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CULTURE BLOG

all art/music/culture links (including music biz/file sharing news), fiction I'm reading and what I'm listening to and watching

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ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

u = Progressive Review's Undernews

PUBLIC AFFAIRS/HISTORY READING:
(r) = re-reading

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alibris wishlist

The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers -- and What They Expect in Return

Arrogant Capital

Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare

The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Decline of American Democracy

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press

Amazon Light

Just consider what current events will sound like two thousand years from now -- the greatest nation on Earth bombing some of the smallest and weakest for no clear reasons, people starving in parts of the world while farmers are paid not to plant crops in others, technophiles sitting at home playing electronic golf rahter than the real thing, and police forces ordered to arrest people who simply desire to ingest a psychoactive weed. People of that era will also likely laugh it all off as fantastic myths...

It is time for those who desire true freedom to exert themselves -- to fight back against the forces who desire domination through fear and disunity.

This does not have to involve violence. It can be done in small, simple ways, like not financing that new Sport Utility Vehicle, cutting up all but one credit card, not opting for a second mortgage, turning off that TV sitcom for a good book, asking questions and speaking out in church or synagogue, attending school board and city council meetings, voting for the candidate who has the least money, learning about the Fully Informed Jury movement and using it when called -- in general, taking responsibility for one's own actions. Despite the omnipresent advertising for the Lotto -- legalized government gambling -- there is no free lunch. Giving up one's individual power for the hope of comfort and security has proven to lead only to tyranny.

from Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs

You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. . .It seems so primitive, totemistic even, like cowry shells. I must have used that kind of money myself, a little, before everything went on the Compubank.

I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.

It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

. . . Things continued on in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to continue on as usual.

from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

By the time Oscar reached the outskirts of Washington, DC, The Louisiana air base had benn placed under siege.

The base's electrical power supply had long since been cut off for lack of payment. The aircraft had no fuel. The desperate federal troops were bartering stolen equipment for food and booze. Desertion was rampant. The air base commander had released a sobbing video confession and had shot himself.

Green Huey had lost patience with the long-festering scandal. He was moving in for the kill. Attacking and seizing an federal air base with his loyal state militia would have been entirely too blatant and straightforward. Instead the rogue Governor employed proxy guerrillas.

Huey had won the favor of nomad prole groups by providing them with safe havens. He allowed them to squat in Louisiana's many federally declared contamination zones. These forgotten landscapes were tainted with petrochemical effluent and hormone-warping pesticides, and were hence officially unfit for human settlement. The prole hordes had different opinions on that subject.

Proles cheerfully grouped in any locale where conventional authority had grown weak. Whenever the net-based proles were not constantly harassed by the authorities, they coalesced and grew ambitious. Though easily scattered by focused crackdowns, they regrouped as swiftly as a horde of gnats. With their reaping machines and bio-breweries, they could live off the land at the very base of the food chain. They had no stake in the established order, and they cherished a canny street-level knowledge of society's infrastructural weaknesses. They made expensive enemies. . .

Louisiana's ecologically blighted areas were ideal for proles. The disaster zones were also impromptu wildlife sanctuaries, since wild animals found chemical fouling much easier to survive than the presence of human beings. After decades of wild subtropical growth, Louisiana's toxic dumps were as impenetrable as Sherwood Forest.

from Distraction by Bruce Sterling

and s-integrator

Friday, February 06, 2004

Truly underground filmmakers in Iran risk imprisonment every time they shoot
It's the most low-tech filmmaking imaginable. Director Ali Mantini's films have no crane or tracking shots. The cameraman rides piggyback on the shoulders of a crew member or bumps along on a donkey. The cast consists of nonprofessional actors, some of whom pay Mantini for the privilege of stepping before the camera.

Mantini edits the movie while lying on his back, holding strips of 8-mm film that an assistant illuminates with a bare light bulb. Each splice uses a carefully snipped piece of Scotch tape. When finished, the film is projected on a sheet taped to the wall of a house for Mantini's neighbors to see.

Welcome to Iranian underground cinema. Mantini, who works 60-hour weeks at a brick factory, spends weekends and holidays making movies. Each film is totally handcrafted. And each is completely illegal.

3:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wow -- there's actually some friction in BigMedia about Overlord Cheney's tete-a-tete with a Supreme Court Justice and one of his Big Oil Buddies

3:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, February 05, 2004

shrubco appears to be in final stages of "enabling" regime change in Venezuela [xymphora]
Covert US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives are already in place in Venezuela as the SOA/WHISC [School of the Americas] prepares for what it is calling "a second bite at the cherry." Bush 2 Latin America 'enforcer' Otto Reich has been holding top level meetings with strategists from the Venezuelan political opposition in Washington D.C. who also had meetings there last week with shadowy Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros and former US White House insider Henry Kissinger.

[...]

Meanwhile, SOA/WHISC troops are hunkered down ready to be drafted into Venezuela as soon as opposition-inspired violence breaks out. US Air Force and Navy contingents are being made ready at a Southern Command base on the Caribbean island of Aruba (Dutch Antilles) to provide logistic and material back-up to an invasion force. A US Navy hospital ship is also said to be on standby to sail to a position off the Venezuela's northern coastline at first signal of "the balloon going up."

10:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mother Jones lowdown on the unit shrubco set up to manufacture the case for invading Iraq [xymphora]
Until now, the story of how the Bush administration produced its wildly exaggerated estimates of the threat posed by Iraq has never been revealed in full. But, for the first time, a detailed investigation by Mother Jones, based on dozens of interviews-some on the record, some with officials who insisted on anonymity-exposes the workings of a secret Pentagon intelligence unit and of the Defense Department's war-planning task force, the Office of Special Plans. It's the story of a close-knit team of ideologues who spent a decade or more hammering out plans for an attack on Iraq and who used the events of September 11, 2001, to set it into motion.

9:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Don't cut here"?

Spooky advice from CNN's Dr Gupta for anyone considering surgery
Well, I'll tell you, first of all, you talk about these sorts of mistakes, and I think both the doctors and the patients have a certain responsibility to try and diminish this. We talked about diminishing them. We talked about this quite a bit, really, having the communication between you and your doctor open up, sometimes tape recording your doctor's appointment. Don't be shy to ask your doctor about specifics types of techniques, things like that.

Your doctor's track record, I think, also is important. There have been studies to show that the more procedures that your doctor does, the better success you are going to have. That's common sense.

Second opinions, you know, sometimes a lot of patients sort of shy away from those. Most doctors aren't offended by a second opinion. That's oftentimes a good idea. A lot of times doctors embrace it.

Surgical tips. ... These are important things. Ask about the latest techniques, since techniques are changing all the time. ...

And really, I think, if you are going to have your operation, if you can have it earlier in the week and earlier in the day, the risk of error is less, and mark your body before surgery. A lot of times nurses do that now. It seems very primitive, to talk about primitive techniques. "Don't cut here" is sometimes what you see on some of these. Also, know what the best and worst-case scenarios are. Be your own best advocate, I think.
Stay the fuck away from hospitals if you possibly can, is my advice.

If you have no choice, make sure you know at least as much as your doctor, is what the message seems to be here.

No problem.

Have a nice day.

9:50 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"It is important to maintain a sense of perspective on all of this"

Detroit diocese admits 63 priests accused of sex abuse in area [drudge]

9:44 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Military/govt search referrals
childfree single household arts [USPS]
morehouse psychic warrior movie [Ft Meade DOIM]
judge emmet sullivan biography [DoD]
washington post "shadow wolves" [Nat Computer Security Center]
tent city bagdad [FAA]
col sasserman [Bonneville Power Administration, Portland OR]
Dyncorp Kuwait problems Atwood [Army Intel Kuwait]
transportation security screeners [DOT]
ufo alien "gas shortage" [Kirtland AFB]
rehnquist+masonic [LoC]
"suzanne shepard" mtv [Dept Vet Affairs]
desertion psyops [DoD]
philidelphia experiment 2 flag [Air Force Flight Training Ctr]
sen john kerry unauthorized bio [DoD - Marines]
"estcourt station" border [Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory]
"twa"cannibalizing parts [Robins Air Force Base]
canvas repair army [Army National Guard]
medical dynacorp [Dept Vet Affairs]

3:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrubco overtime exemption legislation being used to exempt anyone who attended school after high school or joined the military from being paid overtime [u]

1:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Occupation stories [u]
"No occupation ever makes things good for the people. All the people in the world must know the Americans are here just to help Mr. Bush win this next election. The same people who benefited under Saddam are benefiting more now. And the same people who suffered under Saddam, are suffering even more now."

1:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Antiwar/Hutton whitewash protesters halt Blair speech in Parliament

9:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Bio-introscopy or diagnostic imaging with the third eye becoming accepted adjunct for Russian doctors after 40 years of study [Subtle Energies]
The scientist has determined that the effect of bio-introscopy (diagnostic imaging) doesn't contradict the laws of nature and physics at all. In his book Experimental Bio-introscopy Anatoly Rodionov provided evidence proving that animated objects have biomagnetic fields; under some definite conditions these fields can be caught with "the third eye".

For many years Anatoly Rodionov worked the head consultant of the Russian gymnastics team. As the man possesses a unique talent of diagnostic imaging, he helped prominent athletes come back to sports after the official medicine pronounced a sentence on them. The press often cited the example of gymnast Lyubov Burda from Voronezh who underwent a course of medical rehabilitation developed by Anatoly Rodionov. After that the woman revived and even won the title of a Soviet champion and an Olympic champion.

2:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

BigPharma suppresses negative findings on SSRI antidepressants [u]
Makers of popular antidepressants such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor have refused to disclose the details of most clinical trials involving depressed children, denying doctors and parents crucial evidence as they weigh fresh fears that such medicines may cause some children to become suicidal.

The companies say the studies are trade secrets. Researchers familiar with the unpublished data said the majority of secret trials show that children taking the medicines did not get any better than children taking dummy pills.

Although the drug industry's practice of suppressing data unfavorable to its products is legal, doctors and advocates say such secrecy distorts the scientific record.

"Conflicts of interest and the company control of the data have thrown out the scientific method," said Vera Hassner Sharav, a critic of the drugs and a patients' rights advocate. "If hundreds of trials don't work out, they don't publish them, they don't talk about them."

1:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Writing Instructor Loses Job for Discussing Iraq War in Class [u]
Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) writing instructor Elizabeth Ito has been dismissed for taking a brief part of her class to discuss the war in Iraq. Ito criticized the Iraq war in a writing class on March 28, 2003, while the ground invasion was still underway. Her remarks, which later served as the basis for a writing assignment, lasted only ten minutes, but as a result administrators at the college decided not to renew her contract.
Original story somewhere here according to Undernews, though I couldn't find it. FIRE looks like a worthy site though.

1:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Returning female GIs report rapes, poor care
Female troops serving in the Iraq war are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.

At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape-crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned.

The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.

The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for information about the number of sexual assault reports during the conflict. Defense officials would say only that they will not tolerate sexual assault in their ranks.

1:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The casually racist Florida court system [u]

1:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Some of the programs shrubco wants to cut out of the budget as military and "homeland security" budgets balloon

-- a $300 million program to help released prisoners re-integrate into society

-- a program that provides residents of poor areas access to computers and training

-- recreation programs for the disabled

-- aid for migrant farm workers

-- an initiative to promote "educational equity" for girls and women

1:13 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

DC water quality manager fired for trying to warn EPA about lead in local water [drudge]

1:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

I think it's partially the result of the new transparency and immediacy unveiled by the Net that a military contractor is repaying the US for an overcharge -- and you're reading about it now

So that's something.

10:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Military budget still not big enough

Unready army
The first official Army history of the Iraq war reveals that American forces were plagued by a "morass" of supply shortages, radios that could not reach far-flung troops, disappointing psychological operations and virtually no reliable intelligence on how Saddam Hussein would defend Baghdad.

Logistics problems, which senior Army officials played down at the time, were much worse than have previously been reported. While the study serves mainly as a technical examination of how the Army performed and the problems it faced, it could also serve as a political document that could advance the Army's interests within the Pentagon.

[...]

The study also found that future adversaries could draw several lessons from the war: that American forces' reliance on high-tech surveillance satellites and aircraft could be countered by decoys and the imaginative disguise of weaponry; that more powerful warheads for rocket-propelled grenades, already effective against helicopters and light vehicles like Humvees, could offset American armor; that American forces could be drawn into a protracted, costly urban war, more effectively than they were by the Iraqis; and that American forces are vulnerable to classic insurgency tactics, like car bombs.

4:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Those damn Jezebels file:

Korean lapdances blamed for army discipline lapses [drudge]

3:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, February 02, 2004

Sam Smith on the Democrats etc. [link]
It may be the best that the Democrats can do, but they should realize that what they have is not so much an opponent of George Bush as a replacement should the president do himself in.

This, fortunately, looks increasingly likely. Bush is basically a bully and a con man, occupations that require a regular supply of victims and marks. The number of people either scared of or fooled by Bush has peaked and the only question is how many will have figured it all out by election day.

This, however, should not be confused with a political campaign, which requires some self-knowledge beyond that of a victim, some motive other than revenge, some policies other than repeal, and some dreams beyond a Washington free of Bush barbarians.

Such goals remain beyond the Democratic Party which has been incompetently and abusively run for the past decade, reflected in the huge loss of electoral positions at national and state levels.

[...]

This election has much more in common with 'American Idol' than it does with its electoral predecessors, a point dramatically illustrated by the number of voters who think it's their responsibility to find an electable candidate rather than one with whom they actually agree.

9:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

White House/US intel ignored 9/11 warning of Iranian spy according to German Secret Service testimony in trial [u]

9:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Parents of children who were prescribed antidepressants beg FDA to ban teen usage
"To die in this violent, unusual fashion without making a sound ... Paxil must have put her over the edge," said Sara Bostock, describing how her daughter Cecily stabbed herself in the chest with a kitchen knife shortly after graduating from Stanford University and two weeks after starting the drug.

"You have an obligation today ... from preventing this tragic story from being repeated over and over again," said Mark Miller of Kansas City, Missouri, whose son Matt hanged himself from his bedroom closet after taking his seventh Zoloft tablet.

9:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, February 01, 2004

I figured as much file:

shrubco tried sending a covert team to plant WMDs in Iraq but they were killed by friendly fire due to CIA incompetence [cryptogon]

1:49 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Transcript of Democracy Now interview with Kevin Phillips and Alexandra Robbins on Skull & Bones and their alumni John Kerry and George Bush [cryptogon]
ALEXANDRA ROBBINS: When I wrote the first article for Atlantic Monthly, I dismissed Bones as a harmless organization, because my secret society didn't have the power agenda, so I didn't think that Bones did either. After the article came out, I got a call at my office from the New Yorker from a journalist whom I knew by name to be a member of Skull and Bones. He scolded me for writing the article. He said, I'm quoting, "Writing that article was not an ethical or honorable way to make a decent living in journalism." He asked me how much I had been paid for the story. I refused to tell him and he hung up on me. 15 minutes later, he called back. He says, "I have just gotten off the phone with our people." I laughed. I knew he meant other Bonesmen because I didn't think somebody would actually say our people. He told me that the society demanded to know where I got my information. I wouldn't tell him, of course, and then he spent the next 15 minutes or so, berating me for writing about Skull and Bones for having the gall to expose thing about his secret society. He ended the conversation by saying, "There are a lot of us at newspapers and political journalism institutions across the country. Good luck with your career." He slammed down the phone.

1:37 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

They even call the software MATRIX...

Utahans signed up for total info dossier -- "everything from birth and marriage and divorce history to hunting licenses and car license plates ... [e]ven every address you have lived at down to the color of your hair" -- by their governor without even their lawmakers being told [cryptogon]

1:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Chirac's former Prime Minister & "designated successor" Alain Juppe convicted in party financing scandal

1:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Studying how to not answer questions and yet appear human with Hillary Clinton [u]

1:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Just in case you thought there were candidates worth voting for file:

Howard Dean claims to be "for privacy", but a couple years ago he was demanding smart ID cards for all citizens which would be necessary even for accessing the Net [u]
"We must move to smarter license cards that carry secure digital information that can be universally read at vital checkpoints," Dean said in March 2002, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. "Issuing such a card would have little effect on the privacy of Americans."

12:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Political showdown between reformists and hardliners in Iran escalates

While at the site just now an item scrolled saying 109 reformist MPs have resigned...

12:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Russian anti-virus firm says MyDoom probably Russian virus created to "use infected computers to distribute unsolicited junk mail"

12:25 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

REVIEWS

from Sassafrass (9/23/02)
"Unconventional viewpoints at 'charging the canvas'

Opinions that will ruffle feathers, from someone who clearly knows their way around information and the blogosphere."

Blog of the Day
1/18/02

WEEKLY QUOTE

In the eyes of posterity it will inevitably seem that, in safeguarding our freedom, we destroyed it; that the vast clandestine apparatus we built up to probe our enemies' resources and intentions only served in the end to confuse our own purposes; that the practice of deceiving others for the good of the state led infallibly to our deceiving ourselves; and that the vast army of intelligence personnel built up to execute these purposes were soon caught up in the web of their own sick fantasies, with disastrous consequences to them and us.

-- Malcolm Muggeridge

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

-- Mark Twain

NOT IN OUR NAME
(link to list against Iraq War)

CULTURE LINK

Philip K. Dick

DEEPER NEWS LINK

PR Watch

charging the canvas

The Link Section