Halloween motherfuckers!

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)". The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end". A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf (pronounced Kálan Gái av).

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year".

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Another common practice was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.

The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.

Cool as Fuck Young NYC Photographers Doing Their Thing!

I am stoked to know this is going on now.

ThrowbackThursday:Clip from the time I Interviewed Ice-T and Stacy Peralta at Sundance in 2012

The Duane Peters Story "Who Cares" Documentary The Master of Disaster

Henry Mother Fucking Rollins trailer for HE NEVER DIED

"A Force of Nature"



I don't like gore, but this looks fun as hell...

Besides, It's HANK!

They need your help at
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/he-never-died-us-theatrical-release#/story

"School of Life" Monday's WATCH & LISTEN This Week: KARL MARX

I think i'm going to make this a regular Monday series
to post a "School of Life" video every new week

I'll be talking TODAY in Washington DC

from DCLibrary.org

As part of the DC Punk Archive one-year anniversary celebrations, Alec MacKaye will lead a talk with the iconic skate, punk and hip hop photographer, Glen E. Friedman, often called the most important photographer of his generation.

Friedman’s photographs of local groups Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains, as well as Black Flag, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Dead Kennedy’s and Ice-T along with classic skateboarding originators Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Lance Mountain, Allan “Ollie” Gelfand and Tony Hawk, to name a few, are recognized internationally.

His definitive monograph, MY RULES, features never-before-seen images and personal reflections from some of his subjects, giving readers an unprecedented window into the most significant youth countercultures of the last 40 years. Upshur Street Books will have copies of MY RULES for sale, there will be a book signing after the event, and Smash Records will be in the building with some vinyl. Thank you to HIGHWAY Magazine and the DC Public Library Foundation for making this event possible.

For more information about the DC Punk Archive visit dclibrary.org/punk

or
sign up at the FACEBOOK event page
"Glen E. Friedman: a live discussion moderated by Alec MacKaye"

THE SAINTS - Stranded Documentary

This film explores the unique set of circumstances in 1970's Brisbane that fostered The Saints; the sweaty rebellion of Brisbane's oppressed youth as punk counterculture challenged QLD's notorious police force. Featuring interviews with the members of the band, including its leaders Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey, as well as the likes of Sir Bob Geldof, former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra and Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle, the documentary is set to examine how the oppressive and conservative government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen in the 1970s helped act as a catalyst for the rise of punk rock in Australia, and how as a result The Saints went on to be one of the most influential bands this country (Australia) has ever produced.

Journalist Will Potter Describes Being First and Only Journalist to Visit Federal Communication Management Unit

from the Sparrow Project :

In a new TED Talk released today, investigative journalist and TED Senior Fellow Will Potter describes his experience as the first and only journalist to visit secretive prisons on U.S. soil that are referred to by prisoners and guards as “Little Guantanamo.”

Communications Management Units, or CMUs, are experimental prison units in the United States for so-called “second-tier terrorists.” There’s an estimated 60-70 prisoners in CMUs and they are overwhelmingly Muslim, along with several animal rights and environmental activists.

“According to the Bureau of Prisons, CMUs are for prisoners with quote ‘inspirational significance.’ I think that’s a polite way of saying they are political prisons, for political prisoners,” Potter says in the talk. “Prisoners are sent to the CMU because of their race, religion, or political beliefs.”

There are currently two CMUs, located within larger federal prisons in Terre Haute, Indiana and Marion, Illinois. Neither underwent the formal review process required by law when they were opened.

CMUs are not solitary confinement, but they radically restrict prisoner communications with the outside world to levels that meet or exceed the most extreme prisons in the country.Will Potter was allowed to visit environmental activist Daniel McGowan, who was being held at the CMU in Marion. Approval of this visit came as a shock since no other journalist has been allowed inside the CMUs and because documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that the Counter Terrorism Unit has monitored Potter’s speeches, articles, and his book Green Is The New Red. Attorneys and prisoners have said that inmates are transferred to the CMUs without notice and without opportunity to challenge their new designation, in what they say is a clear violation of due process rights.

“Three months after our visit, McGowan was transferred out of the CMU. Then without warning, he was sent back,” Potter says in the TED talk. “I had published leaked CMU documents on my website, and the Counter-Terrorism Unit said McGowan had called his wife and asked her to mail them. …For that, he was sent back to the CMU.”

Potter says CMUs are part of a dangerous post-9/11 trend that he has been documenting, in which the rhetoric of terrorism is used to justify rollbacks in fundamental rights.

“This story is not just about prisoners, it is about us,” he says. “It is about our own commitment to human rights.”

About Will Potter

Will Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and TED Senior Fellow based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege. He specializes in civil liberties post-9/11 and how protest has been labeled as terrorism; Glenn Greenwald described Potter as “the most knowledgeable journalist in the country on these issues.” He is currently a Knight Fellow in Law Reporting at the University of Michigan.

Bad Business - Good news McDonald's franchisees say the brand is in a 'deep depression' and 'facing its final days'

from Yahoo Finance:

McDonald's franchisees believe the brand is in a "deep depression" and could be facing its "final days," according to a new survey.
"We are in the throes of a deep depression, and nothing is changing," one franchisee wrote in response to the survey by Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski. "Probably 30% of operators are insolvent."



Another wrote, "The CEO is sowing the seeds of our demise. We are a quick-serve fast-food restaurant, not a fast casual like Five Guys or Chipotle. The system may be facing its final days."

More than a dozen franchisees expressed frustration with McDonald's management, saying that CEO Steve Easterbrook's turnaround plan — which includes initiatives like all-day breakfast and a shift to digital ordering kiosks — is a distraction from the core issues of McDonald's, like food quality and customer service.

"The lack of consistent leadership from Oak Brook is frightening, we continue to jump from one failed initiative to another," one franchisee wrote.

A second wrote, "I have been in this business since the early 1970s but have not seen us this leaderless in all my time."

The company's reaction to their frustration, one franchisee claimed, is for operators to "get out of the system" and quit the business.

Several franchisees complained about all-day breakfast, saying that it has complicated kitchen operations and goes against Easterbrook's repeated promises to simplify the menu.

"The system is very lost at the moment," one franchisee wrote. "Our menu boards are still bloated, and we are still trying to be too many things to too many people. ... Things are broken from the franchisee perspective."

Franchisees also criticized the "Create Your Taste" program, which allows people to customize their burgers with premium ingredients.

"They are throwing everything they can against the wall to see what will stick," one franchisee wrote.



Kalinowski interviewed 29 US franchisees covering about 226 restaurants for the survey. McDonald's has more than 14,000 restaurants in the US.

In response to the survey, McDonald's said it's hearing a different story from franchisees — specifically pertaining to all-day breakfast.

"We’re hearing from customers and the overwhelming majority of our 3,100 franchisees that all-day breakfast is a hit!" a company spokeswoman told Business Insider. "In fact, since the launch, McDonald’s has reached its highest brand score in two years according to YouGov BrandIndex."

McDonald's is trying to revive business following seven straight quarters of same-store sales declines in the US.

In addition to adding all-day breakfast and "Create Your Taste," McDonald's has also made some changes to its core menu items.

The company started toasting its hamburger buns longer, making its beef patties slightly larger, and changing how the patties are seared.

McDonald's has also announced plans to remove antibiotics from its chicken.

There are at least a few franchisees who are on board with the changes.

Among the myriad negative responses to Kalinowski's survey, several franchisees expressed hopeful attitudes.

"I think our leadership is headed in the right direction," one wrote. "It will take time."

Another said, "The CEO seems to be doing OK so far!"

Skateboarding NOW: Greyson Fletcher's "In Perdition" Part

This guys riding is inspirational, since the first time i saw him in person I thought "I could shoot this kid!"

THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON I'll be speaking (and signing books) at the DC Punk Archive in Washington DC with my old friend Alec MacKaye

from DCLibrary.org

As part of the DC Punk Archive one-year anniversary celebrations, Alec MacKaye will lead a talk with the iconic skate, punk and hip hop photographer, Glen E. Friedman, often called the most important photographer of his generation.

Friedman’s photographs of local groups Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains, as well as Black Flag, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Dead Kennedy’s and Ice-T along with classic skateboarding originators Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Lance Mountain, Allan “Ollie” Gelfand and Tony Hawk, to name a few, are recognized internationally.

His definitive monograph, MY RULES, features never-before-seen images and personal reflections from some of his subjects, giving readers an unprecedented window into the most significant youth countercultures of the last 40 years. Upshur Street Books will have copies of MY RULES for sale, there will be a book signing after the event, and Smash Records will be in the building with some vinyl. Thank you to HIGHWAY Magazine and the DC Public Library Foundation for making this event possible.

For more information about the DC Punk Archive visit dclibrary.org/punk

or
sign up at the FACEBOOK event page
"Glen E. Friedman: a live discussion moderated by Alec MacKaye"

LWV Asks A Question for the 2016 Democratic Candidates: "What Book(s) Have Inspired You?

From the Berned In DC Facebook page
(click to enlarge)



I'm very proud of this (good humor)

War Pigs ala Spongebob Squarepants

White Castle’s Veggie Sliders Are Now Vegan

from PeTA:

After seeing the popularity of its new veggie sliders, White Castle veganized its buns, making the sliders entirely vegan. This move prompted us to present the restaurant chain with a Kind Fast Food Award.



The new veggie slider burger is made by Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods. But there’s more. It’s made with actual peas, carrots, zucchini, spinach, and broccoli, and the veggie sliders cost only 99 cents. You can order it with your choice of a tasty Sweet Thai sauce, or without sauce, if you prefer.

In a statement about the new slider, White Castle said, “We are committed to … listening to our customers and keeping up with changing tastes by developing new menu items.” It describes the new slider as “an incredible new taste experience that’s different from any other sandwich on our menu.”

The times they are a-changin’, as people realize that eating vegan is better for animals, the environment, and themselves.

What are you waiting for? Head to your nearest White Castle and order as many veggie sliders as possible, and be sure to check out our chain-restaurant guide.

A fully transparent solar cell that could make every window and screen a power source

from OffGridQuest.com

Little does he know, this technology has already been around for a few years, and the first factory will soon be under way.... Like EPowerGlass and new updates will be posted there.



Researchers at Michigan State University have created a fully transparent solar concentrator, which could turn any window or sheet of glass (like your smartphone’s screen) into a photovoltaic solar cell.

Unlike other “transparent” solar cells that we’ve reported on in the past, this one really is transparent, as you can see in the photos throughout this story. According to Richard Lunt, who led the research, the team are confident that the transparent solar panels can be efficiently deployed in a wide range of settings, from “tall buildings with lots of windows or any kind of mobile device that demands high aesthetic quality like a phone or e-reader.”

Scientifically, a transparent solar panel is something of an oxymoron. Solar cells, specifically the photovoltaic kind, make energy by absorbing photons (sunlight) and converting them into electrons (electricity). If a material is transparent, however, by definition it means that all of the light passes through the medium to strike the back of your eye. This is why previous transparent solar cells have actually only been partially transparent — and, to add insult to injury, they usually cast a colorful shadow too.

The organic salts absorb UV and infrared, and emit infrared — processes that occur outside of the visible spectrum, so that it appears transparent.



To get around this limitation, the Michigan State researchers use a slightly different technique for gathering sunlight. Instead of trying to create a transparent photovoltaic cell (which is nigh impossible), they use a transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC). The TLSC consists of organic salts that absorb specific non-visible wavelengths of ultraviolet and infrared light, which they then luminesce (glow) as another wavelength of infrared light (also non-visible). This emitted infrared light is guided to the edge of plastic, where thin strips of conventional photovoltaic solar cell convert it into electricity. [Research paper: DOI: 10.1002/adom.201400103 - "Near-Infrared Harvesting Transparent Luminescent Solar Concentrators"]

If you look closely, you can see a couple of black strips along the edges of plastic block. Otherwise, though, the active organic material — and thus the bulk of the solar panel — is highly transparent. (Read: Solar singlet fission bends the laws of physics to boost solar power efficiency by 30%.)

Michigan’s TLSC currently has an efficiency of around 1%, but they think 5% should be possible. Non-transparent luminescent concentrators (which bathe the room in colorful light) max out at around 7%. On their own these aren’t huge figures, but on a larger scale — every window in a house or office block — the numbers quickly add up. Likewise, while we’re probably not talking about a technology that can keep your smartphone or tablet running indefinitely, replacing your device’s display with a TLSC could net you a few more minutes or hours of usage on a single battery charge.

The researchers are confident that the technology can be scaled all the way from large industrial and commercial applications, down to consumer devices, while remaining “affordable.” So far, one of the larger barriers to large-scale adoption of solar power is the intrusive and ugly nature of solar panels — obviously, if we can produce large amounts of solar power from sheets of glass and plastic that look like normal sheets of glass and plastic, then that would be big.

thanks, Seth

Every Photograph Taken by a NASA Astronaut on the Surface of the Moon Has Been Uploaded to Flickr

from Laughing squid

Photo archivist Kipp Teague has uploaded more than 8,400 high-resolution photos from the NASA Apollo missions to the Moon to the photo sharing site Flickr. According to Teague, the page includes every photo taken on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions as well as many others taken by astronauts during spaceflight to and from the Moon.

The Flickr page is now a companion to Teague’s Project Apollo Archive where he has kept an online repository of NASA Apollo images since 1999. The newly uploaded images are available in 1,800 dpi and were created from scans of the original Apollo Hasseelblad film done by NASA around 2004.

photos via Project Apollo Archive

via The Planetary Society, PetaPixel

bonus:

Feel the Hardcore Bern

From the Berned In DC Facebook page
(click to enlarge)

Louis CK is insane

The Fascinating Differences Between The Conservative and Liberal Personality

via Alternet:

Evidence suggests that differences between liberals and conservatives begin to emerge at an early age.

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin," laments Linus van Pelt in a 1961 Peanuts comic strip. Yet in today's hyperpartisan political climate, religion and politics are obsessively debated, while the "American people" that politicians and reporters constantly refer to seem hopelessly divided. Meanwhile, psychologists are increasingly exploring the political arena, examining not just the ideological differences, but also the numerous factors - temperamental, developmental, biological, and situational - that contribute to the formation and maintenance of partisan political beliefs.

Personality differences are a leading candidate in the race toward understanding the rift between political liberals and conservatives. Using data compiled from nearly 20,000 respondents, Columbia University researcher Dana Carney and colleagues found that two common personality traits reliably differentiated individuals with liberal or conservative identifications. Liberals reported greater openness, whereas conservatives reported higher conscientiousness. This means that liberals (at least in their own estimation) saw themselves as more creative, flexible, tolerant of ambiguity, and open to new ideas and experiences. Across the political personality divide, conservatives self-identified as more persistent, orderly, moralistic, and methodical. These personality differences were even reflected in the bedroom belongings and offices or workspaces of ideological undergrads, with liberal students collecting more CDs, books, movie tickets, and travel paraphernalia, as opposed to their conservative peers, who showed more sports décor, U.S. flags, cleaning supplies, calendars, and uncomfortable furniture. Lest you think that the partisan personality is a uniquely American phenomenon, similar findings on personality and political ideology have emerged in samples across the globe, from North America, Europe, and Australia.

Evidence suggests that these personality differences between liberals and conservatives begin to emerge at an early age. A 20-year longitudinal study by Jack and Jeanne Block showed that those who grew up to be liberals were originally assessed by their preschool teachers as more emotionally expressive, gregarious, and impulsive when compared to those who became conservatives, who were considered more inhibited, uncertain, and controlled. Liberals may show greater tolerance for diversity and creativity, but they may also be more impulsive, indecisive, and irresponsible. On the flip side, conservatives may be organized, stable, and thrifty, but also have stronger just-world beliefs (leading to a greater tolerance for inequality), and stronger fears of mortality and ambiguity. Even recent neuroscience work published in Current Biology from University College London identifies fundamental differences in the partisan brain. Brain scans revealed a larger amygdala in self-identified conservatives and a larger anterior cingulate cortex in liberals, leading the researchers to conclude that conservatives may be more acute at detecting threats around them, whereas liberals may be more adept at handling conflicting information and uncertainty.

Some evidence suggests, however, that we aren't always so divided. In situations that remind people of death and mortality (such as terrorist attacks or implicitly primed images of funeral hearses and chalk body outlines) conservatives and liberals alike gravitate toward more conservative leaders and beliefs. By contrast, greater acceptance of liberal values occurs during events in which people feel disillusioned by government authorities and the politically powerful (such as the Vietnam War or after the 2008 housing crisis).

Of course, the field of psychology isn't immune to political biases and partisanship. Liberal psychology professors vastly outnumber their conservative counterparts by as much as 10 to 1 (perhaps conservatives have some justification for a general distrust of science and academia). A similar imbalance was found by Dyer Bilgrave and Robert Deluty in their 2002 survey of more than 200 clinical and counseling psychologists, published in the journal Psychotherapy. They also found that cognitive-behavioral therapists tended to hold more conservative religious and political beliefs than their more liberally oriented psychodynamic and humanistic-oriented colleagues. Other findings implicative for psychotherapy suggest that liberals and conservatives conceptualize different values in their family narratives, and that individuals fail to empathize completely with the nonpolitical concerns and problems of others if they're perceived as belonging to an opposing political party.

No matter which side of the couch they sit on, therapists are inevitably bound to confront political and moral issues in treatment. In research, practice, and training, therapists are expected to achieve the kind of bipartisan collaboration that politicians seem to only talk about. According to Bilgrave and Deluty, "therapists should ask themselves regularly how their religious and political beliefs, values, and attitudes may be influencing their practice of therapy-how they see clients and their problems, how they help clients frame and understand their concerns, and how and in which direction they encourage clients to act." But if our partisan personalities are deeply rooted in our early development and wired in our brains, is honest and thoughtful consideration of our own biases and predeterminations enough, or even possible? And when even your furniture choices betray your political persuasions, then what does your office tell patients about you?

Congress to Eliminate Billions in Wall Street Subsidies to Fund Repair of Nation’s Highways

from U.S. Uncut

Both parties of Congress are in agreement on diverting billions in Wall Street subsidies to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. If you’re by a window, look outside for flying pigs.

Currently, the Federal Reserve pays out a 6 percent annual dividend to roughly 2,900 banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo net approximately $350 million apiece each year from the dividend. These banks own stock in the Federal Reserve as a means of becoming members of regional Fed branches around the country, and unlike other stocks, the big banks are guaranteed to never lose money on their investment in the Fed. For years, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed reducing that dividend to 3 percent in order to pay for repairing American infrastructure. After lying dormant for over a year, it appears that idea has now caught on with Republicans as well.

According to Bloomberg, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently told a group of Wall Street executives at a Financial Services Roundtable event that he wouldn’t use his power to remove a new rule that allots funding for federal highways by reducing that dividend to 1.5 percent. The House is now weighing whether or not to back the dividend reduction before highway funding runs out at the end of October. Should the proposal go through, America’s highways would benefit from an additional $17 billion in repairs over the next ten years.

Now, Wall Street is in panic mode.

“The idea that going forward that we are going to pay for our nation’s infrastructure on the backs of one industry sector is a really flawed public policy,” said American Bankers Association president Rob Nichols.

While Fed chair Janet Yellen has taken the banks side, saying she believes the policy “could conceivably have unintended consequences,” Washington prognosticators believe the banks will ultimately have to sacrifice their Fed dividend, and possibly more federal handouts further down the road.

“The industry is in a very dangerous spot because it is a pot of gold,” Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, told Bloomberg. “With the general political climate I don’t know a lot of people on Capitol Hill that like banks.”

The proposal is likely to pass, as past Republican proposals to fund infrastructure repair included a tax repatriation holiday — allowing corporations to bring back some of the $2.1 trillion stashed in overseas tax havens back to the U.S. at a 5 percent rate rather than a 35 percent rate — something President Obama has promised to veto in the past. As I previously wrote in The Guardian, the only result that came out of past attempts at repatriation was mass layoffs of workers, while corporations used the repatriated cash to buy back their own stock, driving up the value of the options owned by executives.

Bad of an idea as it is, repatriation still attracted the support of Wall street-backed Democrats like Chuck Schumer, and corporations have lobbied Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), the House Ways and Means chairman, to include repatriation in a tax reform package. However, lawmakers predicting an Obama veto are rejecting the idea of repatriation for now and are gravitating toward a solution for America’s highways they know Obama will sign by the end of the month.

The dividend cut has already been included in the Senate’s compromise bill, which will fund highways over the next 3 years. That bill passed by an almost two-thirds margin in July.

Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots

A young Stephen Hawking on wedding day, prior to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

from the Huffington Post:

"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed."

Machines won't bring about the economic robot apocalypse -- but greedy humans will, according to physicist Stephen Hawking.

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Thursday, the scientist predicted that economic inequality will skyrocket as more jobs become automated and the rich owners of machines refuse to share their fast-proliferating wealth.

If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

Essentially, machine owners will become the bourgeoisie of a new era, in which the corporations they own won't provide jobs to actual human workers.

As it is, the chasm between the super rich and the rest is growing. For starters, capital -- such as stocks or property -- accrues value at a much faster rate than the actual economy grows, according to the French economist Thomas Piketty. The wealth of the rich multiplies faster than wages increase, and the working class can never even catch up.

But if Hawking is right, the problem won't be about catching up. It'll be a struggle to even inch past the starting line.

TWITTER IS SAYING MY BLOG POSTS ARE DANGEROUS TO CLICK THROUGH - THEY ARE NOT! IGNORE THE WARNING AND CLICK THROUGH, THANKS!

PLEASE, IF YOU ENJOY READING MY BLOG JUST CLICK THROUGH TO THE ARTICLES AND IGNOR THE WARNINGS... TWITTER SEEMS TO THINK ALL BLOGS ON "BLOGGER" ARE FULL OF SPAM SO THEY ARE NOT ALLOWING DIRECT CLICK THROUGH, JERKING US.

ANYWAY, HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO CLICK THROUGH UNTIL THEY FIX THIS PROBLEM OR I MOVE TO ANOTHER HOSTING SERVICE - THANKS!

REALLY?

Chad Vader : Day Shift Manager - A Galaxy Not So Far Away

Class Dismissed: Malala's Story

from The New York Times

The subject of a new documentary, here's an early story that first brought attention to Malala.

A 2009 documentary by Adam B. Ellick profiled Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl whose school was shut down by the Taliban. Ms. Yousafzai was shot by a gunman on Oct. 9, 2012.



2013 update:

HENRY ROLLINS: WHY I'M NOT AN ATHEIST

from the LA Weekly:

Recently I was on the podcast You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes. He’s an incredibly nice guy, and it was a good experience overall.

At one point, he moved the conversation toward the spiritual. I told him that I had no religious or spiritual beliefs but was too lazy for atheism. I was trying to be funny, but basically it’s true.

Many years ago, I concluded that people need leadership and rules to follow. Government, laws, the threat of incarceration, traffic lights. Freedom is great, but the freedom to drive over someone and go on your way isn’t.

I reckon that religion was an early method of keeping people from running amok. The act of worshipping an unseen force requires faith and strength of conviction — and that in itself is a profound concept. If you believe in what you can’t prove conventionally, you have to land on that very hard to beat back the doubters. Like when the Westboro Baptist Church people got pushback for their “God hates fags” signs, they just made bigger signs.

To be a person of faith, it seems to me, takes no small amount of work. This idea is succinctly addressed in the King James version of the Bible, John 20:29: “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” I had to look it up to get the words right, but I actually read a version of that in a hotel room once.

Since there aren’t enough resources for everyone to have a personal cop monitoring their every action, there must be a mega-cop so huge that his omnipresence is invisible and unquestionably powerful.

This is what I figure religion is. Try to be good. Being human, you will make mistakes, but all is not lost. You can ask to be forgiven; by meditating on your mistake, you will see that it would be unwise to repeat the behavior. Throw in the idea of punishment and reward and it’s a workable system.

I think the most brilliant part of religion, as I understand it, is what comes after you die — eternity.

In life, Martin Luther King had to put up with the boiling rage of Jesus-loving, God-fearing citizens who wanted to keep schools segregated. It had obviously crossed his mind that something bad might come his way. On April 3, 1968, at this end of his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, Dr. King said that he would like to have a long life, but perhaps that wasn’t what was going to happen. In spite of that, he was happy and not afraid of any man, because his eyes had seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

He was dead less than 24 hours later. I guess in his way of thinking, the everlasting good stuff and far bigger part of the picture was waiting post-life.

This is why I am not an atheist. If you believe that President Obama was born outside of America, no paperwork or witness testimony will convince you otherwise. If you believe in a higher power, then anyone trying to find holes in your logic causes you to stand your ground more tenaciously.

Basically, I believe that someone believes something.

Now and then, I get emails from religious people. They pity me and the life choices I have made. Some ask why I have covered my body with those awful tattoos and turned myself into such a freak. Others gently admonish me for not having a problem with anyone’s sexual orientation. They let me know that they will be praying for me.

Since they started it, I feel free to have a little fun. I reply, “Thanks, Gandhi!”

This often results in a long letter about the sinner and the sin. I wait a day or two and then write back, asking when they were first attracted to someone of their own gender. I let them know that I am just fine with their gayness and I bet the big guy is, too.

The benevolence usually starts to wear a little thin in the next reply. One of my favorite questions to ask is: In a fight, who would win, Jesus or Glenn Danzig?

It’s around then that the gloves come off. I have even gotten some of them to curse, which I love. There is nothing like being told to go fuck yourself by the same person who was, only days before, praying on your behalf.

When someone tells me that America is a Christian nation and all the laws we need are contained in the Bible, to me that is not a religious discussion. It’s about the notion of authority this person is employing in an attempt to control others. God might be real to this person, but what is as real to me is Article VI of the Constitution. All of our disagreements will end in stalemate, so why even bother? I have no interest at all in trying to “win” an argument like this, because to me the premise is bent to begin with.

Do I have beliefs? You bet! I will leave this now and be back in several hours to testify!

It’s 0107 hrs. on Feb. 17, 2015. I have just returned from the Griffin in Atwater Village. Fuzz and Thee Oh Sees played a free show. I am such a fan of these bands. I stood in a highly packed room. Both groups completely ripped it up.

I saw, I heard, I experienced — I believed. What did I believe? Same thing I always have: the here, the now, the Rock!

Stecyk - Word.

My man C.R. Stecyk III

people finally catching up

or trying to

no one will...



Craig and i shot by Ed Templeton earlier in 2015

What ‘The Wall Street Journal’ Gets Totally Wrong About Bernie Sanders’s Agenda

from The Nation

The Journal wants to shock and awe voters with big numbers, but Sanders’s proposals would save America big bucks.
By Joshua Holland

his week, The Wall Street Journal dropped a terrifyingly large number on Senator Bernie Sanders’s upstart campaign, warning that his proposals would carry a “price tag” of $18 trillion over a 10-year period. It’s a number designed to shock and awe and discourage voters from giving the social democrat’s ideas a close look.

But according to the very data cited by The Journal’s Laura Meckler, Sanders’s highly progressive proposals wouldn’t cost the United States a single penny, on net, over that 10-year window. In fact, they’d cost less, overall, than what we’d spend without them.

It’s not hard to understand why. The lion’s share of the “cost”—$15 trillion—would pay for opening up Medicare to Americans of all ages. (Meckler notes that Sanders hasn’t released a detailed proposal, so she relies on an analysis of HR 676, Representative John Conyers’s Medicare-for-all bill.)

Rather than cost us more as a society, this proposal would only shift spending from businesses and households to the federal government by replacing our current patchwork system of public and private insurance with a single, more efficient system of financing.

But it wouldn’t be a dollar-for-dollar transfer from the private to the public sector. According to Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who authored the analysis cited by the Journal, that transition would reduce American healthcare costs by almost $10 trillion over 10 years through economies of scale, better control of pharmaceutical costs, and savings on administrative bloat.

Friedman also projects that, as every American got coverage, we’d spend close to $5 trillion more on actual healthcare services. So we would get more healthcare and still end up saving around $5 trillion on net. In other words, Sanders’s Medicare expansion would cost $15 trillion, but without it American businesses and taxpayers would spend $20 trillion over the same period, while still leaving millions uninsured.

This shows just how badly we get ripped off under our current system. And as Friedman writes at the Huffington Post, “The economic benefits from Senator Sander’s [sic] proposal would be even greater than these static estimates,” because they don’t factor in “the productivity boost coming from a more efficient health care system and a healthier population.”

So let’s look at the rest of the Journal’s terrifyingly socialist buffet of policies:



As you can see, the $5 trillion we’d save on healthcare costs would more than cover the costs of the rest of Sanders’s agenda—offering tuition-free education at public colleges, expanding Social Security benefits, bolstering private pensions, repairing some of our aging infrastructure and establishing a fund to help cover paid family leave. That doesn’t seem so frightening after all.

If the study cited by the Journal is correct, all of those benefits would not only effectively cost us nothing, we’d still have $2 trillion left over to, say, cut federal deficits for the next ten years—something that should warm the hearts of fiscally conservative Wall Street Journal readers.

But the real challenge Sanders’s proposals present for the Wall Street Journal crowd is ideological. In America, our taxes are quite low relative to other advanced countries, but we shell out dramatically more out-of-pocket for social goods like healthcare, education, and retirement. In fact, in 2009 (before Obamacare’s subsidies and Medicaid expansion kicked in), Americans spent almost four times as much as the citizens of other wealthy countries buying social goods on the private market. As a result, while we know that a big chunk of our paychecks are going to Uncle Sam, we don’t see the same kind of benefits coming back to us as people in the rest of the developed world do. And that disparity makes Americans receptive to the right’s anti-government rhetoric.

So this isn’t really about costs, because the government is more efficient than private enterprise in providing social insurance and higher education. If, in some alternate universe, Bernie Sanders were able to win the presidency and enact his proposals in their entirety, it would pose an existential threat to the conservative project to convince Americans that their tax dollars don’t buy much—that government is all about bloat and corruption and giving their hard-earned dollars to the undeserving poor.

Seen in that light, it’s no surprise that The Wall Street Journal would drop this kind of bunker-busting number-bomb on the gentleman from Vermont.

South Park good politics

from The Daily Mail:

Controversial South Park episode shows Donald Trump being raped and murdered: Show attacks tycoon's run for President, his immigration policies and then kills him off in shocking final scene

South Park launched vicious attack on Trump and his election policies

Shows character Mr Garrison pledging to 'f***' illegal immigrants to death

Promise is in reference to Trump's real-world zero-tolerance approach

Also brands Trump a 'brash a*******' and a 'joke' that got out of hand

Garrison also pledges to build a wall between the U.S. and Canada

But when Canada beats him to it, he travels into the country before carrying out his sick rape threat on Trump himself 

Trump campaign declined to comment on the show 

Donald Trump was on the receiving end of a vicious take-down by South Park on Wednesday evening, which skirted the borders of decency and taste and arguably crossed them.

In an almost unprecedented attack on a running presidential candidate, the adult cartoon lampooned the Republican and in a shocking finale, showed the billionaire businessman being brutally raped to death.

The inflammatory episode of the satirical cartoon, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, was supposed to attack Trump's immigration policies and mocked his oft-repeated promise to build a wall between the US and Mexico. 

Shocking: Satirical cartoon South Park has aired an inflammatory new episode which mocks Donald Trump before showing the presidential candidate being raped to death in a shocking scene 

 

Brutal: The episode - called 'Where My Country Gone' in reference to Trump's election slogan 'Make America Great Again - launched a scathing attack on The Donald and his policies 

 

Safety Dance: In it, Trump is shown as becoming the President of Canada causing all of the Canadians to flee across the border into America, creating an immigration problem 

The show had featured Trump briefly once before, back in 2001, but had largely steered clear of mocking him - until now. 

Tycoon Trump's campaign declined to comment on the episode, which was entitled 'Where My Country Gone'. 

The eye-opening episode showed South Park being overrun by Canadian immigrants, prompting high school teacher Mr Garrison to launch a political career aimed at getting rid of them.

Fired from his job at the school for referring to Canadian children as 'canucks', he begins running for election under the slogan 'Where my country gone' which he has printed on to a hat in clear reference to Trump's 'Make American great again' mantra.

He then begins holding rallies, at which several people are carrying banners with Trump's actual slogan on, proposing a radical policy on immigrants.

'I propose we f*** them all to death,' Mr Garrison tells a CNN journalist, as a shocking answer as how he would deal with the influx migrants.

Asked what he means by the remark, Mr Garrison continues. 'We round them up, pull down their pants and f*** them 'til their souls leave their bodies. Then we build a wall.'

However, his mood turns sour after the journalist informs him that Canada has already built a wall across the border with America - a clear riposte to Trump's supposedly simple plan to prevent illegal immigration into the US. 

Trump-baiting new South Park 'Where My Country Gone' preview

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Angry: The influx of Canadians caused high school teacher Mr Garrison to launch a campaign to 'f*** them to death' in echoes of Trump's rela-life zero-tolerance approach to illegal immigrants 

 

Supporters: At Garrison's political rallies, several supporters are shown waving banners with 'make America great again' - Trump's real-life political slogan - written on them 

Made good on his promises: Mr Garrison pledges to build a wall between the U.S. and Canada, but upon learning that the Canadians beat him to it, he pledges to go into Canada and 'f*** them all to death' in their own country

After a furious press conference along the U.S.-Canadian border, where Garrison shuts down his more mild-mannered opponents with his harsh and insulting rhetoric, he promises to go into Canada and 'f*** them to death' in their home country. 

In the meantime it transpires in the alternate world of South Park that the real Donald Trump has actually been elected as the leader of Canada which is what prompted all of the Canadians to flee to America.

As one Canadian explains in a clear dig at Trump's rise to prominence in the polls this summer: 'There were several candidates during the Canadian elections. One of them was this brash a****** who just spoke his mind. 

'He didn’t really offer any solutions, he just said outrageous things. We thought it was funny. Nobody really thought he’d ever be president. It was a joke! But we just let the joke go on for too long. 

'He kept gaining momentum, and by the time we were ready to say, "OK, let’s get serious now, who should really be president?" he was already being sworn into office. 

'We weren’t paying attention… We weren’t paying attention!' 

Finding the entire country deserted, Mr Garrison wanders around until he finds Trump dancing in his office, at which point he launches his sick attack 

With Trump dead, all the immigrants return home, promoting Mr Garrison to announce that he is running for the white house, along with running mate Caitlyn Jenner (pictured) 

 

Front runner: Donald Trump spoke at the South Carolina African American Chamber of Commerce at the Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston on Wednesday. He has yet to respond to the South Park episode

Desperate to carry out his threat against Canadians, Mr Garrison has launched himself into the nation in a barrel over Niagara falls, only to find the country deserted except for Trump, who is dancing in his office to The Safety Song. 

Once inside the two begin fighting, before Mr Garrison strips his wrestling outfit off and brutally beats trump into submission before raping him to death. 

Back in South Park, news that the Canadian president has been 'f***** to death' causes jubilation, and the Canadians return home. 

Mr Garrison then decides to take his election campaign to the White House, along with running-mate Caitlyn Jenner, who drives off with him at the end. 

However, in another controversial joke, she is shown running over a pedestrian - a reference to the real-life Caitlyn's fatal car crash along a Los Angeles freeway earlier this year. 

'I'M A GAY FISH': SOUTH PARK'S MOST MEMORABLE CELEBRITY TAKE-DOWNS

Kayne West

The rapper's inflated ego is attacked by South Park after he fails to get a joke about fish sticks, and is driven to distraction by everyone calling him a 'gay fish' for reasons he doesn't understand.

After torturing a man to death in search of the answer, Kanye concludes that everyone was actually trying to deliver him a message about his sexuality the entire time, and ends the episode dressed as a fish, singing a song about being gay. 

Snooki

The Jersey Shore cast member is ruthlessly portrayed as a half-human, half-ratlike creature who says Snooki's name repeatedly in a strange voice while trying to have sex with everything in sight.

The episode also took on Jersey culture as portrayed in Jersey Shore, showing everyone from there as self-obsessed, perma-tanned, and very quick to violence. 

Bono

Bono's obsession with being the best at things got the South Park treatment when he takes on Stan's dad, Randy, at a 'biggest poop' competition.

While it is first thought that Bono holds the current record that Randy is trying to beat, it turns out that Bono is actually the record-breaking feces, who was raised as a human.

In the words of one character, that explains why Bono is so obsessed with being number one 'because really he'll always be a number two'. 

 

Al Gore

The former Vice President was held up as a figure of fun in one of the show's early seasons as campaigning on useless issues by leading a hunt to find 'Manbearpig'.

The creature, which actually turns out to be real, is, according to Gore 'half man, half bearpig' which he is 'super cereal' about capturing.

When the animal is eventually captured, by Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny, Gore takes all the credit for himself. 

Michael Jackson 

While the character is actually called Mr Jefferson, he bears an unmistakable resemblance to the former celebrity, and wears a fake mustache which keeps falling off.

The character keeps inviting children to stay at his house and take part in magical imaginary adventures with him.

When the town turns on him, he keeps accusing worried parents of being 'ignorant'.