Painting: Shark Rampage

Click painting to enlarge...

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Painting: The UFOs Approach Warp Speed

Click painting to enlarge

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President Fiddling While Rome Burns?

The President Hams It Up

Tuesday, August 30, 2005


Two excerpts from today's New York Times editorial page:

"George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end. "

". . . .nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

Sixty-six Years Ago Today, Hitler Invaded Poland

<-- Click image to enlarge-->

On September 1, 1939, at 4:45 a.m. in the morning, 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along its1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. The German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked the Polish navy in the Baltic. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action. Thus began World War II. The U.S. would keep its head buried in the sand for several years until the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. . .

Just about every country that fought in World War I also fought in World War II[1]. This was a World War, ranging from Europe/Russia to Tunisia in North Africa, China, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. Some say the war started with Hitler's march on Prague in March, 1939, or the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Maybe it was when Adolf pulled the wool over Josef 's eyes and they agreed to the secret Hitler-Stalin Pact. Wasn't that what emboldened Hitler to make a move in the first place. Eventually, of course, Hitler made war on Stalin too. . .

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[1] The cause of the war is often thought to be the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, and most of all, nationalism. In the end, every cause of the war can be classed as ambition or madness.

Update On The Murder Of Emmett Till

Further to All This Is That for August 28, 2005, I found a newspaper article, and the photograph of Emmett Till in his coffin. His mother ordered an open casket so the world could see what had been done.

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Finding Vs. Looting In New Orleans

This issue came up last night on Hardball. . .what is the difference between looting and surviving? Are the rules of engagement for police different for food and water than luxury items? What if you take five gallons of fresh water from a store? A high-def TV? Ana Marie Cox in her extremely popular and often funny blog, Wonkette may have been the first person to point out these two similar (differing, really, by one critical word) wire stories.

The AP and AFP have a different take on it. It depends what color you are. See the captions below. People on boards and blogs are outraged at the AP. . .and yet, it is the AFP wire that gives the whites the free pass. I don't think most of us would disagree they were all looters?


Tue Aug 30,11:31 AM ET

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Tue Aug 30, 3:47 AM ET

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)

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Jerry Garcia, August 1942-August 1995

I can't really let the month of August go by without mentioning that it was ten years ago this month that Jerry Garcia died. Some quotes from Jed:



"Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. "

"For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part. "

"I'm shopping around for something to do that no one will like. "

"Nobody stopped thinking about those psychedelic experiences. Once you've been to some of those places, you think, 'How can I get back there again but make it a little easier on myself?' "

"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. "

"It's pretty clear now that what looked like it might have been some kind of counterculture is, in reality, just the plain old chaos of undifferentiated weirdness. "

"I read somewhere that 77 per cent of all the mentally ill live in poverty. Actually, I'm more intrigued by the 23 per cent who are apparently doing quite well for themselves."

"What we do is as American as lynch mobs. America has always been a complex place. "

Update On The Human Zoo In London

The "human zoo" exhibit continued in London until yesterday, provoking amused comments from many visitors, including many expressing disappointment that the the homo sapiens were partly clothed and were not breeding.

The three male and five female Homo sapiens were separated from their primate cousins by an electric fence. The human zoo volunteers have diverse interests, from a chemist hoping to raise awareness about apes to a self-described actor/model and fitness enthusiast.

Chemist Tom Mahoney, 26, decided to participate after his friend sent him an e-mail about the contest as a joke. Anything that draws attention to apes, he said, has his support.

"A lot of people think humans are above other animals," he said. "When they see humans as animals, here, it kind of reminds us that we're not that special."

Actor Brendan Carr, 25, won his place by submitting a spot of anthropomorphic verse: "I'm funky like a monkey and as cool as a cat, talk more than a parrot, up all night like a bat."

"You can tell why some people came here, like the big muscly men who clearly like parading around in thongs," said Damien Largey, 23.



The human captives were kept well-fed and watered by zoo staff, who took care to ensure they did not grow bored. A supply of board games was on hand, and some said they were looking forward to tuning into the England-Australia cricket match on the radio.

Pointing at one heavily muscled and gleaming body on the ledge, a visitor joked that the zoo should consider a breeding program.

Unlike the zoo's non-human inhabitants, they are allowed to go home each night at closing time. The event runs until Monday.


Peter Bohn, 42, saw the "animals" juggling, he stopped and had a good laugh. "It's hilarious," he said. "It turns everything upside down. It makes you think about the humans in relation to the animals."

Melissa Wecker, 21, was disappointed that the humans were wearing swimsuits beneath their fig leaves. "They're not doing anything. It looked lots better on the news," she complained.
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Today In History: Cleopatra Commits Suicide

click image of Caesar & Cleopatra to enlarge

On August 30, 30 B.C. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, killed herself after the defeat of her forces against Octavian (future first emperor of Rome).

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F*** You, Headmaster! - Language Tolerance In The U.K.

Today, from the London Daily Mail. Click here to read the entire story.


A secondary school is to allow pupils to swear at teachers - as long as they don't do so more than five times in a lesson. A running tally of how many times the f-word has been used will be kept on the board. If a class goes over the limit, they will be 'spoken' to at the end of the lesson.

The astonishing policy, which the school says will improve the behaviour of pupils, was condemned by parents' groups and MPs yesterday. They warned it would backfire.

Parents were advised of the plan, which comes into effect when term starts next week, in a letter from the Weavers School in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

"Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score," he wrote in the letter. . .

Emmett Till Was Murdered Fifty Years Ago Today -- Songs by Bob Dylan & Phil Ochs

Fifty years ago, on Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men.

He had allegedly whistled at a white woman. He was found in a river, brutally murdered three days later.

The men charged with Till's murder—Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam—were acquitted at trial.

They later confessed in a magazine article to beating and shooting Till .

Emmett Till's body was displayed in an open casket; it had been monstrously brutalized. The contrast with the handsome kid was appalling. Songs (like the two below, written a few years later, in the early 60's), and plays and articles focused on the death of Till and what it symbolized about Missisippi, the south, and America in general... This had to be one of the early moments that crystalized the civil rights movement.

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Too Many Martyrs
by Phil Ochs

In the state of Mississippi many years ago
A boy of 14 years got a taste of southern law
He saw his friend a hanging and his color was his crime
And the blood upon his jacket left a brand upon his mind


CHORUS:
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again

His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone
Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we'll never know
They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground
But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down

Chorus

The killer waited by his home hidden by the night
As Evers stepped out from his car into the rifle sight
he slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side
It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died.

Chorus

And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear
laid him in his grave when the victory was near
While we waited for the future for freedom through the land (*)
The country gained a killer and the country lost a man

Chorus
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan

'Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago walked through a Southern door.
This boy's fateful tragedy you should all remember well,
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I disremember what.
They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat.
There was screamin' sounds inside the barn, there was laughin' sounds out
on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a blood red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screamin' pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it was no lie,
Was just for the fun of killing him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful
crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the mornin' papers but I could not bear
To see the smiling brothers walking down the courthouse stairs.
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it
must refuse to flow,
For you'd let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we give all we could give,
We'd make this great land of ours a greater place to live.
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The Human Zoo, Or, I Am An Admitted Homo Sapien

Homo sapiens, London Zoo's newest exhibit are seen in their enclosure in London, Thursday Aug.25, 2005. "The four day exhibit made up of volunteers runs from 26-29 August and highlights the spread of earth's most adaptable species."

Naturally, they were hot-looking, buff homo sapiens in bathing suits, thongs, and fig leaves.
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