I just ran across this video on YouTube and had to mention it. Why? Because, before we go through this kind of thing again, we need to review what we've done in the past. History, is the foreteller of the future, if we are not careful and learn form it.
John Cleese, during an interview in 2008, was asked his opinion on Sarah Palin.
Cleese broke out in laughter. He then said, she was very good at being a "parrot"; that she delivered her speeches very well, she must have an incredible memory, with an itinerant "Ah, shucks" thrown in here and there. But that it was unbelievable that she had been asked to be the vice presidential nominee.
Cleease went on to say that "Monty Python, could have written this" situation; and, "I'm sorry Michael Palin, but you are no longer the funniest Palin around". He was speaking to the age and health of McCain, put up against Palin one day, possibly having to run the most office of the most powerful country in the history of the world.
How was it possible Republican party? What the hell were you thinking? I understand the concept of including something to gain attention, to get people to like something, to feel attracted to something. But, come on!
Christopher Hitchens said that people should have not only refused to vote for McCain, but also all Republicans down the line in a show of force; thereby telling the Republican Party that "we're just not that stupid, so stop treating us as such."
But alas, America chose not to. They didn't take up the banner to fight against the belief that they truly are ignoramuses. Luckily, the opposing party, had a candidate and a situation that was timely and needed, in order to turn the World's opinion of who we are as a nation, back around and at least give us the chance at another look from the people we share this world with. And luckily, they won.
Luckily. Now that IS sad, that luck should have anything to do with a choice between Palin and Obama. McCain? Yeah, he was in there somewhere. But this was what it actually came down to, this was what the Republican party set up.
And luckily, they got what they planned, nothing.
Here, watch for yourself, its quite entertaining:
Cleese on Palin
I so love listening to people not from America talking about us, it can really put you in your place sometimes.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
If Twitter were available to Napoleon
Napoleon: Josephine! My Petit Whore! How are you?
Josephine: How is my Petit Caporal, on his campaign today?
Napoleon: The secret of war lies in the communications. I tell you, I freaking LOVE this Twitter thing!
Josephine: Oui, mon Cherie, but you know how I do not like to talk about ugly war things. Couldn't Twitter help you win the wars easier?
Napoleon: What? Nonsense, its but a toy. Oh, well...and you know? People keep referring to me in the street as, "That Corsican"! So rude!
Josephine: I do not think it sounds so that bad, Cherie? You can be MY petit Corsican any time.
Napoleon: But, I hate it! I HATE it! I'd rather be called..."Le Bishop"! Or, ooo, I know! "Le Emporer"!
Josephine: Aw, they'll call you "Le Emporer" one day. Just keep demanding it. France will simply forget not to call you that & just fall into step.
Napoleon: France? No, Germany? Maybe. But maybe so. And after all I've done for them, too!
Josephine: Oui, decreasing the burden on the State through massive attrition WAS very creative, Cherie, my Great big, petite mon Emporer!
Napoleon: What? What was that? I didn't quite hear you....
Josephine: Oui Cherie, my Great big, petite mon Emporer! And you can't "hear" text, my petit fool.
Napoleon: Say it again....?
Josephine: Come back here and I shall whisper it to any part of your petit self that you wish!
Napoleon: Arghhhh! I really hate this Spanish country! You know I've had to recapture Madrid...AGAIN?
Josephine: When you return I will recapture Your Royal Madrid my petit Grand Soldier.
Napoleon: How are you coming along with that whole, giving me a male heir thing?
Josephine: But, you are not here and you know, and I need to practice practice practice....
Napoleon: Oui, Josephine, I am practicing daily.
Josephine: What?!
Napoleon: I mean, I think about practicing, daily. Merde!
Josephine: You are not playing with those little whores who follow your war machine everywhere you go, are you?
Napoleon: Hello? Hello? Damn, reception here is so bad!
Josephine: Don't you give me that, you petit midget. You'd better NOT be playing the field.
Napoleon: But, mon cherie, it is my JOB to play in the fields, and you know, slaughter, bludgeon, and KA Bang!
Josephine: Oui, cherie. Well, bang well, Cherie, I will boom you like a cannon when you return.
Napoleon: Merde! I hate Spain!
Josephine: How is my Petit Caporal, on his campaign today?
Napoleon: The secret of war lies in the communications. I tell you, I freaking LOVE this Twitter thing!
Josephine: Oui, mon Cherie, but you know how I do not like to talk about ugly war things. Couldn't Twitter help you win the wars easier?
Napoleon: What? Nonsense, its but a toy. Oh, well...and you know? People keep referring to me in the street as, "That Corsican"! So rude!
Josephine: I do not think it sounds so that bad, Cherie? You can be MY petit Corsican any time.
Napoleon: But, I hate it! I HATE it! I'd rather be called..."Le Bishop"! Or, ooo, I know! "Le Emporer"!
Josephine: Aw, they'll call you "Le Emporer" one day. Just keep demanding it. France will simply forget not to call you that & just fall into step.
Napoleon: France? No, Germany? Maybe. But maybe so. And after all I've done for them, too!
Josephine: Oui, decreasing the burden on the State through massive attrition WAS very creative, Cherie, my Great big, petite mon Emporer!
Napoleon: What? What was that? I didn't quite hear you....
Josephine: Oui Cherie, my Great big, petite mon Emporer! And you can't "hear" text, my petit fool.
Napoleon: Say it again....?
Josephine: Come back here and I shall whisper it to any part of your petit self that you wish!
Napoleon: Arghhhh! I really hate this Spanish country! You know I've had to recapture Madrid...AGAIN?
Josephine: When you return I will recapture Your Royal Madrid my petit Grand Soldier.
Napoleon: How are you coming along with that whole, giving me a male heir thing?
Josephine: But, you are not here and you know, and I need to practice practice practice....
Napoleon: Oui, Josephine, I am practicing daily.
Josephine: What?!
Napoleon: I mean, I think about practicing, daily. Merde!
Josephine: You are not playing with those little whores who follow your war machine everywhere you go, are you?
Napoleon: Hello? Hello? Damn, reception here is so bad!
Josephine: Don't you give me that, you petit midget. You'd better NOT be playing the field.
Napoleon: But, mon cherie, it is my JOB to play in the fields, and you know, slaughter, bludgeon, and KA Bang!
Josephine: Oui, cherie. Well, bang well, Cherie, I will boom you like a cannon when you return.
Napoleon: Merde! I hate Spain!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Raul Julia's last film: "Down came a Blackbird"
Last week, I saw a movie listed to be on TV that looked interesting and so I Tivoed it. It was, 1995s "Down came a blackbird" with Laura Dern, Vanessa Redgrave and Raul Julia. It is about torture victims at a clinic for their type, by a Dr. who is a holocaust survivor.
I find interesting, stories about political intrigue and its ramifications. Perhaps as a way to stay conscious of what can happen, anywhere. Because, with some of the things we are seeing in our on country, the "Land of the Free, home of the brave", I've seen too many instances of our rights deteriorating, our freedoms suffering restrictions, to the popular interests of the fearful, the uneducated, the powerful and the greedy.
A few quotes from William S. Burroughs. Why? Because it shows a certain thought process, or defective way of thinking, ones that we are prone to do, ones that we tend to flock, to as a mob:
* A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what's going on.
o Quoted in Friend magazine (1970)
* There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.
o Cities of the Red Night (1981)
* Most of the trouble in the world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.
o "My Own Business" in The Adding Machine : Selected Essays (1985), p. 16
* This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.
o "The War Universe", taped conversation, first published in Grand Street, No. 37 (1991)
* After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
o Grand Street, no. 37 & The War Universe (1992)
Back to the film...it starts with Dern in South America as a journalist with a partner doing the job that those types tend to do in a country such as they were in. They were picked up and tortured by death squads and only she made it out alive.
She met the Dr. (Redgrave) who survived the Nazis concentration camps as a child and the Dr. asks Dern's character to come to her clinic, because she needs it. But Dern refuses and needs a reason, the reason being, she see is enticed by the possibility of a very good story in it. But is she really doing it for the story, or because deep down she knows she needs it, but can only do it by fooling herself?
At this point, I had forgotten Raul was in this film. He had always been one of my favorite actors. I never thought much of him, until I saw him in "Kiss of the Spiderwoman", another film about political abuses in a South American country, with William Hurt as a gay prisoner; Raul, being the exact opposite of Hurt's character. It is an affecting story, at times, difficult to watch, just as it was as a stage play, powerful, disturbing, affecting.
So, when Raul turns up in the movie, finally, it was a shock in...several ways.
After Dern arrives at the clinic and settles in, Raul's character arrives, suave in a way, secretly paranoid, but with a real squad from his homeland, trying to track him down. When Raul appeared, I was stunned at his appearance, because he was so gaunt, so weak looking. I couldn't understand it until I looked the movie up on IMDB and discovered this was his last film before he died in 1994; the movie being only released in 1995.
I think, it is a tribute to Raul, as a man and an actor, that this should prove to be his last role. I would have perhaps, preferred, that his last role had been a happy character, as in "The Addams Family" film, when he played Gomez; one of my favorite TV shows of the 60s.
Regarding this last role of Raul's life and film career...whenever I write horror stories, it is as an attack against what I am fearful of, of what I am against in life, about those injustices in the world; in order to make people think, to make them rail against what is bad and evil and wrong. A woman once read a short story of mine, one of "social horror" as I like to call it; and she said after, with a look of horror on her face: "You don't, see things that way, do you?"
Of course, I don't. That, was the point.
I see things, in the exact opposite of the story's main character. I wrote it that way so that YOU will understand what is horrible, to see what evil sees, to realize the narcotic powers it has over some, to fear what is bad in life, then to feel motivated to fight against it, to recognize it, to refuse to put up with it.
This film was a very interesting story, at times, difficult to watch and difficult to listen to. But a powerful tale and one that gives us a better understanding of what torture victims live through afterward, but more importantly, what it is that goes on. What goes on in the way of anyone, doing this to someone, or allowing it, to happen to someone.
Has America ever done this, or allowed this to happen by third parties? Have we tortured, or set up people to be tortured? "Waterboarded"? Terrified? Humiliated? Have we ever redefined what the word "torture" means in order to allow us to be justified, to be able to do it? Do we, as citizens have any responsibility in our government having done this? IS it justified? Is ANYTHING to be justified in the process of national security? Perhaps, at times, the answer is yes; still, we then have that blood on our hands, too. Do you find that...unsettling to think of?
It is strange and curious in the way we Humans can be. One thing that kept sticking in my mind through nearly the entire film, that I really hated Laura Dern's hair style. Funny how we will latch on to something when we are uncomfortable, in an attempt to try and allay in any way possible, our fears, our embarrassments. To be able to do what needs to be done. To misdirect our attention, to complete an uncomfortable, or disagreeable task. How do the torturers rationalize their behaviors, their jobs, when they go home at night, to family, friends, even their religion?
"Sing a Song of Sixpence", a Nursery Rhyme:
Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing;
Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.
I find interesting, stories about political intrigue and its ramifications. Perhaps as a way to stay conscious of what can happen, anywhere. Because, with some of the things we are seeing in our on country, the "Land of the Free, home of the brave", I've seen too many instances of our rights deteriorating, our freedoms suffering restrictions, to the popular interests of the fearful, the uneducated, the powerful and the greedy.
A few quotes from William S. Burroughs. Why? Because it shows a certain thought process, or defective way of thinking, ones that we are prone to do, ones that we tend to flock, to as a mob:
* A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what's going on.
o Quoted in Friend magazine (1970)
* There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.
o Cities of the Red Night (1981)
* Most of the trouble in the world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.
o "My Own Business" in The Adding Machine : Selected Essays (1985), p. 16
* This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.
o "The War Universe", taped conversation, first published in Grand Street, No. 37 (1991)
* After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
o Grand Street, no. 37 & The War Universe (1992)
Back to the film...it starts with Dern in South America as a journalist with a partner doing the job that those types tend to do in a country such as they were in. They were picked up and tortured by death squads and only she made it out alive.
She met the Dr. (Redgrave) who survived the Nazis concentration camps as a child and the Dr. asks Dern's character to come to her clinic, because she needs it. But Dern refuses and needs a reason, the reason being, she see is enticed by the possibility of a very good story in it. But is she really doing it for the story, or because deep down she knows she needs it, but can only do it by fooling herself?
At this point, I had forgotten Raul was in this film. He had always been one of my favorite actors. I never thought much of him, until I saw him in "Kiss of the Spiderwoman", another film about political abuses in a South American country, with William Hurt as a gay prisoner; Raul, being the exact opposite of Hurt's character. It is an affecting story, at times, difficult to watch, just as it was as a stage play, powerful, disturbing, affecting.
So, when Raul turns up in the movie, finally, it was a shock in...several ways.
After Dern arrives at the clinic and settles in, Raul's character arrives, suave in a way, secretly paranoid, but with a real squad from his homeland, trying to track him down. When Raul appeared, I was stunned at his appearance, because he was so gaunt, so weak looking. I couldn't understand it until I looked the movie up on IMDB and discovered this was his last film before he died in 1994; the movie being only released in 1995.
I think, it is a tribute to Raul, as a man and an actor, that this should prove to be his last role. I would have perhaps, preferred, that his last role had been a happy character, as in "The Addams Family" film, when he played Gomez; one of my favorite TV shows of the 60s.
Regarding this last role of Raul's life and film career...whenever I write horror stories, it is as an attack against what I am fearful of, of what I am against in life, about those injustices in the world; in order to make people think, to make them rail against what is bad and evil and wrong. A woman once read a short story of mine, one of "social horror" as I like to call it; and she said after, with a look of horror on her face: "You don't, see things that way, do you?"
Of course, I don't. That, was the point.
I see things, in the exact opposite of the story's main character. I wrote it that way so that YOU will understand what is horrible, to see what evil sees, to realize the narcotic powers it has over some, to fear what is bad in life, then to feel motivated to fight against it, to recognize it, to refuse to put up with it.
This film was a very interesting story, at times, difficult to watch and difficult to listen to. But a powerful tale and one that gives us a better understanding of what torture victims live through afterward, but more importantly, what it is that goes on. What goes on in the way of anyone, doing this to someone, or allowing it, to happen to someone.
Has America ever done this, or allowed this to happen by third parties? Have we tortured, or set up people to be tortured? "Waterboarded"? Terrified? Humiliated? Have we ever redefined what the word "torture" means in order to allow us to be justified, to be able to do it? Do we, as citizens have any responsibility in our government having done this? IS it justified? Is ANYTHING to be justified in the process of national security? Perhaps, at times, the answer is yes; still, we then have that blood on our hands, too. Do you find that...unsettling to think of?
It is strange and curious in the way we Humans can be. One thing that kept sticking in my mind through nearly the entire film, that I really hated Laura Dern's hair style. Funny how we will latch on to something when we are uncomfortable, in an attempt to try and allay in any way possible, our fears, our embarrassments. To be able to do what needs to be done. To misdirect our attention, to complete an uncomfortable, or disagreeable task. How do the torturers rationalize their behaviors, their jobs, when they go home at night, to family, friends, even their religion?
"Sing a Song of Sixpence", a Nursery Rhyme:
Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing;
Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.
Jim Henson - New graphic novel to be released
A new graphic novel to be released developed by Jim Henson. The production of the book will be overseen by Henson’s daughter, Lisa Henson, CEO of the Henson Company In 2009 a deal was made with Archaia an independent L.A. graphic novel publisher to produce graphic novels and periodical comics based on Henson material. Archaia editor-in-chief Stephen Christy, who will also oversee the book’s production,.
The book was originally developed in the 1960s and Christy says it went through numerous drafts but was “too expansive to be produced as a film at that time. Christy said the Tale of Sand was “an idea that was in Henson’s head since the 1950s. We have 3 or 4 versions and we’re going to base the book on a 1974 draft.”
"A Tale of Sand" is a feature length screenplay, Christy said, that tells the story of a young boy kicked out of a dusty town in the middle of the desert. “There’s nothing but sand in every direction,” Christy said, “and he embarks on an oddball journey.” Christy said the screenplay is “dark and very weird” and was done before Henson made films like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal.
From: blogs.publishersweekly.com
The book was originally developed in the 1960s and Christy says it went through numerous drafts but was “too expansive to be produced as a film at that time. Christy said the Tale of Sand was “an idea that was in Henson’s head since the 1950s. We have 3 or 4 versions and we’re going to base the book on a 1974 draft.”
"A Tale of Sand" is a feature length screenplay, Christy said, that tells the story of a young boy kicked out of a dusty town in the middle of the desert. “There’s nothing but sand in every direction,” Christy said, “and he embarks on an oddball journey.” Christy said the screenplay is “dark and very weird” and was done before Henson made films like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal.
From: blogs.publishersweekly.com
Monday, August 2, 2010
Life insurance comapnies profiting from your loved one's death?
NPR had an article this week about insurance companies paying out death benefits to family members, to the beneficiaries of life insurance policies.
It seems, that when you get death benefits from a Life Insurance company, did you know that they put the money into an account and give you drafts off your own money, keeping the interest earned as profits for themselves? But that is your money, your earned interest.
They are not like a bank, mind you, insurance companies have the money set aside for you so don't have to worry about a run on the banks if everyone wants to suddenly do this. Which won't happen, but that doesn't mean some of us cannot demand to be recompensed for our loss through their greed. I know, we all need insurance and it is a great thing in many ways. But I also know that in many other ways, insurance is a form of institutionalized, legalized blackmail. Or gambling, where as always, the odds are skewed purposely in the favor of the house.
From what this NPR article implies, insurance companies have been ripping people off legally for so many years, that now it is simply invisible to everyone.
And of course, they deny it...all. Such a surprise. Yes?
NPR
It seems, that when you get death benefits from a Life Insurance company, did you know that they put the money into an account and give you drafts off your own money, keeping the interest earned as profits for themselves? But that is your money, your earned interest.
They are not like a bank, mind you, insurance companies have the money set aside for you so don't have to worry about a run on the banks if everyone wants to suddenly do this. Which won't happen, but that doesn't mean some of us cannot demand to be recompensed for our loss through their greed. I know, we all need insurance and it is a great thing in many ways. But I also know that in many other ways, insurance is a form of institutionalized, legalized blackmail. Or gambling, where as always, the odds are skewed purposely in the favor of the house.
From what this NPR article implies, insurance companies have been ripping people off legally for so many years, that now it is simply invisible to everyone.
And of course, they deny it...all. Such a surprise. Yes?
NPR
Humor - The Push
I had a friend once, named Mike.
He died playing blackjack.
On his next bid he called for a "push", and it killed him.
Actually, he was standing near a cliff and he was pushed. It makes me sad.
But I do feel so much better now about his affair with my girlfriend.
And I am glad they had a chance to get to know one another better.
In fact, she's with him now.
I wonder if they're playing cards?
He died playing blackjack.
On his next bid he called for a "push", and it killed him.
Actually, he was standing near a cliff and he was pushed. It makes me sad.
But I do feel so much better now about his affair with my girlfriend.
And I am glad they had a chance to get to know one another better.
In fact, she's with him now.
I wonder if they're playing cards?
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Trip
When you can see where you are going to end up in Life, and its not what you started toward; when the end is justifying the means, and you know that somewhere along the line, the train has jumped the tracks, and is now barreling on toward a destination near the precincts of Hell; simply enjoy the trip, because the journey is all that's left; and departing the train will be your last great enjoyment on this journey.
But relax, because even your sojourn in Hell, is only temporary.
If however, this journey is in the realm of adding to the misery of the World, then do us all the great favor to leap from the train.
In fact, do it now.
But relax, because even your sojourn in Hell, is only temporary.
If however, this journey is in the realm of adding to the misery of the World, then do us all the great favor to leap from the train.
In fact, do it now.
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