Is the world going redneck?

Conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy trumped Segolene Royal in the hotly-contested French presidential election, 53% to 47%. And 85% if the eligible voters hit the polls. . .the frogs may be little misguided, but they turn out to vote in numbers that make America look pathetically apathetic.

The White House has to be celebrating this one. With Stephen Harper as the PM in Canada, and now Sarkozy in France, The White House may have some friends. . .especially now that Tony Blair is hitting the bricks. And those pesky frogs have caused President Bush nothing but trouble over his adventures in the middle-east. You do have to wonder, when do the riots in France begin?

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Sheryl Crowe Reiterates And Tells Us The Toilet Paper Thing Was Actually. . .A Joke

Sheryl Crowe gives us all a scolding in The Huffington Post. She also says that the whole toilet paper brouhaha was a "joke."

"It's been well over a week since our little run in with the adviser to our president. I am just now processing all that took place during the last few days of the Stop Global Warming College tour and a few concerns still hang heavy on my mind and heart. "

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Mission Accomplished: Day 5 (Mission Accomplished Souvenir Poster)

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A great Devo video & lyrics for Come Back Jonee

I recently picked up a couple of Devo albums (a twofer: Duty Now For The Future/New Traditionalists) and have been enjoying renewing my acquaintance. You'd think Devo would be the most dated of all the bands from the 70s/early 80s. They sound amazingly good; they've aged well. One of my favorite tunes from their early albums is Come Back Jonee. . .a version--it's not quite a cover (I wonder if they had to pay Chuck Berry royalties?)--but a transformation of Johnny Be Good (similar in spirit to maybe Anne Sexton's Tranformations). They pack a lot of drama into one small song.

Gerald Casale, who co-wrote much of Devo's material, along with Mark Mothersbaugh, said that Come Back Jonee uses 50s rock and roll metaphors to mourn the passing of John F.Kennedy.

On a side note, 23 seconds into the video, you'll see and hear the loudest mike bump I've ever heard. It such a weird sound, it could almost be Foley'd in...it's a clank sound--I'm used to mike bumps sounding pretty percussive with a lot of bottom end...





Come Back Jonee

jonee went to the pawnshop
bought himself a guitar
now he's gonna go far
you gotta love 'em and leave 'em
sometimes you deceive 'em
you made her cry
jonee you're bad
you're gonna make her sad
jonee jumped in his datsun
drove out on the expressway
went head-on into a semi
his guitar is all that's left now
he made her cry
now she calls his name
jonee you're to blame
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More photos commemorating MISSION ACCOMPLISHED week

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The Unknown Hitler, Partly Unveiled

In The Unknown Hitler: His Private Life and Fortune by Wulf Schwarzwaller, Herr. Schwarwaller suggests that Hitler's persuasive powers were based on lessons he learned from Sufiism, Gurdjieff, teachings of Tibetan llamas, and Zen Buddhism.

“In Berlin, Haushofer had founded the Luminous Lodge or the Vril Society. The Lodge's objective was to explore the origins of the Aryan race and to perform exercises in concentration to awaken the forces of "Vril."

"Haushofer was a student of the Russian magician and metaphysician George Gurdjieff. Both Gurdjieff and Haushofer maintained that they had contacts with secret Tibetan lodges that possessed the secret of the "Superman." The Lodge included Hitler, Aalfred, Rosenberg, Himmler, Goring and Hitler's subsequent personal physician Dr. Morell.

He also writes that:

"Alister Crowley and Gurdjieff sought contact with Hitler. Hitler's unusual powers of suggestion become more understandable if one keeps in mind that he had access to the "secret" psychological techniques of Gurdjieff which, in turn, were based on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan lamas and familiarized him with the Zen teaching of the Japanese Society of the Green Dragon.”

BTW, I have heard the book this quote comes from described as "a tabloid in hard covers," and even harder to put down than a juicy tabloid. Alas, the book is out of print, but you can find used copies on the net.
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Photo: "Mission Accomplished!"/Day Four Of Mission Accomplished Week

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Day Three Of All This Is That's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED WEEK

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"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

click to enlarge - the photo's provenance is unknown

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Prisonplanet.com rips into fark.com

Prisonplanet.com has an axe to grind with fark.com:



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Neil Young/Stephen Stills talk about Buffalo Springfield (with lyrics to Young's Bufflo Springfield Again and a video of For What It's Worth)

Stephen Stills and his on-again off-again long-time bandmate Neil Young reminisce about the days of Buffalo Springfield. The last video is a promotional film for For What It's worth.

Interview Clip One:



Interview Clip Two:



Interview Clip Three:



Buffalo Springfield play For What It's Worth from a 1967 promo video:



Buffalo Springfield Again
By Neil Young


Used to play
in a rock 'n' roll band,
But they broke up.
We were young and we were wild,
It ate us up.
Now I'm not saying
who was right or wrong.

Looking out on a big green lawn,
Girls and boys
Playing in the afternoon sun,
Life's a joy
I heard an old song
playing on the radio.

Buffalo Springfield again.

I'd like to see those guys again,
And give it a shot.
Maybe now we can show the world,
What we've got.
But I'd just like to play
for the fun we had.

Buffalo Springfield again.
Buffalo Springfield again.
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Ungawa! A parable of George Bush's failed "mission" in Iraq

A Texas business man traveled to Japan for some business meetings and a few rounds of golf. He arrived in Tokyo the night before his meetngs.

Feeling lonely that evening, he employed a gorgeous young Japanese girl as his companion. The girl spoke very little English and the honky businessman. of course, spoke no Japanese. Over the course of the night, the ended up making the beast with two backs. . They made passionate love, and in the heat of the moment she began yelling "Ungawa! Ungawa!"

The Texan knew he had pleased his hot Japanese friend and soon fell sleep.

The next day, Mr. Businessman was playing golf with his Japanese hosts. One of his Japanese partners made a hole-in-one shot from 170 yards away! Everyone went crazy and began yelling excitedly in Japanese. Wanting to impress his friends, the Texan joined in and began yelling, "Ungawa! Ungawa!" Suddenly everyone became quiet.

After a moment of silence, one of the Japanese turned to him and asked "Wrong hole? What do you mean wrong hole?"

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Today is the 4th anniversary of Accomplishing Our Mission In Iraq

It was four years ago today that President Bush told that nation that "major combat operations" in Iraq were over. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars later. . . .well, we're just getting started.

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Crackdown on toilet paper in Kansas prison: warden apparently gi-normous Sheryl Crow fan

According to the Associated Press, toilet paper is now a hotter trading commodity at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility than cigarettes. Prison officials in Kansas have recently begun enforcement of a longstanding limit on prisoner toulet paper rations.

Inmates are now limited to four rolls of toilet paper each. "The increased enforcement has angered many of the more than 1,600 inmates housed at the facility."

"Some take this for granted," inmate Carl Kennedy said in a letter to The Hutchinson News. "But in here it's part of a safeguard for widespread infections. We use it to blow our noses, clean sinks, toilets and tables."


If each inmate uses one less roll per month, according to prison officials, they would save the prison $600 a month. "There are a lot of things that individually don't cost much," said Kansas Department of Corrections spokeswoman Frances Breyne. "But when you multiply that by hundreds, it makes a drastic impact."
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Alien Lore No. 106 - The 1989 UFO Battle Over Russia

One of the best known Russian UFOlogists—Nikolay Subbotin—told this story to his fellow American UFOlogists. This bizarre story took place in the skies 0ver Zaostrovka on September 16, 1989. Six metallic UFOs and one golden UFO battled it out.

Mr. Subbotin says hundreds of people witnessed a group of six silver saucers fight against one golden UFO. The UFOs engaged in a stunning show of aerial acrobatics, flying as low as one mile above the earth. Red beams, or lasers of some sort were the weapons.


A Russian UFO web site says that an account of the battle was published in the local paper, the "Semipalatinsk." The report was written by a helicopter commander named Sichenko, who claimed that the energy generated by the warring UFOs was so intense that local power stations automatically shut down.


The witnesses interviewed by Sichenko said that the golden UFO was finally defeated, after fighting a heroic battle, and crashed into a bog on the military test range. The area was then zoned off to everyone except military personnel.

Subbotin says a Russian army team searched the area following the battle and crash and that the story leaked out from these searchers.


The entire area was insanely high in radiation readings following the crash, and was eventually shut down. A crew of military personnel guarded the site. And there the story comes to an crashing halt. This is one of those plausible sounding cases, with many witnesses, where so few details have actually emerged that it is impossible to vet its veracity.
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