Mainstream media have yet to acknowledge the death of Robert Anton Wilson, prolific futurist author and countercultural icon who passed away early yesterday (January 11). He had been suffering from post-polio syndrome. Caregivers read all of his late wife Arlen's poetry to him at his bedside and e-mailed me that "he was quite cheered up by the time we left. He definitely needed to die. His body was turning on him in ways that would not allow him to rest."
On June 19, 2006, Wilson sent this haiku (with one syllable missing) to his electronic cabal:
Well what do you know?
Another day has passed
and I'm still not not.
We originally became friends in 1959, when his first published article graced the cover of my magazine, The Realist. It was titled The Semantics of God, and he presented this suggestion: "The Believer had better face himself and ask squarely: Do I literally believe 'God' has a penis? If the answer is no, then it seems only logical to drop the ridiculous practice of referring to 'God' as 'he.'" Wilson then began writing a regular column, "Negative Thinking."
"In 1964, I ran another front-cover story by him, Timothy Leary and His Psychological H-Bomb, which began: "The future may decide that the two greatest thinkers of the 20th Century were Albert Einstein, who showed how to create atomic fission in the physical world, and Timothy Leary, who showed how to create atomic fission in the psychological world. The latter discovery may be more important than the former; there are some reasons for thinking that it was made necessary by the former....Leary may have shown how our habits of thought can be changed...."
Wilson took that process as his own marching orders, altering the consciousness of countless grateful readers of his 34 books - from Sex, Drugs & Magick to the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy to Everything Is Under Control: An Encyclopedia of Conspiracy Theories - all written with the aid of that good old creative fuel, marijuana. He once told me about his process: "It's rather obsessive-compulsive, I think. I write the first draft straight, then rewrite stoned, then rewrite straight again, then rewrite stoned again, and so on, until I'm absolutely delighted with every sentence, or irate editors start reminding me about deadlines - whichever comes first..."
"Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.
"Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd."
Libya has declared 3 days of mourning over the death of Saddam and Qhaddafi is planning to build a statue of him in the capital.
The Egyptian Journalist's syndicate did a commemoration for Saddam, where he was declared "in rank with the greatest leaders and the national symbols of the Arab nation; those who live eternally in the minds and hearts of the Arab people like Saladdin, Omar Al-Mukhtar and SaadZaghloul. He is one of those who sacrificed for the good of the nation and it's liberty."
Contest of the Week
The Great American Think-Off releases the 2007 question: "Which Should you Trust More - your Head or Heart?"
Are we at war in Iraq today because of an emotional response to 9/11 or because the facts warranted our involvement as a correct course of action? As free thinkers in a free society each decision we make and act upon is weighed carefully between our head and heart. In the past have you made a choice based on one or the other and regretted it? Has your life been saved because you trusted your instinct and not your logic or the reverse? Which then should you trust more? Would you like to be named America's Greatest Thinker? If so let the 2007 Great American Think-Off know your opinion.
Entering the competition is easy. Just submit an essay of 750 words or less by April 1, 2007 (postmarked date). You may send your essay in one of three ways, if through the mail send to New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, P.O. Box 246, New York Mills, MN 56567 or email to nymills@kulcher.org (no attachments) or submit on-line.
Everyone's a Comedian
The following are a sampling of REAL answers received on exams given by the California Department of Transportation's traffic school.
Q: Do you yield when a blind pedestrian is crossing the road? A: What for? He can't see my license plate.
Q: Who has the right of way when four cars approach a four-way stop at the same time? A: The pick up truck with the gun rack and the bumper sticker saying, "Guns don't kill people. I do."
Q: What are the important safety tips to remember when backing your car? A: Always wear a condom.
Q: When driving through fog, what should you use? A: Your car.
Q: How can you reduce the possibility of having an accident? A: Be too shit-faced to find your keys.
Q: What problems would you face if you were arrested for drunk driving? A: I'd probably lose my buzz a lot faster.
Q: What changes would occur in your lifestyle if you could no longer drive lawfully? A: I would be forced to drive unlawfully.
Q: What is the difference between a flashing red traffic light and a flashing yellow traffic light? A: The color.
Q: How do you deal with heavy traffic? A: Heavy psychedelics.
Q: What can you do to help ease a heavy traffic problem? A: Carry loaded weapons.
Q: Why would it be difficult to be a police officer? A: It would be tough to be a dickhead all day long.
"The FBI held the first in a series of workshops for Hollywood screenwriters to help them create a realistic portrayal of the FBI... They focused on the Islamic radicalism that has had the strict attention of FBI and the Department of Homeland Security since September 11, 2001... The FBI then discussed what they do; profiling terrorist organizations, dissecting the hundreds of daily terrorist threats, and what areas in Los Angeles are constant targets for terrorist activity."
"The Wall Street Journal, in a profile of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday, quoted one of his aides saying that part of Maliki's motivation in speeding Saddam to the gallows was that he feared a secret deal sparing Mr. Hussein's life in exchange for a halt to attacks on U.S. troops. Although some reports, and some of my sources, say that precisely that deal was considered by more sensible administration officials - and why not? why not give Saddam a life sentence as part of a ceasefire agreement with the resistance? - it was never a serious option. Indeed, since the very start of the insurgency in late 2003, the United States has repeatedly rejected the idea of peace talks with the main force of the resistance, including Baath party officials, former army and intelligence officers, the clergy tied to the Association of Muslim Scholars and resistance groups like the 1920 Revolution Brigade and the Islamic Army of Iraq. Now, and so utterly predictably, virtually the entire Sunni population of Iraq is likely to line up foursquare behind the insurgents, making it immeasurably more difficult to ease sectarian and communal warfare.
"Now, any chance that Saddam could be used as a bargaining chip to help ease a deal with the insurgents is gone, forever...
"Last week, the army and Marines invaded the compound of a top Iraqi leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the man behind some of Iraq's most feared death squads, to arrest several Iranian diplomats. The still-unexplained incident resulted in the Iraqi government taking control of the seized diplomats - who may, indeed, have been terrorist-inclined spies from Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps - and packing them off to Iran, safely. Incredibly, the assault, involving a raid on the home of the commander of Iraq's Badr Brigade, the 20,000-strong SCIRI militia, came only weeks after the turban-wearing Hakim met Bush in the Oval Office.
"Then, like a matching bookend, on Monday U.S. troops raided and demolished the offices of Saleh al-Mutlaq, whose Iraqi National Dialogue Front is a leading Sunni political party with 11 seats in parliament. Several of Mutlaq's aides and bodyguards were killed, amid nonsensical assertions from U.S. commanders that the offices were an al-Qaeda safe house.
"So, in about a week, the United States managed to conduct ham-handed raids on the offices of two of the biggest Iraqi political parties. In four years, it is hard to imagine anything more stupid and clumsy. Certainly, there is no plan or strategy behind any of this. By the same token, the United States meekly stood by and allowed a Shiite-led band of thugs to conduct the atrocious hanging of Saddam - knowing that it was a shameful process that could only inflame the sectarian divide even more. (And it has. Not only that, but Saddam's grave in his village near Tikrit, deep in the heart of the insurgent's base in the so-called Sunni triangle, is guaranteed to become a shrine and an inspiration to all those Sunnis who are determined to expel the United States from Iraq.)
"Two UK-based academics have devised a way to invent new medicines and get them to market at a fraction of the cost charged by big drug companies, enabling millions in poor countries to be cured of infectious diseases and potentially slashing the NHS drugs bill. Sunil Shaunak, professor of infectious diseases at Imperial College, based at Hammersmith hospital, calls their revolutionary new model 'ethical pharmaceuticals'.
"Improvements they devise to the molecular structure of an existing, expensive drug turn it technically into a new medicine which is no longer under a 20-year patent to a multinational drug company and can be made and sold cheaply.
"The process has the potential to undermine the monopoly of the big drug companies and bring cheaper drugs not only to poor countries but back to the UK.
"Professor Shaunak and his colleague from the London School of Pharmacy, Steve Brocchini, have linked up with an Indian biotech company which will manufacture the first drug - for hepatitis C. Hepatitis C affects 170 million people worldwide and at least 200,000 in the UK.
"Multinational drug companies put the cost of the research and development of a new drug at $800m. Professors Shaunak and Brocchini say the cost of theirs will be only a few million pounds. Professor Shaunak says it is time that the monopoly on drug invention and production by multinational corporations - which charge high prices because they need to make big profits for their shareholders - was broken.
"The team's work on the hepatitis C drug has impeccable establishment credentials. But the professors' ethical pharmaceutical model is unlikely to find much favour with the multinational pharmaceutical companies, which already employ large teams of lawyers to defend the patents which they describe as the lifeblood of the industry."
Click on any dot in this chart at No Fake News and find out who to complain to about this travesty of journalism.
Watch This
My personal choice for the best rock video ever made - Artists United Against Apartheid doing Sun City. The song by Steven van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen's band, The Sopranos) is a rocking indictment of South African politics in the '80s, the video (directed by Jonathan Demme) is spectacular, full of rapid fire editing and dozens of heartfelt performances from one of the greatest line-ups in the history of music: Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Bono, Pete Townsend, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff, Kurtis Blow, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Ringo Starr, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Clarence Clemons, Nona Hendryx, Gil Scott-Heron, Afrika Bambaataa, Peter Wolf, Ruben Blades, Pat Benatar, Run DMC, George Clinton, Stanley Jordan, Ron Wood, and lots more.
Play This
The faster you type, the more enemies you kill in this excellent game.
"I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person."
- Helmut Newton -
"Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran."
"For the third consecutive day, the main corporate media units in the US-EU have not published news about the US war in Iraq, no attacks on US forces, no so-called Shi'i-Sunni sectarian violence or civil war... In fact, it has become a pattern for observers to record and analyze. Every time President [sic] Bush announces a new policy or plan in Iraq, news coverage of the war would not include any attacks for two or three days following the announcement."
"At the heart of George W. Bush's new way forward is the plan already under way to expand the US civilian presence across Iraq and complete the world’s largest embassy in Baghdad.
"Construction of what critics call Fortress Baghdad has led to arguments inside the State Department amid fears that the overwhelming diplomatic presence will perpetuate a sense of US occupation and become a focus of local anger.
"US diplomats say that just as the armed forces are being stretched to breaking point, the US foreign service is suffering from low morale and operations in the rest of the world are being damaged by the diversion of resources to Iraq.
"Officials are also questioning why the Bush administration is sending more civilians into a deteriorating war zone, and the effectiveness of the work they can do.
"The embassy compound being built inside Baghdad's Green Zone covers 104 acres, making it six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York. A city within a city for more than 1,000 people, it will have its own water, sewers and electricity, six apartment buildings, a Marine barracks, swimming pool, shops and some walls 15 feet thick.
"The State Department has told the Financial Times that the US civilian presence in Iraq has grown considerably beyond the numbers projected for the new embassy compound, which is scheduled for completion by September 1 at a cost of $592,000,000."
5. The Iraqi People are not our enemy, but our enemy hides among them.
Corollary 1: You have to look at these people as if they are trying to kill you, but you can't treat them that way.
Corollary 2: Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet."
- Sign on the wall of Sparta Base Marine camp in Iraq, from Vanity Fair, Nov. 2006 -
"It is the duty of the Patriot to protect his country from his government"
- Thomas Paine -
"On December 19, 2006, you wrote: 'Iran held a conference to examine whether the Holocaust happened.' It would be more accurate to say '... to examine WHY the Holocaust happened.' The attendees of the conference, dubbed 'Review of Holocaust: A Global Vision'(December 11-12) concluded that, 'The genocide of Jews during the World War II aimed to justify the formation of the Zionist regime," which Ahmadinejad himself called, for apparently sound reasons, 'a fake Zionist regime.'
"I think the conferees have some legitimate concerns and if Iran is the only place where it is legal to explore the facts then they ought not be slandered with the same old tattered Anti-Semite label, an obvious oxymoron.
"United Press International, Dec 14, says much the same: 'Ahmadinejad says Zionists are criminals' and 'the ultra-conservative Neturei Karta Jewish sect ... doesn't believe there should be a Jewish nation until the Messiah appears.'
"Ditto Reuters, Dec 12, 2006: 'Iran says it organized the conference to shed light on the reasons behind the formation of the state of Israel after World War Two and to allow researchers from countries where it is a crime to question the Holocaust to speak freely.' I am not reading anything about people doubting 'whether the Holocaust happened.'
"Does Iran's President deny the Holocaust? What is this assertion based on? It is based on dispatches of 2 days - Dec. 14 2005 and Feb. 11, 2006. Both mistranslated.
"At a time when organized religion has been shrinking world-wide for the past 20-30 years - attendance is flat, and collection plates are dry - how come Evangelism is running record profits and booming numbers? Where do they get their money? Where do Christian Zionists get their money? Does it have anything to do with the $2.3 trillion missing from the Pentagon or Jack Abramoff or AIPAC? Just curious.
"How can anyone question Iranian integrity when the highest offices of the US and Israel are crawling with heavily armed, batty Holy Warriors, Dominionists, End Timers, and Armageddonites?"
"On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, 'the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy,' he said.
"He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat. 'In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death,' he said...
"'According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,' Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillion that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America."
"Early this year the Bush administration is to ask Congress to approve an additional $100bn for the onerous task of making life intolerable for the Iraqis. This will bring the total spent on the White House's current obsession with war to almost $500bn - enough to have given every US citizen $1,600 each. I wonder which the voters would have gone for if given the choice: shall we (a) give every American $1,600 or (b) spend the money on bombing a country in the Middle East that doesn't use lavatory paper?
"Of course, there's another thing that George Bush could have done with the money: he could have given every Iraqi $18,700. I imagine that would have reduced the threat of international terrorism somewhat. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't help thinking that giving someone $18,700 brings them round to your side more quickly than bombing the hell out of them. They could certainly buy a lot of lavatory paper with it.
"In 2002 the house budget committee and the congressional budget office both guesstimated the cost of invading Iraq at approximately $50bn; $500bn seems a bit wide of the mark. What's more, with over half a million dead, it means that the world's greatest military superpower has spent a million dollars for every Iraqi killed. That can't be value for money!"
"Canadian wildlife officials are looking for a brave driver prepared for a 3,500-kilometre trip to take a stinky stowaway skunk back to her home in California. But the skunk, who survived a seven-day journey across the United States and into Canada without food and water, after being accidentally locked away in a transport truck, is having a hard time finding someone to give her a ride home. 'We can never give a no-spray guarantee, of course,' said Nathalie Karvonen, executive director at the Toronto Wildlife Center, which has been caring for the skunk since January 5, referring to the black-and-white striped animal's foul-smelling defense mechanism. 'It would have be somebody who would be prepared for that possibility.' Releasing her into the wild in Canada is out of the question, Karvonen said."
"Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony."
- Noam Chomsky -
"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself."
- Archibald Macleish -
"There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit."
- John Lindsay -
"We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it 'concern for commercial viability.'"
- David Mamet -
"During a press conference at the Crawford Peace House on December 31, Dr. Alan Northcutt, of the Waco Friends of Peace, delivered a summary and explanation of the Johns Hopkins study published in the Lancet Journal documenting that over 650,000 Iraqis were sacrificed in America's thirst for oil. Dr. Northcutt is a pathologist who practices in Waco.
"Northcutt said, 'The cluster survey technique used in the study is the standard and best method for assessing deaths in war situations, and is utilized by the UN, UNICEF, and the US government.' Northcutt said the study revealed that since March 2003, an additional 2.5% of Iraq's population have died above what would have occurred without conflict. 'The results of the Johns Hopkins study have been largely concealed because they reveal the magnitude of the tragedy of Bush's war in Iraq,' he said.
"The report also estimates an additional 53,000 deaths due to non-violent causes, most of them in recent months, suggesting a worsening of health status and access to health care."
"And my aim in my life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, 'Oh, the pictures I might have made!'"
- Vincent van Gogh's 338th letter to Theo -
"You may choose, if you wish, to parrot the line that Watergate was a 'long national nightmare,' but some of us found it rather exhilarating to see a criminal president successfully investigated and exposed and discredited. And we do not think it in the least bit nightmarish that the Constitution says that such a man is not above the law. Ford's ignominious pardon of this felonious thug meant, first, that only the lesser fry had to go to jail. It meant, second, that we still do not even know why the burglars were originally sent into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. In this respect, the famous pardon is not unlike the Warren Commission: another establishment exercise in damage control and pseudo-reassurance (of which Ford was also a member) that actually raised more questions than it answered. The fact is that serious trials and fearless investigations often are the cause of great division, and rightly so. But by the standards of 'healing' celebrated this week, one could argue that O.J. Simpson should have been spared indictment lest the vexing questions of race be unleashed to trouble us again, or that the Tower Commission did us all a favor by trying to bury the implications of the Iran-Contra scandal. Fine, if you don't mind living in a banana republic."
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."
- Gore Vidal -
"Bloody George, the lamest duck in US history, has announced to the nation that he will be sending 21,500 more troops into Iraq, which some call a 'surge,' some call an escalation, and I like to refer to as Operation Increasing Cannon Fodder."
"Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs."
"Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world's famine feed. Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed. Live truly, and thy life shall be a great and noble creed."
- Horatius Bonar -
"Imagine a steer in the stockyards hollering to his fellows, 'We need a phased withdrawal from the slaughterhouse, starting in four to six months.'"
"Almost half the countries in the world can be classified as democratic but only 28 'full democracies', which are mostly developed nations with the exception of Uruguay and Costa Rica from Latin America according to the latest report from The Economist.
"In 'The World in 2007', the British weekly magazine analyzed the level of democracy in 167 countries with the five categories; electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties, maximum of 10 points per each category. The Economist, based on its analysis, classified the countries into four stages of democracy; full democracy, 28 countries; flawed democracy, 54; hybrid democracy, 30; and authoritarian regime, 55.
"Although the recent wave of worldwide democratization, only 13% of the world population is considered to be living in full democracy, whereas 40% of them are still under authoritarian regime.
"Sweden is the most democratic country, according to the research, with 9.88 average score. Ireland, 9.71 points, the Netherlands, 9.66, and Norway, 9.55 follow the Scandinavian kingdom. The US is ranked 17th while Japan is 20th and the United Kingdom 23rd."
"There is a basic weakness in governments, however massive their armies, however vast their wealth, however they control images and information, because their power depends on the obedience of citizens, of soldiers, of civil servants, of journalists and writers and teachers and artists. When the citizens begin to suspect they have been deceived and withdraw their support, government loses its legitimacy and its power.We have seen this happen in recent decades all around the globe. Awaking one morning to see a million angry people in the streets of the capital city, the leaders of a country begin packing their bags and calling for a helicopter.
"This is not fantasy; it is recent history. It's the history of the Philippines, of Indonesia, of Greece, Portugal and Spain, of Russia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania. Think of Argentina and South Africa and other places where change looked hopeless and then it happened. Remember Somoza in Nicaragua scurrying to his private plane, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos hurriedly assembling their jewels and clothes, the Shah of Iran desperately searching for a country that would take him in as he fled the crowds in Tehran, Duvalier in Haiti barely managing to put on his pants to escape the wrath of the Haitian people.
"We can't expect George Bush to scurry off in a helicopter. But we can hold him accountable for catapulting the nation into two wars, for the death and dismemberment of tens of thousands of human beings in this country, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and for his violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law. Surely these acts meet the constitutional requirement of 'high crimes and misdemeanors' for impeachment."
"The Toyota Eco Spirit was the talk of the fuel economy car industry in 2002. At over 100 MPG and with the lowest exhaust emissions and a very reasonable sticker price, the Eco Spirit's debut was widely anticipated. Now, several years later, what happened to it? If you do an Internet search, you will find that Toyota decided not to be move forward with it. Why in these times of soaring oil prices would they not rush this car into mass production?
"Have you ever wondered why gasoline mileage has improved little over the years? The November 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics (pp. 1-6) reported 'The average gasoline consumption in the 1930's and 1940's was 15-20 miles per gallon, slightly higher for some cars.' In 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: 'While official overall gas mileage of new U.S. passenger cars rose from about 14 miles per gallon in the late 1970s to a peak of 22 miles per gallon in 1987, it has since declined to 21 miles per gallon.'
"So the average car mileage today has dropped from 17 years ago, and is not much improved over 60 years ago. Consider that in the same amount of time we've achieved quantum technological leaps in computers, genetics, electronics, engineering, plastics, and almost every other industry. Does this make sense? Why is it that the fields of transportation and energy have progressed at a comparative snail's pace? Could it possibly be that corporate profit and greed keep technology from advancing in these critical sectors?"
"Jell-O shots were invented by Tom Lehrer who couldn't otherwise have hard liquor in his professorial offices."
- Phil Proctor -
"There are two places in Baghdad for foreigners. The Red Zone and the Green Zone. The Green Zone is a bizarre Neocon Disneyland where the US and Iraqi governments huddle and the Red Zone is everything outside the T walls.
"You can stay in the Green Zone at a number of houses run by private security companies. Plan on $65 a day and they may even give you a car to run around inside the Green Zone. You do not need security but you need to stay away from US military PSD's some of whom seem to still like to shoot. All other PSD's are not locked and loaded, but there are the occasional mortars, bombing and incident.
"You need ID to go everywhere. DoD and Embassy badges are great, CPIC (Journo) cards are useless and a US passport is all that is needed to enter and move around. You have to be signed into the KBR chow halls (DFAC) by a contractor or embassy worker.
"How? Make friends at the Chinese restaurant (next to the hospital, down an alley) Good food and cold beer interrupted by the sound of hellos landing wounded next door.
"Other places to meet the locals are the various stores that sell stolen PX goods, the liquor store and various small restaurants tucked here and there."
"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
- W. Somerset Maugham -
"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: Self Reliance -
"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
- William G. McAdoo -
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
- Aldous Huxley: Proper Studies -
"General standards of human rights apply to the people of all countries because, regardless of their cultural background, all humans share an inherent yearning for freedom, equality and dignity. Democracy and respect for fundamental human rights are as important to Africans and Asians as they are to Europeans and Americans." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama -
"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
- Sir Francis Bacon -
"If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it."
- Emerson Pugh -
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."
- John Ruskin -
"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. - William H. Borah -
"Confusion is always the most honest response." - Marty Indik -
"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." - James M. Barrie -
"What is justice? Giving water to trees. What is injustice? To give water to thorns. Justice consists in bestowing bounty in its proper place, not on every root that will absorb water." - Mathnawi [V, 1089-1090] -
"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind."
dIsInFoTaInMeNt ToDaY is free and may be reproduced in any form, preferably parchment. It consists of information from dozens of sources, cut up, thrown in the air, and recycled randomly. It is sent all over the place, so I apologize if you're seeing the same thing twice. If you see a joke, graphic, or news item that came from or through you, thanks, send more, and please accept the fact that much of dIsInFoTaInMeNt ToDaY is unacknowledgeable, and if I sought permission from everyone whose bastardized material showed up here, I'd never get anything else done. Please note that I don't even put my own name on it except those places I do. If you're still pissed off, hey, it's either satire or fair use.
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Texas Strategy (The New York Times)
Mr. Bush isn't Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He's Charles Keating, using other people's money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down - and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way.
Sanford Pinsker: Ulysses, Undergraduates, and Lifelong Readers (irascibleprofessor.com)
Recently, the IP posted a piece of mine about James Joyce's novel and those English majors who collect their sheepskins without turning a single page of Ulysses. A shame, I thought (and still do), but all too understandable given the sad fact that many of their professors haven't read Ulysses either.
I'm famous, buy me (guardian.co.uk)
Why did sales of Peter Kay's memoir take off when Ashley Cole's flopped? Patrick Barkham on the huge advances and risky deals of celebrity biography.
Sheela Lambert: Before Perez there was Musto (afterelton.com)
Michael Musto is a groundbreaker. As the first openly gay gossip columnist, he has become a veritable institution. His newly released book, La Dolce Musto (named after his column), is a collection of the columns he has been penning for 22 years at the Village Voice, the nation's premier alternative newspaper.
Stephen Fraser: New Books for Queer Teens (afterelton.com)
Gay teen novels are no longer that much of a big deal-and that's a good thing. Since Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden (1982), gay authors have been a growing part of the adolescent literary canon. ... Two writers who have contributed to this positive trend, David Levithan (Boy Meets Boy) and Alex Sanchez (Rainbow Boys), are back with new books.
zEN mAN (observing a non-cellular situation known in the old days as a "land-line" or "grounded-phone" and hearing the Verizon wireless AD that has to de with "reception")
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'The Unit', then '48 Hours'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Paul Newman, auto racing star Sebastian Bourdais, and Diana Ross.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Helen Mirren and Steve Trevino.
NBC starts the night with 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', then a RERUN'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Matt Lauer and All-American Rejects.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Tracy Morgan, Jim Gaffigan, and Sparta.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson Daly are Dominique Swain and Aaron Lewis.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH 2-hour 'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Boston Legal'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Donald Trump, Carrot Top, and Radiant.
The CW offers a RERUN'Gilmore Girls', followed by a RERUN'Veronica Mars'.
Faux has the SEASON PREMIERE'American Idol'.
MY has a FRESH'Wicked Wicked Games', followed by a FRESH'Watch Over Me'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', another 'CSI: The 2nd One', 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', still another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', and yet another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter'.
AMC offers the movie 'Back To The Future II', followed by the movie 'Back To The Future III', then the movie 'The Blues Brothers'.
BBC -
[1:00 pm] As Time Goes By - Episode 2;
[1:40 pm] Are You Being Served - Takeover;
[2:20 pm] Keeping Up Appearances - Episode 2;
[3:00 pm] The Benny Hill Show - Episode 23;
[4:00 pm] The Saint - Queen's Ransom;
[5:00 pm] The Avengers - They Keep Killing Steed;
[6:00 pm] BBC World News;
[6:30 pm] Cash in the Attic - Episode 10;
[7:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Ep 6 Holland;
[8:00 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 2;
[8:30 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 2;
[9:00 pm] The Avengers - Return of the Cybernauts;
[10:00 pm] Doctor Who - Ep 7 The Long Game;
[11:00 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 9;
[11:30 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 6;
[12:00 am] The Benny Hill Show - Episode 24;
[1:00 am] Doctor Who - Ep 7 The Long Game;
[2:00 am] The Avengers - Return of the Cybernauts;
[3:00 am] Touching Evil - Episode 3;
[5:00 am] Randall and Hopkirk - Ep. 1 Drop Dead;
[6:00 am] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EST)
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'Mind Of Mencia', 'South Park', and 'Demetri Martin'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Michael Oren.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Dinesh D'Souza.
FX has 'That 70s Show', another 'That 70s Show', followed by the movie '13 Going On 30', then a FRESH'Dirt'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', another 'Modern Marvels', and 'Man Moment Machine'.
IFC -
[07:25 AM] Va Savoir;
[10:05 AM] Love and Death on Long Island;
[11:40 AM] Widows' Peak;
[01:25 PM] Va Savoir;
[04:05 PM] Love and Death on Long Island;
[05:40 PM] Widows' Peak;
[07:25 PM] Sleep with Me;
[09:00 PM] Amelie;
[11:05 PM] The Flower of Evil;
[12:50 AM] Le Divorce;
[02:50 AM] Hopeless Pictures #2;
[03:10 AM] Amelie;
[05:15 AM] Sleep with Me. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Dead Like Me', another 'Dead Like Me', 'Eureka', and 'ECW'.
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] Little Otik;
[08:15 AM] Tube Mice;
[08:30 AM] Mitchellville;
[10:00 AM] Arna's Children;
[11:30 AM] The Day of the Jackal;
[02:00 PM] Mule Skinner Blues;
[03:45 PM] Little Otik;
[06:00 PM] One Punk Under God: Episode 5;
[06:30 PM] IN SHORT: Israel 2;
[07:30 PM] Mitchellville;
[09:00 PM] City of Men - Season 3: Episode 5: Father and Son;
[09:35 PM] IN SHORT: Festival 4;
[10:00 PM] K;
[11:30 PM] A Fond Kiss;
[01:15 AM] Helmut Newton: My Life;
[02:15 AM] Tube Mice;
[02:30 AM] City of Men - Season 3: Episode 5: Father and Son;
[03:15 AM] Cowards Bend the Knee;
[04:30 AM] The Day of the Jackal. (ALL TIMES EST)
Jack Nicholson and his daughter Lorraine, Miss Golden Globes 2007, arrive at the 64th annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills January 15, 2007.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Alec Baldwin poses with the award he won for best actor in a musical or comedy series for his work on '30 Rock,' at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Monday, Jan. 15, 2007, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian
David Monson began pushing the idea of growing industrial hemp in the United States a decade ago. Now his goal may be within reach - but first he needs to be fingerprinted. Monson plans this week to apply to become the nation's first licensed industrial hemp farmer. He will have to provide two sets of fingerprints and proof that he's not a criminal.
The farmer, school superintendent and state legislator would like to start by growing 10 acres of the crop, and he spent part of his weekend staking out the field he wants to use.
Last month, the state Agriculture Department finished its work on rules farmers may use to grow industrial hemp, a cousin of marijuana that does not have the drug's hallucinogenic properties. The sturdy, fibrous plant is used to make an assortment of products, ranging from paper, rope and lotions to car panels, carpet backing and animal bedding.
Applicants must provide latitude and longitude coordinates for their proposed hemp fields, furnish fingerprints and pay at least $202 in fees, including $37 to cover the cost of criminal record checks.
Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger is taking only "a little bit" of medication to ease constant, throbbing pain in his leg, he said in a television interview aired Sunday.
The actor-turned-governor told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a taped interview that he's mostly staying away from the medicine chest because he doesn't want to contend with garbled speech or other possible side effects.
"You only want to take a little bit of medication because otherwise, you know, you maybe forget what you want to say and start slurring because medication has an effect," the Republican governor said on "This Week."
The governor fractured his right femur after falling at the Sun Valley resort in Idaho on Dec. 23. Three days later, surgeons used cables and screws to repair his leg.
A visitor passes a banner originally by the artist Banksy at Mark Wallinger's new exhibition 'State Britain' at the Tate Britain art gallery in London January 15, 2007. Wallinger has recreated peace campaigner Brian Haw's Parliament Square protest, with over six hundred banners and messages amassed over several years.
Photo by Toby Melville
The granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch has launched a fresh campaign to gain a posthumous pardon for Helen Duncan, jailed at the height of World War Two as a threat to the nation.
"I will carry on fighting to clear her name," said Mary Martin who still vividly remembers being taunted in the playground in 1944 as "witch spawn."
Duncan, a medium who conducted seances across the country, was arrested at a time when officials feared details of the upcoming D-Day landings in France could be revealed.
She disclosed -- allegedly through contacts in the spirit world -- the sinking of two British warships long before the news was officially made public.
Another Miss USA tiara is changing heads. Ashley Harder, Miss New Jersey USA, has resigned because she is pregnant, The Philadelphia Daily News reported in Monday's editions.
Harder, 20, told the newspaper she voluntarily stepped down because it's against pageant rules to compete while pregnant. She could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press.
Both the pageant and the runner-up for 2007 Miss New Jersey USA confirmed Monday that the reins have changed hands. Erin Abrahamson, 23, said pageant officials called her Friday to let her know she would be assuming the title.
Dancers Josef Brown and Nadia Coote (front) perform during the announcement of the North American premiere of 'Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story' on stage in Toronto January 15, 2007. The performance will open at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto on November 15, 2007.
Photo by J.P. Moczulski
The Rickenbacker Frying Pan, the world's first commercially successful electric guitar, is on the road again at the grand old age of 75.
The instrument, on display outside the United States for the first time, is the star of a new exhibition in Dublin featuring more than 130 examples of rock music's instrument of choice.
The "RockChic" collection at the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) also features guitars owned and played by some of rock's biggest names, including Irish legends Rory Gallagher and The Edge, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix.
Some Pansies are caught in the freezing rain in East Texas, becoming coated in ice, in Tyler, Texas, on Monday, Jan. 15 2007.
Photo by Dr. Scott M. Lieberman
Crowds of Indians have been lining the route of a Buddhist monk who has been prostrating himself on a year-and-a-half-long pilgrimage from Tibet to India, witnesses and religious leaders said on Monday.
Gyaltsen Lama, who is in his twenties, entered the eastern Indian state of Bihar this month and told Buddhist leaders and police he was going to end his journey at Bodh Gaya, where Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment in 6th century BC.
"He is just 22 days away from completing his extraordinary journey," said Bhikkhu Bodhipala, chief priest of the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists from all over the world. "He is very tired."
He lies horizontally on the ground with his hands outstretched, utters a sacred Buddhist verse before getting up to walk to the point where his hands had extended. He then repeats the same exercise, covering a distance of 7 km (4 miles) a day.
Polo Vega wears the mask of his lucha libre character 'Drago' before the start of a luche libre match in Grand Prairie, Texas January 14, 2007. Lucha Libre, a type of wrestling that originated in Mexico, is held every Sunday in Dallas at the local Mexican Bazaar. Wrestlers don masks and tend to wrestle in pairs as tecnicos 'good guys' vs. rudos 'bad guys'.
Photo by Jessica Rinaldi
Matt Halfhill is crazy about sneakers. He worked in a shoe store as a teenager, buying shoes on clearance. He has charmed his wife with kicks, buying limited edition pink and red Nikes for her on Valentine's Day. He collects them obsessively, lining the walls of his home with about 500 pairs of shoes. Welcome to the world of the sneakerhead, where shoes reign supreme.
Collectors range from casual fans of sneaker fashion to those who buy and sell shoes like a cardboard-encased commodity. True fanatics will camp out overnight for the latest pair, buy multiple pairs (in case one gets scuffed) and sometimes even wear them.
It's an obsession that has been gaining traction in recent years, even as sneaker sales have grown only slowly. There are Web sites, magazines, books, movies and radio shows dedicated to sneaker culture. There have even been television shows, like ESPN2's "It's About the Shoes" that included tours of collectors' enormous closets.
In this photo released by the Zoological Society of San Diego, The San Diego Zoo's 17-month-old Giant Panda cub, Su Lin, is shown Monday, Jan. 15, 2007. On Jan. 22, Su Lin and her mother, Bai Yun, will begin the weaning process, in which San Diego Zoo keepers and researchers will incrementally separate the two over the next few weeks until the pair is fully independent. Giant pandas are critically endangered with only 1,600 left in the world.
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