Boy, I have a mess to say right now....

Where to start, where to start.

I haven't neglected keeping up with news, either there nor here. But I don't see the sense in going from one hyperventilating cause of outrage to another without pause, or without having an antidote, other than to get involved in things directly through petitions, and giving your pennies to whomever you think can dig 'Murka out of the hole it dug for itself, and messed up half the world in the process.

But the THING IS... what happens there doesn't STAY there, and I sure as hell wish it would.

So let's see, on the repub side, you have a disney animatronics figure with faulty wiring and a weak battery that makes him stammer all over the place and look embarassed. And a wannabe disgusting guy who is out only for financial gain, and a real, dyed in the wool, bible-thumping, ASSinine religious zealot who would like to take the clown car in full throttle forward toward a cliff, and the gear shift is broken, and there's no reverse on the damned thing. They sure have them some 'swell' choices.

Things have come up in this cycle that I thought were dead and solved a half century ago. But hey, Sanatorium coming up and saying he wanted to puke over JFK's presser about separation of church and state? I REMEBERED that speech as if it were yesterday. I was 11 years old, but my family was catholic, and that was a very big deal and concern, the wasps thinking 'da pope' would control him somehow. I remembered that speech when they began playing excerpts in light of what mr. 'Sanatorium' was saying. And then they reported that the JFK speech was 51 years ago, and I said to myself, 'Oh, Ren... you've gotten oooooollllllld.

Then going after women, because that is what bullies and guys who are sexually frustrated and have no---NO--clue as to what women are like DO and they go after them because they think they are an easy target. And these ASSHOLES get onto contraception issues, out of the blue, hey... Except we thought THAT was settled 51 years ago. Leaving aside that some men still consider women as possessions or chattel, and the word trophy wife is so telling, don'tcha think?... leaving that aside, that wasn't even the real purpose of all the uproar. They hate health care and are using it as a wedge issue so that insurance companies can continue to screw the public, see the so-called Blunt ammendment. If I as an employer am not a believer in medicine, cancer treatments won't be part of the insurance package I offer. That's what they really want.

Just when you think progress of some sort was made. And attacking a college student, boy, ya gotta hand 'the Rush' a trophy. Here's a guy who was married four times, sired no children...(that anyone KNOWS of)... and he goes on thinking that women have to take a birth control pill every time they have sex, so the student is a ´rapacious slut? He HAS to know better, and it was vicious, and so typical of bully behaviour, and in the end, laughable... except a lot of people aren't very well edumacated in 'Murka these days. And the woman's testimony wasn't ABOUT that. It was about the fact that women take the pill for other reasons, like preventing ovarian cysts. But hey it's an agenda, so drag an innocent woman through the mud, why not, she's 'only' a woman, after all and that is how that bastard thinks. And the real rethugs kiss his ass and perform unmentionable lower intestinal acrobatics on him to make him feel reaaaalllll good.

And hokay, how does this look here? We got us an AUSTERITY package, how loverly. And the focus on pensioners and federal employees, not good, but it could have been worse. Except now, of a sudden, well, another major bank needs a bail-out and guess who's on the paying end? Uh-huh. It's a daily case of dejà vu.

What concerns me far more is what is coming out of the mouthpieces of the parties here about a rise in drop outs in the schools, and 'playing lots of hooky'. Alarums went off in what is left of my mind. Because, you see, the conservative party thinks it would be a useful thing to fine parents of children who play hooky.

Reallah... really? IF we are gonna haveta go there... I seem to remember a time when things in 'Murka weren't so good for kids in poor neighborhoods, and I went to a grade school in the poorest part of the city. You got caught playing hooky? You got sent to a juvenile detention center, and boy howdy, those institutions created a whole generation of petty criminals. The only way to keep peace in that grade school was for the principal to beat up the sixteen year old seventh grade students once a week in front of his office winder during recess, to intimidate the rest of the students. And there were knives, and one teacher got thrown down a flight of stairs and broke her leg, it was terrific, and didn't learn much of anything there other than to survive from one day to another, but thank whomever I read non-stop. Every single one of us were expected to fail. Every one of us. Let's face it, it's real class warfare... keeping the plebes in their place, and it was anything but pleasant. Now it seems subtle.. seems.

So that was also fifty years ago, so what? Except I saw an interview with a mother on one of the msnbc shows last week that I would have killed to keep for this, and can't find it. There's this school called noble school in one of the poorest parts of chicago. And it's the only hope for those kids. But they fine parents when the kids break the rules, and whoa, they are successful. They are so successful, they collected nearly half a million dollars in fines in a two year period. From the parents in the poorest part of the city. And they coughed it up, because if they didn't... there was no other school for their kids to go to. Simple as that.

Transgressions leading to fines? Untied shoelaces. A button not buttoned on a shirt. Not sitting up straight and tracking the teacher continuously, falling asleep in detention.

WHAT the hell has any of that have to do with education? And Rahm Emanuel thinks it's a great program? What was he looking at?` The fine intake?

It's keep em down, keep em in their place. So let's take a closer look at here. The socialists think it's a bad idea to fine the parents of kids who play hooky, the freepers are for it, of course, greens against, and the unmentionables... don't count... so far.

And I was on-line, and asked about it in my guild. We are only about seven people aged late thiry to my age. So sorta adult. And I wanted to know if they had those fines in germany, and they do. One said it was just another scheme to get money from people who are already so strapped by their austerity program. And I asked who gets the brunt of the fines? Not hard to guess, preciousses... the poor and the newly emigrated families. Just keep em in their place, hey. It was an interesting discussion.

If the children of immigrants aren't doing well, it's because their system is failing, as it is failing here. Ours fails them, they are trying to find a solution. And the Germans? Turn a blind eye, seemingly, but I might be wrong. I haven't looked into their 'troubles' so much, so that is only a supposition.
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But if you take that to the extreme, you get what you recently had in chicago... I think it was... where a mother gets jail time for drugs... not the serious kind... and a sixteen THOUSAND dollar fine, BECAUSE... she enrolled her son in a school in a better district so he would have a better chance, and that was 'stealing' from the taxpayers.... a public school, hey, who did she steal from, huh?

This bothers me in the extreme... our schools are very good. When they graduate from 'high school' it is the equivalent of two years of college over there. And this shit shouldn't be happening, but leave it to the catholic conservatives... they are really a pain in the ass and mules with blinkers on.

This all seems somewhat surreal to me... as in getting the feeling, 'I've been here before, why am I back in this nightmare?'

I'm not so happy with the other side there either on some issues, but goodness... as Mittens would say... at least they act like they are adults.

One last thing... if anyone tells you that they are for 'enhanced interrogation' I saw a documentary on tee-vee the other night about Hitler taking over Austria. And you know what? That is when the SS decided to use, 'strengthened' vulgo 'enhanced' interrogation, right here. and that was their euphemism for it, and people died horribly. So I think I would ask such promoters of that why they would ever want to associate themselves with people so heinous, because that is what they do when they say they are for it.

What you don't know about the Dutch...

And Rick.... belongs in a Sanatorium.

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The good part of the day....

Was the local news. There was an item so good, I had to call Peter. Because it concerned someone both he and I despised. He was the former head of a local soccer team. And he was crass, and uncouth, and 'successful'. Which meant he had a mess of hangers on, your basic lower intestinal acrobats, basking in his 'glory'.

Try to think Ahnuld, but REALLY sleazy... a parvenu, and it never went away.

Well there were always rumours of graft and corruption as far back as I can remember, and he was just crass. And they finally GOT him, and he got a five year prison sentence and a 6.6 million Euro fine to boot.

I am willing to bet... ten Euros, even... that tomorrow, his most devoted sycophants are going to deny knowing him. I even called Peter with this news, he hadn't heard it yet. He was half-way cogent, and I don't know if he remembered it by suppertime, but he sure had him a moment of schadenfreude.

The bad news of the day involved General Motors.... because, you see, they bought Opel. And they aren't doing well, and now, it seems, what conglomerates did to the US... they will do to the idjits who trusted them, and all of a sudden, oh, the manufacturing here is too expensive, the unions, upteenth verse, same as the first. So there are intimations of cuts in Germany. Riiight. Union busting? Probably. Scaling back? Most likely. So they 'might' close the plant in Bochum, in Germany, and a mess of people will lose their livelihood.

If I were naive, I would think they are getting on board and bringing jobs back to the US... but being global... well there is only so far you can extend yourself, and so if you increase in one place, it will certainly be to the detriment of another. It sucks. But that's 'business'.

Well... am keeping one new year's resoluton...

in that I listen to more local news on the radio... and have to open my eyes very wide at what is going on.....

More on that in a minute.

The Hungarians have seemingly gotten what would be most likely one of Rick Snyder's wet dreams... what he intstituted as governor of Michigan got enacted for the entire country of Hungary. And that in their constitution, yet!

Snyder overrides city elected officials by appointing robber barons.... errrm... 'emergency managers' for cities that aren't doing well. Or for cities that have public lands rich people want to build on but were gifts to the city for everyone to use 'in perpetuity'... which no longer means forever, seemingly.

So uhhhh... these robber barons... errm... emergency managers... go in to a city they target... which will most likely lean to voting for democrats, and they basically shut out the elected officials, and act on whatever their munificent benefactors wish. And the officials like the mayor and city council who were ELECTED, remain as such in name only, have no say in any matter, and are virtually powerless.

So what's that do do with Hungary? Well they had elections, and an extreme right party got the majority in parliament, and the chancellor, so they did a Scott Walker, and overnight, slipped a provision into the constitution installing a new sort of official. And HIS duty is... he can veto anything the parliament passes if the powers that be don't like it. After a democratic passing of any bill... the guy can nix it.

Same principle, Preciousses.

Although far worse, actually... it's taking Snyder's ruse to a new level.

So for the New Year on the first, tens of thousands of Hungarians arose to protest in Budapest, and are outraged.

I've seen no local headlines, have no tee-vee, but there was one good ten minute coverage of it on our most reputable radio station, and I thought, 'Whoa!'

I mean, they're our next door neighbors, one of them...

The Socialists refuse to bargain with the conservatives, who are in the minority and whining about it... much like the rethugs.

And the conservatives? Well they got them some big idears, all right. Wanting to go after the unions, who are strong, much in the way it started in the US, and I KNOW they take their playbook from over there. Right now it's , 'well they're gonna have to sacrifice something too.'

Unemployment is lowest in the EU... 4.6 %. Which is good.

And the progressives came up with an idear.... we all get 14 salaries a year. Two in June for vacation time, and two at the beginning of December, for the horridays. I know I'm not alone in saying it would have been better to just distribute that throughout the year with better salaries, but people sort of depend on those two 'windfalls', so the monthly earnings were lower. They always win in the end, hey...

The progressives would like to eliminate the two extra salaries for the topmost income bracket... after all, they are wealthy, so it isn't as if they NEED it, right?

The conservatives reaction was the personification of indignance. But hey, the public workers, and unions? They can sacrifice something, ya know?

Sound FAMILIAR?

I've always said, whatever crap idear the rethugs there have, it finds it's way here in a heartbeat. That's why they are called international conglomerates, they pipe them the tune to sing.

Otherwise, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Lots of injuries to young people via fireworks... and one kid misjudged the time, or it was defective and got him in the head. And he died. 18 years old, and this is why I've always thought the damned things should be banned for personal use, but, hey they make millions and millions on em.

A former minister is involved in a scandal... laundering money and tax evasion for starters which evinced a yawn from me. What else is new, hey?

Last night a four family house caught fire in Melk... but the firemen had to wait for a herpetologist before they could go in to fight it... because, you see, one of the tenants told them there was a terrarium full of venomous vipers in the basement, where it started. And snake man had to round them up before they could do their job. There were seven of them and the largest was five feet long. ewww Snakes in the Cellar!, hey.

Another guy in Vienna turned on the gas in a four-party house on New Years Eve... supposedly a suicide attempt and he sorta made sure everyone else was out. It blew up. Reason? His girlfriend had dumped him. That he made three families homeless? Na ja...

I 'think' he died... not sure, but if not, he should have.

So... we're four days into the New Year, and everyone was 'oh, it's such a time of optimism', to which I shocked them and replied 'Bullshit'. And yeah, all the bills to be adjusted are coming in, and of course you pay more for everything. As if that were new. What I did not like was the tone when the radio told me us pensioners are gonna get about thirty euros more a month. Sort of whadda we need it for anyway snark, and its LOTS.. uh-huh.

Well my rent just went up thirty-FIVE, so what, I'm supposed to do a Snoopy dance, or something? Because it's only five???? And won't even discuss how the heating cost rose. Oh yeah, lots to be optimistic about. Peter will get more gaga, and I really can't think how anything would make me look on the bright side at present.

So... that's a widening of the news front, but as you see... what happens there is happening here as well, as long as the politicians can get away with it. I usually listen in the morning ´while slaughtering orks, and shaking my head lots. If anyone were to see me from outside, they'd think I have Parkinson's.

The elephant in the room

Ghaddafi is dead, which is the 'best new thing in decades'.... for the Libyans...

But there is a huge black elephant in the room which, in all the reporting only got one mention, and that in a dramatic whisper... by Jon Stewart. '....and oil, they have lots of oil...' He was the only one to mention the elephant.

And so it is more than disingenuous for even good reporters to profess 'wonder' and a sort of surprise that Dumbya had tried to rehabilitate Ghaddafi in the international community, which enranged the relatives and friends of the victims of Lockerbie and many other people.

There were enough reports at the time that Libya sits on a HUGE reserve of oil, and conglomerates in England, France, Germany, the US and China were just dying to get licenses for drilling rights. So Ghaddafi played them, and they were all just fine with it. Anything to get a toe-hold and drill there.

There were enough reports about it at the time in the MSM, so.... why the confusion and wonder now? The dictator got what he wanted, and he limited what they could do. He may have been weird, and ruthless and crazy, but he wasn't dumb.

The present administration took a different view of things, and the uprising of the Libyans gave them the really unique opportunity of getting what they really want obliquely. So they 'helped' the people throw over the dictator and Ghaddafi lost... everything, including his life. If you gamble long enough you hit a losing streak.

That isn't to say I regret his demise. I'm sure he's rotting in some sort of hell...

I'm just irritated by the way things were presented in the media... as if it were all a mystery, or something. Do they really think that in our fast-moving world we have the attention span of two-year-olds, and no long-term memory retention?

It was brilliant on the part of the West. They keep their own troops out of it, the Libyans are grateful, and the corporations are finally going to get everything they've always wanted. One should never underestimate them.

In comparison, no one has ever given a flying fuck about Somalia and all the death there. Do we see an international effort? Course not. Call me cynical.

(Talk about rhetorical questions, hey....)

Nope, Jon Stewart was the only one to mention it... in a whisper. He sees the elephant in the room.

Aha.... a new view of the EU problem.....

Am waiting for her to say it was Goldman Sachs. AHA, she did!

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oh boy... Pot... meet Kettle...

In the German Yahoo news this a.m. is a short blurb about Obama kritising the European Banks, saying they haven't done enough to prevent the current crisis.

Reeeaally--- ummm... I don't think he should be pointing any finger.

If anyone really followed how Greece messed up and caused a domino effect, well it was good old Goldman Sachs who sold them tons of junk, just as they and Bear Stearns and the others did in the mortgage market in the US, and they got left sitting with nada--- and the bonds people got very rich.

So the EU countries went right ahead and did what 'Murka wants... austerity measures for the poor and middle classes, which they don't want to take sitting down.

The media can say that unrest and demonstrations are race-based, or anything more than about what it is. They fought for their social benefits, and they aren't about to give them up without a fight.

This is why I follow US politics... because whatever craziness is building up over there, you can be sure that we'll get it in some form or other, and it used to be in six month's to a year's time. Nowadays? It's only a matter of weeks.

For what it's worth, and for those who read German, the blurb is here.

Just daily stuff...

Yeah, have been quiet... damned asthma has kept me mostly in bed, so wasn't really up for my usual jaunts through the internets...

And for another thing... I experienced 9/11 through tee-vee, like the rest of the world, and at this point, haven't much new to say on the subject... other than it fucked up the US so badly, they'll never get over the trauma. And made people more acquiescent in giving up basic rights, and be sheepled. Although I did like the one guy, some pol, who didn't get into the frenzy about this year's terrorist threat, saying 'A car bomb? They go off every day some place in the world..' Which is true enough.

On the other hand... Munich traumatised me, which I only realised much later. I had a ring-side seat watching terrorists mis-treat their captives. It wasn't on the surface, but it took me a long time to get over. I still can't watch any documentary that has to do with it. So I 'get' how it affected the US.

So I took a moratorium on news, sue me. I tend to do that if I haven't anything constructive to say. So I slept. A LOT. And there was still such high humidity, was up some nights and all I could concentrate on was pulling Norbert, version 3.0 up from level one to level six.

Yeah, I went to fantasyland via Last Chaos on-line. In the middle of the night to distract myself from not being able to breathe easily. It's distracting, and I didn't need 'da news' to get me riled up and make it worse.

Norbert is my knight's dragon. Version 3, because it took me long to figure out how to feed them, and the first two died. Some pet owner I'd make.... PETA people would shoot me on sight. I started a second character, 'just for fun' to avoid all the mistakes I made with Sir Arrogant Numbskull. It was easier, knowing the finer points of the game.

He's a High Elf. And I swear, he looks so gay, that so-called 'Armour', you would swear he just got off a circuit party at Fire Island or Miami in the Seventies. And no, never went to one, but saw video clips and read the books about them.... He's a flamer, but makes me chuckle. And he has a cool fire spirit which looks like a coyote, and will be able to attack once he levels up.

And caught up with DOOL for 'da Ven's' sake. I'd told him a couple of weeks ago who was beating up the call girls on the show, and BINGO, was right. 25 points, hoorah.

And got a disappointment yet again... I missed 'Mr. Voice' for the upteenth time on Saturday night, and had sworn I was going to go and take pictures. He gave a free 'unplugged' concert out on the square, and sings rock. He's been around for nearly thirty years, local celebrity. Never went to one of his concerts because I thought anyone with the audacity to call himself that has to be a cheat, but he's survived all this time, so there must be something to it... Was getting ready to go and finally see this paragon of entertainment, and of a sudden, couldn't catch my breath, started to choke, which brings on vomiting, which I hate to death. So scratch the concert. Probably got 'too excited', or something...

So.... one inquiring mind wanted to know what was up. Bored enough? Today the air is relatively dry, so things 'feel' a bit better.

Will still be commenting on things I find, but will slip back into normal posting mode slowly.

Things that irritate me. There is never a pause in election campaigns so that anyone can actually get anything done. Obama was barely elected, it was all about the mid-terms, the mid-terms were not even over, they were on about 2012. How is anyone supposed to work?

AAAAANNND damn the new version of Yahoo mail... if I try to read it on Firefox, it's an exercise in frustration, the screen keeps freezing. Which means having to open the Microshit Explorer, which has as many security holes as a cheap swiss cheese. We hates it, Preciousses, yes, we does...'

And HOW IS IT that the supreme court of Germany can ban Samsug from selling their Tablet in Europe because it looks too much like Apple's? Who'd they have to fuck to get THAT ruling? I smells me a big bisam rat... (0r correction, sewer rat in english...).

The article in the German Yahoo news said that most other European countries would sell the Samsung version anyway, and that Apple will probably litigate country for country...

That brought on another episode for me... talk about killer corporate policies, hey... They should be bought on their merits, and quality. What happened to healthy competition.

And brings me to the last of the things irritating me... unsolicited phone calls, asking you to participate in surveys. Yesterday's was from the IFES institute, one of the big ones. About consumer habits. They'd tried already, had woken me up, and I told the girl I'd been sleeping and was ill, no thanks. Yesterday, her colleague, an older lady, was on the horn. So I played along and endured twenty minutes of 'Twenty Questions'.... just to get them off my back. I'm sure I was a real prize, in that I never buy anything other than food and necessities. She was polite, I was polite, and now I get a nine month respite till someone else disturbs me in my cave. Sheesh.

Trivial, n'est-ce-pas? And that is all I can think of to report on my 'exciting' life. I've learned to like the quiet. No upsets.

The tee shirt punking...

Rachel brought it Monday nite....

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On a more somber note... I HAVE been brooding...

Yes, as below, sometimes you need a few hours to blow off steam in your own way, and killing werewolves in a game is somewhat beneficial, as far as I'm concerned.

However... I read this article in a major paper, and my reaction was yada, yada, tell me something I didn't know!

August fifth marked the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the destruction of the middle class in the US when 'St. Reagan' fired the FAA traffic controllers to break their union.

I have vivid memories of that time, living in a tiny room in a 'Pension'. Which is what used to be an inn, I guess, long ago. And when Reagan came into power, it was a time I would get up mornings to take the tram into town to work, get my smokes and buy the International Herold Tribune, a co-project produced by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It averaged eight pages... four of which were stock market listings. (This was before the age of pc's and cells, and so it moved slower...)

The paper was expensive, but it was just enough info to read and scan till I got to work, and that rag really IS a 'piece of work'. One day, for instance, there was a terrible piece on my chosen city where I live. It painted the town as dark, and Nazis were hiding out in dark doorways, and every cliché you can imagine was in there to put a blot on where I live. And I was LIVID.

(I did take care of it.... I happened to know the press secretary of the workers guild, and before I went into work across the street, I slammed it down on his desk, and yelled, 'This is DISGUSTING, who thinks these things UP?' And he said, 'I'll get to the bottom of it.' And he did. Turns out it was a US opera singer who was very unhappy to be here, and a veritable harpy, I suppose. Her husband was a 'journamalist', so he wrote it because she wasn't getting the roles she wanted. See how that works? Oi! They fired her, and so in the background, it was a scandal, and I'm pretty sure it did nothing for her 'career'. Even then.... there were some evil Rethugs abroad in the land. And I'm sure that bubble-head never dreamed anyone would READ it, let alone do anything about it.)

It was the beginning of what I call the US New Roman phase, although I didn't see it that way at the time.

What REALLY worried me at the time was how fast Reagan was moving to dissolve the social net that kept the poorest above water, and within the first six months of his presidency... well, it took my breath away. Three times a week, I'd catch my breath, reading on the tram and say, 'How can they DO that?'

And the vast public just took it. And I would say to my friends back then, 'I don't know, you can't GIVE benefits to people and just take them away without them standing up and fighting against that.... What the hell is wrong with them? Have they got their heads up their asses?'

I expected demonstrations back then. People on the streets, organising. Nada. And at the time, I shook my head, and said, 'Good gawwd, it's like they'be been brainwashed.' George Bush took it to the max, screening people to listen to him, putting people in Boston behind barbed wire... now THAT was a nice image... how democratic.

Yeah, I was pretty passionate about it.

Reagan's era was a time when there could have been a push-back and things wouldn't have progressed to what we see today.

I just shrugged it off at the time. If they were gonna be so passive, I thought they might wake up when the measures taken began to hurt.

But no, it was a perfect brain-washing. And they used a creeping encroachment on rights, on social services, and NOW? They have an oligarchy, not a democracy. And people who take the D word into their mouths should be ashamed. Less than half the country doesn't vote, and they are usually the ones who complain the loudest.

How NICE to have docile little sheep who think that they can't change anything and just pay and pay, and sacrifice. How totally barf-making.

And how ironic is it that Wisconsin, which was the leader in giving the rest of the US things everyone takes for granted... like a WEEKEND, for instance.... is the first state to get stripped of everything generations before the current one fought for?

As the man wrote, there USED to be a time when the head of a middle class household had a home, and enough to put his kids through college, and take vacations... it was the American Dream. And when Reagan came in, it was the beginning of the end, but not just for the US.

Creeping encroachement, I call it. 'Murka is a role model for a certain type of employer here. When I first came here? You had more than two hours for lunch, and the town shut down. I've written about it before. Now? My last job? You were 'entitled' to a half-hour... whenever it was 'expedient' to take it, 'speak', business was slow enough for you to gulp 'something' down, and go on with work.

The union, especially in our branch was so spineless, well words fail, and we got the brunt of the bad stuff... and as over there.... it sneaked up on us in increments, very small, but in the long run.... hurt financially.

And no one is waking up here either... yet.

Those riots in England? They brought it on themselves', and it makes me LAUGH when I hear about 'oh, the MATERIAL damage', hey. Well how about THEM cutting social services to the bone till people don't know what the fuck the next move is so they can get on their feet, huh? Yeah, according to Faux News, they're just too lazy and want to loot stores and get flat-screen tee-vees. I really don't think it is about that at all... they have no prospects for a future, and the oligarchy wants it that way. And oh yeah, the US is sending over 'experts' to quell the riots, and pour oil on the water... or something like that. Uh-huh.

Which brings me to the current 'journaille'. (Journamalists+canaille)....

I do post a lot of things from MSNBC here, with thanks that I don't get slapped with some copywright charge... and watch it on the internets... but they expressly let you embed them.

Now I don't know if you've ever watched anything they produce on-line... you get a nice screen, and the player which is sort of fucked up.... in that it stalls between blocks of the shows, and you have to refresh.

And between the blocks, there is an ad. One ad. Sometimes you can choose which ad you want to see, and I choose the one that is fifteen seconds long, not a full minute. It gets to be a science, you know?

But recently, the advertisers really drive me to distraction. Yeah, I GET like that, if only inwardly.

Especially the ones from Goldman Sachs, Mobil Exxon, and Chevron. They are all geared to telling you how much 'Good' they are doing in 'Murka. And have the unmitigated GALL to tout how much they are helping New Orleans rebuild, or how they are funding AP classes to teach advanced science and math to kids... and by the way, the US ranks 25th in both in edumacation....

Goldman Sachs was responsible for the housing crisis and near failure of the US economy, and tanked Greece, which caused the crisis in the EU... probably to shore up the dollar against the Euro.

The ads drive me crazy because they are so disingenuous.

If they are pouring their advertising dollars into a so-called liberal station... what are they GETTING for it, is my question.

How much slant gets bought?

August is traditionally 'silly season' in the news, so am not willing to be judgemental at the moment. Except... I can't stand 'Morning Joe' any more, never liked it in the first place. If I have to hear Scarborough's braying jackass voice again it would be too soon. And that simpering 'entitled' 'Dem' Mika Brzinski should be ashamed of herself. And get over herself. He beats on her verbally, and she plays the coy damsel, and she's too old for it. Thinks she made a mark in the business because she demanded equal pay. And that was the bottom line. Intellectually impovershed, or she has no right to say what she REALLY thinks. While he bloviates till you could throw up.

And her... 'OH, I really LIKE governor Norquist!'

(REALLY, darlin'? Go get yourself a toy from the nearest sex shop while you still can, am sure it would be more satisfying... I hate disingenousness.. But hey, she KNOWS people who are movers and shakers. And probably sucks up to them.)

And as to subsidising, here's a kicker for you. Our opera and theater now have productions paid for by banks, energy companies, and such like. Yup, here in Austra.... They used to be kick-ass, and really innovative, but for the last ten years? Things the locals like and don't have to THINK about... Sugar coated pills. And theater can be very political, believe me.

It still isn't as bad as it is there, but how much sedation do WE need from the global companies so as not to say 'enough'?

You can TRY to run away from corporations.... and I had a good twenty five years where I thought I HAD... but in the end.... you can't run far enough, believe me.

So yeah, I've had other things on my mind for quite a while now.

So sue me.

Just an afterthought....

Wouldn't it be fun to do tee-shirts like that and encourage Rethugs to defect? The thought made me smile.

Cool news of the day....

There was a big heavy metal rock concert in Germany recently, which attracts a lot of right-wing neo-nazi elements. Tee-shirts were given away for free with the sort of logos Neo-nazis love. But once home and after the first washing, they were in for a surprise. The logo was gone, and what remained was the slogan 'You can do what your tee-shirt did.' And gave the name of an organisation that helps unsusupecting little neo-jerks get out of what they call the 'szene'. It was a trending subject on Yahoo Germany this morning. Some sites are already giving away the 'sneakret' of how to do something similar yourself at home.

That was interesting. The Exit organisation isn't expecting many people to contact them, but wanted to be present in the minds of those who were having doubts and want to get out of the groups.

The link is here, but could only find ones that are in German.

Oh, what you don't say.... giggle, outright HAW!

It's too warm, slept, and woke up to news, and my Yahoo always pops up first, with headlines about what is happening in You-rup.... And I thought, 'oh good gawwd, it's gay pride season again' when I read that Lady Gaga is going to give a benefit performance in the Circus Maximus in Rome this evening, and the Vatican has their cassocks in a twist, protesting more than any lady should.

I find that hilarious. Italy is way backwards on gay rights, but Berlusconi can love him some underage girls and that's ok... Yes, very amusing. I'm not so crazy about Lady Gaga's music, most of it has been off my radar, but she is certainly an artist, and THIS gig is going to cement her creds.

And I get chuckles thinking about how 'da cassocks' are gonna shit whatever is under them. How amusing.

The german version is here. It says they are gonna have a forty-wagon parade, and one will have parents and their kids, and another with drag queens. I don't personally like the latter, but they seem to be essential. After all, it was the drag queens who were the most important element of the uprising at Stonewall, and got the least credit. Now Lady Gaga can be the most celebrated of the them all, even if she is a woman.


Italians are crazy. Spain was far more surprising... legalised gay marriage a couple years ago, and they are crazy Catholic, so that was interesting.


Exceot I can't figure how anyone would want to marry anybody. I'm so anti-marriage... nope. Live as you will, but the legal stuff? Oh, that is so out of line, forget it. It would involve trust, and I would never trust anyone that much ever again.

Hassan and how you can never make anything right ever again...

Hassan was from Egypt.

He was tiny. He was like a doll, in that he was perfect in every way, very delicate, tiny brows, lovely deer-in-the-headlight eyes, he always looked a bit startled. I could estimate he stood about five feet two or three. Delicate. He hardly came up to my shoulder and I am five-nine.

His older brother helped him get here. His older brother drove his little brother into a marriage that had been more or less arranged by the family.

Hassan was ok with it. He seemed to love her. And soon produced three children whom he loved ultimately.

And because he wanted to provide for those children.... he soon had three jobs, and I don't know how or when that young man ever slept.

And one night... late in the middle of the morning.... in a country which never sleeps, really, you see lit windows everywhere all hours of the night... and that is a true statement... that night, Hassan delivered newspapers, just to top off his weekly income.

He was just a couple of blocks up from my house delivering papers.... and some incredibly drunk racist local asshole KNIFED him in a building... because he was different.

Hassan didn't die, thank whomever.

And he didn't lose that equanimity that made him exceptional. But he did lose his main job. The Austrian bastard cut a major nerve in his shoulder, and he couldn't work in the restaurant any more.

I tried to stay in touch... but I wasn't 'kin' or 'family'.

And our government is beginning to do to us what they did to him. Death by ignoring. and cutting your paid in money to the bone, whereupon comes the saying 'too little to live on, too much to die on...'

I'm really fed up.

Normally I don't find ven charts interesting....

But found this one interesting today. Via Joe. My God via here, I guess.

It says a lot.

Talk about egg on your face... Holy Crap.... this is odd, and funny and not so new...

The first reports from the morning shows are becoming available here in the evening, and wow, I never saw Joe Scarborough somber before. And Mika Brezinski makes me want to throw up, but what else is new... all that mewling.

Wikileaks is down. The website. But I imagine it will pop back up sometime soon. No, I don't think it is fun.

Y'know... I read a really good book once back in the Sixties sometime, and it impressed me. It was Graham Greene's 'The Ugly American'. It was a terrific novel, I remember, but it had a very serious theme. That US ambassadors were appointed from without the system, not of being educated to be diplomats, but for political reasons.... as in how much money they spent to buy into that and 'shine', vainglory. And how wrong-headed that policy was.

That is how I remember it, at least. Good lesson never learned. And seemingly, a prophecy became fulfilled. The Wickileaks dump of cables from consulates and embassies... are devastating. Not that much of it wasn't known anyway.

Since I've lived in a small middle-european country for decades, I've seen them come and go... Austria is sort of a plum and getting the position probably involves a good deal of fund-raising for whatever President is in power. And they were all mediocre... couldn't speak the language, except Reagan's former sakrementary, and NO one liked her very much except lower intestinal acrobats. It was 'comfy', and they could feel important... but weren't taken seriously. They had no idea of the history, the culture, the arts... although one did steal a Klimt painting among other things and got away with it. (It was worth millions, btw. but would have been too 'embarassing'.

Now I'm getting really angry. Not half an hour ago, I wanted to paste in a link here. I can't get to the article any more, it's been blocked. And is a major newspaper in my country. They must be freaking out very badly over there, but I KNOW what I saw, and the headline is up, but... no access to the text, sorry....

The US was pissed off at Austria for blocking Turkey's entrance into the EU. And the purported REASON? They invaded us once.... in 1684. How 'bout that....

I think it has a LOT more to do with integration, community-wise, and a lot of other social aspects. But no, they haven't a clue....

So the sneakret organisations are gonna scramble to supress as much as they can.... (are they Russia, or something?)... but you know what? I can go out and get that paper tomorrow morning, and it is gonna TELL me what got quashed today. And no one is gonna be able to really squelch it.

Someone opened Pandora's box.

Peter was half-way alert, and he dislikes Angela Merkel. When I told him their assessment was that she wasn't 'creative', and that Sarkosi was in the Emperor's new clothes.... He fell apart laughing.

Listen, one can think what they think... but being a 'Diplomat'... you keep your counsel to yourself, unless you can tell someone 'under four eyes' with no ears around, and diss someone. You do NOT do it by public cables.

Those people have NO idea what public communication is any more, they aren't young enough. Or the ones who are--- are clueless.

I don't really CARE about it, actually. If it reforms diplomacy, fine. However.... diplomacy is deception. When it is successful, both parties coming away feeling it's a win-win... except one of the parties feels they got more than the other.

It gets to be high-school on an international level.

And no one EVER learns.

So.... they can scramble and cheat and try to figure out what to do next to rebuild the house of cards the baby crashed while you were doing creative time-out for the tots after stuffing yourselves during Thanksgiving...

Except.. I don't think it will work. Damage done.

And the others are just as bad.

Deal with it.

Am about to pursue my nefarious actionism for smokers

Because... I went out to my tobacconist today. And the owner had blazing angry eyes, and said, 'You have to look at this pamphlet.'

And I thought, 'Oh, cripes, WHAT NOW????'

(Don't forget that I'm an official retired person, and pensioners are famed to be real curmudgeons...)

'LOOK at this! They are going to wipe out my whole profession! Sign the petition!'

'Um, errrm... what is this about???'

'You're only gonna get one sort of cigarette, I will have to sell it under the counter, I wouldn't even be able to TALK to you, (whereupon I said, 'That'll be the day...') they're only going to allow one sort per brand, no ads on the packages, and BANISH THE VENDING MACHINES!'

So I asked, 'Who IN HELL would want to ruin a whole branch of industry like that?' (My blood pressure was going up...)

The EU in Brussels. (The Parliament there is our equivalent to D.C.)

Now they have some crazies there as well. Like trying to make a law about the allowable angle of curvature in a certain sort of cucumber... and that is NOT a joke. Or the permissable amount of salt in a Preztel. Both defeated, but still you gotta wonder....

The new proposal would... wipe out the livlihood of every tobacconist EU wide, which of course would increase the illegal business of dealing with cigarettes of dubious provenence... and hurt our local tobacco growing industry, and yes, we have that in my region as well.. they've gone bat-shit crazy.

So he practically was in hysterics, and asked me to sign the petition.... which is in English, but those fighting back have published one in German. Good going.

So---as a nicotine polluting nasty smoker who has taken one ban after the other... I think it is time to put in my two cents. I told Peter this noon-time, and when I got to the part about the vending machines, he went into shock. 'We've ALWAYS HAD vending machines. We Austrians won't take it lying down!'

I said, 'Well, I hope you're right. But you know us, moan and bitch and mutter 'kann man nichts machen...' (defeatist. can't do anything about it.) 'But now there are the internets, and better to open your mouf now than to bitch about it later, Peter.' He said, 'You're right.'

BTW... his smoking was two cigars a year on special occasions. And they had to be Havanas. So now am off on my merry way to 'sign ze papers, being the old man...'

Oh, just send me off the charts for 'Indignant', hey...

I just had to re-start Peter's pc, and the first thing that comes up in Yahoo news is in German.

And to my AMAZEMENT, I saw that the president of France is deporting Roma to Bulgaria and Rumania. The Roma and the Sintis are what one calls 'gypsies', which is derogatory. This 'guy' is being 'popular', and painting them as criminal for who they are.

It's a political ploy. Both are in the EU, so they can move back whenever they like. I find it disgusting to use a minority for political gain, but doesn't everyone DO that.

In my professional life, I have dealt with both Roma and Sinti. One family in particular. They have a matriarchy. And if Mamma F laid down the law, it was iron, and not to be even thought of, breaking her rule, hey.

They were decent, nice, and interesting, and they have some big predjudices to conquer which still abound. They were honest, hard-working, and very emotional at times, which is understandable.

WHERE does Sarkösi, that half-hungarian wanna-be Frenchman get OFF, pulling a stunt like that? We are talking about PEOPLE here. YES, there are diffences in how they lead their lives, and how we lead ours. But they adapt to where they are, and can 'play the game' better than anyone. They have to, to survive.

To use a minority as pawns for political gain... just disgusts me.

I was so upset I called Peter, and it set him off. He cried. He remembers Mamma F as well, and it really wasn't the time to do that, but I was 'off the charts' for anger. I asked him if had been on the news yet, he said no.

Diabolical.... it's gotten me so upset, I wanna puke.

Election results... Ouch...

The Christian Socialists in Germany lost their majority rule for the first time in 45 years. That was fairly 'heavy'. They had an internal split in the party, gave the main jobs to two oldies instead of one, and tanked. I kept telling Peter, 'my gawwd, Statler and Waldorf on the Muppet Show!... But no, he told me I was being bösartig, which means sarcastic and mean.... He isn't conservative, but I can still shock him-- (smile)

But most of the runaways went to splinter parties, and it looks a right mess...


Our national elections brought surprises as well. The conservative Xtrians bleld. As well they should have. The socialists lost points as well. People ran away to splinter parties. What is frightening is that 30 per cent of the voters voted for the two way-right parties, the hate mongerers, the ones who stir up dangerously horrible ideology. And those two parties were once one, but they split, thank whomever.... But they are dangerous.

They concentrated on making people fearful, and even more xenophobic than they were before. With a nationalist conciousness. One of them, the guy with the funny blue eyes, said HE wants to be chancellor, as his party is the third strongest, and he thinks it is possible, because the DWARF, Chancellor Schüssel did it from the third best postion after the elections. God, or whomever help us.

I just can't figure it out. But if you get starved enough, and every week your grocery bills increase so that you even REALISE you are getting ripped off, you get angry. Very angry. Add a bit of anger about immigrants, and you get a very dangerous mix. To quasi-quote a couple of people on a main-line newspater today, they want to pack their suitcases and get the fuck out of here.

That there are other options seemingly doesn't occur to them. And then they get dangerous.

Israel has already said they want to cut off diplomatic connections with us if one of the right-wing parties get into the government... There is the historical context to consider, and believe me, they never let up. Which is sometimes good, but sometimes they are paranoid.

Oh it's tons of fun....

Not.