Maurice Sendak, 1928 - 2012
Maurice Sendak passed away at age 83; another Mensch leaves us.
And as I've pointed out, we live in a world with a limited supply of Mensches.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Austerity Non
Socialist Hollande Wins French Presidency
For only the second time in the history of France's Fifth Republic, a Socialist Party candidate, François Hollande, has won that nation's presidential vote.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the center-Right President of France, is out -- and along with him the most serious ally of Die Eisen Kanzellerin Angela Merkel's insistence on linking the salvation of the European Union with fiscal Austerity.
Sarkozy is the first major European New Austerian to be defenestrated by his country's electorate over the failure of France's economy -- and he may not be the last. Ironic, when you consider that Sarkozy and Merkel had helped to effectively force 'regime change' in Greece, Spain, (England could possibly be counted, too) Portugal, and Italy.
The New York Times reported that Austerity received additional blows in Greek and German elections as well:
For only the second time in the history of France's Fifth Republic, a Socialist Party candidate, François Hollande, has won that nation's presidential vote.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the center-Right President of France, is out -- and along with him the most serious ally of Die Eisen Kanzellerin Angela Merkel's insistence on linking the salvation of the European Union with fiscal Austerity.
Sarkozy is the first major European New Austerian to be defenestrated by his country's electorate over the failure of France's economy -- and he may not be the last. Ironic, when you consider that Sarkozy and Merkel had helped to effectively force 'regime change' in Greece, Spain, (England could possibly be counted, too) Portugal, and Italy.
The New York Times reported that Austerity received additional blows in Greek and German elections as well:
Greek voters sent their own message against austerity. They handed the two main parties, both of which had pledged to follow harsh international bailout terms, significant losses as they streamed to parties on the far left and far right that have opposed budget cuts. In the process, voters cast into question the ability of any party to form a government soon, let alone continue with the austerity program.What Goes Around, Comes Around.
...The French and Greek elections were closely watched in European capitals and particularly in Berlin, where Ms. Merkel has led the drive to cure the euro zone debt and banking crisis with deep budget cuts and caps on future spending...
... Ms. Merkel herself was embroiled in electoral politics on Sunday, suffering setbacks in elections in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, where her party appeared to be losing its hold on the state Parliament. With another election coming May 13 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ms. Merkel is not viewed as having much room domestically to compromise on the critical issues of inflation and debt limits.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
The Big Guy Returns
Chairman Of The Board
The banner at the top shows a view towards the Bay this morning, as The Big Guy made his way carefully under the Golden Gate Bridge and began wading east through San Francisco Bay. As usual, most water traffic was halted until noon, but ferry service should resume shortly.
It's the 101st running of the Bay-To-Breakers here on May 20th, and Godzilla's participation has been a time-honored tradition since 1954.
As an avid jazz aficionado, Godzilla will be appearing at or near Yoshi's, beside the Oakland yacht harbor (there's a celebration of the music of Johnny Otis this evening), and is scheduled to address the graduating classes at UC Berkeley and Stanford while he's in the area. We're not sure how or where else he'll spend his time here, but he will be hard to miss.
The Big Guy is a UCLA graduate, and we understand Stanford has begged for mercy in advance of his appearance.
The banner at the top shows a view towards the Bay this morning, as The Big Guy made his way carefully under the Golden Gate Bridge and began wading east through San Francisco Bay. As usual, most water traffic was halted until noon, but ferry service should resume shortly.
It's the 101st running of the Bay-To-Breakers here on May 20th, and Godzilla's participation has been a time-honored tradition since 1954.
As an avid jazz aficionado, Godzilla will be appearing at or near Yoshi's, beside the Oakland yacht harbor (there's a celebration of the music of Johnny Otis this evening), and is scheduled to address the graduating classes at UC Berkeley and Stanford while he's in the area. We're not sure how or where else he'll spend his time here, but he will be hard to miss.
The Big Guy is a UCLA graduate, and we understand Stanford has begged for mercy in advance of his appearance.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Word
You Want To Know Why?
(Originally Posted October 29, 2011)
Via The Great Curmudgeon, very apt analysis -- and why don't we see more writing like this:
This rings absolutely true in my own experience. The dominant theme within corporate structures has, for some time now, been about methodologies of organizing. I'm not talking about grunt-level organizing; the GANT charts and ITIL and ISO-9000 or Vann diagrams, RACIs and SIPOC... but a different trend altogether.
I'd argue, based on nothing but gut feelings and common sense, that we're entering a period where the dominant organizing principle of human culture is commerce for its own sake -- above nationalism, partisan politics or ideologies; even religious belief.
Business from a senior management or executive perspective has always been about creating structures to lead and motivate numbers of people to perform tasks which produce value. To them, this is beneficial, desirable, and (for them) the greatest high there is. They create an idea, champion it by negotiating support; build teams and processes; all to reach specific 'outcomes'.
Effectiveness as a manager is measured by how well and how quickly they can move from concept to execution, or go-live, or to market. This has been the case in business for generations.
However, technological development since the early 60's has allowed business to be conducted at light speed. It has opened up new industries (computing, software and and infrastructure, and new modes of commerce) and changes in how established business and markets are conducted.
Because the global, daily flow of money is the engine for corporate business and sovereign finances as well, some of the most profound changes have been in banking and finance. It doesn't mean just faster bank transfer times or quicker reconciliation of journal entries -- it's created entirely new, 'exotic' methods of investment (The past ten years have given us a taste of what that's like: How'd that work out for the world, by the way?).
Briefly put, I don't see the old trinity of business, government and finance as the main arbiters of human society any longer. Governments nearly everywhere have allowed globalization to develop to the point that multinationals now have organized political clout to counter policies by recalcitrant governments: The WTO. They have treaty and trade structures created for their benefit, such as NAFTA.
Consequently, national governments are superfluous to global corporate planning except as potential barriers to competition and acquisition, development, and profit. In this structure, human beings are an afterthought, except as consumers to be influenced by advertising, and 'resources' to be employed or dismissed according to the needs of the corporations.
Above all this is The Great Game of finance and the markets -- and not for individual shareholders and investors. The Great Game is for banking and investment houses, insurance companies, hedge fund and private portfolio managers; all of whom who deal with values in the billions -- and who provide financing for purely business corporations, who are first cousins: Banking and finance has been corporatized now, too.
Governments don't figure into their equations, either, except as something to influence with tiny infusions of campaign cash or free golf trips; paltry gifts for such massive return -- and that form of corruption has become institutionalized between government to a high degree. Politics is business, conducted by other means.
Human beings don't figure into the equations of finance managers, either. Like corporate business managers fascinated with business organization, financiers are lost inside a house of numbers.
Both corporate types believe in abstraction as the key to a terrible illusion controlling the world -- not some bizarre conspiracy theory, but the desire to believe in an illusion of control through labeling and definitions; through what they believe to be true about systems and people -- who exist, ultimately, to be 'motivated' and controlled to provide outcomes measured by other abstractions, like profit and return on investment.
The fundamental difference between corporate managers and, say, the #OccupyWallStreet protestors, isn't about competing systems of organization or goals, or even values. It's a difference between levels of consciousness, about how one perceives the world and approaches the mystery of what all this stuff is.
The corporate mind literally cannot conceive of, or understand, a mindset that believes in ideals which are allegedly the foundations of the human spirit. The concepts enshrined in the Constitution find lip service with corporations who want to market themselves in America.
In business, everything is negotiable, and so there are no firm principles or ideas -- except loyalty to the Brand and a willingness to execute the plans created by your senior leaders.
They might claim to understand how collective action works -- but where corporate organization has consensus-building, it's performed within a hierarchical, top-down structures, which rely on paradigms of direction coming from an acknowledged leader, success/fail or punishment/reward, instead of reaching shared goals through cooperation without penalties or blame.
It really is a collision of worlds: The value and belief structure of the corporate manager and financier, of many business school professors, do not perceive reality in the same terms as the rest of us. We all want to make sense of the world we inhabit -- but not all of us would agree that to build organizations where competition and profit are the highest expression of the human spirit, or what human culture should strive for, now, in the 21st century.
(Originally Posted October 29, 2011)
Via The Great Curmudgeon, very apt analysis -- and why don't we see more writing like this:
There has to be an underlying organizing principle for why they would bail out banksters, and fuck over homeowners, why they would subsidize big Pharma at the expense of their base voters. And I think I've finally gotten some of what's going on.
The president, and the Democrat's Senate leadership, reject movement liberalism. The ideology they follow is grounded in the impact of globalization on world capital and labor markets. They believe the US has to reduce labor costs to be 94 they’re the pros who have risen, through merit and diligence, to their positions.
This rings absolutely true in my own experience. The dominant theme within corporate structures has, for some time now, been about methodologies of organizing. I'm not talking about grunt-level organizing; the GANT charts and ITIL and ISO-9000 or Vann diagrams, RACIs and SIPOC... but a different trend altogether.
I'd argue, based on nothing but gut feelings and common sense, that we're entering a period where the dominant organizing principle of human culture is commerce for its own sake -- above nationalism, partisan politics or ideologies; even religious belief.
Business from a senior management or executive perspective has always been about creating structures to lead and motivate numbers of people to perform tasks which produce value. To them, this is beneficial, desirable, and (for them) the greatest high there is. They create an idea, champion it by negotiating support; build teams and processes; all to reach specific 'outcomes'.
Effectiveness as a manager is measured by how well and how quickly they can move from concept to execution, or go-live, or to market. This has been the case in business for generations.
However, technological development since the early 60's has allowed business to be conducted at light speed. It has opened up new industries (computing, software and and infrastructure, and new modes of commerce) and changes in how established business and markets are conducted.
Because the global, daily flow of money is the engine for corporate business and sovereign finances as well, some of the most profound changes have been in banking and finance. It doesn't mean just faster bank transfer times or quicker reconciliation of journal entries -- it's created entirely new, 'exotic' methods of investment (The past ten years have given us a taste of what that's like: How'd that work out for the world, by the way?).
Briefly put, I don't see the old trinity of business, government and finance as the main arbiters of human society any longer. Governments nearly everywhere have allowed globalization to develop to the point that multinationals now have organized political clout to counter policies by recalcitrant governments: The WTO. They have treaty and trade structures created for their benefit, such as NAFTA.
Consequently, national governments are superfluous to global corporate planning except as potential barriers to competition and acquisition, development, and profit. In this structure, human beings are an afterthought, except as consumers to be influenced by advertising, and 'resources' to be employed or dismissed according to the needs of the corporations.
Above all this is The Great Game of finance and the markets -- and not for individual shareholders and investors. The Great Game is for banking and investment houses, insurance companies, hedge fund and private portfolio managers; all of whom who deal with values in the billions -- and who provide financing for purely business corporations, who are first cousins: Banking and finance has been corporatized now, too.
Governments don't figure into their equations, either, except as something to influence with tiny infusions of campaign cash or free golf trips; paltry gifts for such massive return -- and that form of corruption has become institutionalized between government to a high degree. Politics is business, conducted by other means.
Human beings don't figure into the equations of finance managers, either. Like corporate business managers fascinated with business organization, financiers are lost inside a house of numbers.
Both corporate types believe in abstraction as the key to a terrible illusion controlling the world -- not some bizarre conspiracy theory, but the desire to believe in an illusion of control through labeling and definitions; through what they believe to be true about systems and people -- who exist, ultimately, to be 'motivated' and controlled to provide outcomes measured by other abstractions, like profit and return on investment.
The fundamental difference between corporate managers and, say, the #OccupyWallStreet protestors, isn't about competing systems of organization or goals, or even values. It's a difference between levels of consciousness, about how one perceives the world and approaches the mystery of what all this stuff is.
The corporate mind literally cannot conceive of, or understand, a mindset that believes in ideals which are allegedly the foundations of the human spirit. The concepts enshrined in the Constitution find lip service with corporations who want to market themselves in America.
In business, everything is negotiable, and so there are no firm principles or ideas -- except loyalty to the Brand and a willingness to execute the plans created by your senior leaders.
They might claim to understand how collective action works -- but where corporate organization has consensus-building, it's performed within a hierarchical, top-down structures, which rely on paradigms of direction coming from an acknowledged leader, success/fail or punishment/reward, instead of reaching shared goals through cooperation without penalties or blame.
It really is a collision of worlds: The value and belief structure of the corporate manager and financier, of many business school professors, do not perceive reality in the same terms as the rest of us. We all want to make sense of the world we inhabit -- but not all of us would agree that to build organizations where competition and profit are the highest expression of the human spirit, or what human culture should strive for, now, in the 21st century.
's A Fair Cop
No One Could Have Foreseen
Apparently, A British Parliamentary Commission has concluded (in a 6-4 vote split between a pack of inbred Tory Toffs and Honest Labor) that Little Rupert Murdoch is an Oligarch who wanted more power and money and injections with 'extract of monkey glands'; that his son, Jimmy The Fish, in a desperate bid to obtain his father's love (and succeed him as Big Leader of News Corp, and inherit the lion's share of Daddy's estate), tried to be as ruthless and Schlau as his Ol' Digger Daddy and failed; and that Rupert's business model would have put a smile on the face of the charred corpse of Little Joey Goebbels, Rupert's role model.
Alan Cowell And John F. Burns / New York Times / LONDON — "In a damning report after months of investigation into the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, a British parliamentary panel concluded on Tuesday that Mr. Murdoch was “not a fit person” to run a huge international company."
Little Rupert, Allegedly Off To Club Baby Seals (Photo: AP; Alteration, Mongo)
Apparently, A British Parliamentary Commission has concluded (in a 6-4 vote split between a pack of inbred Tory Toffs and Honest Labor) that Little Rupert Murdoch is an Oligarch who wanted more power and money and injections with 'extract of monkey glands'; that his son, Jimmy The Fish, in a desperate bid to obtain his father's love (and succeed him as Big Leader of News Corp, and inherit the lion's share of Daddy's estate), tried to be as ruthless and Schlau as his Ol' Digger Daddy and failed; and that Rupert's business model would have put a smile on the face of the charred corpse of Little Joey Goebbels, Rupert's role model.
Alan Cowell And John F. Burns / New York Times / LONDON — "In a damning report after months of investigation into the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers, a British parliamentary panel concluded on Tuesday that Mr. Murdoch was “not a fit person” to run a huge international company."
On the basis of the facts and evidence before the committee, we conclude that, if at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications...The NYT noted, "In a statement from its New York headquarters, News Corporation said it was 'carefully reviewing the select committee’s report and will respond shortly' ", possibly by invading Poland, or giving Little Glenn Beck his job back -- because giving the world more lies and manipulation is a business model that has worked so well for Little Rupert. Until now, maybe.
This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International...
We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.
Think of it this way: Little Rupert Murdoch is an essentially stupid man, who has pumped nothing but sewage into the eyes and ears of people around the world simply to make a profit -- in that, he's no different than a pimp who puts girls on the street he knows are HIV-positive because there's money in it for him.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Pope Smokes Rope
The Persistent Sound Of Memory
After the advent of Stereophonic sound for 33 1/3 LP recordings, 'Quadrophonic' sound, albums engineered for four-track playback, appeared in the early 1970's. They were a relatively short-lived phenomenon, and not that many Quadrophonic records were available relative to all the two-channel Stereo albums being marketed (It was that decade's version of Beta and VHS).
I bought Sonic Seasons, the electronic music of (then) Walter Carlos; "The Engulfed Cathedral", Isao Tomita's interpretation of Debussy piano works; and several in the Environments - A Totally New Concept In Sound series.
They were essentially field recordings -- several technicians with multiple microphones and (then studio- or motion-picture sound quality) reel-to-reel tape recorders simply went to a location, and let the tapes roll. The concept was originally created by Syntonic Research, with albums released through Atlantic Records. Syntonic / Atlantic eventually released eleven different environmental recordings, in two-channel and Quad stereo versions.
I liked the concept of putting on 'ordinary' sounds as background White Noise (Also, getting toasted while listening to them was pleasant). I bought Disc 1 ('The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore' and 'Optimum Aviary'); Disc 5 ('The Psychologically Ultimate Thunderstorm' and 'Gentle Rain In A Pine Forest'), and Disc 3 -- "Dawn In New Hope, Pennsylvania", and "Be-In In Central Park", described by a reviewer as
On that day, the number-one ASCAP hit song in America was Let The Sunshine In, performed by the Fifth Dimension from the musical, "Hair". The Grateful Dead and 'AUM' were playing that night at the Avalon Ballroom on Van Ness in San Francisco. British explorer Wally Herbert reached the North Pole on foot that day, having started to walk across the entire frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean -- 3,720 miles -- sixteen months before.
And in New York City's Central Park, the roving sound engineers of Syntronics Research, Inc. eventually picked up the sounds of a pro-marijuana rally as part of the Be-In. One of the performers was David Peel, a 'personality' on the Lower East Side, who urged the unseen crowd to chant, "I Like Mar-i-juan-a!", and to smoke dope. He was a fixture in the Hippie, and later the more political Yippie, counterculture scenes, and was friendly with John Lennon after his move to New York (so much so that the FBI once mistakenly distributed a picture of Peel, assuming that he was Lennon). Peel was also well-known at the time for a (non-Quadrophonic, one would assume) album entitled The Pope Smokes Dope.
David Peel: Singing “until the day I drop dead and go to rock ’n’ roll heaven.”
So it was with a small amount of surprise that I came across this article in the New York Times: Peel, aged 68, still kicking out the jams as a Character in The Big Apple. The photo above is exactly the Peel I remembered hearing, and hearing about.
Peel is a part of the cultural soundscape of my past. I admit that I haven't thought about him in over thirty years; but remembering the album briefly touched my memories of "a place and time in culture now gone" -- and to honor all of that, more than any other reason, is what moved me to put this up.
I do not, of course, know whether the Pope smokes dope or not. But it's an alliterative turn of phrase, que no?
After the advent of Stereophonic sound for 33 1/3 LP recordings, 'Quadrophonic' sound, albums engineered for four-track playback, appeared in the early 1970's. They were a relatively short-lived phenomenon, and not that many Quadrophonic records were available relative to all the two-channel Stereo albums being marketed (It was that decade's version of Beta and VHS).
I bought Sonic Seasons, the electronic music of (then) Walter Carlos; "The Engulfed Cathedral", Isao Tomita's interpretation of Debussy piano works; and several in the Environments - A Totally New Concept In Sound series.
They were essentially field recordings -- several technicians with multiple microphones and (then studio- or motion-picture sound quality) reel-to-reel tape recorders simply went to a location, and let the tapes roll. The concept was originally created by Syntonic Research, with albums released through Atlantic Records. Syntonic / Atlantic eventually released eleven different environmental recordings, in two-channel and Quad stereo versions.
I liked the concept of putting on 'ordinary' sounds as background White Noise (Also, getting toasted while listening to them was pleasant). I bought Disc 1 ('The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore' and 'Optimum Aviary'); Disc 5 ('The Psychologically Ultimate Thunderstorm' and 'Gentle Rain In A Pine Forest'), and Disc 3 -- "Dawn In New Hope, Pennsylvania", and "Be-In In Central Park", described by a reviewer as
The sounds of a spontaneous gathering in Central Park, April 6, 1969 with strolling musicians, dancers, anti-war protesters, and fragments of conversations. This recording presents the unmistakable ambiance of a place and time in culture now gone. Though many of the Environments recordings have been imitated, this one stands alone as a totally unique recording.The Be-In was held in what is now Strawberry Fields in New York's Central Park, on Easter weekend, April 6, 1969.
On that day, the number-one ASCAP hit song in America was Let The Sunshine In, performed by the Fifth Dimension from the musical, "Hair". The Grateful Dead and 'AUM' were playing that night at the Avalon Ballroom on Van Ness in San Francisco. British explorer Wally Herbert reached the North Pole on foot that day, having started to walk across the entire frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean -- 3,720 miles -- sixteen months before.
And in New York City's Central Park, the roving sound engineers of Syntronics Research, Inc. eventually picked up the sounds of a pro-marijuana rally as part of the Be-In. One of the performers was David Peel, a 'personality' on the Lower East Side, who urged the unseen crowd to chant, "I Like Mar-i-juan-a!", and to smoke dope. He was a fixture in the Hippie, and later the more political Yippie, counterculture scenes, and was friendly with John Lennon after his move to New York (so much so that the FBI once mistakenly distributed a picture of Peel, assuming that he was Lennon). Peel was also well-known at the time for a (non-Quadrophonic, one would assume) album entitled The Pope Smokes Dope.
So it was with a small amount of surprise that I came across this article in the New York Times: Peel, aged 68, still kicking out the jams as a Character in The Big Apple. The photo above is exactly the Peel I remembered hearing, and hearing about.
Peel is a part of the cultural soundscape of my past. I admit that I haven't thought about him in over thirty years; but remembering the album briefly touched my memories of "a place and time in culture now gone" -- and to honor all of that, more than any other reason, is what moved me to put this up.
I do not, of course, know whether the Pope smokes dope or not. But it's an alliterative turn of phrase, que no?
I Got Nothin' Sunday
The Usual, And A Small Furry Puppy
A Sampler of stories appearing on the Intertubes this fine morning:
A Sampler of stories appearing on the Intertubes this fine morning:
- Lehman's Top 50 employees Paid nearly $700M Just Before It Collapsed
Walter Hamilton, Andrew Tangel and Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times Exclusive: Less than a year before the 2008 collapse of Lehman Bros. plunged the global economy into a terrifying free fall, the Wall Street firm awarded nearly $700 million to 50 of its highest-paid employees, according to internal documents reviewed by The Times.
..."The numbers are shocking but consistent with the fact that in some ways Wall Street has been run as a casino for extracting money from the real economy and using it to pay extraordinary high levels of compensation — one might say obscenely high — to a small number of people," said Lisa Donner, executive director of the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. - Spain In "Crisis Of Huge Proportions" After S&P Downgrade
(REUTERS) - Spain's sickly economy faces a "crisis of huge proportions", a minister said on Friday, as unemployment hit its highest level in almost two decades and Standard and Poor's downgraded the government's debt by two notches.
Unemployment shot up to 24 percent in the first quarter, one of the worst jobless figures in the developed world. Retail sales slumped for the twenty-first consecutive month as a recession cuts into consumer spending.
"The figures are terrible for everyone and terrible for the government ... Spain is in a crisis of huge proportions," Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said in a radio interview. - Data Harvesting At Google Not A Rogue Act
David Streitfeld, New York Times: SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s harvesting of e-mails, passwords and other sensitive personal information from unsuspecting households in the United States and around the world was neither a mistake nor the work of a rogue engineer, as the company long maintained, but a program that supervisors knew about, according to new details from the full text of a regulatory report.
...The so-called payload data was secretly collected between 2007 and 2010 as part of Street View, a project to photograph streetscapes over much of the civilized world...
...Google says the data collection was legal. But when regulators asked to see what had been collected, Google refused, the report says, saying it might break privacy and wiretapping laws if it shared the material.
A Google spokeswoman said Saturday that the company had much stricter privacy controls than it used to, in part because of the Street View controversy. She expressed the hope that with the release of the full report, “we can now put this matter behind us.” - White House Correspondent's Dinner 'Shameful Display Of Whoredom'
(Hamilton Nolan, Gawker:) ...Do you know who knows that the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner is a shameful display of whoredom that makes the "average American" ... continue to disregard the findings of any ostensibly neutral journalistic outlet in favor of their own ideology of choice, because they have a fully solidified belief that the "mainstream media" is little more than a bunch of ball-lapping lapdogs to whoever's in power?
Everyone. Everyone knows this. Even the members of the media who attend the White House Whores Despondence Dinner know this, deep down, whether they admit it openly or lie defensively ... and no, it does not matter, because they are professionals who would never be compromised by the fact that they just spent their favorite evening of the year joshing playfully with the powerful officials they are supposed to be afflicting and reveling in their close proximity to the celebrities that they wish they were. - 4-Week-Old Puppy Rescued After Being Stuck In Drain Pipe
(Daily Mail UK) Wrapped up in a towel, this four-week-old puppy was saved after more than 12 hours stuck underground in a drain pipe. Rescue workers had to dig a 16-foot hole in the ground to free the puppy, which became trapped in Detroit, Michigan.
Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo At Conclusion Of Blog Rant (Photo: Daily Mail)
The owner said that the Puggle-Daschund mix became stuck after crawling into the basement drain pipe and venturing more than 15 [feet]...When the puppy had not emerged from the pipe the next morning, the worried owner called in the Michigan Humane Society, plumbers and a local excavation company.
A rescue party used their hands, shovels and a digger to free the little dog.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
It Cannot Be Repeated Enough
Little Rupert, 5 Years Old, Testifies (Again) In Merrie Olde Anguland
I've said it before: If you want to bite into what Little Rupert has to sell, fine.
Just don't blame anyone but yourself if it tastes like you're sucking Joseph Goebbels' underwear.
Und: I've said before:
I've said it before: If you want to bite into what Little Rupert has to sell, fine.
Just don't blame anyone but yourself if it tastes like you're sucking Joseph Goebbels' underwear.
Und: I've said before:
Rupert pumps sewage on his customers because he doesn't have a high regard for human beings, generally -- I've always assumed that you lie to or steal from people you don't respect. Little Rupert must hold humanity in utter contempt, since all his media provides is a formulaic, lowest-common-denominator style of entertainment. No truth at all; no accuracy, and no information that isn't right-wing propaganda.
And when you hold your customers (i.e., other people) in contempt, Rupert, you scumbag -- like you, the people who pump that sewage believe they can do whatever they want in pursuit of your goals. You set the example for them to follow. They did what they did because you rewarded them for doing so then and continue to do so, now.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Roll Up For The Magical Misery Tour
You Say Yes; We Say No
The path of Austerity™ in Europe -- baling out Banksters and Eurozone Zombie Governments on the one hand; slashing those government's budgets on the other -- has had two principal champions: Conservative politicians Angela Merkel in Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy in France.
Economists (principally Keynesians) have predicted for over three years that Austerity™ would do nothing but drag 'spendthrift, profligate' European nations like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland (and to some degree, Britain) into a spiral of increased unemployment and reduced consumer demand. They would, in turn, drag the rest of Europe into even deeper recession. Which would eventually torpedo the very, very modest 'recovery' here in the United States.
There's a great deal of current evidence that the Keynesians were, uh, right on the money.
France had a national elections today, pitting Center-Right Nicolas Sarkozy against the Socialist party candidate Francois Hollande. This election would have been between Sarkozy and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, but for an unanticipated event. Strauss-Kahn wasn't exactly a fan of Austerity; as reported by The American Prospect in the week after his arrest on rape charges in New York City:
At the time of Strauss-Kahn's arrest, Greece was heading for its fourth (of a total of five, so far) financial crisis. A principal issue was whether holders of Greek bonds could be persuaded to accept a reduction in the interest they'd receive when the bonds were redeemed: A 'haircut', something that would affect a number of European major banks and brokerage houses.
This was negotiated, finally, in the winter of 2011-2012; by then the Greek parliament had no choice. Without the deal (which included more public-sector job cuts and selling off major state-owned industries toOligarchs private interests), Greece would otherwise have had to default on all its obligations, pull out of the Eurozone, which would send the Euro plummeting on the currency markets and threaten the very existence of the European Union.
But in May of 2011, when Strauss-Kahn was being arrested, the "haircut" hadn't yet been accepted. I don't know what his position was regarding it. This isn't an argument that his removal from any position of influence in European economic or political affairs was the result of a conspiracy -- just a recognition that there are a lot of interconnected interests at play.
For New Austerians like Sarkozy, like Merkel, the stakes are very high. For them, the EU's financial crisis is about nothing less than maintaining a coherent European economic and political union in the face of a rising China, the U.S., Russia, and the Middle East, all of whom are in competition with EU nations for the Earth's shrinking natural resources.
The turnout in France's election yesterday was high -- eighty per cent of France's 44.5 million eligible voters turned out for what everyone in and outside the country understood was in part a referendum on Sarkozy's embrace of Austerity.
That the French are willing to vote for Hollande, a person who appears lackluster at best against the more energetic and charismatic Sarkozy, is an indication that the election isn't about personalities, but the policies.
It might seem that Sarkozy's departure could be the beginning of the end of Austerity -- but not yet, and not in any positive way. The European Central Bank, the majority of the EU's finance ministers and the IMF are committed to Merkel's Castor Oil and Carrots plan of strict budget targets and bank bailouts; lower standards of living for many Europeans and relief for corrupt financial institutions. Hollande may be a socialist, but he can't hold back the tide.
Austerity as a policy will simply have to play out and fail, spectacularly. Unfortunately a lot of people will be affected -- some more, others less; but unless you're one of the 1%, the cost of the New Austerian's lack of vision will be paid by you, and me. And for many French, that future is already here.
MEHR: And, from the Monday morning Reuter's wire:
Und Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein: Bondad weighs in as well: Austerity is a failure. Empirically.
Any Questions?
Und Nun Auch Diesen Auflage, "Was Ist Denn Mit Dir Los, Lumpenhunde?":
Hey - Tirez Sur Mon Doigt; D'accord? (Photo: EPA, via UK Telegraph)
The path of Austerity™ in Europe -- baling out Banksters and Eurozone Zombie Governments on the one hand; slashing those government's budgets on the other -- has had two principal champions: Conservative politicians Angela Merkel in Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy in France.
Economists (principally Keynesians) have predicted for over three years that Austerity™ would do nothing but drag 'spendthrift, profligate' European nations like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland (and to some degree, Britain) into a spiral of increased unemployment and reduced consumer demand. They would, in turn, drag the rest of Europe into even deeper recession. Which would eventually torpedo the very, very modest 'recovery' here in the United States.
There's a great deal of current evidence that the Keynesians were, uh, right on the money.
France had a national elections today, pitting Center-Right Nicolas Sarkozy against the Socialist party candidate Francois Hollande. This election would have been between Sarkozy and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, but for an unanticipated event. Strauss-Kahn wasn't exactly a fan of Austerity; as reported by The American Prospect in the week after his arrest on rape charges in New York City:
As recently as [April, 2011], in a talk at the Brookings Institution pointedly titled "The Global Jobs Crisis," Strauss-Kahn... [said] thatWhen he was arrested at JFK airport, Strauss-Kahn was on his way to meet with Angela Merkel in Berlin to talk about resolving what was the Greek sovereign debt crisis. His abrupt departure as head of the IMF meant that the Greek situation was 'solved' by others -- among them Christine Legarde, the Fund's new head and someone much more sympathetic with Merkel and Sarkozy's New Austerian fiscal policies. And, being charged with rape also meant that Strauss-Kahn was neutralized as a political threat to Sarkozy as the Socialist Party's candidate for the French Presidency.
We need financial-sector reform and repair, to put the banks back in the service of the real economy, and direct credit to small and medium-term enterprises -- key drivers of employment and indeed of growth... But fiscal tightening can lower growth in the short term, and this can even increase long-term unemployment, turning a cyclical into a structural problem. The bottom line is that fiscal adjustment must be done with an eye kept keenly on growth.
At the time of Strauss-Kahn's arrest, Greece was heading for its fourth (of a total of five, so far) financial crisis. A principal issue was whether holders of Greek bonds could be persuaded to accept a reduction in the interest they'd receive when the bonds were redeemed: A 'haircut', something that would affect a number of European major banks and brokerage houses.
This was negotiated, finally, in the winter of 2011-2012; by then the Greek parliament had no choice. Without the deal (which included more public-sector job cuts and selling off major state-owned industries to
But in May of 2011, when Strauss-Kahn was being arrested, the "haircut" hadn't yet been accepted. I don't know what his position was regarding it. This isn't an argument that his removal from any position of influence in European economic or political affairs was the result of a conspiracy -- just a recognition that there are a lot of interconnected interests at play.
For New Austerians like Sarkozy, like Merkel, the stakes are very high. For them, the EU's financial crisis is about nothing less than maintaining a coherent European economic and political union in the face of a rising China, the U.S., Russia, and the Middle East, all of whom are in competition with EU nations for the Earth's shrinking natural resources.
The turnout in France's election yesterday was high -- eighty per cent of France's 44.5 million eligible voters turned out for what everyone in and outside the country understood was in part a referendum on Sarkozy's embrace of Austerity.
Both candidates qualified for the second round on May 6, with Mr Hollande taking 28 to 29 per cent of the vote and Mr Sarkozy 25 to 26, according to unofficial estimates from multiple sources.In America, however, the focus of our news agencies is on other, more important things.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen came third with between 17 and 20 per cent, beating far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who scored between 10.5 and 13 per cent, according to the estimates...
The two finalists will face off in round two on May 6, when Mr Hollande is expected to easily romp home...
That the French are willing to vote for Hollande, a person who appears lackluster at best against the more energetic and charismatic Sarkozy, is an indication that the election isn't about personalities, but the policies.
It might seem that Sarkozy's departure could be the beginning of the end of Austerity -- but not yet, and not in any positive way. The European Central Bank, the majority of the EU's finance ministers and the IMF are committed to Merkel's Castor Oil and Carrots plan of strict budget targets and bank bailouts; lower standards of living for many Europeans and relief for corrupt financial institutions. Hollande may be a socialist, but he can't hold back the tide.
Austerity as a policy will simply have to play out and fail, spectacularly. Unfortunately a lot of people will be affected -- some more, others less; but unless you're one of the 1%, the cost of the New Austerian's lack of vision will be paid by you, and me. And for many French, that future is already here.
MEHR: And, from the Monday morning Reuter's wire:
NEW YORK / FRAKFURT , April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a sharply lower open on Monday on weak European data and renewed anxiety over how the region would tackle its debt crisis...I suppose the only response to the continuing fiscal deterioration Europe is experiencing as a result of Austerity is (as The Great Curmudgeon would say) -- more Austerity.
The euro zone's business slump deepened at a far faster pace than expected in April as European factories had their worst month since June 2009. Investors worried that fears of recession would undermine the political will to tackle the debt crisis...
France's presidential election was thrown wide open by the surprisingly high score of a far-right candidate in the first round vote while the Dutch government was set to resign in a crisis over budget cuts.
Und Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein: Bondad weighs in as well: Austerity is a failure. Empirically.
Any Questions?
Und Nun Auch Diesen Auflage, "Was Ist Denn Mit Dir Los, Lumpenhunde?":
(NYT Wednesday, April 25) LONDON — Britain slid back into recession in the first quarter of the year, according to official figures released Wednesday, undercutting the government’s argument that its austerity program was working.Any Questions?
The British economy shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter after contracting 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The first double-dip recession in the country since the 1970s was mainly the result of a slump in the construction industry at the beginning of this year.
Some economists had predicted a small increase in first-quarter gross domestic product after recent surveys had indicated that the British economy was recovering, albeit very slowly. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government had pointed to the recovery as a sign that the austerity measures it implemented were working.
“The economy slipping back into recession comes as a blow” said Azad Zangana, an economist at Schroders. “It’s too early to call for a reversal of government policy, though these latest results do highlight that the economy will not withstand any further acceleration in cuts.”
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Random Barking
So... What?
Whether this observation bounded by the strictures of religious belief, or as open as any question in quantum mechanics -- it can't be denied that we live on a single planet, its atmosphere captured by gravity, orbiting a single star in a universe so vast that we can't conceive just how large that vastness is.
So.. what? What is all this for? Religion will insist on one answer, science another -- though unlike religious leaders, scientists (not ones paid by the Koch Brothers™, or some other bored billionaire, anyway) will tell you their answers aren't absolute. But though you can debate about the purpose, the facts of where and how big can't be argued. So, what's it for? What are we for?
And from that perspective, President Boner's toupee, Obama's support for Banksters™ or 'National Security', or "Bucky The Beaver" Brooks' rat-toothed giggle doesn't mean much.
Obligatory Toupee Photo In Middle Of Existential Rant: President Obama Graciously Ignores The Incident Of President Boner's Hairpiece (Photo: People/Newsroom; TPM; Inset Detail By Mongo)
In the face of the unanswered Big Questions, many of the things we consider so important, aren't. There are obvious things which are important, but much of what captures our attention in this place we inhabit -- as Ellen Ripley reminds us, "all this, all this bullshit you think is so important" -- isn't.
We should be asking The Big Questions. But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
Whether this observation bounded by the strictures of religious belief, or as open as any question in quantum mechanics -- it can't be denied that we live on a single planet, its atmosphere captured by gravity, orbiting a single star in a universe so vast that we can't conceive just how large that vastness is.
So.. what? What is all this for? Religion will insist on one answer, science another -- though unlike religious leaders, scientists (not ones paid by the Koch Brothers™, or some other bored billionaire, anyway) will tell you their answers aren't absolute. But though you can debate about the purpose, the facts of where and how big can't be argued. So, what's it for? What are we for?
And from that perspective, President Boner's toupee, Obama's support for Banksters™ or 'National Security', or "Bucky The Beaver" Brooks' rat-toothed giggle doesn't mean much.
In the face of the unanswered Big Questions, many of the things we consider so important, aren't. There are obvious things which are important, but much of what captures our attention in this place we inhabit -- as Ellen Ripley reminds us, "all this, all this bullshit you think is so important" -- isn't.
We should be asking The Big Questions. But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
