombs or statues, although it is likely they used some type of paper which has not survived the last 3800 or more years. In addition, the spoken language is almost completely unknown. Linguists might be able to work backwards from existing languages to obtain a “source” language but this is only theoretical. There is a great deal of interest in investigating this language since it may shed much information on the development of Indo-European languages.
This lack of information is especially unfortunate since this culture was unique in several respects. Although they controlled an area larger than ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, their rulers did not build huge monuments to their own egos, possibly due to their somewhat more egalitarian society. This may explain why the civilization was not rediscovered by western scientists until 1921. Aristoboulus, an emissary of Alexander the Great, wrote of seeing ruins in 326 BCE, but no other historical record exists.
In any case, they preferred to spend their time engaged in careful city planning, and building advanced drainage and sewage systems, granaries, docks, and harbors for their trading ships. Trade was apparently an important part of their economy and Indus Valley artifacts have been found in ancient Sumerian sites.
I think there is a tendency to judge a “great” civilization by the size of the monuments that it erects. However, if I were the ruler of a nation, I’d build sewage systems to avoid epidemics before bankrupting the country by erecting large and useless pyramids.
T-lady’s keppy hurts
Karen has been having bad migraines the last few days. Migraines that laugh in the face of Imitrex. She’s planning on continuing her Afghani history; next up, Alexander the Great finds out he isn’t well nigh invulnerable.
I’ll use this political platform to say one thing. George Bush needs to get on with his life. Preferably in the crappiest, most water bug-infested nursing home in Mississippi, cuz that’s what he deserves.
Thank you ;o)
Doug