Music To Hear: The Fixx’s “Reach The Beach”

The Fixx’s second album “Reach The Beach” was released on May 15, 1983, forty years ago.

It contained several hit singles: “One Thing Leads To Another” (a condemnation of dishonest politicians), “The Sign Of Fire”, and “Saved By Zero”.  Most people only know SBZ from an annoying TV ad, but the song takes its meaning from buddhism.

Even for those who aren’t buddhists (I’m not, and I suspect near all readers aren’t), I like the concept of “saved by zero”, that when things go wrong and life falls apart, you can always start over (from zero; while you’re still alive, you’re never below that point).  I’ve been feeling it recently.

A side note, in regard to Tina Turner’s death: remember the video for the song, “Better Be Good to Me”?  Cy Curnin (vocalist of The Fixx) is the man on stage with her, whom she sings to.  The guitarist in Turner’s band is Jamie West-Oram, also of The Fixx.  He played on several tracks of Turner’s “Break Every Rule”, which were produced by Rupert Hine, regular producer for The Fixx.

 

For me, the standout track of the album is “Liner”, a song about the Falkland Islands war.  “With colonial attitude, they took the chance for repossession…crossing swords before the dawn”.  Doesn’t that say it all about colonial and imperialist attitudes that “the west” still inflict on the world?

Liner, it was a fantasy sea cruise
It was a bet destined to lose
Across the waves, what was he thinking?

Sea shore, he had a wet foot in the sand
He was holding U.N. plans,
Across the waves. what was he thinking?

All aboard before the storm
They've never seer a place like this before

Island in a forgotten latitude
And with colonial attitude
They took the chance for repossession

Grey skies there were no palm trees in the wind
And when a saint starts hiding sins
It's all aboard whilst peace is sinking

     All aboard before the storm
     Crossing swords before the dawn
     Seen before, back in an infant's dream
     Like a rubber duck, floating in the bath

     So I sailed away on their time, Liner!
     Taking young lives in their prime, Liner!

Harbor, I saw a flag waving goodbye
I saw a soldier's baby cry
"What's it all for?", that's what I'm thinking

Inside, I must be lacking true insight
Because I always sleep at night
Across the waves whilst men are

     All aboard before the storm
     Crossing swords before the dawn
     Seen before back in an infant's dream
     Like a rubber duck, floating in the bath

     So I sailed away on their time, Liner!
     Taking young lives in their prime, Liner!
     Liner! To a distant shore

All Aboard before the storm

TV To See: “V” at forty

Anyone over age 45 will likely remember the miniseries “V”, first broadcast on May 1-2, 1983, forty years ago.

It was a landmark show for multiple reasons, least important of which was the US$13 million budget for a miniseries.  But the quality of the story and special effects paid off in TV audience and ratings, and its social impact.  It was written and directed by Kenneth Johnson, who had several TV scifi credits to his name: “The Bionic Woman”, “The Increddible Hulk”, “Alien Nation”.

The allusions to Nazi Germany were a little heavy handed, and some (then) didn’t buy into the idea of scientists as allegory for jews, but in retrospect, it fit.  The anti-authoritarian message of the show still rings true.

From SciFi Pulse, 2016:

Retro Review: V The Mini Series (1983)

Synopsis: When an alien fleet comes to Earth to ask for our help, a few suspicious humans discover their horrific true intentions and prepare to resist.

Review: Back in 1983 we lived in a different world where pretty much everyone lived in fear of nuclear war or the warring superpowers hitting the big red button. We didn’t have cable or Sky TV in the UK at this time. In fact at that point in the UK we only had four TV channels. One of which Channel 4 only launched in 1982.

With all that in mind. A mini series was a pretty big deal when it hit. And the 70’s and 80’s was a time when they were pretty much all sure fire hits because of their rarity in the schedules. But to have a mini series about an alien invasion back then was rarer still because science fiction on television was considered a big risk.

In ‘V The Mini Series’ you get a science fiction allegory, which tells a story of human resistance to an alien force, which starts off as friendly, but soon is revealed to have a cruel and fiendish agenda.

Calling themselves The Visitors the alien’s ingratiate themselves on the public offering cures for cancer and cultural exchange and educational programs for the youth.

But as we all know. When something is to good to be true. It usually is.

About halfway through the first episode Nobel Prize winning scientists start to go missing and some scientists begin to suspect that the Alien Visitor’s are not as humanoid as they appear to be, but actually reptilian.

It makes you wonder how much this show played into rightwing conspiracy theories about “lizard people”, or if this is where it started.

A Quick Word To Say

Apologies for my nine month absence, a result of personal issues (none legal) and depression due to them.  You never expect your life and everything to fall apart, it just does.

To paraphrase ex-NFL handegg player John Riggins (after his holdout in 1980), I’m better, I’m brighter, I’m back.

Polio Returns: This is what “american exceptionalism” gets you

As I’m sure those paying attention know, there is an outbreak of polio in New York state.

New York polio case is the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ hundreds of others could be infected, health official says

Hundreds could have polio after an adult in the New York City metro area caught the virus and suffered paralysis last month, the state’s top health official said this week.

New York state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett warned that the confirmed polio case in an unvaccinated adult, coupled with the detection of the virus in sewage outside the nation’s largest city, could indicate a bigger outbreak is underway.

“Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,” Bassett said. “Coupled with the latest wastewater findings, the department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread.”

The New York State Department of Health issued a bulletin (Urging Immunization, State Department of Health Updates New Yorkers On Polio Detected In New York State) on the need to get vaccinated.

The question is, if polio was “eradicated” in the US, how did it get into the country? According to the US’s CDC website (New Vaccination Criteria for U.S. Immigration), foreigners entering the US are required (with proof) to be vaccinated against these diseases:

  • Mumps
  • Measles
  • Rubella
  • Polio
  • Tetanus and diphtheria
  • Pertussis
  • Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib)
  • Hepatitis A
  • Hepatitis B
  • Rotavirus
  • Meningococcal disease
  • Varicella
  • Pneumococcal disease
  • Seasonal influenza

The US’s CDC “recommends” americans get a polio vaccine before travelling abroad, but the page does not say it is required unless the destination country requires it.  And is it even enforced?  I’m absolutely not an expert, but I’d say it’s possible or even likely that an unvaccinated US citizen travelling abroad contracted it and brought it back to the US.  If that’s the case, then that means if americans were vaccinated, this wouldn’t have happened.

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Birthing Pains: Childree Day is August 1st

Yes, I’m late to the party.  Life got in the way.

August 1st is International Childfree Day.  It was started in 1973 by the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood, which recognized that having kids is an option, not an obligation and that birthing people who have the capability don’t have to capitulate.  As you might suspect, Childfree people are very much on the side of bodily autonomy and birth control like legal abortion.

The strongest opposition to the Childfree movement and lifestyle has usually come from religion. They depend on brainwashing of adults to have kids and increase numbers of cult members.  Not only for the $$$ on the plate and future sucker “donors”), but also proselytizing and outnumbering the competition.

Another opponent of the right to be Childfree are “traditionalists” and sexists, those who want “only two genders!” and specific roles.  It’s “families” demanding grandchildren, cousins, nieces, and nephews while they contribute nothing to the upbringing or upkeep of having kids.  Guilt, control, and narcissism are a big part of this, as is “I suffered, so you have to suffer too!”

Corporatists and capitalists have become just as loud in recent years as they realize that fewer “consumers” mean smaller profits, fewer workers mean they can demand higher wages, and the ponzi scheme of pensions has no contributors to pay the previous generation.  And yet capitalists are doing exactly the things that make young people choose to be Childfree: they pay low wages, and there is no health care (or it’s overpriced).  Life is barely affordable or unaffordable for a single person.  How can people afford a kid on top of that?

Contrary to those three groups’ propaganda, being Childfree is NOT “selfish”; rather, selfish is having kids you can’t afford to feed and house.  Being Childfree is NOT “laziness”; a person who chooses never to breed has put a LOT of thought into it.  Being Childfree is NOT “immature”, an insult hurled by those who want 10 year old girls to give birth.  And being Childfree does NOT “destroy the fabric of society”; overpopulation is destroying the environment, and every fewer consumer of resources makes environmental collapse less likely.

Being Childfree is a carefully thought out decision made by people who have thoroughly considered the personal, economic, social, and environmental burdens of having a child.  Below the fold, a collection of studies, articles and references on the subject.

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When Bad Memories Return: Parish, The Thought

TW: Murder, sexual assault

An unrelated news item reminded me of where I used to live, and why I wouldn’t want to live there ever again.  And that was before the United Nations criminal gang and Renegades motorcycle gang (affiliated with the Hell’s Angels) took over the city.

I’ve talked before about the Highway of Tears, a 700km stretch of Highway 16 west of Prince George out to the coast.  The RCMP’s (*) “official” number of women murdered along that highway is over seventy, about 20 in the last 20 years.  First Nations groups claim the actual number of murdered women to be over a hundred.

(* RCMP: Racist Corrupt Misogynistic Pricks)

It was on August 16, 1982 that Nina Marie Joseph’s body was found in Freeman Park.  She was the third known victim (there were possibly others) of convicted serial killer Edward Dennis Isaac.  He was sentenced to life in prison. The killer’s first two victims went missing and died in fall of 1981, Jean Mary Kovacs (October) and Roswitha Fuchsbichler (November).  There are three serial killers currently serving life sentences, but there may be more.

I was fourteen when I moved there in June 1981.  Freeman Park was less than a kilometre from the house where I lived.

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Time To Backtrack: “God’s Bullies” at 40

Perry Deane Young (March 27, 1941 – January 1, 2019) was an author and a playwright.  He wrote several books of note such as Two Of The Missing (1975), about two journalists lost during the Vietnam occupation; The David Kopay Story (1977); and God’s Bullies: Power, Politics and Religious Tyranny (1982), an expose on the rise and entwining of fundamentalist christianity and republican politics.  Young was openly gay in the 1970s also wrote Lesbians and Gays and Sports (1994) along with the Kopay book.  Too bad he didn’t (or why didn’t he?) write about Trans people in sports.

God’s Bullies is worth a read (or re-reading for those who already have) and can be found on the Internet Archive’s Open Library.  It’s an expose on the hypocrisy, the creation of “wedge issues”, distractions, the violation of cult and state and cultist interference in politics without any consequences (despite being illegal), the greed, the fanaticism and their goals.  If you compare the subjects of Young’s book then and the far right now, the only difference is TPTB used to be closeted homosexuals, while today they’re pro-rape and pro-child abuse heterosexuals.

This review of Young’s book is irreverant but accurate, taking as much glee in talking about Young’s book as Young did in writing it.  But the REALLY juicy part is that Young was spot on with every accusation, as the links that follow prove:

Perry Deane Young says that the leadership of the Moral Majority and the New Right is made up of liars, bunko artists, closet queens and fanatical Roman Catholics. His proofs are sometimes sketchy and his tactics are often low, so God’s Bullies is a lot of fun to read.

Young is a Washington-based journalist writing for all the majors. He’s also a progressive, a homosexual, and a born southerner who has rejected his bible-thumping heritage. In short, he couldn’t be any more of an embodiment of everything the Moral Majority stands against if he were making pornographic abortion films for the Red Chinese.

It stands to reason that Young takes the Moral Majority personally. God’s Bullies is not so much an expose as a personal crusade. Fighting fire with fire and brimstone with brimstone, Young uses innuendo, libellous slander, unsubstantiated rumour and ad hominem jokes in his attack. Not exactly unbiased journalism, but deliciously smarmy.

While it woud be unsporting to give away all of Young’s secrets here, a few examples are in order. Just to whet your appetite.

For example, Young says NCPAC’s Terry Dolan is a closet queen. He says he knows because they have a mutual friend. He also claims that “at least ten prominent republicans” party all the time with his gay Washington friends, and that the New Right is riddled with financial backers and strategists grouped into clubs like the RPQs (Rich & Powerful Queens) and the TRF (Thirteen Richest Fairies). He also faithfully reproduces the best of the Bob Bauman jokes (born on the Eastern Shore, reared in Washington, head of the Oral Majority). Young doesn’t care that they’re gay, but he hates them for being hypocritical about it.

Jerry Falwell, Young claims, is guilty of tax fraud. He says he knows because he was shown land records in Falwell’s hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, proving that Falwell is developing millions of dollars of commercial property as tax-exempt church or school property.

While the leadership in the Moral Majority is mostly Southern Baptist, Young says, the real power behind the heavenly throne is all fanatical roman catholics. Their religion has turned them into mindless naysayers who abhor traditional american values of free thought and speech. Phyllis Schlafly and Terry Dolan are just the tip of the papist iceberg.

Much, much more below the fold.

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Is This Where Toxic Masculinity Began?: “Deliverance” at 50

The film “Deliverance” was released on July 30, 1972, and was both a critical and commercial success, earning US$46 million at the box office (US$326 million in 2022 dollars).  There are many news items talking about the film’s anniversary.

Pop Culturista: A Look Back at Deliverance on Its 50th Anniversary

ABC: 50th anniversary: Infamous ‘Deliverance’ actor and NC native reflects on 1972 classic

The Guardian: Deliverance at 50: a violent battle between urban and rural America

But along with being a success both there and in award nominations, it also became infamous, a “meme” filled movie decades before memes existed.  And an example of how toxic and violent masculinity has become.  The four lead actors were the targets of violence in the movie, but in today’s society, they would as likely have been the set up as the perpetrators.  The support and emotions shown by the other characters to Ned Beatty’s character Bobby Trippe would today likely be mockery for his “weakness”, for “allowing himself to be bottomed”.

Ultimate Classic Rock (not a site where one thinks first about movies) has a very astute dissection of the film’s tropes, its characters and what it says about society then and now.  Even today, there are those who will laugh or smirk upon hearing “squeal like a pig”.  They may not know nor have ever seen the film, but they laugh at the thought that “being the rapist is better than being raped”.

No.  What’s better is that rape doesn’t happen, something toxic male “culture” seem unwilling to grasp.  Because it wants to be the perpetrator, to demonstrate dominance.

UCR: 50 Years Ago: ‘Deliverance’ Puts Masculinity Through a Trial by Terror

In 1989, actor Ned Beatty penned a brief, pithy opinion piece for The New York Times titled “Suppose Men Feared Rape.” In it, Beatty referenced the decades of catcalls he’d received since filming his infamous rape scene in 1972’s Deliverance, explaining that all those (invariably male) yahoos shouting, “Squeal like a pig!” are telling on themselves. Said Beatty (who proclaimed a penchant for brutal honesty in such situations): “Somewhere between their shouts and my threats lies a kernel of truth about how men feel about rape. My guess is we want to be distanced from it. Our last choice would be to identify with the victim.”

Deliverance was Beatty’s first film; both he and costar Ronny Cox were plucked off of the theatrical stage to support established actors Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds in Boorman’s adaptation of James Dickey’s 1970 novel. In it, four middle-class Atlanta suburbanites follow Reynolds’ survivalist-minded Lewis on a white-water canoeing trip down a rural Georgia river destined to be swamped under by the construction of a hydroelectric dam.

Things go wrong once Voight’s pipe-smoking Ed and Beatty’s portly insurance agent Bobby find themselves at the mercy of two backwoods types (character actor Bill McKinney and nonprofessional former stunt-show performer Herbert “Cowboy” Coward) who, in a legendarily visceral scene, rape Bobby before the late-arriving Lewis kills one with a ready bow and arrow. (Ed, strapped by the neck to a tree with his belt, is forced to watch helplessly, just as viewers are.) A drawn-out and terrifying scene on its own, Bobby’s rape kicks off the second half of the film, where Dickey’s overheated debate on the nature of masculine virtue versus emasculating society sees Lewis convince his companions to hide the attacker’s body rather than submit themselves to the scrutiny of the legal system. Trying to sway the uncertain Ed and Cox’s rigidly objecting Drew, Lewis explicitly dangles the public shame Bobby would endure in any investigation, with the shell-shocked Bobby eventually relenting. “I don’t want this getting around,” Bobby mumbles.

[. . .]

Deliverance’s legacy, despite Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, rests firmly on its central scene of sexual violence. As Beatty suggested, the resulting flood of jeering and catchphrases (the second rapist’s taunt that Voight has “a real purty mouth” as ubiquitous as McKinnon’s pig line) says a lot more about masculinity than either Dickey or Boorman’s adventure cliches or speechifying. (For those claiming that homosexuality is at the film’s heart of darkness, one can only shudder at the thought of four women canoers being confronted in those woods.) As the film terrifyingly demonstrates (and Beatty’s later piece repeats), rape is about toxic, predatory maleness. It’s telling that only Drew, the one member of the party staunchly against Lewis’ plan to hide the body, can bring himself to comfort the shattered and still-naked Bobby, even putting his arm around him where he lies, streaked with mud and tears. “He was the best of us,” Ed intones as he and Bobby reluctantly tie stones to Drew’s body and continue their agreed-upon coverup.

 

 

Another film that recently passed its 35th anniversary is RoboCop, which was released on July 17, 1987.  It portrayed a distopian world of neoliberalism where corporations controlled cities and governments, where “news” was vapid infotainment, cities full of people more concerned about survival than solving underlying problems where oversized gas guzzling cars were “desirable” (compare the SUX 2000 with any SUV today).  What was displayed as cartoon mockery and excess ended up being a perfect mirror to the rightwing nightmare of today.

Yes, it’s another link to Ultimate Classic Rock.  Sue me.

35 Years Ago: Dead or Alive, You’re Coming With RoboCop

Set in a near-future dystopia where the Omni Consumer Products corporation owns the entire city of Detroit, it’s the story of street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), brutally murdered in the course of his duty, who’s resuscitated by the corporation and rebuilt as a cyborg officer, described as “the future of law enforcement.” Thus the name “RoboCop,” created by a marketing exec to be consumer-friendly.

But of course it’s not that simple. OCP owns the police department but also the criminal gang which runs the underworld, led by Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith), who’d killed Murphy. As parts of his memory filter through his three-directive programming, RoboCop discovers how corrupt the city is, and also that OCP installed a fourth, secret directive, which prevents him from acting against the corporation.

[. . .]

The context was everything. If the violent scenes were so extreme as to be funny, so too was the social commentary in the script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The dangers of neoliberalism running wild are illustrated in OCP’s ability to take over en entire city, including its police, while a hapless mayor tries to persuade an uncaring electorate to think about what’s right for the future rather than embracing tax breaks and consumer benefits. Newsreaders making free political commentary during reports, fudging the space between facts and truth for political ends, is now a world standard. While laughing, the audience are invited to consider that, if the worst of humanity is the worst of us all, how bad are we allowing ourselves to become?

 

To Air Is Human; To Forgive, Divine: The Max Headroom hack of 1987

Nostalgia Nerd (a youtube channel, about retro tech and events) just released a video on the “Max Headroom” hack of November 1987, when the broadcasts of two Chigago TV stations (WGN, and PBS affiliate WTTW) were interrupted by an illicit signal on the same night.  Thirthy five years after the fact, the perpetrators has never been identified nor come forward to take credit for the intrusion despite the statute of limitations long having expired.

 

 

NN also mentions the “Captain Midnight” broadcast of April 1986, when HBO’s broadcast signal was interrupted for four minutes.  Unlike the “Max Headroom” interruption for which the motives have never been fully explained, the Captain Midnight” broadcast has.  More below.

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I Beg To Differ: Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine at 200

Charles Babbage wrote a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society on June 14, 1822, announcing the Difference Engine.  It was the first mechanical calculator and precursor to the computer.  While Babbage failed to produce both the Analytical Engine and Difference Engine that he had designed, it was not failure in himself but failure in the technology of the day (think “Back To The Future III” and that huge box of vacuum tubes on the front of the Delorean).

This picture is from the Science Museum of London:

 

From Bits & Chips:

The man who invented the computer but never built one

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was a man of many interests. He achieved notable results in cryptography, invented the cow-catcher for trains and engaged himself in public campaigns against nuisances, including the dangerous practice of boys running their iron hoops underneath horses. Today, he’s most famous for his pioneering efforts in computing. Like Alan Turing, Babbage invented the computer from scratch but never managed to build one. And also like Turing, his intellectual tour de force was only truly recognized after his death.

Over his lifetime, Babbage envisioned several mechanical calculating machines he called engines. The first one, the Difference Engine, was designed to solve polynomial equations using the mathematical technique of finite differences. This method reduces multiplication and division to addition, which is much easier to implement with the rods, gears, levers and linkages that were at the disposal of the Victorian-era gentleman-engineer. Two hundred years ago this week, Babbage presented his first paper on the Difference Engine to the Royal Astronomical Society, kicking off a visionary if troublesome pursuit that inspires awe even today.

There are other articles on Babbage and his invention:

i-programmer.info: 200 Years Ago Charles Babbage Proposed His Difference Engine

Spectrum.ieee: Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine Turns 200; Error-riddled astronomical tables inspired the first computer—and the first vaporware

History Extra: Why we should remember the public announcement of the Difference Engine

In 1985, nearing the 200th anniversary of Babbage’s birth, funding was provided to build the Difference Engine according to his designs, and it was completed by 2002.  It worked.  If the quality of parts machining available in the 20th century had been available in the early 19th century, the industrial revolution and world political history (e.g. the use of the DE for artillery measurement and firing) would have been very different.  From the Computer History Museum:

A Modern Sequel

In 1985 the Science Museum in London set out to construct a working Difference Engine No. 2 built faithfully to Babbage’s original designs dating from 1847-9. The project was led by the then Curator of Computing, Doron Swade. The purpose of the project was both to memorialize Babbage’s work in time for 200th anniversary, in 1991, of Babbage’s birth, and at the same time to resolve two nagging questions: could Babbage have built his engine, and had he done so, would it have worked?

[. . .]

The completed machine works as Babbage intended. Its 8,000 parts are equally split between the calculating section and the output apparatus. It weighs five tons and measures seven feet high, eleven feet long and is eighteen inches deep at its narrowest. As a static object it is a sight to behold – a sumptuous piece of engineering sculpture. In operation it is an arresting spectacle.

 

 

Exceptionally Repugnant, I’d Say: Three years is a light sentence for a double murder

Ridge Alkonis is a member of US military.  He killed two innocent people in 2021, falling asleep at the wheel.  His pathetic “defence” in court was “acute mountain sickness”, as if elevation changes from a mountain hike could cause it.  In a rare case of justice, he was convicted in a Japanese court, but sentenced to only three years in prison.

Naturally, the US military, government, and media see this as an “injustice” and the lives of Japanese citizens dispensible and unimportant.  From “stars and stripes”:

Navy officer reports to Japanese prison as US lawmakers pledge support for his release

Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis, convicted of causing the deaths of two Japanese citizens last year, reported to a Japanese prison on Monday after U.S politicians voiced disappointment with Japan’s handling of his case. 

Alkonis, 34, of Claremont, Calif., was sentenced in October in Shizuoka District Court to three years in prison for negligent driving causing death. The Tokyo High Court rejected his appeal on July 13.

U.S. Naval Forces Japan spokeswoman Cmdr. Katie Cerezo confirmed by phone Tuesday that Alkonis reported to the Tokyo High Court’s Prosecutors Office on Monday and was taken to the Tokyo Detention House for processing. She said he’ll ultimately be placed in Yokosuka Prison, although the timeline for that is unclear, she said.

Alkonis was driving on May 29, 2021, in Shizuoka prefecture, about two hours from Yokosuka, when his car plowed into pedestrians and parked cars outside a soba restaurant in Fujinomiya. Alkonis, his wife and three children were returning from a hike on Mount Fuji.

The most galling part of that item is these paragraphs:

Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., on July 22 said the trial process was unfair to Alkonis and violated the status of forces agreement that outlines the rights and responsibilities of individuals affiliated with the U.S. military in Japan.  Congresswoman Aumua Amata Radewagen, a Republican from Samoa, speaking in the House on July 20, said she was “deeply troubled by Japan’s mistreatment” of Alkonis and called on Biden and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel to act. 

“These abuses are hurting the U.S.-Japan alliance exactly when it needs to be strengthened,” she said. 

On Monday, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, tweeted that the U.S. should consider reevaluating SOFA if “this is how Japan is going to treat U.S. military personnel who have done NOTHING wrong …”

So falling asleep at the wheel, running over and murdering two people is “nothing wrong”?  Is Lee personal friends with Caitlin Jenner or something?  Once again, the laughable and revolting fiction that “the US prosecutes crimes, we don’t commit ’em!”

More below.

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Sometimes, Time Away Is What You Need….

My personal life is a mess, but getting better.

Soooooo many topics I just didn’t have the energy or motivation to write about.

As for the weather and the people, I quote Neil Peart:

“It’s not the heat, it’s the inhumanity”.

 

 

It’s not the heat, it’s the inhumanity
Plugged into the sweat of a summer street
Machine gun images pass
Like malice through the looking glass

The slackjaw gaze of true profanity
Feels more like surrender than defeat
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
If culture is the curse of the thinking class

Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn again, turn again

Feeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never end, never end

The vacant smile of true insanity
Dressed up in the mask of Tragedy
Programmed for the guts and glands
Of idle minds and idle hands

I rest my case, or at least my vanity
Dressed up in the mask of Comedy
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man

Ceiling unlimited
Windows open wide
Look and look again, look again

Feeling unlimited
Eyes on the prize
Changes never end, never end

Winding like an ancient river
The time is now again
Winding like an ancient river
The time is now again
The time is now again

Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn again, turn again

Feeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never end, never end

Hope is like an endless river
The time is now again

Let’s See What Sticks: Just throwing some random thoughts out there

Rather than multiple posts about multiple recent issues, I’m stirring them together to stir the pot.  No long diatribes here, just short snippets:

Re: the cowards of the country in Texas

Are there any examples of cops being “good guys with a gun”?  Because all I see are murderous thugs and cowards.  Just this week, five cops in Kansas City shot and Black woman in the back five times because she ran away from them.

She was pregnant.  She was not a suspect.  She was unarmed.  Why did they shoot her?  She is alive, but I have not heard whether she will have long term health issues or if the foetus is still viable.

“We were afraid of being shot!”  “We’re glad no police officers were hurt.”

THIS has been the response of the clowns in Uvalde?  Gutless guys with guns is more like it.

The media has been criticizing the incompetent and ineffective response of the cops in Texas, but this is not a “Uvalde only” problem.  ALL cops in the US are this cowardly: cowering and hiding in Parkland, Florida; cases of shooting and murdering unarmed people; attacking, beating, tasing the homeless and mentally ill; refusing to enforce Restraining Orders and allowing males to murder women; the 40%ers, beating their partners and children.  Pressure the media to report ALL the cases of cowardly cops using violence against those who are no threat, and running away from anyone who actually was a threat.

One of the incompetents in Uvalde is named Ruben Ruiz.  He was married to Eva Mireles, one of the two teachers who was murdered.  Ruiz sat outside for forty minutes while his wife died.  It makes you wonder if Ruiz is one of the 40%ers.

Also of note: The Taiwanese/Americans in California did not have guns, they charged the shooter in their church and disarmed him.  And the people who stopped the mass murderer in the attack on a New Zealand mosque were unarmed too.  It looks to me as if the good guys are the ones who care about and protect other people’s lives, even at the risk of their own.

Final thought: I was impressed by Beto O’Rourke challengine the republiclowns spewing fictions on that stage.  I have to wonder if the one calling O’Rourke a “sick son of a bitch” would be the type to shoot someone like O’Rourke without justification if there were no witnesses.

Re: Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard

I have had ZERO interest in this case and not paid attention to any sordid details.  I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.  They’re strangers to me, so I don’t care.

What I did notice was how this repeats the media’s misogyny by selective reporting.  Compare this to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, when he was stalking her, or other high profile cases of abuse involving celebrities, or even when they’re nobodies.  When males are reported or spoken of as the aggressors and abusers, excuses are made.  When women like Heard are accused of being the abusers, it sounds like the media is saying “they’re all like that!”

It’s the same thing we see with rape: when women report, they’re attacked, questioned, intimidated and accused of “false reporting” if there isn’t a guilty conviction.  Meanwhile the rare cases of false accusation (e.g. Brian Banks) are portrayed and spoken of as the majority of cases.  It even happens with car driving, whining about “women drivers” when in reality speeding and roadraging is overwhelmingly a male behaviour.  Which goes right back to the Texas mass murder and male violence, but now includes the bigoted and sexist legal system.

 

Re: the church shooting in California

The media has labelled the shooting a “hate crime”.  It’s not.  This was a political, terrorist attack, bordering on assassination.

“Panda” is a CCP euphemism for the ethnic Chinese diaspora around the world.  Just as all the black and white animals belong to China, the CCP also says the ethnic diaspora belongs to China.  The CCP (take note this is the party, not the Chinese people themselves) fosters this mentality to encourage espionage and other activities that benefit the PRC.  The murderer in California was from Taiwan, but he was part of pro-CCP, pro-reunification groups.  He is a “panda” who opposes Taiwan’s independence.

Re: republican indifference to the mass murder of children at public schools

I’m really starting to wonder if they want mass shootings and mass deaths to happen.  They are the ones trying to defund and close public schools, to privatize education.  Is letting kids die one way to justify doing that?