TW3 ... and the RIP's
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Political Waves
Jun 26, 2009, 1:31:38 AM6/26/09
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That Was The Week That Was ... both somber and surprising; most whimsical bit in the Review is the fox with a shoe fetish ... my kinda critter.
On other fronts, it's not all business in the news world -- Pop Culture took a big hit today as both an Angel and a King have left the building; shocking and saddening Boomers and sucking up the oxygen big time. Icons both, and between Michael's fanged Thriller and white-suited Billy Jean from the 80's [when MTV was still big fun and necessary viewing] and Farrah's red bathing suit poster from the 70's, nobody needs last names on either one.
On other fronts, it's not all business in the news world -- Pop Culture took a big hit today as both an Angel and a King have left the building; shocking and saddening Boomers and sucking up the oxygen big time. Icons both, and between Michael's fanged Thriller and white-suited Billy Jean from the 80's [when MTV was still big fun and necessary viewing] and Farrah's red bathing suit poster from the 70's, nobody needs last names on either one.
As it appears that Michael may have done an Elvis [six degrees of separation back to Lisa Marie] and/or Anna Nicole with prescription drugs, we'll hear the pharmaceutical details endlessly in the coming days, I'm sure. Add the backdrop of Ed McMahon's passing yesterday -- the voice that intro'd late night comedy for thirty years -- and it feels like some of our past has been stripped away; that is discomforting, as its seems harder to find things to hold on to, lately.
News from Iran is dwindling, since so many of the early pipelines are shut down; I'll have more on that in a day or so. Here's something from the Daily Show you shouldn't miss, though ... for all those cretins who will only acknowledge Hadji's or Towelheads when they talk about the Iranians. And blood's still flowing there, even if we aren't watching.
News from Iran is dwindling, since so many of the early pipelines are shut down; I'll have more on that in a day or so. Here's something from the Daily Show you shouldn't miss, though ... for all those cretins who will only acknowledge Hadji's or Towelheads when they talk about the Iranians. And blood's still flowing there, even if we aren't watching.
Meanwhile, there are some little snips that have intrigued me today so I'll share them with you -- and ... trust me ... all of these players can take their 15 minutes or less and pass into the night without another thought. There seems too much trivial these days; grabbing something substantive is not always so easy. For instance ...
A bunch of crusty old Germans who lost Big Bucks in the market kidnapped their investor and tortured him for four days for losing their money; you could make a movie out of this one. They were so frail that medics had to assist in arresting them. The charges are serious but I can't help but understand their frustration -- Wall E. has more basic humanity in his animated gearbox than Wall Street.
The Republican Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, was missing so long that Stephan Colbert pronounced himself replacement -- then Mark finally surfaced and admitted that he was having an affair in Argentina. Naturally, he's one of those Holier-Than-Thou's that attends Bible Studies on the Hill, opposes gay marriage, and runs his mouth about the indiscretions of others. Jon Stewart put it all in perspective when he called him "just another politician with a conservative mind and a liberal penis." Sanford is catching Comedy-Hell right now from just about everybody, except for the Righty Wingnuts who are distancing from the guy that, coincidentally, Might Have Been a contender for the Libertarian and Independent votes they so desperately need -- FOX put up one of their graphics identifying him as Mark Sanford (D).
Clarence Thomas -- reincarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge, pre-visitation -- is the ONLY holdout on the SCOTUS finding that the strip-search of a young schoolgirl who might have been sharing her ibuprofen was illegal; what a piece of work this guy is. Three words -- Long Dong Silver. Clarence's defiant commentary about lynching a black man is seared into my brain, coming on the heels of ruthless grilling of Anita Hill. If anyone ever DIDN'T deserve such an appointment, it's this repressed, self-loathing shmuck.
And here's yer hatemonger quote for the day, from Ann Coulter regarding the assassination of Dr. George Tiller: "I don’t really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester."
Well, as me Mum used to say -- sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's been a tough couple of weeks; the energy sure has us spun up ... and feeling it all.
Jude
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
June 23, 2009
Protesters supporting Mir Hussein Moussavi clashed with
security forces throughout Iran as Moussavi called for
further civil disobedience and the nullification of
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election as president. "I am
ready for martyrdom," Moussavi said. Hundreds of people
were arrested and at least a dozen were killed; Iran
blamed the deaths on "armed terrorists" and announced a
special court to try the protesters. President Barack
Obama called on Iran's leadership to stop its "violent and
unjust" response to the protests. Iranian police detained
five relatives of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, who supports Moussavi, and photographs of
pro-Ahmadinejad rallies were manipulated to make crowds
seem larger. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who blamed the unrest on foreign governments and
media, called on Iran's Guardian Council to examine some
claims of voter fraud but warned that opposition leaders
who failed to stop protests "would be responsible for
bloodshed and chaos." An initial election probe revealed
that 50 locales had more votes than voters. The United
States was spying on a 2,000-ton freighter believed to be
carrying missile components from North Korea to Burma;
North Korea responded by threatening "unlimited
retaliatory strikes" against South Korea, and Japanese
intelligence officials suggested that North Korea may
attempt to fire a Taepodong-2 missile toward Hawaii on
July 4th, leading Hawaii to deploy its anti-missile
defenses. "Without telegraphing what we will do," said
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "we are in a good
position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans
and American territory." The CIA was recruiting laid-off
New York City bankers.
After seven months of imprisonment, two reporters--one
Afghan and one American--escaped from a Taliban compound
in North Waziristan by keeping their Taliban guards up
late playing board games and, once the guards were asleep,
using a 20-foot rope to climb over the compound wall. A
suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Iraq killed 67
people and wounded about 200. A woman in Switzerland was
sentenced to eight years in prison for killing her wealthy
French lover during sex. She had asked the man, who wore a
flesh-colored latex suit, for a million dollars as proof
of his love; he replied that the sum was "a lot of money
to pay for a whore," at which point she shot and killed
him, cleaned the sex toys and antiques, and threw the gun
into Lake Geneva. "I am a woman who is desperately in
love with a man," she told the victim's family, "and I
remain so." Four people were arrested in Florida for
making a 12-year-old Boy Scout drink urine, and
70-year-old Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner was videotaped
breaking up a fight amid a crowd of 20 teenagers. "Come
here, fatso," Finkbeiner yelled. "Tubby, get your butt
out of here." A fox in Germany was found to have stolen
more than a hundred pairs of shoes, and a mother in
Squamish, British Columbia, fought off a cougar that
attacked her three-year-old daughter, who then asked: "Why
didn't the kitty play nice?"
Greenland, ruled by Denmark since 1721, replaced the
national language, Danish, with the Inuit dialect of
Kalaallisut and began to use the island's Inuit name,
Naalakkersuisut, in government documents. "It's a new
relationship based on equality," said prime minister
Kuupik Kleist, who compared Greenland and Denmark to
partners in a marriage. "From today, the man in the house
has as much say as the wife." A group of prominent
fathers, including Run DMC's Darryl McDaniels,
skateboarder Tony Hawk, and Vice President Joe Biden,
spoke as part of a White House Father's Day
celebration. "My number two son," said Biden, "he wanted
to go to law school, he went to Yale. Now, I don't like
those Ivy League schools, I went to a state school. But
all kidding aside, he went to Yale." The sixth dead body
in seven years was found at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts
Festival in Tennessee. Two copilots safely landed a plane
in Newark Liberty Airport after the pilot died of a heart
attack mid-flight, and the mother and grandmother of a
six-year-old girl in Queens, New York, were arrested after
setting the girl on fire as part of a voodoo "Loa" ritual,
during which the mother poured accelerant over the child,
burning 25 percent of her body. A man in Brooklyn was
arrested after six years of dressing as his dead
mother--in a wig, sunglasses, dress, and nail polish--to
collect more than $100,000 in Social Security and rent
benefits. "I held my mother when she was dying and
breathed in her last breath," the man explained, "so I am
my mother."
-- Christopher R. Beha
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/WeeklyReview2009-06-23
A bunch of crusty old Germans who lost Big Bucks in the market kidnapped their investor and tortured him for four days for losing their money; you could make a movie out of this one. They were so frail that medics had to assist in arresting them. The charges are serious but I can't help but understand their frustration -- Wall E. has more basic humanity in his animated gearbox than Wall Street.
The Republican Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, was missing so long that Stephan Colbert pronounced himself replacement -- then Mark finally surfaced and admitted that he was having an affair in Argentina. Naturally, he's one of those Holier-Than-Thou's that attends Bible Studies on the Hill, opposes gay marriage, and runs his mouth about the indiscretions of others. Jon Stewart put it all in perspective when he called him "just another politician with a conservative mind and a liberal penis." Sanford is catching Comedy-Hell right now from just about everybody, except for the Righty Wingnuts who are distancing from the guy that, coincidentally, Might Have Been a contender for the Libertarian and Independent votes they so desperately need -- FOX put up one of their graphics identifying him as Mark Sanford (D).
Clarence Thomas -- reincarnation of Ebenezer Scrooge, pre-visitation -- is the ONLY holdout on the SCOTUS finding that the strip-search of a young schoolgirl who might have been sharing her ibuprofen was illegal; what a piece of work this guy is. Three words -- Long Dong Silver. Clarence's defiant commentary about lynching a black man is seared into my brain, coming on the heels of ruthless grilling of Anita Hill. If anyone ever DIDN'T deserve such an appointment, it's this repressed, self-loathing shmuck.
And here's yer hatemonger quote for the day, from Ann Coulter regarding the assassination of Dr. George Tiller: "I don’t really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester."
Well, as me Mum used to say -- sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's been a tough couple of weeks; the energy sure has us spun up ... and feeling it all.
Jude
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
June 23, 2009
Protesters supporting Mir Hussein Moussavi clashed with
security forces throughout Iran as Moussavi called for
further civil disobedience and the nullification of
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election as president. "I am
ready for martyrdom," Moussavi said. Hundreds of people
were arrested and at least a dozen were killed; Iran
blamed the deaths on "armed terrorists" and announced a
special court to try the protesters. President Barack
Obama called on Iran's leadership to stop its "violent and
unjust" response to the protests. Iranian police detained
five relatives of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, who supports Moussavi, and photographs of
pro-Ahmadinejad rallies were manipulated to make crowds
seem larger. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who blamed the unrest on foreign governments and
media, called on Iran's Guardian Council to examine some
claims of voter fraud but warned that opposition leaders
who failed to stop protests "would be responsible for
bloodshed and chaos." An initial election probe revealed
that 50 locales had more votes than voters. The United
States was spying on a 2,000-ton freighter believed to be
carrying missile components from North Korea to Burma;
North Korea responded by threatening "unlimited
retaliatory strikes" against South Korea, and Japanese
intelligence officials suggested that North Korea may
attempt to fire a Taepodong-2 missile toward Hawaii on
July 4th, leading Hawaii to deploy its anti-missile
defenses. "Without telegraphing what we will do," said
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "we are in a good
position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans
and American territory." The CIA was recruiting laid-off
New York City bankers.
After seven months of imprisonment, two reporters--one
Afghan and one American--escaped from a Taliban compound
in North Waziristan by keeping their Taliban guards up
late playing board games and, once the guards were asleep,
using a 20-foot rope to climb over the compound wall. A
suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Iraq killed 67
people and wounded about 200. A woman in Switzerland was
sentenced to eight years in prison for killing her wealthy
French lover during sex. She had asked the man, who wore a
flesh-colored latex suit, for a million dollars as proof
of his love; he replied that the sum was "a lot of money
to pay for a whore," at which point she shot and killed
him, cleaned the sex toys and antiques, and threw the gun
into Lake Geneva. "I am a woman who is desperately in
love with a man," she told the victim's family, "and I
remain so." Four people were arrested in Florida for
making a 12-year-old Boy Scout drink urine, and
70-year-old Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner was videotaped
breaking up a fight amid a crowd of 20 teenagers. "Come
here, fatso," Finkbeiner yelled. "Tubby, get your butt
out of here." A fox in Germany was found to have stolen
more than a hundred pairs of shoes, and a mother in
Squamish, British Columbia, fought off a cougar that
attacked her three-year-old daughter, who then asked: "Why
didn't the kitty play nice?"
Greenland, ruled by Denmark since 1721, replaced the
national language, Danish, with the Inuit dialect of
Kalaallisut and began to use the island's Inuit name,
Naalakkersuisut, in government documents. "It's a new
relationship based on equality," said prime minister
Kuupik Kleist, who compared Greenland and Denmark to
partners in a marriage. "From today, the man in the house
has as much say as the wife." A group of prominent
fathers, including Run DMC's Darryl McDaniels,
skateboarder Tony Hawk, and Vice President Joe Biden,
spoke as part of a White House Father's Day
celebration. "My number two son," said Biden, "he wanted
to go to law school, he went to Yale. Now, I don't like
those Ivy League schools, I went to a state school. But
all kidding aside, he went to Yale." The sixth dead body
in seven years was found at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts
Festival in Tennessee. Two copilots safely landed a plane
in Newark Liberty Airport after the pilot died of a heart
attack mid-flight, and the mother and grandmother of a
six-year-old girl in Queens, New York, were arrested after
setting the girl on fire as part of a voodoo "Loa" ritual,
during which the mother poured accelerant over the child,
burning 25 percent of her body. A man in Brooklyn was
arrested after six years of dressing as his dead
mother--in a wig, sunglasses, dress, and nail polish--to
collect more than $100,000 in Social Security and rent
benefits. "I held my mother when she was dying and
breathed in her last breath," the man explained, "so I am
my mother."
-- Christopher R. Beha
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/WeeklyReview2009-06-23
"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington ... I'm asking you to believe in yours."
~ Barack Obama
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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