Our Option for President: Slam Poetry with rock backup

Great slam poetry about our Presidential choices!

"Dismalland" an artist's statement about amusement parks

To paraphrase and English philosopher, "life...is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."  To this end, British artists have created Dismalland, an amusement themed seaside park that embraces the world as it it, rather than as it should be.  here is a short video tour.
It features refugee boat people (including the floating dead), a dead Princess in a flipped over pumpkin carriage, and a dystopian castle. But hurry, it's only open for a few weeks then disappears.

Sam the Lion says Goodbye...

Scene from The Last Picture show, Sam the Lion says goodbye in his own way.

My son Nathan featured as an Alumnus of UCLA Anderson School of Business

My son Nathan featured in a brochure

for UCLA Anderson School of Business.

Turkish Wedding couple feeds 4,000 refugees

This Turkish couple decided to feed 4,000 refugees from Syria instead of having their banquet.  They even served some of the refugees themselves.  What a great way to start a life together, by being compassionate and generous.  This shows there are some truly enlightened people around the world.  If only.......

George W. Bush's latest artwork

I have already posted about George W. Bush's artwork.  But what we have now is some additional artwork.  This is not painted by Bush, but painted in the Bush style, as in "what if George Bush painted this?"

Who is the babe George is taking a bath with?  We see his feet, but whose booty is that?  I also like the one with Vladimir in the shower.  And of course, Angela Merkel nude is something I am sure Bush fantasizes about.  The top one of Hillary is Bush interpretation of how Hillary looks to him.  These should really be part of his artwork gallery.

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State documentary available on NetFlix

Just finished watching "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State" on netflix.  What is fascinating is that Auschwitz came into being in an incremental fashion.  It started out as a Polish army cavalry barracks in 1939 and turned into a concentration camp for Poles and dissident Germans: enemies of the Reich. But from the beginning the camp was run in a brutal fashion including forced starvation (locking someone in a basement cell, in the dark,  and simply forgetting about them).  It expanded due to Russian prisoners.  Industry set up around the camp because of natural resources of the area, then slave labor was needed for the industries.  By 1943 the final solution was in full swing.  So the Auschwitz of 1945 was never a rationally planned facility, but one that emerged piece by piece in an incremental fashion.  But there was an initial insanity that gave rise to Auschwitz, the racism, the brutal ideology of superiority, that some lives were less than human, some people less then human, could be treated like brutish animals.  Auschwitz became as much a factory as the factories set up around it.  As this documentary shows, there were many locations for "Auschwitz" - it was not just one camp but a network of related camps.  The documentary shows the "problems" that camp designers had to deal with: first, how to systematically kill vast numbers of people (turns out, it's not that easy and 2) how to get rid of the bodies.  The methods of killing were not very creative, carbon monoxide and industrial strength gas disinfectant, but how it was organized was textbook operations management.  It also seemed that those who worked there were self selected: they worked there because they wanted to, or because they found a way to make their work profitable or advantageous to them (promotions, theft).   And of course Auschwitz is just a small part of the magnitude of genocide and murder that went on from 1939-1945 in Europe.  There are books published about post war Europe, especially Germany - that showed millions more died after 1945 in ethnic cleansings across Europe.  Maybe Europe is a laboratory that reveals the true nature of human beings: brutal, cruel, murderous, jealous, paranoid, egocentric, delusional, and devoid of feelings for others. 

John Yoo, Bush's AG and Berkeley professor, on crushing testicles of child

Here is a recording of Attorney General John Yoo

explaining why the President of the US could (could) crush the testicles of a child in order to make the father talk.  I know this is legalese, but the question was intended to show how absurd Yoo's argument is, and it accomplished that.  How did this guy get to be a professor at Berkeley?  What kind of money was behind that?

Terrence Malik's films: The Tree of Life, and To the Wonder

Just finished Terrence Malik's film, To the Wonder, and it was beautiful.  Slow.  But it all comes together.  Very little dialogue: what is important is the acting, the editing of the film, how the various characters all reveal meaning toward the end.  Its about....love, faith, hope.  Here is a beautiful monologue, by the priest who questions his own faith, but somehow holds on.

Of course, The Tree of Life is Malik's greatest film.  Absolutely beautiful.

Soviet Limo back in production!

Workers at the the ZIL factory have received orders for 2 new limos, and have been given 2 years to make them instead of the usual 5.  I would love to see how these are made?  Hand made?  With torches, and metal workers?  There should be a reality TV show centered on this: a 2 year reality show, we could meet the workers and their families, watch their arguments, tensions at the factory, and lots of vodka drinking.

General Shenseki: should have listened to him in the past, we should give him more funding now!

So Dick Cheney, the guy without a heart, has called Pres Obama "weak," and want General Shenseki fired.  From the past: Gen Shenseki was the commander who told Bush and Cheney that we needed 200,000 troops to invade Iraq, and 300,000 to occupy it for 10 years.  They fired him!  They went with a General who told them what they wanted to hear.  7,000 dead soldiers later, General Shenseki was proved right, unfortunately and tragically.  actually its not tragic: Bush and Cheney should have listened to the General, it was political expediency that dictated the invasion of Iraq (and having troops on the ground for the 2004 re election campaign, compliments of Karl Rove).

So now Cheney wants Shenseki fired from the VA:  The VA has always been underfunded, and with the number of veterans you would think a priority of Congress (the House controlled by Republicans) would be to give the VA all the funds its needs, including funds to hire more front line care givers (like nurses and specialist physicians).

Cheney speaks out in his desire to cover his stupid ass:  Bush and Cheney will go down as perhaps the worst duo in Presidential history.  His attacks on Obama, and now Shenseki, are pathetic.

job search in portland

Just had interview Oregon State Hospital.  It's a psychiatric RN position, with civil and forensic involuntary commitments.  All shifts, full time with benefits, but only until next May when it closes and moves to another location.  A new location is being built, 500 jobs available, but not in portland.

this is me after the interview: I look slightly bewildered.  I am also applying for Emergency nursing positions, and taking the Trauma Nurse Core Course next week.  We shall see.  Just applied for an ER position in Mt Hood, night shift - I must be nuts!

happy easter young earth creationalists

Happy easter young earth creationalists.  Here is Jesus 6,000 years ago with a dinosaur at the moment of creation.  did you know dinosaurs were on the Ark?  How did they keep T Rex fed?  must have fed him lots of Ativan. 

Israel says it's sorry for killing 9 activists on international waters

One way of diffusing a confrontation is by saying, "I am really very sorry that this happened."  you are not admitting guilt, just saying sorry "this" happened.  So israel is apologizing for the flotilla assault, deaths - Israel is "really very sorry this happened."  Nine people killed on international waters, nine people bringing aid to Gaza, where Israel has a blockade.  

George W. Bush, artist

When presidents step down, the big question is, what's next?  what can you do after being the CEO of the most powerful nation on earth?  Well, some ex presidents have become involved with humanitarian tasks, like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.  Some write books to demonstrate their continued command of international affairs, like Richard Nixon (he once published a book explaining that Iran would be check against Soviet expansion for decades to come, and the very next month the Shah was overthrown - what prescience!)  But similar to Eisenhower and Winston Churchill (the man who plunged England into two world wars to defend the empire, only to lose it as a result) George W. Bush has become an artist. He likes to paint dogs.  yes, dogs.  and evidently he likes to paint himself in the bath or shower.   Some experts have said that his art is amateurish but enthusiastic.  Again, just like Paul Bremer's art, it's really bad.  the proportions are off, it's two dimensional.  I have no problem with Bush or Bremer painting, especially if it occupies their time and they can't screw up the world anymore.  but this art should be kept on their back porch, as something they enjoy as a hobby.  It's really bad art.  And he signs the paintings "43" as in the 43rd President. 

Paul Bremer, former Iraq administrator turned author and artist

You remember Paul Bremer?  the guy who administered Iraq after the invasion for one year?  He disbanded the Iraqi army and allowed them to take all their weapons home with them to be used on our troops over the next 7 years?  Well he has written a book about our veterans who have sacrificed for Iraq.  Yes, he was instrumental in creating the insurgent war against our troops by firing over 100,000 Iraqi army troops who were then unemployed and sitting at home with all the weapons they could carry away.  And now he has written a book honoring our troops who were injured (or killed) by his incompetence.

And, he has become an artist.  here are some of his pictures.  He actually has sold some of these.  The proportions are wrong, these are terrible paintings.  He markets them here: PaulBremerEnterprises.

There is a yiddish word, Chutzpah, that describes his nerve in marketing a book about the injured soldiers he helped to injure, and selling paintings that are amateur and just awful.

Chef kills wife and then cooks her - bon appetite!

the owner of the Thyme Cafe inm Lomita, near Los Angeles, has been convicted of killing and then cooking his wife.  His story:  he didn't want her driving while drunk, so he bound her with duct tape.  When he checked on her in the morning, she was dead.  He slow cooked her for 4 days, putting weights on her to tenderize the body.  Above are some pics of exterior and interior of the restaurant they co-owned.  Police investigated the disappearance of his wife, when they decided to take him in for questioning, he attempted to kill himself by throwing himself off inspiration point (pic above).  But, his girlfriend grabbed his clothes and instead of jumping off the cliff he fell and bounced his way down.  he is now a paraplegic.  He was sentenced  in this wheelchair, 25 yrs to life.  Do you think the prison will put him to work in the kitchen?

Democracy denied: millions of American denied right to vote

Al jazerra has the story here.  the story is accurate.  How does this make the USA look in the middle east?  we invade Iraq and Afghanistan to bring democracy, only we don't have democracy in our own country.  We are the only country with an alleged democracy that does not have a parliamentary system of government.  even when we create new gov's like in iraq and afghanistan, we import a parliamentary system. We have a strange kind of democracy in the US, and the resistance to same day voter registration, the resistance to allowing all Americans to vote, the resistance of allowing the District of Columbia representation in Congress, is hypocritical.

birth defects in Fallujah

here is the story.  The battle for Fallujah was intense, and used much depleted uranium in bombs.  uranium tipped bombs-missiles can penetrate metal easier than non uranium tipped.  of course, radiation is left behind.  the irony of the Iraq war is that WMD's turned out not to be there, until we entered, and we brought WMD's into Iraq in the form of depleted uranium and white phosphorus.  here is another resource about the destruction we brought to Iraq that is long lasting.

The least we can do after we introduce toxins to a nation is to clean up after ourselves.  in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, there is lots of unexploded ordinance, land mines, and left over toxins from agent orange.  of course, we didnt put in all the mines.  but the least we should do is to help those countries clean up the unexploded ordinance.

its so easy to drop bombs, much harder to clean up afterward.

No doubt the battle for Fallujah took many lives of US soldiers.  It was not clear however if the iraqi men who were fighting in Fallujah were Al queda terrorists, of if they were Iraqi men defending their city.

What a mess.  Now there has been a significant increase in birth defects in Fallujah and other locations across Iraq.  This will effect an entire generation of people.

And there is a video game called "Six days in Fallujah," a real shoot em up game where you can kill terrorists.  making money off the misery of these people.  off the deaths of our own soldiers.

Obscene.

The Human Stain by Philip Roth

I have read this book before, and it is fantastic.  Roth rails against academia, against shallow political correctness, against racism, against sexism, against violence.  I enjoy the main character, Silky Silk, because he works hard to create his own existence, his own identity, in a very existential fashion. Contrasted with the empty, shallow whining of his colleagues, his marginal students, Professor Silk wants to live life on his own terms.  i remember the title of a biography of James Baldwin (my master's thesis) "The furious passage of james Baldwin"  this book could be called the furious passage of Coleman Silk.

It was made as a movie.

It reminds me of the self righteous faculty at SRU.  the shallow feminism.  the smug condescension of the deans and provost and president.  Go along, get along.  Embrace the popular metaphors, the popular myths. Live the illusion.

But Coleman Silk wants to live life on his own terms.  he is a hero.  misunderstood by many, even his own children.  but the alternative?  to live as a black man, to survive academia as a black man in the 50's, 60's, 70's ?  Would he have become a professor of classics?  would he have married who he married?  Silk was born into a racially obsessive culture, he was a brilliant student, gifted athlete, but he was black (or should we  say light almond?)  Like Thomas Jefferson's children, he decided life would be easier, and more successful, a a white man, as a middle eastern looking Jew.  He could live out his potential better by passing himself off as jewish.

But jews are not immune to suffering from racism.  and men in academia are also subject to being reduced as a cultural stereotype.

I was once accused of being part of a "male conspiracy" at SRU - yeah, that was one reason i retired early, what absolute bullshit. but some people thrive on the petty opportunities for grandstanding, for making accusations that make them look superior in some "goldfish bowl" way.

Coleman Silk was true to himself, as he defined himself.  great book.  i think Roth's best book.