When life's motorcycle has a zen-ful moment and the art of finagling her back depends on cinching something down— duct-tape is handy— but even better is a wingnut!
This blog is either the rantings of a loose cannon, or the canon for a new time! Enjoy.
The Motion Picture Association of America, lobby for big media, doesn't like showing picture the Bush Administration doesn't want you to see. Once again, the myth of liberal media stands exposed to truth... what do you think?
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi's poster as being not suitable for all audiences. The poster for the film simply shows two soldiers walking away from the camera, holding a hooded detainee between them.
The Taxi ad art is an actual photograph taken by Corbis Photographer, Shaun Schwarz, who's original image was intentionaly deleted by the military- but not before he transferred a copy to his flash drive. The original shot was of only one soldier and the hooded detainee, a second soldier was added digitally for balance and effect.
According to ThinkFilm, which produced the documentary, the MPAA objected to the image of the hood.
Last year, the MPAA also censored censored the poster for the documentary The Road to Guantanamo, because it showed a detainee hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.
Poster images for Taxi and Road are based on factual evidence. But interestingly, many horror films released for Christmas... as well as several slasher films shown on TV during the christmas holiday... show hoods, torture, dismemberment and far more horrific imagery.... but thats okay... cuz the Bush Administration doesn't mind showing images that create terror and fear... just not the ones they're actually doing in our name!!!
A look at some of the posters the MPAA has approved as suitable for all audiences this holiday season.
Adelheid Meirs created some excellent charts visualizing much of the teachings of George Lakoff regarding the differences between liberals and conservatives in todays... newspeak. What do you think?
heres one that focus's on the differences in educational concepts:
and another charting the differences in government spending ideology:
Heard of it? its an art-film made by a couple guys (ty rauber and ryan thurston) who do such a wonderfully disturbing job of not only connecting the dots of the whole conspiracy concept, but effectively showing the downside of such a rabbit-hole experimentations.
Not for your average citizen as its stark set and characterizations force the viewer into the data-intense dialog. Also important in viewing this film is the ability to pause and replay... as some of the connections require a near paradigm-shift to comprehend.
Have you seen it yet? http://www.wkjo.com
I've not been one to advocate for much discourse about this topic as it inevitably illicits a dramatic cessation from what we believe to be true... but that said, I found this very compelling and wonderfully creative in its aesthetics... let me know what you think.
On Wednesday November 7, 2007, the primary operations manual for running of the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay named Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedure was published by the government transparency group Wikileaks. The 238 page manual clearly exposes among other things, systematic methods for extreme psychological torture and stress as well as clear instructions not to allow prisoners to meet with humanitarian agencies like the International Red Cross- in violation of international law. Even the American Psychological Association, the only remaining body of medicine NOT to condemn these practices is having to re-evaluate its policy and participation.
What the manual also describes are the details to the so-called "Leave No Marks" interrogation techniques that were confirmed recently by release of a handwritten memo by then Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. As Sen John McCain, a vietnam POW who co-authored the McCain-Feingold torture law that was ignored through executive signing instruction by this pResident once said, " I would have gladly chosen physical torture to psychological...mental torture is far more inhumane"
With the release of yet another document clearly illustrating the Bush administration lied to the public on several occasions how has the government responded? The Pentagon is actively seeking to censor the document under the States Secret Act and the Whitehouse spokesmen are backpedaling and avoiding direct questions. Can Congress get to the bottom of yet another clear violation of the peoples trust? We'll have to see how the Bush team spins a cocoon around this story and buries it into its web of lies, distortions and blatant abuses of power. We'll also have to see how the media covers the details. Is this the kind of Leadership you think best emulates Freedom and Democracy?
At a time when we are supposedly trying to help Pakestan's fledgling democracy to be more like us, is this the us we mean? Musharif may already consider himself to be a student of George W Bush.
Do we really care about our Troops? Talk is cheap and our actions of late, even cheaper.... So many citizens, veterans and politicians wrap themselves up in the flag and talk tuff for the troops.... but the reality is far from the rhetoric.
On friday, Congressman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cackled from the Senate floor against the $87 Billion Dollar troop funding bill with a timeline attached. Citing "our troops are winners, not losers". Veterans and citizen-bloggers have constantly taken to flag-waving and tuff talk about our "supporting our troops" and continuing the constant clammer against "cut and run".
New figures released this week site nearly 4700 troops deserted their posts this year alone, up from 3300 last year. This represents an 80% increase in the desertion rate and is the highest in nearly 30 years— and the pace is accelerating. Additionally figures showing one in four homeless people in the US are war veterans, a point relegated to minor news clips buried in the media. Troops in record numbers are returning home with PTSD and are finding inadequate -if any- treatment or help from the Government. A study yesterday reported that more than 6000 soldiers took their own lives in 2005.... thats 17 soldiers a day!
Meanwhile, with a huge budget for slick ads, flashy powerpoint presentations, uncensored access to our High School and University Student personal records and cafeterias...our proud military has taken to preying on youth through profiling and false advertising. With budgets of between $1600-4000 per recruit, the military sees no reason to invoke the draft.
I don't know about you all, but if thats the pride to which we want to defend our troops, then there is something terribly wrong with this nation and the conditioning these vets, politicians and gung-ho citizens have gotten from the media and the deceptive administration who to this day, says we are winning the war on terror.
Defending our troops... more correctly, our children and loved ones... means being certain our cause is just, our methods are above-board, our treatment of them upon returning is truthful and comprehensive and our media or information is honest and trustworthy. Anything less than that is not only a slap in the face to every soldier who ever served, but a reason to stand up and fight for our soldiers!
Certainly there is an allegiance to our troops from our veteran population, and certainly our citizens owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their service whether in the gulf or at any other time, but allegiance and ignorance are not compatible. The longer we allow our elected leaders to beat their breasts about troops being winners- while waging a war of aggression that we all agree was not started in good faith (no connection to 9/11-no WMDs, no alqaeda)...The longer we accept daily revelations of the staggering costs of this war both in loss of life and loss of integrity to our nation and its allies... The more we continue to listen to the mainstream media make headlines of success while barely covering their redactions and truthful statements of record losses... the more we truly disrespect our troops today, and the honor and dignity of our nation and its armed forces.
Watch as the thieving destroyers of the Democratic Republic formerly known as the United States of America all begin to exit stage right. Watch as the visionaries, hitmen and henchmen of the New World Order leave what appears to be the sinking ship of the Bush Administration.
Don't be myopic, just yesterday Atria, parent of Phillip Morris, spun off its most profitable branches of the company from the US to Europe. Last month Halliburton moved its corporate headquarters to Dubai. By doing this, these multinationals are effectively cutting their umbilical cords... their corporate charters... the only legal binding jurisdiction to reign them in... and now they operate above international law.
We regularly appease the local branch of Walmart, McDonalds or Starbucks with tax braks, incentives and slacked enforcement of our laws... what will they ask for next? Once they no longer can be threatened by revocation of their charter, or liquidation of their assets?
There is no law maker saying they need to stay in their country of origin, and because too many law makers helped them leave America through offshore finances, global markets with trade sanctions and a laissez-faire international policy... we're about to fully confront the new world order we've created, and it ain't the warm fuzzy thing GeorgeSr. pledged. Heard of the NAU?
The North American Union - or Security Prosperity Partnership has been the underlying cornerstone of much of the Bush Administration's actions the past seven years. Get the multinational Corporations out from underneath any legal ties, bankrupt the country through an endless war on terror, senseless tax cuts, privatization of our commons and the liquidation of our rights and privacy.
Did you realize both Mexico and Canada's last elections voted in right-wing business friendly candidates amid an unreal public consensus that both elections were hi-jacked... just like our 2000-2004 elections.
This end-game to create a North American Union to support global business interests in a world domination scheme to restructure global power in the hands of the elite sounds like something of a SCI-FI movie or 007Bond fantasy.... but I assure you its real.
What we may be witnessing is the mass migration of the neocon fascists from the positions of power in our current governement, to their new leadership roles heading up the Global Corporate Kingdom created by our complacency and desire for materialism and greed. With our short attention span... we'll soon forget the names Rumsfeld, Rove, Gonzales, Ashcroft, Bolton and Abermoff... We'll barely be able to keep track of the TV wannabees fighting for best chef, best designer, best pickup artist, best slut and best at eating worms. Welcome to the new Fear Factor, the new Real World.
Telecommunications giant AT&T says no one should worry about their aggressive lobbying to eliminate Net neutrality — the First Amendment of the Internet that guarantees equality of access to all Web sites.
AT&T executives claim they would never interfere with Web content.
When Americans hear this spin, they should hang up on AT&T.
The truth is that, within business circles, the company is already promoting its schemes for “shaping” the Internet if Net neutrality protections fall.
And a good sense of how the telecommunications corporation would like to “shape” the World Wide Web can be gleaned from reports of how AT&T managed the live webcast of last weekend ‘s Lollapalooza concert when it came time for Pearl Jam to perform.
The Seattle-based band has a long history of highlighting smart political statements — about war and peace, protecting the environment and promoting tolerance — in its songs and in the on-stage comments of lead singer Eddie Vedder.
But on Sunday, when Pearl Jam was performing the song “Daughter” during the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band broke into a version of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Reworking the lyrics of the classic rock song, Vedder sang, “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.”
The lyrics that criticized Bush were muted in the webcast.
Coincidence? Not at all.
AT&T admits that the censorship occurred. The company describes the muting of Vedder ‘s references to a president who appoints the members of the Federal Communications Commission — and thus has a major role in deciding whether AT&T gets what it wants — as “a mistake by a webcast vendor.”
Then, in a nice Orwellian twist, the company declares, “We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not censor performances.”
In fact, “editing excessive profanity” is censorship.
And, of course, Vedder’s lyrics about Bush, which were not profane, did in fact get censored.
Web-savvy Pearl Jam fans noted the silencing of the message and immediately contacted the band. Pearl Jam members released a statement on the censorship incident that declared, “This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media. AT&T’s actions strike at the heart of the public’s concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.”
Pearl Jam’s statement continued: “What happened to us this weekend was a wake-up call, and it’s about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.”
The band’s right. The censorship of Pearl Jam by AT&T serves as a reminder of what will be lost if Net neutrality is eliminated and telecommunications corporations are free to decide which Web sites are on “the information superhighway of the future” and which are on the gravel road of slow or impossible connections.
“This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that’s being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests,” says Jenny Toomey, the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, which has been working to defend Net neutrality. “What do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the Web when no one is looking?”
Tim Karr, of the Save the Internet.com Coalition, adds, “AT&T’s history of breaking trust with their customers includes: handing over private phone records to the government; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; and pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information online while hatching plans … to build and deploy technology that will spy on user traffic.”
“The moral of this story is put Net neutrality permanently into law and never trust AT&T at their word,” says Karr. “The company acts in bad faith toward the public interest and will do whatever it can to pad its bottom line — including sacrificing its users’ freedom to choose where they go, what they watch and whom they listen to online.”
Here's what FCC Chairman Michael Copps had to say about this debacle:
This five part series explains Money and Debt. From the origins of money as beads and feathers, to the RFID chip, learn whos behind the globalization of a monitary system based on debt. The truth will set you free, what you do with that freedom is up to you. Use it for good, use it for evil, run and hide at what you see, or stand with others and champion our society and its rights under justice and equinimity. .
Recently, MADtv did a wonderful sketch playing off Apple Computer CEO Steven Jobs' new product rollout at a typical MacWorld Conference. The heavily scripted opening keynote by the co-founder of Apple has always been a thrill to conference-goers. This parody did not disappoint either.
But the ironic the twist beyond this great parody, was that Apple has risen to head the rank and file of corrupter corporations. It has become in my opinion, the most sinister company in the silicon pantheon... like sands through the hourglass, Apple produces ways to keep us distracted from living a life connected in communion with nature... and exiled us to wandering a desert of sand-based silicon iDevices. Rising to heights usurping even Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Apple have revealed the most sinister plan of stealing our souls and has shown us all along with Eden's fruit once bitten as its Logo. Microsoft's Bill Gates never disguised the fact that he was strong-arming society to buy his products. Apple has quietly seeped into our hearts and minds with their iStuff... we quickly move to a more iCentered, iFocused, iSolated... society.
Apple has been no stranger to ethical challenges. In the late 90s Apple was selling 15 different computers to secure price competition while retailers battled over lowest prices. After 2000, Apple began selling computers in stores like Best Buy, WalMart, CircuitCity and Sears undercutting price and services offered by its Independent Apple retailers like North Shore Computers (the nations largest) and my former company Third Millennium Design. Part of a large and loyal network of Mac Evangelists, the independent resellers began closing across the nation just as Apple Stores began springing up in Malls and Mainstreets in major cities. Apple repeatedly assured the remaining resellers of no competition between them and the new Stores... First they would only sell to retail, then they would not perform repairs in the stores, now their free "genius" consultants work long lines of business people carrying their computers to stores rather than hiring independent technicians.
Yes Apple has been conquering the private spaces of people for more than 25 years and like the highest demon in the devil's pantheon, Apple rose to power with the full support of the very people it now subjugates—not too unlike the Bush administration and their spinning of the iRack story to gain our support.
Wingnuts are often mistaken for the oddballs... considered by some, the fringe or radicals in life's toolbox. Primarily in first world nations... people have access to "inexpensive" imported hardware. Where a loose part is fixed by simply tossing it in the trash and purchasing a new one. But to the rest of the world... where less really is more... and simplicity masks beautiful complexity a wingnut is a cherished item! So too are the prophets, the outsiders who speak to our need for spirituality and engagement with all whats around us. Enjoy.
To learn to adopt the standard of God, and to cease to wish to make the world conform to one's own standard of good, is the chief lesson of religion. Sufi Teachings
During Bush's inaugural address, I had an epiphany. As I listened to him list all the money he intended to give to every program under the sun, it occurred to me that he was promising an awful lot of my money... I replayed the tape and added it up. It was clear he had no intent to do this as there wasn't that kind of money available... but it did placate each of the organizations as they were mentioned.
The Neoconservative agenda was revealed- and I felt betrayed. I vowed to renew my duty as a citizen in a democracy and participate in the political process. I dedicated myself to understanding history and politics... but not the manufactured consent of mainstream, I dug deeper looking for independent media outlets and authors. I learned to connect the dots. Eventually I collected a series of movies that really helped to cut the chase. Now others can spend a fraction of the time building a fresh perspective. Who knows, maybe together we can spark true meaningful discourse.
"First they came for the Communists
but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists
but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish,
so I did not speak out. And when they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me."
—Martin Niemoeller,
jailed Christian Minister
Dachau 1944
When a military base is under enemy occupation, protocol is to display the flag overturned as a signal for help. Until the neoconservative extremists in the Bush Administration are vanquished we bear the symbol of our nation under siege.
