Stop Melissa Bachmann - Animal Trophy Killer

The reason for the repeated slams of Melissa Bachmann isn't that she's a vicious and selfish trophy killing monster as there are plenty of sporting goods store heroes who do that.  When even Viagra won't make a man out of you, there's always Africa where you can go to kill a lion using a super scope that lets you shoot the animal from ten kilometres away.

The problem is only in part what she does as the reason for the campaign against her is she has tried to use what she does to make herself a media celebrity.  She's not just a killer but rather she's a missionary encouraging others to do it.

The Facebook group, Stop Melissa Bachmann,  now has over 311K members and it's achieved that in only a few days.  A great many people are furious about what she's doing and want her removed from television.  There are many who also want to see her banned from various countries to prevent her from using their animals as toys.

Other hunters try to justify what she does by saying, gee whiz, the meat from her kills is donated to local tribes.  Well now, that sure makes her Florence fucking Nightingale, doesn't it.  Apparently the premise is the tribes would not be capable of catching the animal themselves without the grand white woman to come and do it for them.  Arrogant bastards.

The hunters all say they bring big tourism dollars to Africa but that's not true either as their contributions are very small relative to photographic tourists who spend a great deal more.  These trophy killers are self-justifying thugs but, fortunately, they are starting to be banned.

Makes you proud to be human, doesn't it:

Lindsey Vonn Crashing Out of Sochi?

Lindsey Vonn has won multiple medals in downhill ski racing and that includes Olympic gold.  Unfortunately, she had quite a bad crash and it took her out of competition for a long while but she has been working out a comeback this season with the hope of competing at the Winter Games in Sochi.

She has now crashed again in training and has re-injured a ligament she damaged previously.  I imagine she's getting advice from at least a few of her people to withdraw from competition altogether or risk limping for the rest of her life.  (CNN: Lindsey Vonn puts comeback on hold after training crash)

Vonn probably has little or no interest in retiring and spending the rest of her life on boxes of Wheaties or doing the incredibly annoying commercials Olympic athletes usually make.  Olympic stars face the Elvis Syndrome in which you're massively famous when you're very young but then it goes away and what the hell do you do after that.

It's a tough choice as downhill skiing is the most dangerous kind, often hitting speeds well in excess of 100 kph.  Next to Formula 1 drivers, downhill skiers are the coolest people on the planet but there are only two ways out of either pursuit:  either you retire or you die.

Actually I hope she doesn't retire, that she can pull it together for one more Olympics.  You know that's what she wants or she wouldn't be working so hard to get it.

Very best wishes to her.

John Fitzgerald Who? -- Updated Again

Cat asked about recognition of this day and I took a look at CNN's Web page but Kennedy has a relatively-minor presence.  The big news is that some people were kept captive in a London house for thirty years.  Yep, that's the big headline news on the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK.

The regard for Kennedy in Germany is much higher than it is in the U.S.  The 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech has not been forgotten for the message it gave to Germany and also sent to Russia.

Their reaction to Kennedy being a lady's man:  so what.  That's a problem for his wife not the national news.

Cat tells me there were multiple magazine and newspaper articles in Germany commemorating the fifty years since Kennedy so she naturally asked what is happening here.  Well, not a whole hell of a lot.


Update:

I just looked at CNN again and they have changed it.  I guess someone must have called them up to remind them.


Updated Again:

I'm told the normal stations around Dallas / Fort Worth were broadcasting JFK specials almost continuously.  There wasn't any sign of this on CNN so maybe that shows how disconnected they are with much of anything.

Just Roll Another One

Annie's Central City Dispensary is now licensed to become the first legal purveyor of recreational marijuana in the United States when it opens for business on January 1.  (RT:  Colorado store makes history as first to offer recreational marijuana in the US)

In parallel news, the TSA is considering permitting people to carry a certain amount of marijuana when flying.  (RT:  TSA might allow passengers to board planes with marijuana)

There has also been an announcement from the Fed on relaxing about the matter.  (RT: Federal government won't challenge marijuana legalization laws)

A friend asked how marijuana will be taxed as there no chance it will ever be generally available if the Fed isn't getting a piece of the action.  It turns out marijuana sales will be taxed very easily and Colorado voters are passing such legislation right now with a vote of 65 to 35 in favour of it.  They call it a 'super tax' because recreational marijuana will be taxed at a higher rate than medically-prescribed marijuana.  (RT:  Colorado votes for super-tax on marijuana)

All of this winds up that marijuana is functionally legal if not necessarily supported by local statutes. There are three kinds of marijuana:  recreational, marijuana, and found marijuana.  The last is the best and I found some here.  No-one has any idea how long it had been sitting there and it's not very high-quality but one never complains about found marijuana.

America has had huge fun in dancing around with legalising marijuana but all the while there has been almost total silence regarding heroin.  People often say it would set a bad precedent to legalise marijuana but what sets an even worse precedent is when some fat-ass sits about lecturing on the perils of marijuana while failing to do one damn thing about the staggering volume of cocaine and heroin coming into the country.

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates there are 119,000 Americans who have used heroin in the last month.  They note the number may grossly-underestimate the actual situation and the number doesn't include the much larger number of people who have ever tried heroin at all.  Assuming 119,000 is true, multiply that by 1 gram per day (highly conservative) and then divide it by 28 * 16 (number of grams in a pound).  This will reveal 265 pounds of heroin are required every single day in America.  (NIH:  Fact Sheet on Heroin Addiction)

The NIH Fact Sheet estimates 800,000 active heroin addicts in the U.S.  Obviously they have no solid idea of how many exist but we can consider this, possibly, as the top of the range.  Based on this estimate, it would take 1785 pounds of heroin to supply the minimal requirement of one gram of heroin per day per junkie.  Therefore we can safely conclude the actual poundage of heroin coming into the United States every day is between 265 and 1785 pounds, possibly more.

Television shows frequently have local presentations in reality TV format from customs inspectors in airports.  These, I suppose, are intended to show the efficacy of their capture of contraband but it's the opposite.  At best they catch people trying to smuggle a kilo or two but so what, the overall volume is so much higher that such catches are irrelevant.  Yet no-one says one damn thing.

The other drug that can't originate in America is cocaine.  I have no idea why coca plants can't grow in the U.S. but I've never heard of anyone trying nor have I ever heard of someone trying to raise a poppy field (Papaver somniferens) within the U.S. although they grow quite nicely.

The volume of cocaine coming into the U.S. would be vastly higher than that of heroin because there are so many more people using it.  Therefore, the daily requirement would almost certainly be in multiple tons and the same applies regarding passenger searches on aircraft:  so what.  There are some spectacular busts of boats in the Gulf of Mexico but, even so, that only accounts for a tiny fraction of the total.

So, congratulations on the blindly stupid War on Drugs that has hassled people up and down for fifty years for smoking marijuana while all the time the big dealers have been smuggling vast quantities of heroin and cocaine into the country but the DEA and the TSA have accomplished almost nothing.  Making you more secure?  From what.

Leon Redbone - Cooler than Cool Under a Harvest Moon (video)

For the last few days it has been bugging the hell out of me that I couldn't remember the name of a performer whose work I really love but his name wasn't coming to me.  I finally came up with a brainwave as I went to see him with Sundance and Andrea at a jazz club in Rhode Island.  So I sent an email and after a couple more days they came up with the answer.  Thank you!

"Harvest Moon" is one of his signature songs and so is "Ain't Misbehavin'" and maybe you don't think that is too progressive but check out the way he does them.  His voice is unmistakeable and his style makes him cooler than cool.

I was most pleased to find the name and thanks again to Sundance and Andrea for reminding me.  Usually Cat is suggesting music and I've mostly followed rock which she already knows so there has been relatively little I could suggest that would surprise her.  Leon Redbone definitely did surprise her and she's now a fan.

No Haunted Vaginas Today

Sorry but there are no haunted vaginas on offer today so you will have to find one of your own.  Alternatively, you might want to visit yesterday's haunted vaginas.

Or perhaps Pussy Riot is a type of haunted vagina.

Just why the hell is Russia releasing the Greenpeace activists while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot continues to languish in a Siberian prison.  Both groups were charged with hooliganism yet Tolokonnikova went to jail for two years and Greenpeace activists became international celebrities with McCartney and other highly-visible individuals calling for their release.

McCartney did make some comment when Pussy Riot was arrested but he hasn't had much to say since.  His interest seems to be whatever will keep him in the newspaper.

So what if Pussy Riot got loud inside a church.  In America one often sees reports of punks spraying swastikas onto synagogues but you never or very rarely hear of them going to jail for it.  Churches have been bombed or torched in America but very little is made of those who do it.

Where Los Angeles was once regarded as the land of lotus eaters, all of America is getting that reputation because of its singular lack of concern for anything beyond the most trivial things.  If you think that statement is simply cynicism from me, you couldn't be more wrong.  It might even surprise you that I've been somewhat defensive by telling people that not all Americans are like that but it's hard for anyone outside of America to believe when the majority of Americans definitely are like that.  You can see, day after day, people posting pictures on Facebook that show they have no more interest in life beyond what they're having for dinner.  Fuck everyone else.  Let them eat cake.

Free Pussy Riot!

The End of the World ... and Miley Cyrus

If the end of the world is coming then why are we being additionally punished by the presence of Miley Cyrus.  I'm not the only one who is tired of that meathead and you can take a look at "16 Horses that Look Like Miley Cyrus" on Buzzfeed.  Since Miley Cyrus isn't all that attractive, I'd say the horses are better looking.

In fact, Miley Cyrus is fairly ordinary in just about everything she does but her twerking is annoying. The Free Love generation was having more sex than the planet had ever previously supported and Cyrus thinks she can offend us by twerking, seemingly by taking something we regarded as free and making it look cheap.

The reason I keep going on about this is that I heard her relentlessly on the television at Belly Buster in Leith where I went for sandwiches.  The sound of her voice came to be as irritating as that of a police siren and that memory has not yet faded.  The RIAA broke down Napster to preserve the recording industry for this crap.  What the hell!

My friend commented that she's laughing all the way to the bank but how long can that continue when her only act is telling her Daddy that the TV virgin is fucking now.  She's not particularly attractive, she's definitely not very talented, and she's rather less than controversial so what becomes of her.  It may not be the end of the world for all of us but I doubt the end of the world is far off for her.  She may wind up rich but she'll be just another Hollywood burn-out who dreams of when she was famous.

She's been getting some very bad advice and what I would suggest for her is that she start acting like a woman rather than a high-school cheerleader on her first hit of XTC.

Abby Martin, Artist

There are many articles I've written out of enthusiasm for Abby Martin's work on "Breaking the Set" and as an activist.  She makes Bill Maher look like a self-indulgent pantywaist but that's in part because Bill Maher already is a self-indulgent pantywaist.  Martin plays hard and she's not wasting time trying to be witty or clever, she just wants the facts.

There is a very different side to her as she is also an artist in paint.  She's been heavily-influenced by Bay area psychedelia but that, in my view, is an excellent thing as it was one of the coolest things to come out of the sixties in general and San Francisco in particular.

Here's one called #1 Ambiente:

You can see many more examples of her work at Abby Martin's online gallery.  I looked at quite a few and most of them were sold.

Exorcising the Haunted Vagina

If you don't think the world has a problem with haunted vaginas then you either don't live in America or you have never visited Facebook.  However, there is a cure:  exorcism.

It seems some Chinese 'paranormalist' (whatever the hell that may be) convinced a woman he could exorcise her haunted vagina and thus enable her to resolve the huge crush she had on another man.  Here's the beauty part:  he charged her the equivalent of $3000 to do it.  (the Freethinker:  Chinese ‘paranormalist’ arrested for exorcising a ‘haunted vagina’ with his penis)

From this article we learn first that Chinese women in love are not very intelligent.  The second thing we learn is that the paranormalist wasn't very intelligent either or he would have been practicing his craft in America where I suspect he would have wound up on a game show.  It would be a game show like Facebook except with video in which three contestants compete to convince the judging panel which one has the most demonic haunting of her vagina.  The winner gets a free vaginal exorcism and, hey, after the commercial break, you can watch.

Johnny, tell her what her vagina has won!

"Das Hausboot Song" (Deutsch / Englisch)

Ach, meine Schmuseling,
immer ich liebe dich.
Das Hausboot ist kommen
zum Fluss gehen wir.

Mit Leben auf Wasser,
mit Vögeln und Schmetterlingen,
ist Sonnenschein und Liebe.
Zum Fluss gehen wir.

In die Glut des Lichts,
in der Stille der Nacht,
fliesst der Fluss vorwärts.
Zum Fluss gehen wir.

Ach, meine Schmuseling,
immer ich liebe dich.
Das Hausboot ist kommen
zum Fluss gehen wir.


'Schmuseling' ist nicht ein Deutscher Wort.  Ich habe es erfunden.  Das Welt hat nur eine Schmuseling:  Cat.

(Schmuseling is not a German word.  I invented it.  The world has only one Schmuseling:  Cat)

Oh, my snugglebunny,
I always love you.
The houseboat is coming
we go to the river.

With life on water,
with birds and butterflies,
is sunshine and love.
We go to the river.

In the glow of the light,
in the still of the night,
flows along the river.
We go to the river.

Oh, my snugglebunny,
I always love you.
The houseboat is coming
we go to the river.


Ever since Greece I've been carrying a hand-written note with this poem as that was the only copy of it.  I've done the song multiple times for Cat but had never put the lyrics on disk and I would have hated like hell to lose it.

How to Get to Munich

Cat and I have talked pretty much since I met her about a German jam and not one that does the same old thing in which people sit around playing cover songs on acoustic guitars (i.e. campfire music).  It would be premature to talk about any logistical matters we have reviewed as there's plenty of time for that (e.g. where to do it, how to get electric, how to get Internet, etc) but it's not premature to talk about the content.

Cat's Art MusikCircus has always pushed away from mainstream music and that's what makes it such a cool place to visit and such a cool venue to play a gig.  She won't tell people what to play, what to wear, etc, etc.  The same applies to a Second Life German jam and that's why it would be wildly important to me to get there.

Obviously I want to meet Cat and this would be an outrageously cool way to do it.  I've already said how much I would love to jam with Michi Renoir and this would be the opportunity as he lives in Austria, not far away at all.  With any luck at all, lefty Unplugged would be able to get there from Manchester, perhaps via my, um, beloved easyJet.  These are only two of the MusikCircus performers and maybe it's even possible for all to get there.

What I know for sure is that round-trip via Expedia for the Spring would be about $1200.  Saving that up in six months may not be realistic but at least it defines what is required.  So don't be surprised to see more German writing here on the blog as that only stopped when I couldn't get to the Internet to look up definitions.

Back in the Killing Zone

America does love killing people and of course that's blindingly obvious to anyone outside the U.S.  I've only been back in the country for a few days and already there has been the first execution.

When they decide to execute someone in China, they just take the person outside and do it.  That's not good enough for America as here they like to screw with them first.  It's the same as with cats that will never kill something immediately as they enjoy the process too much to cut it short.

Before the death penalty is implemented in America, there will be years of appeals and these will get shorter and shorter in duration right up to the moment of the execution with various courts saying you're going to die ... oh wait, no you're not ... hold on, yes you are ... on and on.  All of this plays out in the news to great public amusement.

The one they executed was Joseph Paul Franklin, a particularly demented killer who murdered multiple people because he says he was doing God's work.  That this guy is a complete waste of protoplasm is not at question.  He murdered multiple times and there is no reason at all to believe anything he would ever say about rehabilitation.

One of the people Franklin shot was Larry Flynt who ended up paralysed by it.  However, Flynt worked very hard to prevent Franklin's execution.  That Flynt wanted to prevent the execution received relatively little publicity as that takes away from the righteousness of snuffing him.  Flynt said it wasn't out of a misguided sense of forgiveness that he wanted the execution stopped but rather it was a matter of principle:  humans do not have the right to take another's life.

Larry Flynt has been in trouble with the law for much of his adult life for publishing that which has been classified as pornography.  He made Cincinnati famous in an obscenity trial that proved conclusively that the Cincinnati justice system is riddled with asshats.  He won the obscenity trial and his Hustler magazine got more publicity than any skin mag could ever have hoped.

What's important about Flynt's use of free speech to defend his creation of Hustler magazine is that his belief in principles wasn't just a matter of exploiting the law for his own purpose.  Even after taking a bullet, he still staunchly defended his principle that the death penalty is wrong.

So Joseph Paul Franklin is now dead.  It was highly-antiseptic and Americans can say it was painless and civilised but what you will absolutely never hear is who did it.  The names of the executioners are never publicised as they know their shame regardless of how much the media attempts to portray what they do as within the law and reasonable.


Before someone steps up with what about abortion, I'll offer this deal:  I'll give up any thought of abortion in the third trimester if you'll give up capital punishment.