George Bush and his White Rabbit

Bush said today he invaded Iraq 'because God told him to do it.'  He's falling back on the Giant Invisible Rabbit Excuse.  (Guardian:  George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq')

The article implies God told Bush together with Blair when they prayed together at his Texas ranch.  God must have said Iraq doesn't have shit for an air force.  Take that out in a few hours and then bomb the fuck out of them.  I want to see political chaos and at least a decade of market bombings.

And you can't ignore the word of God.

This is sounding like the Son of Sam.  I had to kill because of a talking dog.


(Ed:  it's hogwash)

Yep.  Every word of it.

Bruce Jenner's Amazing Genetics

Scientists will spend precisely no time whatsoever looking for the gene that makes you discover you are really a woman inside after you have already fathered children.  Said Rochester Harding, lead genetic researcher at Monsanto, "Even if there is such a gene, we don't care.  By the way, who is Bruce Jenner?"

Frankly, we really don't know as he won in the Olympics for something ... swimming, running, playing piano, who knows.

Then he had babies who presumably grew up to become the same ones who are so pointless in tabloid news now.  Whatever the gene, those babies have got it.

Not satisfied with the pointlessness of his progeny, Jenner decided he is really a woman and he's going to become the Butt Ugliest Female in L.A.  The only reason this is news is it seems they're going to make a reality show out of it.

The horror isn't that the topic of the show is transgender as it's not that controversial when there are as many types of transgender as Baskin Robbins has flavors of ice cream.  Facebook may even have as many as ninety classifications for sexual interest ... and a million people for each type, all barking for equality in something.

The horror part is what happens during the transition because they get fookin' crazy and some of them get mean.  Some of the regulars may remember when Trillian Traal and her alts were screeching about homophobia but that wasn't the problem.  No-one was being homophobic, it was that she was partway through the change and was drunk as a monkey most of the time.  That they will make a sideshow out of Jenner in that period is repugnant as he'll do some fucked-up stuff, you can almost set your watch.

If I were directing the show, there would be no reference to his sex change.  Maybe he does a series of shows on how footballs spontaneously lose air pressure.  Who cares what's in them as the point is his sex change will proceed through the course of the running of the shows and you can accept it as it goes along or not.  That would make the more profound point, in my view, as it would be so Popeye:  I yam what I yam.

My Email Got Eaten By a Whale

No magic was performed and yet email that would have come to me here is now going to the iPad which is where I'm not.  That would be fine if I got a copy here but I don't.

Yevette gave me a summary of what's in there and it ranged from exceptionally cool to ... well ... other than exceptionally cool.

The exceptionally cool is the book from Cousin Gillian did make it to the Queen Bee and Official Historian of the Clan of Fraserdom and Soperdom in Cincinnati.  That book was well-traveled as who knows where it was printed.  It went to my ol' Mother, at five or six, in China.  From there it went to Scotland.  It went who knows where on the way to Cousin Gillian, also in Scotland.  She gave it to me and I took it to Netherlands and then to Texas.  Now it winds up in Cincinnati.  That book should have its own passport.  It should also be close to one hundred years old.

There is exceptionally weird in some family business I had no idea even existed, have no information concerning, have no idea what is required ... but will deal with it ... apparently.  There's no need for detail on that as it's clear in the wtf category.  It's too much wtf to grasp the wtf of it just now.

There's also a specification for content of the blog and I think I've been clear already there's a fixed price for content control.  For a flat $10,000 US, I'll call myself Slutty Huckleberry and wave a flag like only a Texan can.  Whoops, I think I had bumped that to $15,000.  Inflation, you know.

I do not see that stack of greenbacks so I conclude editorial control should remain my exclusive province.

Milt Wilts and McCain Tilts

Doing as little as he can to boost confidence in GOP endurance, Mitt the Witt wilts after a week and says he can't run.  It's not clear how that's news when he didn't run last time either.

McCain tilted today and apologized for calling protestors 'low-life scum' and he said the Devil made him do it.  We don't know if there will be another tilt tomorrow in which he apologizes for apologizing today because this time the off-line scum made him do it.

Palin said her campaign is in trouble already also.  She said she can't get any money but that's hard to believe when so many comedians are willing to pay her to run and are practically begging her to do it.  She said God will tell her what to do but apparently she forgets she said God told her to run once before.  Maybe Palin doesn't quite understand the Law of God and Football.  This is the one in which God can be backing both sides in a game of football.

Many comedians have become religious this week as they pray, "God, please, please tell her to run."

Rick Perry has potential as he thinks he's the Yosemite Sam of the GOP except the glasses aren't much of a substitute for that big red mustache.  Plus if he pulls out his six-guns, the Secret Service will mow him down like the Texas rattlesnake he really is.  He's currently the only candidate facing felony charges for anything but the campaign is still young.

This could play out to Rand Paul squaring off on Hillary Clinton.  That would be something straight out of a Terry Gilliam movie.

Something to make it perfect would be if Clinton suddenly got Hare Krishna and went off to dance around in a saffron robe in Tahiti.  Other than her, Democrats have nothin'.  Elizabeth Warren is perfect but they wouldn't touch her because she's too much of a Democrat.  Bernie Sanders can't do it as he looks like he should be off somewhere making ice cream.

Who Are You Callin' Scum, Algae Man

Today John McCain said, regarding Code Pink, protestors against Henry Kissinger in Congress, "Get out of here, you low-life scum."

Moreover, he went further to say, “I've been a member of this committee for many years, and I have never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just took place.”

Here's the 'you scum' sound bite.  Download it and use it as you like.  With a bit of slicing and dicing, you could make one peach of a campaign commercial for him.


Henry Kissinger was a primary with Nixon in the overthrow the legally-elected leftist government of Salvador Allende in Chile.  With CIA doing the dirty work, Kissinger got it done and, by the end of the day, Allende was dead.  To this day, the circumstances of his death are not clear.  (GWU:  National Security Archive)

Even more heinous, Kissinger said to Pinochet, one of the worst dictators of the twentieth century, "We want to help, not undermine you. You did a great service to the West in overthrowing Allende."


Before McCain again accuses someone of being 'scum,' he would do well to revisit Biology 101 to discover exactly what the word means.  Amazingly enough, 'dissenter' is not synonymous.  He might also do well to look up 'railbird' as that's someone who criticizes without knowing.

Successful Show at the Circus

All the preparation to get the sound dialed just right worked out very well as I've verified the audio waveform for the entire hour of the show and there is no clipping anywhere.  That didn't come about from heavy compression as the audio wasn't compressed much and might even benefit from using compression a little more.

There was a lot of reverb on the vocal and that's a side-effect of using the mixer for any effects (e.g. reverb, chorus, delay, etc) because the same effects patch applies to every channel on the mixer, the only variation is how much it is used.  For example, using reverb on drums is almost always good as that will turn a skink into T. rex.  However the reverse is true for vocal.  Lots of reverb on vocal will turn Pavarotti into an Elvis impersonator ... and not a very good one.

While I wasn't satisfied with what reverb did to the vocal, the level was even higher than I really needed it.  This was due to working finally and precisely how this insane mixer 'controls' the audio level sent to the computer and, more importantly, what it sends back.  Preventing anything from being sent back to the mixer from the computer prevents feedback and then I can set levels as I like.

Many times you'll have performers doing songs and sounding good but then you can't hear a word from them in-between.  The voice gets all muffled like they try to explain to Mother how it came that they just got busted by Mr Greene for stealing lollipops from the candy store.  Why that happens with others I still don't know but it's settled here and, besides, I don't even like lollipops.

As to audience, it was a surprise.  Cat wanted to be able to promote it as she feels useless for helping if I play off the schedule.  So she did that and got some people coming.  That's her job and my job is giving them a reason to stay.  That worked well as they didn't leave and that is the number one mark of your gig:  if they're not stayin' then you're doin' some sucky playin'.

(Ed:  isn't that obvious?)

It would likely surprise you how many do not pay attention to that.  Maybe they rationalize it in some way like 'they left because all their grandmothers got run over by freight trains ... at the same time.'  If you're going to play for an audience, you've got to fookin' listen to the people in it and their feet padding out of there is one of the things they say.

This show was definitely for Cat and I could feel her smiling as there were no significant gaps between tunes and it flowed well.  If you just go up there and jack around, she will be smoking as she, rightfully, regards that as insulting to the audience she helped bring.  Thus it insults them and it also insults her.


There's nothing uploaded as I thought had a licensed copy of Fission but I've been running the trial all this time.  That should show you it's a pretty fookin' good trial.  The license is $29 but that will have to wait just now.  Meanwhile I can split some audio with QuickTime.  It's an icky way to do it but it serves nevertheless.

Thank you, Cat, as I've been thinking Silas needed to be buried fifty feet deep or so.  Seeing some people actually liking what I do is a good feeling.


Note:  there is no intention of going back to playing regularly-scheduled gigs.  I don't quite have the endurance my (cough) virile physique implies.

Silas Scarborough Show Time Change for Today

Silas Scarborough at 2pm SLT at the Snowglobe in Cat's Art MusikCircus

There was an extended sound check with Cat just now as it's an astounding bitch to ensure the sound people hear on the other end of the stream is the same as what is being transmitted.  We played around with that for some while until what she saying was sounding like showed what I was doing was working.

There's one more inspection with Fission as it shows me the recording's waveform in a large window.  I have had this program for years and years but didn't use it much.  Suddenly it's indispensable.  What I hear in that recording is exactly what I expected based on what I was hearing.  That was working on Cat's end too so that means:  don't change anything.

How to Pull Off an Upgrade

The possibility of a GoFundMe campaign has been mentioned previously and I know Yevette doesn't think it would work.

The basic pitch is obvious:  got sick, lost everything, blah, blah.   Very sad.

Sampler:  videos to show what I do

The question:  will you help me do more of it.


So why should anyone do that.  I'll make a video and put it on YouTube and they can see it even if they do nothing.  Actually they won't as this computer doesn't have the power to do it.  But that general thinking would go:  why should I do anything.

The longer video shoot plan is to do it on the porch in the Spring.  This has high cinematic potential as it's authentic.  It really is the porch to Yevette's house.  That really is some old geezer standing up to spank it one more time, maybe even a last time.  And all with lasers and smoke although smoke is very difficult outside because it dissipates so fast.

Note:  the lasers are powerful but will not be a problem for aircraft as all will be pointed down from above and the porch is entirely wood which will kill any bounce back.  DFW is a very busy airspace so mistakes with lasers are not permitted.  There's no way any wiseguy could bollix it to cause a problem as all of them are mounted hard to a rack.

So here's the premium on supporting it.  Yevette is going to drop a major brick on this one.  If you seriously support this, I tell you where I will do it and put you in the video.  I don't mean as a musician as there's no drum kit so any serious jam is out.  It will be as much of a Silas concert as I can make it.

(Ed:  didn't they call this a Happening at one time?)

Apparently two of us still do.

Here's another premium: it would be easily possible to stream the audio to the Internet.  Contribute at a certain level and get an invitation to listen, possibly watch (using the laptop as a camera).

Offering DVDs is pointless as opticals are obsolete.  CDs are as dead as LP records but don't know it yet.  Any premium has to be streamed, live presence, or some goodie the benefactor can hold in his or her hand, other than a CD or a DVD as it's got to be something they might actually want.

Silas Scarborough Will Play Thursday Night at Cat's Art MusikCircus

There will be a one-off Silas Scarborough show on Thursday night and it will be good to play for Cat but there is no plan to play on a fixed schedule.  I never did repeating gigs in the past and it's not a good idea to go back to playing every Thursday.

There's a lot of why don't you play like this or that these days and that's a huge reason to keep focus.  My purpose is to film high-intensity visuals and there's no way to do that with Second Life.  However, Cat told me of images that come to her when I play "On a Grecian Morning" and those would be worth filming and would be impossible without Second Life.

(Ed:  make up yer damn mind)

This is not a coin toss kind of thing as keeping one and dumping the other is not a good answer.  I don't have any particular focus on shooting machinima because most of it looks the same.  The visuals Cat was suggesting were interesting and are more in line with videos I shot years ago.  If there's no story to it then, in my view, why bother but her images sounded achievable and worth shooting.  There are no videos of me playing on a stage unless someone else shot them as I never shot one like that.

Doing this required reconnection with Facebook so it's been done.

So this will be 5pm Texas time and Midnight in Germany.  International gigs are a little strange like that.

JeSuis1Percent Sucks for a Twitter Name - Updated

JeSuis1Percent sucks as I'm not one of the eighty-five and they eat their dead so I don't want to be part of that company in any way, even as a mockery.

Possible other Twitter names:

Dead Silas - Sounds a bit like Dead Kennedies and I don't think I ever heard a song they did.

Johnnie GotHisGun - Representing gunners who get shot by their dogs.

Infundibulist - I'm liking this one because it's so obscure

AuthCheezProd - Closest I could get to Authentic Cheese Product, a band name I was using for a while.

Decisions, decisions


Update:

Infundibulismus - Just because hardly anyone will know what it means.  Yes, it has to do with Vonnegut.

My Twitter URL is now:  https://twitter.com/Infundibulismus

As to Despising America

This one really frosts my goznitch as that kind of stuff comes from the first chapter of the Jingoist's Handbook.  Love it leave it, doobie, doobie.

Today, Angela Merkel gave a speech for the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.  It was powerful, moving, and directed emotionally, if not literally, toward what PEGIDA does in Europe today.  Naming them would have been tasteless and she did an excellent job with her speech.

Meanwhile, Obama was in Saudi Arabia with all the others 'paying their respects' to Abdullah, the leader of the Saudis while they provided most of the financial support for the world's Sunni terrorism and also a good many of the perpetrators, specifically the ones involved in 9/11.

How can anything be more insulting of the message in the anniversary of Auschwitz than in paying a homage to one who has sponsored more of exactly the same thing.

That observation has nothing to do with despising America but rather despising American politicians and the resemblance between those two entities grows smaller every day.  There are very good things about America but none of them come out of Washington and haven't for a long time.


The biggest insult at Auschwitz today was in Poroshenko acting like he liberated the camp himself.  That fascist puppet would do well to understand Russia has driven the NAZIs out of Ukraine once before and can easily do it again no matter what silly buggers Washington tries to play.  We saw in Czechoslovakia what happens when Moscow rolls tanks.  Nothing stops them.  Excluding Putin from this anniversary was an egregious insult when the truth of the liberation is the Soviet Red Army did it.  If necessary, they will do it again.  What's more, they will succeed because they know from Hitler the price if they don't.

The Republicanism of the Lotho

'twas a total load of twaddle, it was.  Deeply passionate twaddle ... but twaddle nevertheless.

The reasons Lotho did well in life are twofold (in no particular order):

1. Lotho
2. Mrs Lotho, one fireball redhead who is tiny but could whoop Lotho's ass any old time

(Ed:  you mean it wasn't the legendary magic of the GOP saving them from welfare mothers and zombies?)

Didn't have a thang to do with it.

I had a little tangle with Lotho after he got back from the military and had learned a bit of street-fighting in the Philippines.  That tangle ended quickly when I realized there was blood leakage from my nasal appendage and this was not at all indicative of success in pressing forward my argument.

And I still tell you Mrs Lotho could whoop his ass any old time.

Lotho likes to think he worked harder than I did but I buried many who thought like that.  Mrs Lotho, tho, she's relentless.  My record was a hundred work hours in a week along with two Hendrix concerts.  (I'm sure I must have napped in my computer chair but I never left it)  I reckon it would have been a good contest with Mrs Lotho in workaholism.

Note:  don't perceive any of this as negative.  If you want to achieve any whoop-ass in this world you damn sure better be relentless.

(Ed: the 85 in the 1% are relentless)

Yes.  They are also amoral psychopaths.  If you'll permit, I'll stick to those who are not amoral psychopaths.

So, that's yer Lotho Story.  He didn't get any special favors from GOP politicians and I doubt he even knows one.  What Lotho and Mrs Lotho do know is ass-bustin' as they've been doing it about thirty years now and, what do you know, it worked.

The Most Mystifying Mackie Mixer Mystery

The mixer is a Mackie ProFX12 and the USB connection from it has been a continuing devilment.

The problem to solve is getting the correct audio mix recorded on the computer and that's a generally simple thing but the complexities of it can have you barking.

And so it's been since around midnight.

The problem is now answered if not necessarily solved and the result will be a cleaner sound but it has been a giant infuriation getting to this point.  It doesn't seem like this should be so but ensuring the computer is recording or transmitting the same thing you are hearing is not such an easy thing.

If you use a Mackie mixer and are having trouble with USB levels, there are some extremely important things to remember:

1. The USB level knob controls input only.  It has nothing to do with the volume of audio going out over USB.
2. The Gain knobs above each channel thus their levels have everything to do with the output level.  Pay particular attention to the clipping light next to the Gain knob.
3. The sliders for the Mains do nothing to change the level going out over USB.
4. Ensure USB THRU is disabled or your audio will be echoed back to the mixer from the computer.

If you're having problems with your levels going into the computer, it's almost certainly due to one of those things being set incorrectly.

Audio Hijack 3.0 - Upgrade for $25 - You Want It

Audio Hijack 3.0 is a little bit confusing as Audio Hijack Pro was the older version and the confusion is because the newer v3.0 puts the older to bed in every possible way.  It's a vast improvement.

To avoid confusion, I'll refer back to Pro as the older version and it's a much older version as it had something of a Windows feel to it.  For a Mac user, that is not a warm, squishy feeling.  The software was highly-effective but pretty wasn't there.

Audio Hijack 3.0 is the picture of what Mac recording ought to be.  This is not a competitor for Logic or Pro Tools but rather it's a utility to capture audio in whatever format you like from just about anywhere.  You can save it as a cheesy MP3 or a raw, uncompressed AIFF and get every gorgeous musical molecule, the flexibility is immense.

Note:  yes, you can record both sides of a Skype conversation.  If you do this with your girlfriend without telling her then you're a skank who doesn't deserve to have one.


The older version did all those types of functions already ... but ... Audio Hijack 3.0 does it with supreme elegance.  Now it uses a graphical interface to present the audio flow and you can put VU meters in it or any effects you like.  Then you can route the output to one or more destinations (e.g. a file and also speakers).

To modify any setting, click on the object representing it (e.g. Input, EQ, etc) and change it as necessary.  Click away and the update window disappears again revealing the graphic objects of the audio flow.  Highly smooth.

Any fool can make things complicated but it takes a wizard to make complicated things easy and the wizards at Rogue Amoeba have done a fine job on this one.


Nicecast is another of their products and it is for audio streaming to the Internet.  I have used it hundreds and hundreds of times and it has always operated flawlessly and with the same wizard simplicity as Audio Hijack 3.0.  Finally, Fission is another of their products and it's used for physical editing of an audio file.  I don't typically do any audio slicing but this would be an excellent product for it.  What I got from Fission tonight was the precise waveform of the audio captured in a test of Audio Hijack 3.0 and that yielded information that will help me make a better recording for my next video.

Congratulations to Rogue Amoeba on a job very well done.


Audio Hijack 3.0 licenses new for $49 US or upgrade for $25.  If you've used Audio Hijack Pro, you WANT this upgrade.

The Next Escalation in Video and Performance

The object for over a year has been to get the video capability up to a level that gives as much creative strength to do what I am trying to do.  A large part of that was revealed in the "Three-Way" video as you can see immediately the effect on the potential for story-telling.

To escalate it various things are required:

iMac - $2200 - This gives the compute power to get video work done and the need is because that kind of work fries this wimpy laptop.  Simple tasks take hours, etc, etc.  A secondary drawback but also a significant one is that the screen is so small that I can't make much detail until I'm about 14" from it.

External Thunderbolt storage (i.e. disk) - $400 -  New Macs don't support Firewire and even an optical drive is an option rather than standard equipment.  The existing drive can be used with a converter but that type of access is dog slow and is thus useless for video work.

Additional Canon camera - $900 - This is a slightly newer model of the one in use here now as that Canon HF-G10 is no longer in production.  The cost of the newer one is actually less than the original.

Camera alternative:  get another Sony Action Cam for $200.  This is not a trivial alternative as the video quality is good even if the light-gathering capability is not as strong as the Canon.  Light-gathering capability is very important but the $700 differential between this and the Canon can buy a lot of candles.

The total is not that high so round up to $5000 to make this happen.  The additional is to account for improving the look of the room, get additional lighting (if necessary), etc.  For various reasons, there is no way to shoot elsewhere in the house.

So the big question is how to get the scratch and that comes back to a previous thought of putting it out on GoFundMe.  That has a problem as who would even see it.  There's no way to know and it costs nothing to try it so why not.

(Ed:  because it's humiliating)

Exactly.


As to why do this to shoot more elaborate versions of what I have been trying to do already, it's more than that.  The next operation after that, when some people are back here to help, is to set up the kit on the porch and play a set with lasers and lights out there, filming the whole thing.

(Ed:  I thought you were falling apart)

I am.  This is a foot race.  You can talk about raging against the night or you can live it.  I'll go with living it.  That doesn't mean I want to make angry music and, except in one case, I don't believe I ever did.  It might be cool to try it, tho.

The one angry time was doing a metal version of "Silent Night" but that was just plain evil and I threw it out years ago.

Fuckya in yer Chakra - The New Age Bullshit Generator

Facebookers delight in graphics with maybe a sunset along with some New Age crap text to help you actualize your true self as a fish.

We are at a crossroads of transcendence and yearning.

Of course.  You want to be a fish but you sit there screwing with Facebook.  I don't think fish do that very much.  This is your crossroads, li'l guppy.  Swim or be sushi, your call.

Who are we? Where on the great vision quest will we be recreated? Throughout history, humans have been interacting with the cosmos via ultra-sentient particles. Reality has always been buzzing with travellers whose chakras are enveloped in interconnectedness.

You're on Facebook.  No-one cares who you are.

(Ed:  I'm not on Facebook)

No-one cares who you are either, li'l New Age monkey.  Are you following the drift so far.

We are in the midst of a spiritual unveiling of fulfillment that will align us with the dreamscape itself. Humankind has nothing to lose. Our conversations with other lifeforms have led to a deepening of ultra-infinite consciousness.

Fark! The ultra-infinite consciousness!  I don't think even Timothy Leary found a way to get that stoned.

For an endless stream of New Age piffle and poppycock, visit the New-Age Bullshit Generator and click the Reionize Electrons button.  Be rewarded with a new awareness of your cosmic consciousness and your integration in the four-dimensional flux of the space-time continuum.

"Riding in Pyrgos (Greece)" (video)

It was mad riding in Pyrgos and this was kid stuff next to how crazy it gets in Athens.  The text is in German but the video is funny even if you don't know the words.  When it says 'er ist mit ein Handy,' it means the guy in the red hoodie is using a cellphone while he rides.  I was dancing around in the traffic a bit but I didn't make any better time than he did and that was striking me funnier and funnier as I rode along.

The music is "New Age" but it's the back track without any lead.  As with the other from Greece, this needs to be re-mastered but it's very likely impossible.  It's not that my organization is so scattered but rather there was a radical change to Final Cut during the course of my video making.  Anything created with the previous versions is difficult to convert to the new version and it's impossible if you don't still have all the bits.

Weather Alert for Fort Worth, Texas

The temperature in Fort Worth will rise to about seventy-five tomorrow and possibly even warmer on Wednesday.  Texans are warned to prepare for these conditions as we are all aware of the dangers of excessive warmth and sunshine.

Be sure to take these important steps to safeguard your family and yourself:

1. Ensure you have good sunglasses (i.e. polarized)
2. Ensure there is an adequate supply of sunscreen
3. Check your look in your swimsuit to make sure your butt doesn't look fat

Extra steps for rednecks:

1. Stock up on Lone Star beer
2. Ensure there's a full tank of diesel in the truck
3. Load the shotgun and make plenty of shells

Only together can we get through this weather emergency so try to look in on friends and neighbors to ensure they're ok.  Maybe you will get lucky and they will ask you to shoot something.

Please don't whine about not being able to watch television as it's the same for us all.  The people in New York and Boston are going to be whining about snow on every channel for weeks and they always seems so surprised when it comes.  It's exactly the same thing that happened last year but they have the idea we will be interested in hearing about it again.  I don't know about y'all but I'll be stocking up on Lone Star.

American Military in Ukraine at Mariupol

There's quite a bit of chaff in the air about American military involvement in eastern Ukraine's attacks against the Russian minority in the west.  A current report shows men in military apparel and said to be speaking accent-free English.  (RT:  Military-clad English-speakers caught on camera in Mariupol shelling aftermath)

That the speakers have good command of English doesn't mean much as many Euros speak better English than Americans.  Years of texting haven't exactly improved the conversational or writing skills of any Yanks.  To some extent analytical skills are reduced also as you may notice just about any conversation on a social network is much like a series of text messages and this implies a limited linear thinking that may be due to such heavy reliance on the simplistic form of communication inherent in cellphone texting.

Assuming these combatants really are Americans, more than likely they're Blackwater mercenaries as those vicious bastards would kill Mother Teresa if there were a buck in it.  "Soldier of Fortune" has been a magazine fronting mercenaries for years.  Apparently it's a fairly profitable trade.  If you want to kill people and get paid for it, these are the goombahs you want.  Flexibility on those you are willing to shoot is a plus.  (WIKI:  Soldier of Fortune (magazine))

There was a charge of American soldiers in Ukraine wearing armbands with swastikas.  This article doesn't show that and I have seen no other evidence of it.  Prior to any substantial proof, my view is that it was a hoax as it wouldn't be a tough one to make or to sell.  Finding an American military uniform isn't difficult so striking the pose for a propaganda pic would not be tough as there's sure no shortage of swastikas in eastern Ukraine.  Presumably it would be a pro-Russian propagandist shooting such a video but there's also value in making it look like one did it.

"Riding Home from Katakolon (Greece)" (video)

Riding home from Katakolon is one of my favorites from Greece and this one got me in substantial trouble with Cat for reckless driving.  I figured I didn't die so how reckless could it be but this was not a good position to take.

The video wasn't shot with an action cam but rather with an iPad tucked into my jacket.  That was all I had so improvise.

The music is "Walking in the Dark" by Silas Scarborough and it was recorded in Greece as well.

Hopefully it will also be possible to locate the one recorded while playing in the traffic in Pyrgos.  

George Carlin on War and American Politics

This one was recommended by the Mystery Lady so I'm definitely not the only 'peace pussy' left in the country!

'Peace pussy' is what Republicans, with their characteristic eloquence, called anyone who opposed the Vietnam War.  As history showed, they were wrong then and, what do you know, they still are.

There is good news, tho, as Angela Merkel has announced Germany will no longer sell military equipment to Saudi Arabia.  Merkel stopped short of saying Saudi Arabia drives most of the terrorism in the world and/or pays for it but any damn fool can see that's true.  King Abdullah made Kim Jong Un look like a punk amateur for the damage he did.  So, hat tip to Germany for cutting off sales to those evil bastards.

Bengals Suck at Football but Do Much Better in India

Bengal tigers looked as if they were almost lost to the world as only 1,411 of them remained in the wild and this is down from 100,000 in 1915.

There are now 2,226 Bengal tigers in India and that's up from the figure of 1,411 from 2006.  (redOrbit:  India’s endangered tigers roar back)

India has waged a dedicated campaign to stop poachers, etc as Chinese will pay high premiums for parts of Bengal tigers.  The poaching problem is ongoing but the increases in the tiger population show the measures against it are working.

There's not much good news from the environment and this update came as a great surprise.  It looked close to hopeless for these magnificent animals but apparently not.

Why Play Guitar?

Answer:  because she does

Any questions?


Note:  I can't tell what kind of chord she may be fingering but it's a weird one, for sure.  Maybe she's faking it but no chance is she faking that laugh.


The other way to meet girls is to hang around the Produce Section in the supermarket.  Your call, junior.


Note 2:  I have no idea who she is.  If you do then please let me know and I'll find a link to post.

The Most Dangerous Terrorists on the Planet

The deadliest terrorists would be yer skeeters, Clambake.  Skeeters are the number one killers around the planet because of the diseases they carry.  One got to Lindsay Lohan and gave her chikungunya which, despite all your nasty dreams, is closer than you ever got to her.  Bengal tigers, hippos, and Great White Sharks don't come anywhere even approaching the number of people killed by diseases carried by mosquitos.

Note to those with an insatiable need for useless information:  yer hippo is, by far, the most dangerous predator and they easily kill more people than any other animal in Africa.

(Ed:  maybe not so useless if you live in Africa?)

Good point.


What makes these skeeters interesting now is a GMO mosquito and the intrigue is the science as the DNA added to the skeeter genome is lethal to mosquito larvae.  Any young born to females impregnated by the GMO skeeters have no chance of survival.

Seventy million of these skeeters have been released in other countries and no reports of side effects have been received despite actively requesting such information.  Oxitec is the company behind this and they have run large-scale tests in the Cayman Islands and also in Brazil, both of which were highly successful and both of which countries want them to come back to do even larger programs.  (Sun Sentinel:  Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida Keys)

Naturally, the people of Florida want to stop it.  Much better to get some horrendous disease from a skeeter than run the risk of some type of GMO infection like "The Andromeda Strain" or some such.  Asked one exceptionally insightful Floridian, "Why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?"

Marilyn Smith, oblivious to the previous experiments yet still apparently Florida's representative medical expert, said neither disease has resulted in a major outbreak locally so why take the risk.

Tip to Marilyn:  because the little fuckers can easily kill you.  I hope this is clear enough.

The Resurrection of Silas

You're still not even sure if the other guy was really resurrected so I wouldn't be looking too hard for Silas to rise from the dead.

How you deal with the other guy is your problem ... but ...

My Duck Soup is back online and Silas Scarborough claims it but you know how it goes with that bastard.  He steals ice cream from children.  He lets the air out of the tires of the cars of old people.  He also thinks collecting hipsters and goldfish comes to the same thing as both flap their mouths but don't do a whole hell of a lot.  He also wants capital punishment for people who post selfies.  Real bastard, this guy.


(Ed:  you're saying the other guy wasn't resurrected?)

I said nothing of the kind.  In any case, that's not a question for me to answer but rather you need to figure it out, young grasshopper.

Viva Syriza - Alexis Tsipras and Greece Show You How to Do It

When both parties are comprised of corrupt and useless old fucksticks, you can go along with it as people do in America ... or ... you can throw out both of them as they have just done in Greece.  This was one leftist revolution the CIA couldn't stop and it will be fascinating to watch how it unfolds.

Tsipras has said specifically he doesn't want Greece to pull out of the EU but he does want debt relief for Greece.  So the EU can work with him or Greece defaults on the entire loan and walks.  It's an interesting situation for Angela Merkel and she's one of the few politicians for whom I have any respect so how she handles it will be novel.  It will have to be.

Keep in mind that Greece is loaded.  Natural gas and oil deposits somewhat recently discovered in the eastern Mediterranean mean big bucks for whomever starts tapping those resources.  The country is cash poor but they have tremendous resources and you can write your own conspiracy theory for how much of the campaign against Greece has been to diddle away control of those resources.

Greece is also the loveliest place I have ever lived and the people are wonderful.  I do hope Tsipras finds a way to work the deal as the people of Greece have had a rough run of it.  The government was corrupt for years.  Goldman Sachs came in to make it even worse with phony derivatives deals.  What you see today is the aftermath.  Today that aftermath turned hopeful and I wish the people of Greece the very best.

Comedians Everywhere Thank the Lord for the GOP

Twelve of the GOP candidates who have no chance of winning are in Iowa and sucking up hard this week-end.  Mostly it's a field of previous losers such as Rick Santorum but there are several soon-to-be losers as well.  They only missed one as Pat Robertson didn't show.  This week-end he has been out confirming with people the Holocaust never happened and neither did WWII.  All of it was a hoax.  Plus, says Robertson, the Titanic never sank.  It was just a big insurance scam.

Coincidentally, the other GOP candidates who also have no chance of winning stayed away from Iowa.  No-one can really fault them as who would voluntarily go to Iowa anyway.  In this crew we have Mitt the Witt, Jeb the Reb, and Mr Ed the Talking Horse.

The big payoff came yesterday with Sarah Palin saying her boobs would be in the contest again and, even before a full day elapsed, she made a blazing fool out of herself in a speech that made no sense to anyone.  You don't have to write new material to get a joke out of Palin, you only need quote her.

This is one pitiful field of candidates as the strongest they've got is Dwight D Eisenhower and he may be dead but he still has more brain function than Rick Santorum.

I Like Ike ... that's the ticket.

Russia Today, My Favorite Terrorist

The Freedom Fries people are loose again and this campaign against Russia Today is patent absurdity.  A high U.S. official likened Russia Today to ISIS and Boko Haram and it's not clear why there is acceptance of such abysmal ignorance.

Note:  there was a period during which French Fries were to be called Freedom Fries because France refused (I think) Reagan's request for a military flyover for a bombing mission in (I think) Libya.  Whichever military debacle is irrelevant, the basis for the request was the refusal of the flyover for it.


Abby Martin of RT gave an excellent broadcast today and the terroristic aspect is unmistakeable in covering King Abdullah, the absurdity of the football fiasco, the science of the placebo effect, and NASA's interest in Ceres.  (Russia Today: Russia Today = ISIS, de-flate gate airheads & amazing asteroids)

The perspective on King Abdullah is important as the relationship with that vicious bastard is mystifying.  When the Saudis have been behind so much terrorism, personally and financially, it's incredible that there is a good relationship with the leadership.

The country is controlled by one despotic family and a woman would have more rights in an American jail than she would as a free Saudi citizen.  The progressive King Abdullah had Raif flogged with fifty lashes for the crime of blogging and he would have done it again.  The sentence was that he would be flogged multiple times, presumably until it killed him.  This is one total hellhole of a country with rampant executions and yet Obama will go to Abdullah's funeral, just as would any US President, as all of them get cozy with Saudis.

When knowledge is terrorism, the only real terrorist is the state.


Something that was not mentioned in the context of terrorism was Yahoo and right now there's video on there to show proof of American troops in Ukraine.  The video claims to be in Donetsk and the troops are there to inspect the results of the bombing.  The video is said to show the American troops wearing armbands with swastikas.

The above makes no sense.  Even if American troops were wearing swastikas on a regular basis, if any were photographed or the news got out in any way, he would be abandoned and crucified in a military court martial.  There's no possible chance that would be tolerated and it's specifically illegal to wear any other kind of apparel or adornment on one's military uniform.

What I've seen of Russia Today has been truthful and forthcoming with your free right to judge what you hear.  In fact, Abby Martin wants you to think about it and judge the value of it.  Conversely, this story about American troops wearing NAZI regalia comes from Yahoo and is just about as vile an obscenity as can be levied against American military but I've seen little response to it.  That this gets shrugged away and Russia Today is treated as some dangerous threat makes no sense.


The link to Russia Today above is a good one.  It's a half-hour news show and she doesn't waste time on trivia.  She represents a true liberal, sometimes too much even for me, and some may disagree with that but if you find any fault with her honesty then you'll need something substantive to document it as she always documents what she presents.  The segment in today's show about the placebo effect is extraordinary and goes well beyond the applications in pain management.

Causing Seizures with Laser Videos - Updated

Tinkerbell advised me she loved the music but could not watch the video for the latest because the flashing lights would cause seizures.  This has been a consideration for me in making these videos but I've thought they were ok because I don't use anything that strobes.  I know for sure that strobe lights can trigger epileptic seizures.  However, that's not the only kind of seizure so there's more reason for concern.

The 'flashing lights' in this one came from a single LED I was using for a fill light and it changed colors more or less in time with the music.  In my own judgment, this video was a lightweight for visual effects so it was a surprise to me that even that level of visual effect can cause problems.

What I suggest as a solution is that in any future video that has any type of flashing in it will start with a warning:  BEWARE OF HIGH-INTENSITY LIGHTING THAT SOME MAY FIND DISTURBING.

I do not think it is warranted to add some kind of prompt such as do you really, really, really want to do this.  In my view, that kind of thing is insulting.

If you think anything additional is warranted, please comment.  I'm not looking for some sleazoid legal language to avoid prosecution but rather a fair warning that some may have troubles.  Besides, if I put some legalese crap up there then no-one will read it and the viewer is still screwed.


Update:

I've added a warning message to the description for six out of the eight videos on my channel, Peas InOurThyme on YouTube.

Bill Maher is Why Some Want to Murder Democrats

But he got it right on "American Sniper" (Daily Mail: 'He's a psychopath patriot': Bill Maher blasts American Sniper Chris Kyle and says film is successful because it's simplistic)

There's no reason to flog it as I've written on it previously but the accusation of state sponsorship is based on a simple logic flow:

If what the sniper did was heroic

then

it was valid for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld to send him to do it

so

the war was justified

because

Iraq and Hussein were somehow responsible for 9/11 (and Iraqis are savages)

therefore

Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are not war criminals.


NO SALE.

The movie is a whitewash and the only real thing in it was the fake baby as a symbol for the falsity of the rest of it.

The "Three-Way" is Delivered (video)

The keyword is 'experimentation' and Edison can tell you how many ways to make lightbulbs that don't work.  This one is not a broken lightbulb and it delivers what I wanted:  the proof of concept.  It emboldens me to be more ambitious with the next one.

There are multiple technical aspects that could make the video better for this or that reason ... and I'm going to ignore all but one.  The thing I'm looking most to see is still falling short as the aim on the action cam is not quite right.  If it's to show you what the fingers are doing to play this stuff then it should show all of what they do and that's still needing some practice.

Overall I'm pleased as it's a much more complex edit than usual and that makes it for me significantly more visually interesting.

In part I held off on perfectionism as I wanted to get something out here to say, "Thank you."

The Three-Way Was Recorded and Transcodes Now

The experiment was in using the laptop camera, the action cam, and a static cam all at the same time. Recording it is easy, mixing it down is a bitch.  Look at the time for the last blog article and then this one to find how long I was editing it.  And I hope people will as it doesn't take so much to get past shooting videos of some guy sitting in a chair playing guitar.

The video isn't the best music or the best of anything but it does give a good impression of the potential in the edits and that's exactly what I wanted.  I will upload it but I don't expect to leave it online permanently.  This is much more a demonstration of potential than anything else but that's excellent as it spins all kinds of gears on what that potential can be.

A big part of it is that I don't want tricks.  Everything in the video is as the camera shot it, there were no filters applied in Final Cut.

It's worthless as an ad for Laughing Gecko as I was wearing the shirt but I need to get some Hollywood around presenting it.

Transcoding looks to be complete in ten or fifteen minutes and it's supposed to be uploading it directly to YouTube.  I'm not positive it's doing that but it will be online in an hour or so in any case.

Trying a Three-Way Tonight ... No, Not That Kind of Three-Way

The game tonight was with three video recordings plus an audio recording so I guess that makes it a Four-Way if you like.  That was unusual to do and it sounded medium cool.  I didn't hear, "Silas, this is so damn cool that you should live forever just to hang about and play it for people."

So, no.  I didn't hear that but I did hear a good experiment.  The object is to sync the three video sources as then I can cut between them during the playback and be as cool as Clint Eastwood ... well ... screw that.  Eastwood is a senile old fool ... BUT ... Oliver Stone is a reason Hollywood should make lots of them.  So, yah, cool as Oliver Stone.  That would be excellent.

It won't be anything close to that cool but a girl can dream (sigh).

Mixing this is going to be one stone bitch but that's what makes it a good trick ... maybe.

This is a decision point as the value of three synced videos is high for whatever crazy thing you may be trying to express.  However, working with them simultaneously is a monster bitch.  Seriously, it's hard.  If you're not ready for that, don't do it.  The audio track will at best be moderate.  Therefore, I need a bit of think time on whether the fascination with seeing three video sources work is worth the work when I know the result will probably not be a keeper.

The secondary objective was to play with as much stuff as possible so the keyboard, bass, and guitar are all parts of it.  There should be good video interest in it and that will probably tip it toward doing it, just to see if it worked.

More to come.  It's not likely I will upload it as I got the plug in there for Laughing Gecko and even struck the pose but it's got to be good enough.

Yah, I'll probably do it ... just not right this minute.  It'll take hours and that'll keep for now.

News on a Roll

Free the Posing Parisian Penis

Rick Owens, a (cough) fashion designer, has cut a hole in the front of the apparel he designs.  Said Owens, "Nudity is the most simple and primal gesture - it packs a punch.  It's powerful.  It's a straight world now.  It says something about being independent."  (NY Daily News:  Male models go full frontal in Paris fashion show)

When the value of nudity is so important, why does Owens give us so little of it.  And what's this about a straight world.  It may seem like Paris but you're still in Kansas, farmboy.


Twelve-Year-Old Girl Boosts a $4.6M Necklace

For composure in a criminal situation, this kid looks like she's got lots of potential and a bright future, at least the parts of it she doesn't spend in jail.  (Inquisitor: Young Girl Hunted By Hong Kong Police Over $4.6 Million Diamond Heist)



Crimes You Never Want to Admit in Jail

Q.  So, what got you in stir, Gangster Boy?
A.  Stealing eels
Q.  How many eels
A.  Two million

(NY Daily News:  Chinese smugglers caught in Bulgaria trying to steal two million baby eels)



Even the Penguins are Laughing About Sarah Palin Running Again

"Heya, Romeo.  This could be your year, buddy.  She's going to do it again."

Palin Says She Will Run in 2016 and We Want to See Her Jiggle

Carol Burnett once said she was awed by Julie Andrews' talent but she did take comfort in the fact that 'at least I have bigger boobs.'

And so begins the Boob War of 2016.  Does Sarah Palin, in fact, have bigger boobs than Hillary Clinton.  Palin announced today she is 'seriously interested' in running in 2016.  It's not clear if her entourage would travel on a bus or a beer truck, however.

This could be the most ludicrous election of all-time.  So far Clinton is the top dog for the Democrats as Elizabeth Warren has been getting too cozy with her and Bernie Sanders probably won't do anything.  I don't support these modern so-called Democrats but many do and she's the undisputed leader with them.

The GOP has just been rolling out the same tired parade of gasbags and morons.  Paul Ryan said he has 'something bigger in mind' and we can't guess what but we know we can rule out being the new King in Saudi Arabia.

No chance the GOP will accept Palin as the lead so presumably she runs her own Tea Party campaign.  Seems inevitable that would hand the election to Clinton as Jeb Bush has no particular strength and shit will rain down on him like a Miami hurricane about his brother's administration.

Uh, Jeb.  Tell me this, gomer, if you could.  Will your administration start as many wars and / or crash the economy as badly as your brother?

He has no chance as he's at least two down before he even opens his mouth plus with Palin flapping her boobs at every photographer, there goes 2016 for the conservatives.

Mitt the Witt thinks he has a shot but he was too shiftless last time and he hasn't changed.  Scott Walker thinks he did a good job with Wisconsin but it doesn't seem anyone else bought it so he's probably an early-out.

Huckabee said he will run again also but you could get better answers out of Mr Ed.  If McCain runs again then that makes the trifecta of two-time losers.  Not much of a field out there.

Dentistry and Ace Hardware

In situations in which a visit to a dentist may be indicated, there are alternatives, one of which is Ace Hardware.  I have several sets of pliers here as one is for cutting the strings to trim them after restringing the guitar and and there's another pair of needle-nose pliers for, well, doing what they do.

One thing you may not anticipate them doing is whacking a sharp piece of a tooth that is bugging the living hell out of me ... and consequently you.

As to results, I can't say it really worked all that well but it definitely worked better than the peanuts.  This is a situation that demanded a selfie but, even with my sensationally formidable skills of manual dexterity, I did not find a way to take a picture while simultaneously poking some Ace Hardware pliers into my mouth.

I really am sorry about the selfie as that would have been funny.

Mystery Lady will understand this isn't whining.  Po' folks can't be pussies.  You won't make it.  I think it's kind of an inventive solution even if (cough) it isn't exactly solved.  I should probably be stopped if I try to use the cutting pliers, tho.  That might be a bit too aggressive.

It seriously does seem to have helped as it especially hurt to swallow and it doesn't now.  The Ace Hardware Procedure really might have partially worked.

Now things should get on to the music.

Score 1 for Team Glitter Bombers and 0 for Team Helicopter Parents

It seems Helicopter Dad assumed he had the right to inspect his son's mail.  Not surprisingly, the son disagreed.

So, Helicopter Dad, one more time and you're going down.

Sure as hell, he did it.

The CNN Cosby Team is Now Targeting Tom Brady

Somehow during the course of the first half of the game with the Indianapolis Colts, Tom Brady took time away from being the quarterback for his team and he carefully lowered by two pounds the air pressure in half of the team's footballs.

Now they say he should be banned from the Super Bowl.  In fact, ban the Patriots from the Super Bowl.

The controversy over this shows clearly very few people who watch pro football ever have any sex as there's nothing in the story.  Even the Colts player who intercepted one of Brady's passes said he couldn't detect any difference in the pressure of the ball.

Start your countdown until every wannabe starlet in Hollywood is saying Tom Brady under-inflated footballs on them as well.

Stalking a Video Shoot

There was one massive supernova ... and then another one.  That might not seem so good as a supernova is a star exploding and that looks really cool but there's a drawback because anything within twelve parsecs of the Kessel Run melts faster than ice cream at the beach.

Fortunately, I am not that close and could be bathed in that glorious supernova radiance without the generally negative side-effect of absorbing so much radiation that it turns me into a cucaracha.

Note on the Kessel Run:  since there are American Snipers about, more explanation of things is needed (much more).  The statement refers to Han Solo in "Star Wars IV" nee "Star Wars I" when he said 'the Millennium Falcon could do the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs.'  This went instantly to the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame for Most Stupid Statement in a Movie.  A parsec is not a unit of speed but rather distance and the only thing that even sounds like a Kessel Run is Georgie Jessel who was a Jewish comedian about thirty years ago and his only relationship with space is that he's dead.  (WIKI:  George Jessel)

Related is that I'm using the Peanut Therapy on the tooth as the plan is to grind that bitch down so it stops cutting me.  It's even working a bit and we'll see how it looks for shooting video tomorrow.  The deal with Yevette is she has an Emergency Plan and if I still can't hack it on Monday then we will talk about it.  In Silas Algebra, that means shoot a video tomorrow or you have to go to the fookin' dentist on Monday.  Therefore, shoot the fookin' video.

There are multiple variables for shooting.  Temperature is one of them.  Shooting when it's cold is a drag and there's also the problem that it makes my nipples get hard so that automatically puts the video into the adult category.  YouTube seriously did that previously because one of my videos showed the pixel nipples of a furry (i.e. human / cat hybrid).

Rather than getting complex, the object for tomorrow is to try for the one with the Laughing Gecko shirt so that means daylight.  It's crucial for what I want to know that two cameras be used to shoot it.  The element I'm after is me looking at you and you looking at me by showing that with the cameras.  When I do the Magnum Opus, I want to composit a Second Life audience as a transparency over the real-world image of 'you' to give the fullest 'vision' of it.  The whole thing is virtual so there's no way to actually see it, everything is through visualization.

Definitely forward progress.  Amazing what a supernova can do.

On Bailing Out of Social Networks

No question there are good people who hang about on them, presumably bored out of their minds or they wouldn't be there.  I imagine I pissed some off in disappearing but the overall toxicity of social networks by far overwhelms the goodness of the people worth seeing.

PEGIDA has a following on Facebook and Cat has protested to Facebook about it but they won't do anything.  Promoting Hitlerian hatred is free speech.  Don't forget Charlie Hubcap.

Campaigns against vaccination and other types of quack medicine abound.  Again, Facebook will do nothing about them and presumably the same wishy-washy standards apply in other social networks.

There is the GOP but there are GOP extremists and they're the ones who believe the only solution is to kill all the Muslims, just eliminate them.  Whether they actually believe it or say it to be inflammatory can be determined by those with more time to waste than I.

The most obvious is that there's no point in attacking Silas Scarborough when he's already dead and I damn sure got that covered.

Yevette said now I look like a NAZI but I don't think many NAZIs had Mohawk haircuts or carried a kitten on the shoulder.  I don't know any NAZIs so I may be wrong on that but I have the impression that NAZIs and kittens don't mix well.

So there's no chance of returning to any level of activity in social networks as I've seen enough selfies to last the rest of my life, no matter how long it may run.  No, the above is not a selfie as the only resemblance between it and me is that I have always worn sunglasses.  I also had a kitten until the Frenchies catnapped it.

It's the toxicity that did it on Facebook, tho.  Maybe you think I'm toxic but I've got nothin' on that crowd.  I'll stay right here.  It's safer.  Besides, Facebook has almost nothing to do with music.  It has a lot to do with promoting music (badly) but it has nothing to do with creating it and is actively destructive insofar as the vibe coming off it is so hostile to human life that no music can possibly come from it.

Now I go back to Second Life which is what I did before there was Facebook.  Yesterday I checked out a few acts.  Two of them were awful but one wasn't and that's how I once did it.  Rather than going to Facebook to listen to people talking shit, I go on into Second Life and hear some people play.  Some will suck as yesterday this guy was trying to sing and it only made me think men are capable of menstrual cramps.  I still prefer to pick acts at random rather than go by promoter notices as the latter are almost always a waste of time.  What Cat says in hers is true but she is one of the few.

Music is clawing its way back to the surface.

Bring Back Yeltsin for a Better World

In all high school girl fights, the climax is always when one girl pulls off the blouse of the other girl.  That's the win.  It doesn't gain much with Putin, tho, as we have already seen his nipples.

The beauty part is if America is so clever and finds a way to undermine Putin as then maybe we can get a cool one again.  Yeltsin was great as that fat-ass dipso couldn't even make a flight across the Atlantic without getting stinking drunk.  That's when relations with the Russians were fun and people forget this.

And Krushchev was great when he would take off his shoe to bang it on the table, "We will bury you!"

You can't even get theater like that out of Hollywood anymore.

So, get rid of Putin and bring those guys back again.  Let the good times roll.

The Myth of the American Sniper

“I hate the damn savages. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” - Chris Kyle  (RT:  Hollywood uses ‘American Sniper’ to destroy history & create myth)

Chris Kyle could have been Andrew Jackson's best friend as the best Indian killer of all-time.  No-one gave a flying fuck about killing them either, least of all Andrew Jackson.  For those of you who went to school in Texas, Andrew Jackson was the President with the all-time worst record for killing Indians and he is the one behind the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

Chris Kyle is trivial insofar as he's just one more psychopath in fighting that has been riddled with them but the real horror is Clint Eastwood specifically deciding to make a hero out of him.

"Mission accomplished, Eastwood.  Nice job on getting 9/11 into it when the hoax on Iraqi involvement in 9/11 was debunked years ago."

The Cadillac Man warned of being regarded as a crazy old fool for writing such things and I'm sure I appear that way to the dullards who have been gulled by the movie.  However, my interest is not in the people who regard the movie as great cinema but rather the ones who recognize what it really was and reject it.

(Ed:  what's the difference between you thinking Americans who can be gulled by propaganda are animals and Chris Kyle thinking Iraqis are animals?)

Simple.  I don't shoot them.

I have had death threats from them, tho.  Charming people.

“Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence.” - Martin Luther King

Orchids with Steel Balls

A full daily requirement of metaphors in one pic.

Being Short One Seventy-Nine

In the military when you're close to getting your discharge, you're said to be 'short' as in maybe 'you are short three sixty-five' and that seriously sucks as it means you only just got there.  When you get down to short thirty, people will start counting down with you.  Maybe it's different without the draft but that's how it worked back then.

The Cadillac Man is short one seventy-nine which sounds long for the military but he's talking about retirement so, relatively speaking, he is getting extremely short.  There's that big step into Free Fall when you know the next day there is not one person in the world who can tell you to do anything.  For some that's terrifying as they don't know what to do.  Even worse, they will be so terrified they don't stop working and eventually keel over in that office chair.  Very sad.

Being short is extremely good as you get that thinking in your head, hmmm, what will I do first.  There's a small hazard in this as you may try to turn retirement planning into another job and then you'll need an iPad to verify you are where you are supposed to be and have adequate connectivity to your 'circle' and blah, blah.

People don't ask so much when is the fun part as they have abandoned any idea of a fun part.  They have crushed the part inside themselves that tells them, hey, let's try some crazy shit for the fun of it.  The fun part isn't that far away if you abandon your fear of it.  Life without structure is the finest luxury there is and you save up all your life for it.  When it's in reach, fookin' take it!

Thank you, Cadillac Man.  The encouragement to play is enormous and is deeply appreciated.  There is huge positive energy that comes out of our talk and I even talk a bath earlier so that can only mean one thing:  fookin' play.  The situation with Lotho is a heartbreaker as he's feeling I do things to force him to solve them but that's not true.  I do them because they need to be done and I have no idea how, who or what will solve them at the time.  Help has come from unexpected places and more so than you might think as some want total anonymity.

I still don't know if the music has any value but I went to some shows today and, whew, I'm not the worst.  So the video has to be shot with the two cameras or no-one can possibly understand the point of what I did.  So get on with it.

Obama is the Click Bait

Then you get the American Sniper crowd coming out with, oh yah, I want to shoot him first.  They fire back and forth on who's a coward but what do you call the one who doesn't have the balls to stand up to a corrupt regime and instead goes out to kill for it.  Meanwhile the flag flies on the television and the 1984 theme music rouses the wannabes.  The streets swarm with drugstore soldiers and they're going to restore the Constitution, by force if they must.  (If they were going to do something, they would have done it already.  They're just posers.)

But it really doesn't make any difference what those deluded little monkeys do as I won't see the outcome of it.

Right now about 30% of the people of Ireland live in poverty due to the 'austerity measures' that came about as a result of the 2008 collapse.  What could Ireland possibly have had to do with America's phony sub-prime mortgages and Wall Street's manipulation of them.  Various governments (e.g. Greece) weren't run very well ... but governments never are.  That all should collapse around the world at once is quite remarkable, particularly since it all went back to phony U.S. real estate transactions.

Now austerity measures are required around the world even though most of the world had nothing to do with what happened.  Right now Jeff Green speaks in Switzerland about how people need to make do with less.  He made billions when the mortgage market collapsed by betting against it.  The more Americans lost, the more he gained.

In terms of personally doing with less, he flew into Switzerland in a private jet with his wife, two kids, and two nannies.  I assume by 'using less' he means he didn't bring Ringling Bros Circus with him to amuse the kids.  And this pipsqueak isn't even one of the 85.  He's just another billionaire rated around 600 or 700.  If you need a poster child for nouveau riche, he's yer huckleberry.  A private jet typically uses more fuel in an hour than a car uses in a year.

You Know, Charlie, Ain't No-One Goin' Come

The Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight

Due to upgraded nuclear arsenals, aggressive resistance to management of climate changes, and failure of leaders to adequately address these matters, the Doomsday Clock is now moved forward to three minutes to midnight.  (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:  Timeline)

American aggression, heavily-promoted by Republicans and weakly-resisted by Democrats, is the single largest cause of the revival of the arms race as the count for strategic nukes remains at fifteen hundred on each side and has been there for quite some time.  How many tactical nukes (i.e. battlefield weapons) exist is unknown and there doesn't appear to be much, if any, accounting.

There is a shoulder-fired nuke which is probably the most overtly-suicidal weapon of all time as you may kill the bad guy but you'll burn with him.  There are nukes that can be launched from tanks, etc, etc.  These kinds of weapons are what started the recent resurgence of Pentagon talk about a nuclear war being survivable.  Nukes will be limited to the battlefield theater, they say.  However, the wind makes everywhere a part of that theater.


Here's what comes after they start using the tactical nukes:

"Erotica Psychotica" - Silas Scarborough (video)

Silas Scarborough recorded this using a Godin xtSA MIDI guitar which was connected to a Roland GR-20 guitar synthesizer which was in turn connected to a Korg TR synth.  All voicing was driven by the guitar and no effects, audio or video, were added after recording.

The Donate Button in the Sidebar

Maybe a hundred DVDs exist and some go back to the show in Cincinnati.  The DVDs are out-of-print as, in most cases, the master files no longer exist because there hasn't been enough disk space to store all that material.

I am not on disability as Social Security required I sign away any right to disability or they wouldn't give me my retirement.  I am not taking any government benefits and I will not as that would compromise my right to speak freely and I will not sell that.  The retirement from Social Security is $10,344 a year.  Maybe you can survive on that but you would be the first.

My own feeling about the music is that it was a total waste of my life because, as we've seen from the blog, the only thing that elicits any response is political crap, much of which has been similar to Mariah Carey's reaction to seeing kids starving in Africa:  "When I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean, I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."

There's one unfortunate drawback to the quote from Mariah Carey:  she never said it but has been slandered with it relentlessly.  Unlike Fox News, we do check the facts here.  (Snopes)

(Ed:  why write political crap when you know people get pissed off from it?)

Because otherwise they would ignore it and what I say is true.


So, a bit of support for the music would go a long way right about now and in multiple dimensions, for that matter.

Life is just about as miserable as it is possible to get but it could be more miserable if I started playin' blues as I fookin' hate playin' blues.  I was feeling like I was getting waterboarded by the Mississippi anyway but then that tooth broke and the only thought after that is Oh Fuck This.  It'll take an oral surgeon to get the damn thing out and that will cost hundreds.  Yevette said she would try to pay for it but I wouldn't allow it.  She's an exceptionally big-hearted woman and she gives everything right now to take care of someone special.  On top of that she should have to take care of me.  My deepest thanks but no.  All I'm doing is taking care of a dog and, yes, Tobey the Dog is doing just fine.

All it would take is ten or twenty people, in effect, buying a DVD and things can get moving a little bit.  In part I need the money and in part I'm losing my religion as without music there is just vacuum.  If you can help it would be most appreciated.

The Portrait of PEGIDA and Lutz Bachmann

Lutz Bachmann has been the primary spokesman for PEGIDA in Germany where ultra-nationalist protests have been shockingly large.  After this photograph was aired, he fell back to the standard Fox News / Megyn Kelly cop:  it was a satire ... but Santa Claus really is white and Hitler really is a god.

Note:  if this was a joke then it was one he had been carrying a day or two or he wouldn't have all that beard stubble.  No chance that mustache is freshly trimmed.


The German human rights record is up with the best in the world and even they are not immune to what they typically call 'ultra nationalists' these days whereas in all previous times they were known as Fascists.  Ukraine is riddled with them and Poroshenko even claimed today it was Ukraine that liberated Auschwitz.  This came as a bit of a surprise to the Russians who really did it.

PEGIDA is in the GOP as well and we saw it with Steve Scalise recently as he is the one with direct association with the Louisiana Ku Klux Klan and David Duke.  Most Republicans want only financial responsibility from the government but that's only a small part of what the GOP does and they don't even do it very well.

The same thing happens in England with UKIP as xenophobia, particularly with regard to Muslims, is rampaging and is being heavily-fueled by the media.  For example, the Je Suis Raif campaign is receiving a great deal of support in protest of the extreme punishment of a Saudi blogger but the botching of executions in American prisons in multiple states gets scant attention and any protest of American police brutality gets shouted down by the GOP.  I feel for Raif but much more I feel for us all as it will come to everyone eventually.  That's what happened the last time.

Audio Hijack Pro 3.0 by RogueAmoeba Software

Audio Hijack has been a staple on Apple computers for some years as it's a highly-reliable way to capture audio from any source on the computer and then save it in a variety of formats (e.g. MP3, AIFF, etc).  (RogueAmoeba:  Audio Hijack)

The cost of a new license is $49 and it's a $25 upgrade from any previous version (i.e. Audio Hijack or Audio Hijack Pro).  This is not a review of Audio Hijack 3.0 as I don't have the $25 just now but I can tell you I will do it when I can as Rogue Amoeba makes very high quality software.  They are also the providers of Nicecast, the audio streaming software I have used hundreds and hundreds of times for streaming sound into Second Life and other virtual grids.

Previously I had used Nicecast as an easy way to capture the audio when noodling in the studio, as opposed to recording individual tracks and doing some big deal production.  However, there's a problem with recording in that way as Nicecast echoes the audio back out to the mixer.  There's no way to turn off the echoing and the mixer is too cheap and stupid to give much DAW control beyond a single knob.

However, Audio Hijack Pro provides the perfect solution as I can capture raw audio but suppress any output monitoring thus getting a perfectly clean recording that I can spindle and mutilate at will when I get it into Final Cut with any associated video.


Recording anything has not been a priority or even an interest after the latest debacle but the tooth aspect has added a further complication.  It's not so much pain from the tooth but a broken edge is sharp and that is bugging all hell out of my tongue.  It will wear down in a few days as this isn't the first time I've been through this but it's unpleasant just now and I doubt recording will go well with that constantly bugging me.

Most of my videos are destroyed and there is no chance of recovering them.  There are six online now but it's very unlikely any others will be found as I've even reviewed backups on one of Yevette's external disks.  There were many other videos but they aren't coming back.  However, I would like to make "The Cat in the Space Between Things" as it's been a huge thing for quite a while and I would like to deliver it.

American Sniper Murders Clint Eastwood's Integrity

Among the many flaws to the movie is the worst of them, the implication that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.  It's a shame he didn't get in some cracks about Benghazi to make it perfect as then even Bill O'Reilly could have written it.

Eastwood has made some exceptional movies but this wasn't one of them as the only place in cinematic history for state-sponsored propaganda is beside "The Green Berets" that was shot for Vietnam and that's not the only one as state interference in Hollywood goes back to the days of the McCarthy witch hunts in the 50's.

People tweeted after seeing "American Sniper" that 'I want to go out and kill some fucking ragheads now.'  Maybe so, Hero Boy, and perhaps you can do it while you hide somewhere in a tree just like the cowardly bastard featured in the movie.

Nice job, Eastwood.  Congratulations on stirring up the ratchet brains to do some more killing.  Be proud of that work, grandpa.

The only positive thing to come out the story is the American Sniper was murdered by another Iraqi war hero some years later.  Apparently he wasn't so good when he actually had to face an opponent.  Now he's dead and ain't that a bitch.  Good riddance to him.  Hopefully he enjoyed his own killing as much as he said he enjoyed killing others.

Obama Should Have Been a Blogger

Obama's gift for talking about nothing is unmatched.  There are many who can do it with the lobotomized vacuity of Fox News broadcasters but none are so good at giving the impression of actual content.

'The military should be a last resort'

Yah, instead use the CIA.  That worked fine in Chile when the CIA took out Salvador Allende thus destabilizing an elected government Washington deemed Marxist.  Pinochet took over and then followed seventeen years of fascist torture and murder.  Score 1, Team CIA.  (Wiki:  Salvador Allende)

Same thing in Iran with the Shah.  Topple the government, install a puppet, and watch the country go all to hell after they overthrow him.

And the same in Vietnam ... and Iraq ... and Afghanistan ... and Libya ... and Syria ... and Ukraine.  Congratulations on a new addition to the list as Yemen, one of America's favorite drone targets, had a coup yesterday.

There's such a parade of countries destroyed by U.S. assistance that they should have a float in the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving.

The appearance of incompetence in the overthrow of various foreign governments is an illusion as it doesn't matter how bad the government that follows so long as it is not aligned with the left.  The U.S. has no morality of any kind with regard to the brutality of Saudis or their inspiration for a substantial part of the world's terrorism but there's one thing the Saudis know:  if they get cozy with the Russians then the U.S. will snuff the King as quickly as it took out all the others.

The consequence worldwide is strongly right-shifted governments almost everywhere and it's notable to find countries with any significant level of social services for their people (i.e. free college, guaranteed medical, etc), most of which are in Scandinavia.  Even Communists aren't Communists anymore.

In parallel with the right shift has been a financial shift in which globally the rich got rich and the poor got poorer.  That aspect is secondary to the damage the shift has caused as their military allocations waste money that should be going toward preparation for the change in climate.  In the current Holy War climate, there's more interest in killing Muslims than preventing New Orleans from winding up underwater.  That makes sense to PEGIDA and the GOP.

Redistribution of wealth is not going about putting a quarter under the pillow for any poor person but rather focusing that wealth on substantive changes that benefit humanity rather than destroying it.  Their Holy War has only one consequence:  cities will end up burning, they already are.  If people worked as aggressively to repair the world as they do to destroy it then the whole planet could be a garden.

The fundamental premise to all of this is that the Council of 85 makes money on the perpetual conflict or they would stop it.  They got richer over the last twenty years so continuous combat in the world suits them just fine.

"Dreaming of the Mystery Lady" (video)

This was a lucky find as it is one of the most important to me.  When I am croaked the family will have a lovely time going over what a horrible bastard I was but at least this will stand.

Je Suis 1Percent and Titanian FishLizards

The one percent is the star chamber of eighty-five people who own half the wealth of the world.

Typically the Foxies claim they are 1% also but that's no different from Kim Kardashian wanting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  If you're not truly one of the eighty-five, you don't even have enough money to tip the driver at valet parking when the eighty-five meet.  Besides, if you didn't come in a helicopter, you're not 1% anyway.

All of that posturing is GOP obfuscation to gloss over the reality of the ridiculously small number of people who control such vast wealth.  There are hundreds of thousands of wealthy people but they're paupers relative to the eighty-five and would only embarrass themselves going to their parties.

In parallel with the fantastic wealth of the eighty-five, 3.1 million children die of malnutrition every year.  (World Food Programme:  Hunger Statistics)

The United Nations works assiduously to address the problems of global health and nutrition but the UN has no greater enemy than the GOP.  Any idea the 1% actually wants to help solve problems of the world is rubbish as no-one fights harder to prevent it or to undermine those who do try to solve them.  This goes all the way back to the John Birch Society of the fifties and sixties with their billboards to get the US out of the UN.  Back then they were on the fringe but now it's GOP policy.

The world has turned into the set for "Starship Troopers" and it shouldn't be long before the billboards go up to announce SERVICE BRINGS CITIZENSHIP and a bunch of Fascists in grey suits will tell you of the tremendous peril to Earth from Klendathu.  Naturally, citizenship is required if you will run for political office or get a license to have babies and the only way to get citizenship is through military service.

Note:  the threat from Titanian FishLizards is real and, what's more, they have already been here.  (LiveScience:  170-Million-Year-Old 'Fish Lizard' Fossil Unearthed in Scotland)

Remember, Service Brings Citizenship so go forth and do righteous battle with the Titanian FishLizards before they return.  The 1% won't go but they will be happy to send someone else's kid.