Chosen to Suffer

How dangerous are conditions in Korea today?

In the midst of massive USA & South Korea military operations which an emasculated press is instructed to label "war games" -- the DPRK has been strident & condemnatory.

So-called defensive joint operations Exercise Key Resolve 2013 and Foal Eagle Exercise 2013 may be designed to distract. Who knows? Surely the North Koreans remember the Mukden Incident when the Imperial Japanese Army created a lame excuse to invade a neighbor... Similar cases of deceptive aggression are easy to uncover. As always: War is misrepresented and common people suffer.

The leaders of both segments of divided Korea are novices at steering global power politics & directing warfare. Both leaders spent childhood as a member of their nation's First Family, with unique entitlements. Due simply to leadership inexperience, each is now highly exposed to being strategically stifled by menacing influences. Recognizing weakness, either might prevaricate, or suddenly issue capricious commands to challenge enemy psychologists & strategists, or to outmaneuver domestic resistance.

• South Korean (ROK) President Park Geun-hye (박근혜) is daughter of ROK former military ruler Park Chung-hee (박정희) who was assassinated while in power; her mother had been assassinated five years earlier. President Park has not yet completed two months in office, and has yet to finalize many key appointments to government.

• North Korea (DPRK) Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un (김정은) is 30 years old, in power for about one year. He spent some of his school years in Switzerland. Kim Jong-un follows his father Kim Jong-il (김정일) and grandfather Kim Il-sung (김일성) in leading his nation.

War is sure to be horribly cruel to Korea.
Let's sincerely hope further hostilities can be avoided.

Hawaiian Power

Bravo to Hawaii State Senator Russell Ruderman and Senator Will Espero, who persevered through the US Federal smokescreen to interview Hilo political prisoner Roger Christie.

Reverend Christie, a US Army veteran, has been imprisoned for over three years in the grim US Federal Detention Center, Honolulu. He's held without opportunity for bail and without trial, accused of marijuana crimes. Christie, now 63,  is not charged with using or advocating violence. But every day as an inmate, violence and cruelty are imposed on him, and on his distant family. Many in his community now fear the perverse & arbitrary central government. Terrible!

Christopher Deedy, the 3AM McDonalds killer, walked free on bail after a few hours, and flew off home to the mainland, but a popular local guy is forced to rot for years awaiting trial in the despised federal fortress. Pretrial inmates are not generally allowed visits by other than their immediate family (who in Roger's case live on a distant island). So cruel!

Mahalo to Russell Ruderman & Will Espero for standing up and refusing to be bullied. Federal employees Michael Kawahara and Beverly Sameshima, both Assistant U.S. District Attorneys, and judges Alan Kay, Gary Chang and Alan Ezra reportedly serve as point persons for the Federal Government. Roger sadly remains an imprisoned hostage, held three years without trial, basically incommunicado, a non-violent Island Warrior in distress. Talk & reason with his captors. Do something to help him!

Nuclear Waste Dumps

Yesterday a number of worried Cape Cod (Massachusetts) residents had opportunity to air their fears & frustrations in a meeting at Plymouth Town Hall with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials.















Plymouth is home to the infamous Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station, an aging nuclear plant the same type & design as Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi that suffered meltdown due to earthquake & tsunami. Pilgrim is also perched at beachside. Their license to operate was due to expire in 2012, and although the Massachusetts Attorney General opposed re-licensing, the State's objections were overturned by the NRC.

Anyhow, two important strategies worth recording were employed in yesterday's meeting:
1) The NRC refused to offer a normal question-and-answer session, instead seeding the room with officials who could answer individual questions. This is great for shy people afraid to speak in front of a crowd. But the negative dimension is that discussions with individuals are mostly unrecorded. Officials brush-off individual questions & complaints with any type of bullshit, avoid accountability, and others with concerns learn nothing of or from the exchange.

2) Plymouth Selectman (town official)  Belinda Brewster raised the key point that Pilgrim is now a de facto nuclear waste site. This perspective is important: nuclear generating stations should be required to admit they are nuclear waste storage facilities. Waste storage is related to power generation, but they are not the same thing. Sites are chosen for the generating business, not as ideal permanent nuclear waste dumps. They've become terribly dangerous.

Pilgrim Power Plant sounds like a whitewash. There are very real dangers from the combined Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station and the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Storage Site. We know from Fukushima the downside to these plants is death & destruction, evacuation & no return.

Days You Remember

Fritidsresor is a Stockholm-based travel company. They've a highly effective ad campaign labeled "Dagarna du minns" or translated, Days You Remember.

Days you remember -

Life consists of 29 000 days
Of those days we sleep away 10 000
An additional 9000 are spent working
We're watching TV around 2000 days
And also sit at the computer more & more
And how many days consist of nothing…
For each of us the days soon end
So take care of them
For me it's not days that pass
There are days you remember.

(video w/ Mads Mikkelson is here - Swedish)

(Here's another)

Eight hours working, one and a half to get there & back.
Five hours in front of the television, computer & phone ..
Shopping: twenty minutes;
Cook dinner: twelve minutes, consumed in fifteen...
Of course we always crave time together.
For life's not those days flying by
There are days you remember!

Dagarna du minns -

Livet består av 29 000 dagar
Av dem dagarna sover vi bort 10 000
Och arbetar ytterliggare 9000
Vi tittar på tv ungefär 2000 dagar
Och sitter dessutom framför datorn allt mer
Och hur många dagar går inte bara åt till ingenting
Dem tar fort slut alla dagarna
Så var rädd om dom
För mig är det inte dagarna som passerar
Det är dagarna du minns

----------------------------------

Åtta timmar på jobbet, en och en halv dit och hem.

Fem timmar framför tvn, datorn och i telefon..
Handla: tjugo minuter;

Laga middag: tolv minuter, som vi sen äter på en kvart.
Inte konstigt att vi alltid längtar efter tid tillsammans,
för livet är inte dagarna som passerar,
det är dagarna du minns!

Rudely Defined World

Much of the world is ill-defined and beyond our understanding.

But we reasonably try to define & explain what is happening around us. Such efforts are commendable, and have led humankind to huge achievements. However, serious problems regularly arise when interpretation & speculation become rigidly assumed to be fact. Scientists often note & comment upon the bits not fitting their model before defining them out of further consideration. As an arbitrarily-defined field of inquiry becomes a rigid paradigm, we become corralled into accepting something actively resistant to redefinition. Our peer community forcibly seeks to ignore that which has been defined as anomaly. More on these topics can be found in Popper's analysis of falsifiability, and in Kuhn (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Let's look at the example of "full time" work: in the USA and South Korea this is generally defined as a 40+ hour work week over some 50 weeks per year. Such working life impacts on wider life in numerous ways: the rewards of work are used during free time and for maintenance, the quality of non-work time is affected by the large (by definition "full") time dedicated to employment.

In Sweden, all employees have a guaranteed five-week holiday each year. Further, many people are able to work part of the week at home, or to arrive late & depart from work early due to family obligations. Many permanently employed people (tillsvidareanställda, fast anställda) choose voluntarily to work only a percentage of the normal work week. (I know many such people; I'll try to insert data here on how many such people exist). In sum, operating under the Korean definition of "full time work" there are very few Swedes working full time: perhaps five percent (5%) of the population... or even less.

This is not implying Swedes are lazy, or poor. Rather, many have found a balance of living in a flexible, more human focused system. The Korean "Pali Pali" (빨리빨리) hurry hurry system is defined here as unhealthy.

I'll write more later - time now for a coffee break.

Hard Sell Nossel

Suzanne Nossel was recently named Executive Director of PEN American Center.

PEN American Center is the key US component to the worldwide literary & human rights PEN organization, so many around the world are disappointed when a government insider quickly can encroach into territory protecting dissenting voices. Hundreds of people have served as dedicated volunteers over decades. This lawyer wench suddenly vaults in, and shows salary comes before sincerity.

Complaining PEN members include Chris Hedges.

Nossel lasted only a year as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, before abruptly leaving, purportedly for personal reasons. In fact, her appointment there was widely criticized. Her thirst for advocacy and human rights has been distinguished & consistent: she's a salaried apologist for big government and American/Israeli hegemony. Nossel's unlikely to protect the free expression of dirty little writers or grimy dissidents (no support for Bradley Manning or Julian Assange or Haneen Zoabi). Nossel's a well-groomed lackey of the ruling class. Expect her to help the powerful, and to help herself.

Blood Bounty Beware

Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer, claimed unjust treatment from his employer. Seeking satisfaction, he was hunted for murder in February 2013, wanted for allegedly killing and terrorizing people across California.

To help halt Dorner's alleged crime spree, an assortment of public & private groups contributed to a bounty fund of US$1.1 million dollars. Citizens provided tips ultimately leading law enforcement to surround and capture Dorner, but he died in the process (sheltering in a cabin that inexplicably caught fire, he reportedly shot himself). Now some of the reward funders refuse to pay the bounty, claiming they sought "capture, apprehension and conviction" -- conditions unmet.

Carefully read the fine print. Always get an offer in writing. Reconfirm with a lawyer... So slow.

Plea bargains and the federal Witness Protection Program have also been criticized in the past for promises not met. Surely legalistic administrative scams stand in the way of justice and the public interest. Loss of trust in the system might delay the apprehension of dangerous people in the future.

Pay the stoolies and keep the community safe!

In the Dorner manhunt, LAPD officers reportedly gunned down multiple drivers, mistaking their cars for Dorner's vehicle. In one case, grandmother Emma Hernandez & her daughter were delivering morning newspapers when their car was riddled without warning by eight officers firing 102 shots (also pockmarking homes in the surrounding neighborhood); both women survived. The cops had good reason to feel nervous, but public safety is also important, as is trust in officialdom. The LAPD's quick promise of a replacement truck for Hernandez did not materialize as expected; the Dorner reward money is still unpaid... all this fuels disbelief in public officials and casts doubt on their statements. Loss of trust can quickly become very expensive for everyone. Best pay as promised.

Factory Schools

There has been an upsurge of effort in the USA to make education more responsive and accountable. Teachers are criticized for being chronically unresponsive to both student and society's needs - and fundamentally lazy. Public school systems are regularly depicted by media as out of control.

But wait. This same media is repeatedly accused of liberal bias.

In fact, what's happening is a purge. Teachers are out of control, if we mean not under the control of right-wing demagogues. The real effort is to sweep aside the social checks-and-balances so important in democratic society, such as an independent judiciary, investigative media, and an educated population. The enemy are the people who brought you "The Vietnam War" and "Operation Iraqi Bullshit" -- military contractors,  whoring politicians, and neo-fascist ('neo-con') corporatist schemers.

Mr Corporate Jackass is a captain of industry who knows squat about education. But he steps up to the microphone to condemn 'non-performing schools' and demand privatization. These same people brought us catsup as our midday vegetable, and a soda machine in every school lunch line. They care nothing for children.

Children don't respond in the same way as other raw materials on an assembly line. They can't and shouldn't be trashed as defective. Mr. Corporate controls his assembly line, the inputs and throughput, but the school system has access to children for only part of the day. How well would a factory operate if outside of work hours the line and the components were open to manipulation, adulteration, tampering & weakening?

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel closes 54 Chicago public schools, he's too kissy-cozy with corporate and foreign interests, selling out the future of many neighborhoods and many children. Similarly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is hell-bent on a more businesslike Camden school district (his lobbying background for Edison Schools Inc. paid corporate dividends as they also placed their former president Chris Cerf as Commissioner of Education for the State of NJ). But let's get real: any ranking creates some group ranked below average (by definition). There is more to education than standardized tests. Local people see the snake and know its danger. Rahm Emmanuel claims to care deeply about public school kids as his own brats enjoy fancy private school where half day for nursery kids costs over $17,000 annually. The ideals of Mr. Mayor's kids's school should apply citywide:
"We ignite and nurture an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence. We value learning experientially, exhibiting kindness, and honoring diversity."

But that's for them who owns the factory... common pigs eat swill.

AEIOU people

Place appeal & destination marketing is greatly dependent on creative "AEIOU" people:
Artists
Entrepreneurs
Intelligensia
Outdoor-oriented
Unusual

Such people are great potential drivers for regional growth, and their personal requirements can be quite simple. More places should put energy & resources into attracting such people. But because decisionmaking bureaucrats are often very different types of people from AEIOU types, they're instead carefully & officially overlooked or ignored.

In other words, while communities need clever & creative people (by definition, the unorthodox) to supply novel ideas and generate future-oriented jobs, shortsighted functionaries actively stifle such potential impact. Look for places actively encouraging the AEIOU - those places promise future growth.

Worse Murder

A US bureaucrat identifies a dangerous person and decides he (or she) should be killed. Which now is worse?

1) An assassin paid by the USA infiltrates the target's neighborhood and suddenly kills the target.

( alternately: )

2) The USA uses an aerial drone to bomb the target's home, killing the target, and others in the home, and also some neighbors.

Why should either option be OK?
Perhaps both are being used now... 

Beef Jerky?

I ain't saying "real American men" should enjoy chompin' beef jerky - that's because the swill sold as beef jerky is often a poor product better fed to lab rats or toothless dogs.

It's become necessary to look carefully for the modifier "solid strips of beef" -- or you'll be sold flaked, chopped formed dry hamburgers full of chemicals.
I bought Matador Beef Jerky, and it claimed:
POWERFULLY  BOLD  FLAVOR
UNIQUELY  TENDER  BITE

Opinion:  Give that shit a miss. Owned by Frito-Lay, the processed product tastes like chemicals. It's difficult to see through the plastic packaging window, and only very careful scrutiny reveals the product is dried hamburger, shaped and roughened to imitate jerky. It has 15 ingredients. There's no mention on the package it's reconstituted (formed from ground bits). I'd call it dog treats, but any good hound deserves better.

This firm is shameless. See their Facebook whoring:
https://www.facebook.com/matador

Big Food Inc. now calls dried hamburger chunks "jerky"

In the olde West, they'd be shot.

Jerky flimflam artists -- you are jerks.

Buyer Beware.

Raise Your Hand

Text on a bourgeois chamber pot

 ...  pre-revolutionary France

         by    Genki

Raise Your Hand

Raise not your hand in Fury

With blood rushing to your head

You'll be sure to face a jury

Laced with lackeys to the dead.

Raise not your hand to Banish

Rape & plunder by the rich

Mindless greed will never vanish

Interject a sales pitch.

Raise your hand when you've an answer

Raise your hand to show a way

Can assassins excise cancer?

Loving kindness: live today.

Robber, Bootlicker...

Our sad economy is directed by corrupt thieves, our foreign policy flaunted by war criminals. Most commentary is suffocated by corporatism, and a cowed population tolerates only predigested pap in 15-second bites.

The illegal invasion of Iraq ten years ago killed tens of thousands and beggared the western world. The worst criminals still walk free, still serving the crooked private interests that put them in power. A few have been put out to pasture; simply told to shut up & retire.

The below links should remind us: war was imposed with no clear & present danger, and without multilateral agreement. The governments of Britain and USA knew they embarked on illegal war. Key people warned the wider population of germinating war crime, the citizenry doubted government, but cautions were ignored.

On 17 March 2003, British MP Robin Cook resigned in protest as Leader of the House of Commons over the planned invasion of Iraq (launched two days later). Cook was the ultimate insider, who'd just prior served as Foreign Secretary for over four years under Prime Minister Tony Blair. He refused to further ally himself with crime.

Robin Cook's speech to Parliament is a treasure: a highly-reasoned public outburst rarely heard from insiders. In crystal clear & timeless words he condemns the logic for launching "war which has neither international agreement nor domestic support." Cook resigned from Blair's government to vote against committing troops to the invasion of Iraq. This speech received a rare standing ovation from both sides of the House. His words resound in the historical record; they'll long outlast the BBC (Blair, Bush & Chalabi) misstatements & lies.

Here's a recording (mp3) of Cook's highly-remarkable speech:
Robin Cook resigns over Iraq attack plan 2003-03-17.mp3

and a transcript:
Robin Cook resigns in order to vote against war on Iraq

Cook clearly warned against unilateralism, bullying and wielding war in doubtful circumstances.

Two years later, Cook died suddenly (mysteriously? conveniently?). Robin Cook's headstone reads: "I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of parliament to decide on war."  -- One wag then suggested an epitaph for Cook's former boss: "Here lies Tony Blair - in life, so as in death."

Those who wage illegal war should be tried, convicted & severely punished.

Peace of Mind

Poem of Peace
          by Genki

Assassination

Knife or drone

Justification?

Combat zone

Cryptic subversion

Violent slander

Invites incursion

On our commander

Mismanaged slaughter

Vendetta taint

Too lively daughter

Gender constraint

Grand Arab pumphouse
Fuel hot Son
Faith's flame we hope douse
Glory & Gun

Eye-foreign-eye
A kingdom blind

Omertà wise guy

Peace of mind

Lost generations

Shadowed snitch

No Law of Nations

Abuse is rich

Trickled down half-truth
Press release?
Unsleeping World Youth
Fight for Peace

TGIF

TGIF
Home partners say
They fuss & wonder
Why do you stay?...

TGIF
All done today
Come home Ms Skolmarm
Break away...

Zion Ryan

America' Faith is Big Business.
Obey Our Bible & Believe.

Greasy Corruption

Big oil industry interests in the USA continue poisoning the air against wind power.

Wind energy generation is a wonderful new industry thriving in Europe. There are a great many clever researchers and engineers, hundreds of manufacturers, thousands of employees in fabrication and construction. But in the USA, shadowy scumbags seduce lawmakers who raise repeated obstacles to this and other alternative energy sources.

We all know the high cost of cleanup when oil spills, we recognize the poison by-products of air pollution, the deaths generated by forcing a route to Middle East resource access.

Those costs are truly part of our overall costs of gasoline, electricity & heating oil. Clever corporations have manipulated us into paying for their infrastructure. Joe Public foots the bill, they suck away profits. And now they try to stifle cleaner alternative energy industries as competitors.

We are spooked by terrorists. But it's said "nobody wants to be a terrorist" - they'd prefer to be back home watching goats on the family farm. But now there is no farm, no home. It was all lost to crony capitalism - as some fat sheik linked to Big Oil introduced foreign warships and army bases in order to keep control and extract oil wealth.

Wind farms, solar & geothermal energy generation can be far quieter and preferable to grease power.

Big Oil should pay themselves for political adventurism in Iraq & Libya. We should halt all public funds flows to the rich nations of the Middle East. Recognize the greasy hand too often picks your pocket -- and just say no.

Serving Slavishly

Texas, USA: Last December, with 18 shopping days remaining to Christmas, single mother-of-two Shelly Marie Frey allegedly shoplifted at a Wal-Mart in Houston, TX. As the 27-year old attempted to leave without paying, she was shot dead.

The shop security worker, an off-duty law enforcement officer, shot Ms. Frey twice in the neck as she tried to escape in a car driven by a female friend. Another friend & two small children also in the vehicle (link) were not hit by the deadly gunfire into the car. 

The dead woman, a New Orleans refugee from Hurricane Katrina, was reportedly in financial trouble partly due to her 2-year old (now orphaned) daughter's struggles with sickle cell anemia.

 

Garbage Times

The New York Times has published an apologist article that provides justification for US Government covert assassination of its own citizens -- murder with no judicial involvement.

Perhaps we should be thankful the newspaper published some author names along with the article - this is lapdog media that often hides sources & composers of systematic misinformation. We're told "the culmination of years of painstaking intelligence work" is assassination, and of another "tragic error" that murdered a 16-year old American boy. Not a single word names anyone responsible, or demands accountability. Anyhow, one more dirty step in a shit-filled nightmare.

Remember how we've been told an untrustworthy Iraqi source nicknamed 'Curveball' under German control led us into war? Mmm -- sure; we're treated as suckers who'll believe anything. However did an American baseball analogy emerge? Just something to fill American heads -- an outward-looking diversion, imagery more palatable than visualizing ourselves as dumb suckers or sheep, or as evil murderers.

We are systematically led to believe we now live in a vermin-filled world, where our shadowy forces of goodness justly exterminate evil enemies in a system with no need for criminal charges or courtrooms. No review of procedures or target(s) need be offered. A US Government "State Secrets Privilege" (link) reigns supreme... ? whatevah.

Arbitrary? Extreme? Lacks transparency & accountability?  Sure !

Words such as safeguards, checks-and-balances, and "rights" as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution have been trashed. Officeholders repudiate the foundation of government.

 

Republicans Against Government

If we can't govern, No one will.

Free-range capitalist Republicans to Shut down Government ! 

With no checks-and-balances, you'll quickly die to trust us...  

RIP, Hugo Chávez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has died at age 58.
The world lost an extraordinary person. Many of his accomplishments are in full flower, others are mere seeds as yet. So many struggles, but not silenced by premature death.

Those whose faith is acquisitiveness & self-aggrandizement will never understand Hugo Chávez. But neither are such individuals deeply mourned at death: loss and grief felt by those closest to the grasping rich are counterbalanced and suppressed by pragmatic machiavellianism - the preeminent interest of Homo economicus is on any potential golden bequest.

Hugo Chávez toiled for more than self & cronies.

The works of Hugo Chávez were guided by a strong sense of liberation theology. We might hope the Roman Catholic Cardinals would also reflect on liberation theology, with focus on service & taking action against poverty, as they convene at the Vatican to choose a new Pope. Vital memories of a simple carpenter, fishermen and their small community must animate rigid, ossified doctrine. Please choose a Church leader with a great heart.

Rest in Peace, Hugo Chávez

Jewish Voice for Peace

"Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what’s right in front of our eyes. It’s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population."
  --  Shulamit Aloni (2006), Israel's Former Minister of Education

הצדקנות היהודית כל-כך מובנית בתוכנו, עד שלעולם איננו מוכנים ליטול קורה מבין עינינו. פשוט לא יכול להיות שהיהודים, שהינם הקורבן האולטימטיבי, יעשו רע. ובכל זאת, מדינת ישראל מבצעת אפרטהייד מובהק ואף אלים בשטחי הגדה המערבית כלפי האוכלוסייה הפלסטינית הילידית

(link to translation)  

Woof Meat

Industry & government regulators play the public as chumps. Processed food testing for horsemeat adulteration is a stupid, tiny response. Meat must also now be tested for other scuzzy fillers & unlabeled additives. The huge fraud trashed trust. Adding hundreds of tons of horse meat (some 2000 horses) to beef slurry is not accidental cross-contamination. The 750-tonne horsemeat fraud involving Spanghero reportedly continued (link) for six months or more.

Perhaps we're eating dead dog or road kill kangaroo...
'Testing' now is only for horse -- what bullshit !

How much you think we dum?

"Two days’ worth of euthanized animals sit in barrels" in California.  
Every year this one animal shelter "euthanizes about 25,000 animals."
A Los Angeles firm processes the animal carcasses to become fertilizer.
(8 Aug 2004, Bakersfield Californian, p.1)

Cross Wired?

For many years I've been a fan and regular reader of Wired magazine. But suddenly, what I considered hip & informed looks more shrewdly contrived & dangerous. I frankly (and foolishly) never thought about who owns the magazine and who controls it.

WIRED played a role in what's become the belated trial of Bradley Manning, heroic American military whistleblower / evil traitor / dumb shit (depending on your perspective). An early Glenn Greenwald report on the case (link) questioning the integrity and motives of key people whose actions led to Manning's incarceration. (Greenwald's most recent article in The Guardian labels Manning a "consummate hero" in spite of our "supine media"). Anyhow, I was triggered to question who owns WIRED magazine?

Advance Publications and publisher Condé Nast are controlled by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., an 85-year old billionaire American, and his family. Their dozens of magazines and diverse news publications help fabricate & define America and it's values.
God bless us everyone !

Below are some WIRED sister publications:

Looking at information packaging, WIRED keeps hot company. Read with a grain of salt....

 

 Create fantasy while despoiling the world...

 

 

E minus one

Andrew Breitbart died suddenly a year ago today.

He was only 43 years old, but he'd made a name for himself as a right-wing asshole who scorned the weak and repeatedly vandalized others' efforts to help the needy. He was fond of dirty tricks, loudly argumentative, a shameless self-promoter, and a willing tool of ruling elites. He also had a loving family. He scoffed when friends asked him to kindly reconsider his extreme condemnations. Unlike Lee Atwater, Breitbart died unrepentant; his last breath on a dark roadside perhaps a sneer at the local Highway Dept.

Andy died without warning, from a deformed heart.

What's his Eternal reward in afterlife? 

Banker Trust?

Jacob J. Lew has quietly become U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

Let's hope Jack Lew serves the wider population and not simply the banking industry. Wall Street financial flim-flams should raise more protests and penalties from Washington.

I'm a bit skeptical when looking at his signature, a series of squirls and a dot. Perhaps he's iconoclastic, or maybe taking the Mickey? Ask your local graphologist, or wait & see how he performs.

We're Lunch

We're Lunch
                                 by Genki

Each should pay our debt, or die
Assert paragons of wealth
Joe Peon fails to comply
Outmaneuvered, lamed in stealth

As bossman takes his pounds of flesh
His lawyers drain the blood
His busboys keep the silver fresh
Our scraps lie in the mud

The well-endowed grab all the gold
And stand upon the slow
Rich whims are instantly bankrolled
We slaves inherit "no"

Oscar Night

We enjoy Oscar Night at my house, though the late timing has us next day picking up the pieces...

Jane Fonda wore a bright yellow dress (link). At 75 she still seems in pretty good shape (after breast cancer, knee & hip replacement, and back surgery). Perhaps she's also had other nips & tucks, but yoga clearly helps.

It was only in reading afterward about the Academy Award night show that Fonda came to my attention, as one writer to a news blog commented about honoring her husband's military service:
     "beiing a Vietnam Vets Wife never watch anything when the Traitor lady is on. He was almost killed over there and too many buddies that didn't make it... just had to turn the channel,and miss the rest of show."

Fonda in Vietnam was a bit before my time, but damage & death done by that war and the warmakers is a responsibility others should admit & answer for: Cheney, Kissinger, Kennedy, McNamara, Colby, Rumsfeld, Nixon, Rockefeller, etc. are truly criminals. Killing and assassinating Southeast Asian farmers & their families, shooting antiwar protesting students at Kent State & Jackson State, trying to club & bayonet democracy into submission - these were the worst of deeds by horribly misguided American men.

Cheat Armstrong

Lance Armstrong is now an admitted liar and cheat. According to the transcript of his recent interview:
 
Oprah Winfrey: Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?
Lance Armstrong: "Yes."
Was one of those banned substances EPO?
"Yes."
Did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance?
"Yes."
Did you ever use any other banned substances such as testosterone, cortisone or Human Growth Hormone?
"Yes."
In all seven of your Tour de France victories, did you ever take banned substances or blood dope?
"Yes."

Lance Armstrong also defiantly bullied honest people who got in his way. He repeatedly sued, suborned & manipulated. He perverted the legal system.

This is a person without decency. He's surprised his sponsors dismissed him, but America's too lenient. He's a professional thief - an admitted swindler. He's been promoted as a hero when he's a fraud. Armstrong personally stole over US$200 million (link) while his marketing partners traded on his fraud and pocketed billions.

It's tough to find any positive lesson in this cesspit. Lance enjoyed more than a decade of fame & fortune that someone else deserved. Put him in a prison cell with Bernie Madoff, both me-me symbols of corruption and heroic belligerent selfishness.

Lance Armstrong's repeat actions over many years shame his family and his community. Those who wore his yellow bracelet, or purchased products he endorsed, are fiendishly betrayed. He brazenly deluded himself, the State of Texas and his nation. He should be shunned as scum.