Looking for the Heart...

...that Beats Beneath...

...the American Breast


Looking for the heart that beats...

I'll remember you | When I've forgotten all the rest, | You to me were true, | You to me were the best. | When there is no more, | You cut to the core | Quicker than anyone I knew. | When I'm all alone | In the great unknown, | I'll remember you.

Bob Dylan | I'll Remember You

Attracted to an article in the Calgary Sun, I discovered one featuring the star of one of my earlier posts, the delectable Elisha Cuthbert. The girl's a Canadian... I might have guessed it, eh? Ah well, either way, I was scouring the media for the important news of the day; the stuff that really matters, the adrenal journalism that gets our blood pumping and raises our ire. I found all I needed in an article in which Janet Jackson's breasts feature prominently. Censured (yes, it should be "censored") March 30 by a bleep from CBS on David Letterman's show for blasphemy—she did, after all, say "Jesus!", the publicity seeking Ms. Jackson must have the world's most remarkable boobs.

Not that her boobs are the point of the article to which I was attracted. I just thought I'd mention them. In Boob Tube: The Naked Truth About Us and America, Canadian journalist Bill Brioux explores the curious reaction of Americans exposed to the sight of the female breast. Introducing us to this somewhat odd phenomenon, he leads with singer Alanis Morissette appearing on Canadian TV in a body suit, proclaiming "I am overjoyed to be back in my homeland, the true North, strong and censor-free."

Examining her statement, Brioux finds it accurate: "Even on our specialty channels, sex and nudity are becoming commonplace," he writes. "Every station seems to have its own Sex Files or Naughty Bits. The few Canadian dramas that remain on the air, such as The Eleventh Hour or Da Vinci's Inquest, have far more explicit sexual content than anything on NBC or ABC—and viewers here seem to take it in stride."

Looking due south, he finds Americans outraged by Ms. Jackson's proclivity for popping her mammaries. "Jackson's brief boob flash triggered a storm of condemnation south of the border. A staggering 200,000 viewers called CBS to complain; the U.S. Federal Communications Commission threatened to fine CBS and its 200 affiliates $36,000 US each for broadcasting indecent material. The trickle turned into a torrent. A delay was slapped on the Academy Awards (for the first time). In the strangest irony, NBC snipped a quick peek at an elderly woman's breasts out of an episode of ER."

Pointing out that Canadians take umbrage at anything perceived to be a racial slur, Brioux does more than scoff at American sensibilities. He points to a strange anomaly. "This week, Fox network brings The Swan, a nightmarish series which takes 16 plain-looking women and, through extreme cosmetic surgery, attempts to transform them into something quaintly acceptable in American society: Beauty-pageant contenders. The result is far more pornographic than anything seen on TV before—either in Canada or the U.S."

His conclusion? You can carve, remove and 'enhance' a breast on U.S. TV. Just don't show it.


...beneath the American breast.

I'll remember you | At the end of the trail, | I had so much left to do, | I had so little time to fail. | There's some people that | You don't forget, | Even though you've only seen'm | One time or two. | When the roses fade | And I'm in the shade, | I'll remember you.

Bob Dylan | I'll Remember You

Finding in every other news article I read today the same measured tones and considered opinions of the 'carve, remove and enhance' school of journalism, I started wondering whether Brioux had not stumbled onto something.

Iraq, as ever, tops the news. If you know where to look, you get the story. What do you get? Fact after fact, horror after horror written up in the same inverted-pyramid 5Ws + 1H style. After a while, it's plain fucking boring. It's death by stylistic convention. It's pornography. It's not pornographic in that the articles detail the horror of an interminable, incomprehensible suffering. It's pornographic in that the articles' writers strip their material, line by line, of all feeling, passion, and humanity.

This past Easter, I sat through Mass wondering at my own ignorance. How can I call myself a Catholic, a believer, a person of faith when I attach so much importance to the sanctity of life here on earth? Why, if I hold so strenuously to my beliefs and the little faith I have, do I doubt the existence of a life after death? Why do I believe that the life we are given here on earth is all that we have and that none of us has the right to take the life of another? Why do I rage so against the death of others?

Reading Bill Brioux and the news today, I realised that I have perhaps far less faith in the Hereafter than do most who adhere to religious belief. They do not need or wish to see the effects of war. They realise, without needing to have their faces shoved in the 'pornography of passing', the implications of extinguishing countless private universes with weapons sculpted to kill en masse. They must know, far better than I, that those to whom those universes belonged—earlier today, yesterday and the day before, are now in a Far Better Place.

Hence the unspoken rule. It's okay to write, photograph, and broadcast a war as long as you do so in the measured tones of the 'carve, remove and enhance' school of journalism. Strip it of all feeling, passion, and humanity. Just don't show it.

We are, after all, swans. There are no ugly ducklings here.

"Ah hell, Elisha, we both knew it. It never would'a worked. You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last..."

I'll remember you | When the wind blows through the piney wood. | It was you who came right through, | It was you who understood. | Though I'd never say | That I done it the way | That you'd have liked me to. | In the end, | My dear sweet friend, | I'll remember you.

Bob Dylan | I'll Remember You

Note The exception to the norm is Jo Wilding's Inside the Fire. It is a story of exceptional courage from the hell of Falluja. Also, studying Helmut Newton's works above, I've a feeling 'the heart that beats beneath the American breast' is to be found in the first photograph; though not obviously so.

Using Graphics...

...for effective blogging

Allowing every picture to tell its story

American Leftist has come up with a great way of making a point. Yesterday, several hundred dead Americans joined ranks on his site to pay moving tribute to the corporate interests for whom they have so needlessly given their lives. Truly, patriotism is alive and well. I am, however, a bit miffed with American Leftist. As my five or six readers know, I have been working hard at making appropriate use of graphics in my blog entries of late and marshalling the dead to the cause is old hat. On posting the photograph of a U.S. marine past his sell-by date last April, I was visited by well over 1,000 art lovers from the far right. Holding themselves and all before them to exceptionally high standards, they gave me their honest impressions of my breakthrough in artful blogging. Some were not all that kind, but I took their criticism to heart and have been working hard on making new and novel uses of graphics on this site. Some have worked and some haven't. None of this, of course, has anything to do with my being more than mildly pissed off with American Leftist. The point is, this technique is old hat. I perfected it a long while back. It follows therefore, that American Leftist has somehow, following time-honoured, lily-livered anti-American leftist-liberal tradition, filched my idea.

You doubt it? I don't give a shit, my friend. In fact, I don't give a flying fucking continental. On this page I offer you incontrovertible proof that the low-down, scum-sucking bottom feeder is nothing but a self-serving publicity hound. I spent my whole Easter weekend on the graphic posted beneath American Leftist's and can honestly say it is far better. You will see that it is, if you save it to your hard drive and magnify it 48 times, a mosaic. You'll have to do it yourself. Our server can't handle the job. What's more, this is a moving tribute offered the President of the United States by all Iraqis killed by American forces over the past twelve years as they have has fought to secure their freedom from the heinous and brutal one-time partner of the U.S., Saddam Hussein (unless your monitor supports 32-bit rendition, you're stuffed). More than one million once-suffering people took part. A mugshot of each and every Eternally grateful Iraqi has been included and none has been duplicated. Moreover, rather than a tacky representation of the President, those Iraqis who willingly laid their lives beneath the falling bombs of the U.S. and British air forces so that their fellows may savour the freedom they enjoy today, decided to render a remarkable likeness of his drunken daughter, the slag Jenna.

They felt it appropriate that I should convey to the U.S. president their ardent desire that they should be allowed to meet him, Jenna, Barbara, Laura and the remaining dogs as soon as his schedule allows it. They're running short on vestal virgins up there. "Not that she's one," remarked one cynic. "But we've no fresh supplies coming in and are growing desperate. We'll take anything."

So, there you have it. American Leftist indeed. You want art, I'll give you art. All you need do is ask.

Raping the Girl Next Door

When Boys Will Be Boys...

...and the result much the same

The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the women and children out of the town for the last 48 hours but all the roads out of the city are closed by the Americans and refugees are being shot at and bombed on a regular basis… we're watching the television and crying. The hospital is overflowing with victims… those who have lost arms and legs… those who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough medicine or bandages… what are the Americans doing? This is collective punishment … is this the solution to the chaos we're living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds' part of the campaign?

River

Like George W. Bush, John Kerry's a shadow man, a projection of the cumulative shards of others' intents. Hell, he even looks like a shadow. But he is America's chosen alternative to Bush, the loser and incompetent now being flogged out of the White House by a U.S. citizenry enraged at their own stupidity and George's inability to prosecute a simple war perpetuating an American dream given substance by digital images of... yes, Elisha Cuthbert, star of the recently released The Girl Next Door.

What a lousy screen name. Can the girl not get herself a decent manager...

There... I've e-mailed Elisha and will interview her tomorrow. I'll probably take the job too... Bob Dylan's work with Victoria's Secret is depressing. I've been informed by Marvin Wasserstein, head of marketing for Victoria's Secret, that the girls breasts are not airbrushed. Their contract with the world's largest purveyor of intimate wear stipulates they have their nipples removed for fear of corrupting the morals of young Americans. When not on set, they wear Janet Jackson nipple caps (would you believe it?).

It's all very distressing. The way things are going, Kerry will get the job.

I know I'd do a damned side more good volunteering for the American presidency but, damn it... while Bill Clinton has my sympathies, life is far too short, Victoria's Secret is out, and the world is still full of girls like Elisha. I have no time to play at politics or with others' lives. Which is what George has been doing these past few years. And now he's taking a whipping... Hounded out of every Iraqi city on the map, the whimpering coward is fighting for his miserable life.

Would that he could do so in circumstances similar to those enjoyed by the victims of his dumb ambition. No, not the American people...

The American and European news stations don't show the dying Iraqis… they don't show the women and children bandaged and bleeding - the mother looking for some sign of her son in the middle of a puddle of blood and dismembered arms and legs… they don't show you the hospitals overflowing with the dead and dying because they don't want to hurt American feelings… but people should see it. You should see the price of your war and occupation - it's unfair that the Americans are fighting a war thousands of kilometers from home. They get their dead in neat, tidy caskets draped with a flag and we have to gather and scrape our dead off of the floors and hope the American shrapnel and bullets left enough to make a definite identification… One year later, and Bush has achieved what he wanted - this day will go down in history and in the memory of all Iraqis as one of the bloodiest days ever...

River

Although you might suspect it, I've not been trolling the Web looking for pictures of blondes. After watching Kevin Costner's 13 Days on the idiot box a couple of days ago, I decided to spend some time reminiscing about the good old days, when girls were girls and men were men. In 1962, John F. Kennedy was president of the United States and Cuba was the girl next door. Costner's high-budget, selective retelling of a forgotten time in which the threat was both real and imminent fails to convey the tension generated by the Soviet Union positioning ICBMs on Cuban soil. History tells the tale far better and, through its archives, the Michigan State University's History and Politics Out Loud project gives it voice.

I've been listening to a time when politicians sought to avoid rather than provoke war; when they bludgeoned Pentagon hawks with the jackhammers of reason and conviction; when they did their job. Studying the details of the Cuban Missile Crisis would do most Americans the world of good. They have a patchy history when it comes to warfare. It is not something at which they excel. In fact, as Muqtadah al-Sadr has taught them this past week, they are and always were bloody hopeless at it.

Dragged at the last into two world wars, they were always Johnny Come Latelys, the genial saps with the heavy armour. Much as Hollywood would like us to believe the U.S. conquered Hitler, they cannot evade history's recognition of Britain and Russia's more weighty and telling contributions to Adolf's downfall. And much as Arnold Schwarzeneger, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude van Damme and a host of kung-fu patriots would have us deny it, the United States security apparatus military has performed abysmally in every armed conflict it has instigated or contributed to since WWII.

But there were bright patches, and John F. Kennedy's evasion of a nuclear holocaust late in 1962 remains one of the Twentieth Century's great military achievements. Now, all we get is Twentieth Century Fox or, worse, FoxNews. Yup, it was after Kennedy's assassination that the Curtis Le Mays and Rumsfelds of the world took over. They gave us what we have today, the snivelling weasel from Crawford, Texas, the search for a new girl next door, and a docile populace exhibiting all the spine of a rubber chicken.

The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the women and children out of the town for the last 48 hours but all the roads out of the city are closed by the Americans and refugees are being shot at and bombed on a regular basis… we're watching the television and crying. The hospital is overflowing with victims… those who have lost arms and legs… those who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough medicine or bandages… what are the Americans doing? This is collective punishment … is this the solution to the chaos we're living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds' part of the campaign?

River

Mind you, despite Americans having the national resolve of a bluebottle, I have a soft spot for them. They too appreciate the virtues of digital foxes like Elisha Cuthbert now being dished up by Hollywood. These girls of great and obvious virtue appeal to healthier appetites and sensibilities than does Cuba as perceived by the average redneck; offering us hope for the future. Sharing the tastes of more refined US-ians, how could I ever give up on them? For all their faults, dead presidents, war-mongering and naive hysteria they, like their former girl next door and its president, Fidel Castro, are real and can be dealt with.

After WWII's birthing of new cycle of global intercourse, every superpower was given a fresh start and Kennedy inherited Cuba. However, like most Americans, Kennedy had a voracious sexual appetite and proved incapable of accepting that there is and will always be only one girl next door. Once deflowered, she exists no more. Search for her as one might, she will never return. That's all there is to it. There is no going back and no new dream girl. Grow up, settle down, and get used to it.

Kennedy might have learnt a great deal from Cuba. Or from Elisha from that matter. Like history, she takes different roles for different times and people. I will spend some time with her over the next few days, exploring her potential to take on parts other than that of a former hooker. She is, like Cuba at the time of the Revolution, an archetypal whole-wheat blonde, and has her own story. What we see in The Girl Next Door is, well, what we see. What we see in 13 Days is, well, nothing more than what we see. I have spoken at length to Elisha about this and can assure you she is what we might call a 'good' girl. She tells me Cuba was much like her in 1962.

In 13 Days, Costner omits the sordid detail heaped on the U.S. side of the ideological divide. Kennedy was no hero. However, suffering his pains and perversions privately, he delayed the onset of an era of global rape. The short, odious story is that he ravished Cuba before dumping her. Subject to the scorn of an indefinite blockade to mark her conquest, she became the whore of fat-walleted congressmen on fishing trips, their eyes reflecting dreams of the good old days when Havana provided sex, drugs and dubious deals on every street corner.

Where are the useless Governing Council? Why isn't anyone condemning the killings in the south and in Falloojeh? Why aren't they sitting down that fool Bremer and telling him that this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong? If one of them were half a man or even half a human, they would threaten to resign their posts if there isn't an immediate ceasefire… the people are enraged. This latest situation proves that they aren't Iraqi - they aren't here for the welfare of the Iraqi people.

River

Like countries, Elisha takes on certain roles. Generally, these roles are set by the major studios and their markets and are foisted on her by the pickle brains running Hollywood. Should I now advise Elisha to play a thick-legged, potato-picking Ukrainian woman unaware that she can order Bob Dylan CDs and pleasing lingerie from Victoria's Secret, that will be her role. But we are dealing with movies here. The Elisha we see in The Girl Next Door will be the same person starring as Olga the peasant girl raped by the vodka-swilling prince on his way to the front.

Superpowers are no different. The archives tell us so. The longer, more correct story, and the one they narrate, tells us that Cuba played Olga to the U.S. prince in 1962 for, although Kennedy subdued the hawks, he did so to crush Castro, not save him. In Turning History on Its Head, at the George Washington University National Archive Site, Philip Brenner, explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis to his fourteen-year old daughter and the world, reminds us that, at the time of the crisis":

"...the United States was waging a war against Cuba that involved several assassination attempts against the Cuban leader, terrorist acts against Cuban civilians, and sabotage of Cuban factories. The endgame of this low intensity conflict envisioned a U.S. invasion."

Brenner points to Operation Mongoose, History and Politics Out Loud to Operation Ortsac:

"After weathering the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-backed Cuban exiles in 1961, Castro observed as U.S. armed forces staged a mock invasion of a Caribbean island in 1962. The purpose of the invasion was to overthrow a leader whose name, Ortsac, was Castro spelled backwards. Although Ortsac was a fictitious name, Castro "got the message" and soon became convinced that the U.S. was serious about invading Cuba."

In a related article, Annals of Blinksmanship, Thomas Blanton notes:

"Perhaps most striking is evidence of the Cubans' unrelenting fear, before and after the Bay of Pigs landing in 1961, that a U.S. invasion was imminent. The...resulting paranoia suggests that when Khrushchev claimed that the missiles were there to defend the Cuban Revolution, he was not just scoring a propaganda point."

It would serve us well to remember that American, Russian and Ukrainian girls all want to have fun. Elisha as Olga was raped by JFK and the miniscule Cuban Revolution, subject to the use of overwhelming force by the U.S., was denied oil and a market for its sugar. Russian adventurism in Cuba had a cause, namely U.S. adventurism. It was left to one man, Castro, to keep the Revolution alive in Cuba. That he has been able to sustain it these past four decades despite American aggression and interference, makes him the equal of Mandela.

Do Americans realise this? Of course not. They also tend to forget that the girl next door is always somebody else's little sister and if you fuck with her, well... Forever adolescents on drugs, they chase the impossible dream. Not for nothing did Michael Moore entitle his book, Stupid White Men.


The Girl Next Door...A Real and Imminent Threat

They say around 600 Iraqis were killed in Falloojeh - 120 children and 200 women... it's an atrocity and horribly sad. They have let one or two convoys in and the rest were sent back. The refugees from the area are flowing into Baghdad and it's horrible to see them. Women and children with tear-stained faces, mostly in black, carrying bundles of clothes and bottles of water. The mosques are gathering food and clothes for them... one of the storage areas for the refugee stuff was hit by an American tank today in A'adhamiya and the scene is chaotic... scattered food, medication, bandages, blankets, etc.

River

Somalia almost proved America's second Vietnam. Somalia showed that the Americans had learnt nothing from JFK and his many peccadilloes. Had they done so, they would never allowed Bill Clinton his Monica Lewinsky blowjobs in the Oval Office. But no, they looked the other way and Bill's sex-crazed eyes lit on Somalia. And so it came about that Bill almost had his pecker trimmed in Mogadishu. Eight-hundred thousand Rwandese would testify to his hasty withdrawal if they could. As would Mohamed Farah Aideed were he in a position to do so. As would all those Rangers not available for the filming of Black Hawk Down.

The Russians are as randy as the Yanks and are as loath to learn from the past. Two decades after the United States screwed Cuba, Moscow's little sister, the Soviets ventured into Afghanistan. Many refer to their failed attempt to seduce and later rape that ancient country as its Vietnam. It's not a bad analogy. Afghanistan under the Soviet whip saw the mujahideen enjoying Big Brother Washington's active and material help. Afghanistan was not, to its ayatollahs' collective relief, to be Russia's girl next door. In many ways, as was the case in Vietnam, it played Lorena to Moscow's John Bobbit, offering great pleasure but delivering terrible pain. For the Soviets, Afghanistan was a bitch.

Afghanistan, if she doesn't mind me saying it, is proving to be something of a bitch to the Americans as well but, having been bombed back to the Stone Age, she has not yet or is incapable of inflicting the ultimate indignity of Mr. Bobbit on the U.S. and its recalcitrant proxy forces. Having locked down the Afghans more tightly than the Taliban in a religious frenzy, they are too busy fighting each other to be seduced by Afghanistan's natural charms.

Perhaps I should explain something here. When it comes to gratuitous sex, most women are bitches. Trust me. I know these things. Being a good Catholic boy, a blogger, and a professional to boot, I offer my counsel freely. I have more respect for the United States than I do for Bob Dylan, Victoria's Secret and Elisha Cuthbert, all of whom will receive large bills for my not insubstantial services. A country sharing many of my attributes; the rugged, sensitive and caring Marlboro man (in fact, all the attributes lacking in the shadows occupying America's highest office), the United States would do well to heed my advice.

To George W. Bush, I will say this much. In as much as Vietnam came to visit Soviet forces in Afghanistan, it will return to haunt you in Iraq. Like all conflicts and genocidal wars you have perpetrated or in which you have played a major role since Cuba fell in 1962, Iraq is not your next girl next door. That was Cuba and you raped her. Iraq will be your Palestine, the Lorena to your John Bobbit. Trust me George, I am an expert in these matters.

So it goes. People are generally slow to realise that when a relationship has run its course, it's over. Where rape is involved, the consequences are far harsher. The Yanks are slower than most. Kevin Costner is slower than most Yanks. Today is a different movie altogether. Kennedy raped Cuba and, although the case was never brought to trial, his misdemeanour has not been forgotten or forgiven. If George W. Bush's increasingly likely successor, that cadaverous man of the shadows, John F. Kerry, turns out every bit as rotten and corrupt as he's shaping up to be, we will likely see him chasing my charge, Elisha Cuthbert, with as much vigour as his predecessor and before him, JFK.

The retread version of the man who tamed his hawks will enjoy as much success with Elisha as the Soviets enjoyed in Afghanistan.

All I can think is, "We've become one of those countries..." You know - the ones where hostages are taken on a daily basis and governments warn their civilians of visiting or entering the country. It's especially sad because even during those long years during the blockade and in between wars and bombings, there were never any attacks on foreigners. Iraqis are hospitable, friendly people who always used to treat foreigners with care... now, everyone is treated like a potential enemy.

River - Not Your Average Girl Next Door

From the comment box:

HaloScan permits only 1,000 character responses to comments. Shelley asks some pointed questions and deserves a full reply. She comments:

What do you want, Mike?

You don't want Bush. You don't Kerry. You don't like Americans, because we fuck up constantly.

Do you want us to just detonate all of out atomic bombs over our own country and wipe us off the face of the world? Will that then end all evil, since we are the root of?

To which I offer the following response:

To your first and key question, an end to this carnage, Shelley; no different from you. I distrust Bush and I distrust Kerry. Big time. Bush is a criminal. Kerry has supported his every move. There are many reasons for me distrusting them, most of which you know and most of which are archived here. Were Kerry to make an unequivocal commitment to withdraw from the Middle East and bring the international community in to negotiate, enforce, and monitor its withdrawal (it has no credibility left), I'd support him as I would participating Middle Eastern states. Until he does that, I'd rather see Bush retain office until he is tried as a war criminal and international sanctions imposed on the U.S.

Bush's administration must be forced out. Until a U.S. administration is in place that does implement these steps, I cannot but wish to see the incumbents ousted. If I were to settle for less, I'd probably settle for anything and, finally, accept this ongoing butchery. There's enough of it elsewhere. Look at Sudan.

As for not liking Americans and your last two questions, you're angry and I excuse you that. It's patent bullshit and you know it. That's the sort of simplistic crap that equates criticism of Sharon and his supporters to anti-Semitism and I don't believe you believe it. I do not dislike Americans or the people of any other nation, creed, or race. Nor do I believe Americans fuck up more than some. When the U.S. does, however, it does so with devastating consequences for people living elsewhere. Yes, generalisations are bound to abound, but the U.S. invasion force is out of control and that is a big deal. We knew it would get to this.

Until U.S. citizens start telling the U.S. administration what they think of it, the world and I can only believe they condone what is happening in Iraq and elsewhere. There is, after all, a pattern here. Many U.S. bloggers do speak out against these illegal, murderous actions. You are one of them. And many U.S. citizens remember having to meet state intransigence with blunt force to effect a withdrawal from Vietnam. What's wrong this time round?

Is what is going on in Iraq cool? Seventy occupation troops, 700 Iraqi resistance fighters, and an unknown number of civilians killed in the past week... Do we, as peole sharing the planet, accept it and hope these fools will do better over the next seven days? A third battalion has already been brought into the attack on Fallujah. Iraq on fire? After a year? For what? Fuck no, I don't accept it. Nor do I think do you.

In short, your anger's aimed the wrong way. And no, there's no end to the evil we do. You know that too.

Heading for a Fall...

Rapacious U.S. Military on the Rampage...

Hundreds of Iraqis slaughtered


'This is like Huey City in Vietnam...' Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne U.S.M.C.

"The Sunnis and Shiites are now together." Fatah Abdel-Razzaq

This page opposed any American invasion of Iraq without broad international support. But once the administration went in with the backing of only Britain and token forces from elsewhere, the United States had a responsibility to the Iraqi people to stay and establish a free and stable government. But it is impossible to build a better nation in Iraq unless there are Iraqi leaders willing to stand up to extremism, United Nations participation to give the effort international legitimacy and a credible exit strategy. more...

New York Times

With the exception of one or two op-ed columnists, notably the eminently sensible and pragmatic Paul Krugman, The New York Times and The Washington Post have consistently proved themselves among Bush's staunchest allies in his Global War of Terror. For millions of former readers, the likes of Thomas Friedman proved too much and the Times lost whatever credibility it enjoyed. The Post? Well, the Post has never pretended to be anything but a Beltway broadsheet bearing the bullshit of the day.

I'm not going to go into the articles linked here. It is enough to say that they are cynical, self-serving, delusional slurs on journalism and constitute a gross insult and disservice to readers. Both try to distance themselves, at the first sign of Iraqis resisting the inept U.S. war machine, from their earlier bloodlust and appetite for conquest. Both try to engineer, through sly deceit, verbal trapdoors through which they can escape to the sunshine of respectability should the going get tough for their political masters.

Is it any wonder these publications are despised by the dumb, but generally transparent, right? Both refer to the Iraqi resistance as though it has no right to exist. Both try to reduce national outrage to the twisted machinations of a few evil thugs. Both ignore the atrocities of the occupying imperial army. Both infer a lack of support among Iraqis for those resisting this illegal and horrendously brutal occupation. Both seek to perpetuate the myth that U.S. soldiers 'fight' while Iraqis 'murder'. Both try to infuse credibility into the myth of a June 30 transfer of power. Both try to lend respectability and legitimacy to the illegal invasion, occupation and destruction of a sovereign state. Both blithely ignore international condemnation of what many construe to be an ongoing crime against humanity.

In short, both shield the criminal Bush behind a wall of mealy-mouthed, ass-licking drivel. Most telling, both portray the U.S. warlord vacationing in Crawford, Texas, as a reasonable man.

Well, when newspapers start trying to pull off such deceits, you know they are bought and paid for and you know how low they are prepared to go. The fact is, even though it will follow a cyclical pattern of intensity spiralling out of control, Iraqi resistance is widespread and deeply felt. Iraqis hate Americans and they have good reason to do so. Not that it will do them any good. The United States will not be leaving Iraq anytime soon. Before, during and after its sham transfer of power to a powerless council of highly paid stooges intent on living short lives, it will bomb Iraq and other countries to submission. In coming decades, it will greatly strengthen its domination of Middle Eastern and Asian affairs.

However, despite this possibly uplifting scenario for those harbouring PNAC sentiments, two things are inevitable. First, a pervasive loathing of the United States and all it stands for will make itself felt among Americans. They will not feel or be welcome wherever they go. They will come to know terror, fear and distrust. They will come to know and feel hatred. Secondly, following the dictates of history, the United States of America will be defeated by a coalition of Third World countries infinitely less powerful than their oppressor. Why? Because it's not that difficult to do.

With Norway withdrawing from Iraq and Spanish, Latin American, Italian, Polish, British and other troops having come under fierce attack this past week, the United States will be humiliated and belittled. Its standing in the world will plummet and, as it now commands respect only through the barrel of a gun and several thousand nuclear silos, its future ignominy will play out to the sound of derisive sneers and mocking laughter. It has brought these things on itself. With a great deal of help from its mainstream press, epitomised by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

U.S. forces in Iraq are hunting down and attacking separate Sunni and Shiite gangs that exult in killing Americans. Justice and U.S. interests demand nothing less. But the upsurge in fighting and casualties is being cited by normally cool heads in President Bush's own party as reason to consider delaying the scheduled June 30 transfer of political power and responsibility to an interim Iraqi authority. … The date for a formal end to U.S. occupation should be carved in stone and honored. ... Sadr and his few thousand armed thugs can be rendered politically insignificant over the long run. … Ayatollahs and Iraqi civil authorities should be pushing the investigation of Sadr's role in the murder of a rival cleric. ... This zone of rebellion has not yet accepted that it has lost the war against U.S. forces and with it the right to pillage and brutalize the rest of the country at will. more...

U.S. Stopped in Falluja

Invasion Forces Lose Two Cities to al-Sadr

Rumsfeld Denies Everything

Bloody turmoil reigned in Iraq on Friday, the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall, with Sunni and Shi'ite rebels battling U.S.-led forces and holding three Japanese and several other foreign hostages. Fierce fighting that has convulsed the Sunni cities of Falluja and Ramadi reached the western fringe of Baghdad, where insurgents killed nine in an attack on a U.S. fuel convoy, and said they had seized four Italians and two Americans.

A Reuters journalist saw two captive foreigners in a mosque in a village in the Abu Ghraib district. One was wounded in the shoulder. Both men were weeping. At the scene of the convoy attack, a dead foreigner lay on the road with a bloody head as an Iraqi beat him. Teenage fighters with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles lurked on bridges or in derelict lots near the main highway leading west toward the embattled town of Falluja.

Iraq's U.S administrator Paul Bremer said U.S. forces had unilaterally suspended operations in Falluja at midday after a crackdown on guerrillas to allow aid in and what would be unprecedented talks with insurgents. more...

Us and Them or...

...Confession and Violence

Admitting ourselves to ourselves


Confession by Domenic Ali [massurrealism.com]

Yes you who must lose everything that you cannot control | It begins with your family, but soon it comes round to your soul | Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned | When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Yule's at it again. Quoting Foucault after being caught posting dirty pictures by her principal, she tries to evade her guilt with some nifty footwork, spills the beans, comes up squeaky clean and contributes to the downfall of civilisation as we know it. Well, why wouldn't she? She's obviously as guilty as all hell. For the lowdown, read C'mon, confess!

Understand this: whatever is translated into discourse is instrumentalised as social control. It is not the case that chatter about your sexuality or your neuroses or your deepest darkest secrets makes society a freer place. It instead makes it a more fully explored, more discursive place, which in turn contributes to mechanisms of control. People and their exposures are turning into social maps, we're less multi-dimensional and increasingly flattened into a one-dimensional discursive space. more...

Yule's entry meshes with much of that which has been preoccupying me of late; our global inertia in the face of an increasing indifference to violence on a scale never seen before. I appended the following comment to Yule's post.

In a dollar-driven world, "...the obligation to confess" has become decentralized, naturalized and monetized. The individual's confession now condemns him or her to conform to financially coercive models of sexual expression, modes of warfare, styles of politics, business, etc.

There is also a tension and correlation between ubiquitous information classes, something I tried to illustrate in my most recent entry (see below). Through our media, we perpetuate 'acceptable' social models of sex, entertainment, and warfare. Witness politically correct 'activism'. Beneath a thin veneer of verbiage held in a frigid dynamic tension, i.e. Victoria's Secret, HappyTreeFriends, and politically correct activism, violence against women, children and peoples runs out of control.

Our confessions are Kafkaesque. The more we divulge, the more we compound the problem. “Are you too fat? Yes? That's okay, we have a diet program that will really screw you over and label you a slob for life.” Caught in a media friendly, confessional lifestyle that makes money for others, we cannot counter the actions of those to whom we give our power. Because they will squash us like bugs. Witness the continuing description of mercenaries as 'civilians'. Those flocking to the mainstream confessional (the media) are most at risk.

Yet, not all is lost. Confession can be creatively couched, and used to counter its own abuse. It is, as Father Christopher taught me, always good to confess, but it is infinitely better to keep some in reserve.

No matter how we try to frame blogging as a counter to coercive social models, it adds greatly to the power of dominant social instruments. It is only by kicking back or rebelling creatively that we can, to use Yule's word, liberate ourselves. By the same token, I'd argue that confession has a place, be it religious or otherwise. Often, relinquishing control to social instruments is not only necessary, but desirable. The bugger is, as ever, finding balance.

When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon | Don't turn on the light, you can read their address by the moon | And it won't make me jealous if I learn that they've sweetened your night | We weren't lovers like that, and besides it would still be alright | We weren't lovers like that, and besides it would still be alright.

Leonard Cohen | Sisters of Mercy

Helping Bob...

...uncover Victoria's Secret

A Blogger's History of the Iraqi Occupation

The foreign sun, it squints upon | A bed that is never mine | As friends and other strangers | From their fates try to resign | Leaving men wholly, totally free | To do anything they wish to do but die | And there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden

Note: The Victoria's Secret site at www.victoriassecret.com apparently blows browsers not supporting Java. I'm not surprised. The Happy Tree Friends site at www.happytreefriends.com is Flash but does not open in IE6. Actually, it does... all the more fun for the kids.

In light of the unacceptable statement about the death of Americans made by Daily Kos, we have removed the link to this blog from our website. As John Kerry said in a statement earlier this week, "My deepest sympathies are with the families of those lost today. Americans know that all who serve in Iraq – soldier and civilian alike – do so in an effort to build a better future for Iraqis. These horrific attacks remind us of the viciousness of the enemies of Iraq's future. United in sadness, we are also united in our resolve that these enemies will not prevail.

John Kerry President

Okay, so what? I've visited aggregator-type blogs of the type I so roundly disparaged in an earlier post... it's not as though I've been hanging around convents ogling 13-year olds. Yeah, I know, it's almost as bad but, what the hell, American politics is so sick and depraved, I just had to sneak a peek. I'm no pervert, but I am intrigued by the resurgent Cult of The Personality, you understand. Yule and Joel have been discussing our latest cult, that of Jesus Next Door. The subject is fascinating but, for my part, I found a host of Web sites dedicated not just to Our Lord Over The Fence, but to my personal lord and saviour Bob Dylan of Hibbing, Minnesota.

I am, of course, aware that Mr. Dylan is a person of a conventional type, a flesh-and-bone job packaged inside a fast-aging bag of skin. Others, however, appear to lack my discernment. There is a welter of sites out there detailing what Mr. Dylan does, eats, thinks, wears, and plays at and between concerts.

It's decidedly weird. Have people nothing better to do?

But this is beside the point. Iraq, Afghanistan and the world are burning in anticipation of the Saviour portrayed by Jim Caviezel in that film to which I refuse to subject myself. But fuck him, this is about me. Bearing the suffering of Christ and my fellow man as I would the weight of a cross, I surfed over to the John Kerry President blog where, with ostentatious ceremony and an accompanying blog entry, the John Kerry President blog people self-righteously, indignantly and stupidly de-linked Daily Kos. They did so because Kos stated sometime last week that he felt little sympathy for dead mercenaries who, in the hours before their deaths, earned $1,000 a day killing people they did not know. This is what Kos said:

Every death should be on the front page... That said, I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

Daily Kos

In the smoky light of events at Fallujah last week, I found myself sympathizing with Kos's feelings and his explication of them so, while conducting preliminary investigations into whether the Victoria's Secret site constitutes a suitable home for my friend Mr. Dylan, I toddled on over for a look at what President JFK had to say. He is, after all and like Kos, rumoured to have a personality around which a cult might one day be built.

Okay, first, the title of the John Kerry President blog. I agree, it's beyond comment or contempt. John Kerry President. Enough said. It's pathetic. Secondly, consider the brain-dead hack and amateur propagandist generating the vacuous, dull-as-ditchwater copy populating the site. Well, you know what JFK II looks like. Pretty similar to the dead one, eh? His scribe's style suits the nominee in that it is tepid, murky, and lifeless. To take it seriously is to need a shrink or a strong shot of something. Indeed, such meaningless sites tend to be extremely popular in the United States. Most Americans are not surprised by this. I doubt most Iraqis would be either, but their lack of surprise would surely be based on a very different perception of those who avidly snap up such tripe.

Do you know, these two-line link farms get hundreds of comments and tens of thousands of visitors? Read the comments and you'll wish you'd never made your blog public. God, what inane fucking drivel. And just think of it. These people could visit you any day. You will never sleep soundly again. Should you carry an advertiser and say anything controversial, you're in for a mega-blast of mindless twaddle. Flee... move to Africa. Here we say what we believe. Bush and Ariel Sharon are accepted as war criminals in this neck of the woods and there's bugger-all the USMC can do about it. Not unless they want to be toast by lunch. We call it democracy.

Damn, where's this Victoria's Secret site, now? I think it's just www.victoriassecret.com. Ah, that's it.

So far, al-Sadr has refrained from calling on his supporters to join the armed resistance, but many here are predicting that closing down the newspaper – a nonviolent means of resisting the occupation – was just the push he needed. But then, recruiting for the resistance has always been a specialty of the presidential envoy to Iraq...

Naomi Klein | Bremer has destroyed my country

I ask you again. Have these link-farmers and their battery chicken commenters nothing better to do? Should they not be pondering the significance of Sunday's outburst of anger by Muqtada al-Sadr's predominantly Shi'ite supporters? Buoyed by the killing of a couple of dollar-rich, gun-toting zombies by Sunni guerrillas in Fallujah, Sunday proved one of the Iraqi resistance's most successful days to date. Many Americans died. A couple of Salvadorans too. The Spanish were hammered and the Italians took a beating. Spring suffuses the desert air and it is evident in the jaunty step of every Iraqi today. But the Italians weren't too phased. Schumacher and Barrichello made it another one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

God, these girls on this site look good. Yeah. Dead Americans. What more could anybody want? Okay, shuddup, that's mean... Israel will eventually get what's coming to it. I must say, I approve of the lingerie section at Victoria's Secret. The girls are all poised but none lose their naked sensuousness and overt sexuality. Their lingerie says, "Take me off and take me" in one hot, sultry breath. When it comes to lingerie, I like middle-of-the-road coverage. On a woman, I hasten to add. It leaves enough to the imagination, but is austere enough to drive one mad.

I think Bob will be happy at Victoria's Secret. Mind you, at 63, Bob should be more than happy with whatever he can get.

The carnage in Sadr City and further afield (far to the south, the Governor of Basra's office has fallen to al-Sadr's al-Mahdi militia) was always on the cards, and Naomi Klein called it the day before the great insurgency. She saw its arrival in the banning by Occupation Forces of an al-Sadr supporting weekly and the arrest of aide Mustafa al-Yacoubi on charges of murdering a returning invasion-force cleric. Mugged in a mosque, he was chopped up in a manner seen only on Happy Tree Friends. I guess Klein also saw it in Bremer's appointment of a new intelligence chief, who immediately displayed his lack of any qualifying attributes by retaining his boss. And she saw it coming in

"...a wave of anti-American rage so intense that it now extends not only to US troops, occupation officials and their contractors but also to foreign journalists, aid workers, their translators and pretty much anyone else associated with the Americans."

Yeah, chew on that one. I wonder why? Mind you, anybody but the Americans can see these things. Just the other day, after the mercenary grill, I predicted the arrival of the cavalry. Today, some 1,200 Marines and two battalions of Iraqi security personnel are poised to enter Fallujah. The fool Bremer's declared al-Sadr an outlaw, American tanks have been squashing Iraqis in Baghdad, and Apache helicopters are hitting police stations and government buildings occupied by al-Sadr supporters.

Actually, on TV it all looks rather good. It reminds me of the mid-80s in South Africa. Watching crowds of AK-wielding zealots always stirs the armchair warrior in me. In the context of the violence confronting them, these Iraqi resistance fighters epitomize Democracy in Action. The Yanks say "Yes" with big guns; and Iraqis say "No" with big bombs. I prefer hyenas myself but, either way, it's a win-win situation. Blackwater Democracy has arrived. Like Victoria's Secret. Gad, imagine coming home to a couple of these after a hard day on the battlefield. Bremer should pack his bags tonight and catch the early morning flight to Tel Aviv; leaving the troops behind to be slaughtered, of course. Democracy must, when all is said, done, signed, sealed and delivered by June 30, be sustainable.

Ah well, let's just see how it goes, as they say. I'm busy on the underwear or 'intimate wear' side at the moment. Jeez, these people have imagination. You get thongs and briefs and panties and all sorts of things. I wouldn't mind being an outlaw of the al-Sadr variety if these girls formed part of the package. Their garments leave little to the imagination but, hey, who the hell cares? These girls can drive my car any day. Were Dylan to sing Love Sick to any one of them, I can't see him getting to the final line; that quavering profession of undying love that betrays every denial going before. Mind you, fuck him... I'll sing the song.

Why do the Iraqis hate Americans? Need you ask? Okay, part of the answer lies in the Daily Kos—John Kerry President dynamic. In his weak-kneed, lily-livered capitulation to his Democrat overlords, Kos offers insight into his standpoint on mercenaries (you surely didn't expect him to stand his ground, did you?):

"Unlike the vast majority of people in this country, I actually grew up in a war zone. I witnessed communist guerrillas execute students accused of being government collaborators. I was 8 years old, and I remember stepping over a dead body, warm blood flowing from a fresh wound. Dodging bullets while at market. I lived in the midst of hate the likes of which most of you will never understand (Clinton and Bush hatred is nothing compared to that generated when people kill each other for politics or race or nationality). There's no way I could ever describe the ways this experience colours my worldview."

No, there isn't, Kos, but full marks for trying. These people will never learn.

It doesn't matter. You expose the limp-dick psyche of the button-down Yank with no brains and bugger-all balls who uses one hand to shake a fist at detractors and the other to fiddle about in his trousers. They're all a bunch of wankers. Give up on them or you will go insane. You can avoid your fate if you join me in the "Angels" section of Victoria's Secret. These chicks are hot. It's a pity so many have their heads trimmed at the top or their feet lopped off, but I guess it prevents people like RageBoy nicking their pictures. Mind you, looking at the blonde girl third from the left, I reckon RageBoy would get straight down to pinching her knickers. Maybe this advertising gig is not such a bad idea for Bob, after all. It'll certainly keep him up and about a while longer.

As for you Kos, you scum, you campaign for Kerry which, I'm afraid, puts you in a category far removed from healthy red-blooded males such as RageBoy, Bob Dylan and Me. By blogging for the Dead Kennedy, you campaign for Bush. They are two of a kind, and it does not bode well for our global future. Perhaps your childhood... Nah. I'm saving the swimsuit section for last. I've no idea why swim suits are always left till last because these bras... well, the models in them, are stunning. Note that I am blogging in the living room here, and my hands are, unlike the average American voter, not down the front of my jeans.

My sex life is healthy and my interest in these girls is purely academic, of an aesthetic nature as it were, and in the creative interests of one of America's greatest artists, living or dead. Who knows? Whether he's living or dead, that is? Well, it doesn't matter, as long as he still churns out the music. Hmm... the blonde one again... what is it about blondes? Where are her nipples?

Hey, they've airbrushed nipples on Victoria's Secret. I want what I've paid for. This is fucking censorship.

John Kerry President (let's just call him President, eh?) sees things differently to you, Kos. He spells it out: "Americans know that all who serve in Iraq – soldier and civilian alike – do so in an effort to build a better future for Iraqis." Heh... I can just imagine those 1,500 South African mercenaries... well, actually, no I can't. They're there to kill for fun and profit. So, Kos, first, you're not an American; secondly, Americans dig mercenaries and, thirdly, the others don't count. I could have told you that a long time ago, but would you have listened to me? No? That's right; you had to learn the hard way. You get Americans and you get the others. And the others don't matter. For politicians to grasp truths they have to be simple, even if that means they're no longer truths. The short version, Kos, is that nobody cares and you're one of the others.

There's a site here by a guy who paints the nipples back in. Hang on a sec...

Anyway, Kos, now you've been censored by your candidate's blog in much the same way Bush's bum boy closed down Muqtada al-Sadr's lowly tabloid and this blonde girl's had her nipples removed. John Kerry President don't love you no mo'. He digs mercenaries because, although they cost a shitload of your money, they save soldiers' lives and his cadaverous white political skin. To President (just like George W. Bush), you are nobody and I really wonder why you think otherwise. At just 30 years of age, the Ayatollah of the Baghdad slums knows these things all too well and he acts on them. Mind you, I see Victoria's Secret is offering an Iraqi Special. A night with seventy-two of these girls in return for a small favour. Hmm... I wonder if Bob has anything to do with this. It was, after all, he who sang (on Saved), "Terrorize your enemy, God will reward you well for what pleases him."

Give up on this link-and-paste stuff, Kos. There is no future in it. Besides, Billmon has it covered over at Whiskey Bar. He spells 'whiskey' correctly, is not campaigning for anybody, and can be relatively straightforward when expressing himself. Join me. We have important things to attend to. Bob is onto a good thing here and we can find him suitable advertising partners. I have the vineyards to check out next and I don't drink.

No, I'm not Muslim. I'm a good Catholic boy and will be severely punished for my sins, transgressions and lascivious thoughts. Hmm... Lascivious Thoughts. That'd make a nice name for chocolate-coated peanuts or something. Like Whispers.

Jesus, these swimsuits are stunning... heh. Yeah. Why pay so much...? Well, it's always fascinated me... Why do women always pay so much more for less? Unlike President, Kos, I'm not complaining here... I like it. I mean, the girl without the top is too much. Look, this is getting vaguely pornographic (it kinda reminds me of politics). I need to spend some quality time with my wife right now and I forgive you your slimy return to the hovel of that painted hyena John Kerry President. As far as I'm concerned, you can go back to blogging on your site as you see fit. I wouldn't want to tell you how to run your blog. That's your John Kerry's job.

I'll just turn on Time Out of Mind and...

By the way, do you two-line linkers have a sex life? Does your John Kerry have one? I mean, we know about George W. Bush and Big Dick, but that's not really sex, is it? Agh, don't worry, just get the hell out... My wife's looking at the swim suits and…

Oh-oh, yeah...

God, life might be tough, but you need not feel too sorry for me. I am, after all, a hard man and a blogger to boot. Now, I'm just slipping out of here for a second or two…

At dawn my lover comes to me | And tells me of her dreams | With no attempts to shovel the glimpse | Into the ditch of what each one means | At times I think there are no words | But these to tell what's true | And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden

Bob Dylan | Gates of Eden

Notes

• South Africa, which will celebrate 10 years of freedom from apartheid in two weeks' time, has a history of violence. An excellent review by David Neiwert of the events detailed above, sans the search for Victoria's Secret, led me to reflect on my own country's recent past. Graphics of people killed by bombs and the notorious necklace method hide, as does much the truth on the Web, behind the pleasing facades presented by our models from Bob's new studio. They are not for the squeamish and need not be viewed at all. It is their presence, lost in the bullshit, that is important to this blog entry.
  
• David's article, Bringing it On (from Mark Woods), raised a curious anomaly. Some ten years after the last of some 700 individuals were stabbed, beaten and then killed by having petrol-doused tyres hung around their necks set aflame, South Africans are aware of the purpose of ritual in such mob murders. Born of a frustration engendered by the institutional violence of whites who viewed black South Africans as barbarous and savage, many of these murders served as a cathartic outlet for an anger that burnt with a white heat. Most white South Africans have yet to realise the role they played in the deaths of so many unfortunates.
  
• In her paper on 'necklacing', The Ritual of the Necklace, Joanna Ball cites one of the first necklacing cases, that of KwaNobuhle councillor Tamsanqa Kinikini. One of the most haunting photographs of that period of our history is, unfortunately, a photograph of the body of his son, Silumko, whom I have never forgotten. Most of Mr. Kinikini's family died in the furnace of South Africa's townships during the 1980s.
  
• The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSV) remains a remarkable repository of articles and papers giving a better understanding of violence to those affected by it.
  
• Thanks to Kos, Billmon and David Neiwert for exposing much of the hypocrisy surrounding the hysteria generated by and exploited after the Fallujah 'necklacings'; and to Kos for participating in this blog entry, albeit unknowingly.

Slate carry some very good articles. Tangled Up In Boobs is... well, not one of them. Nor does AdAge.com's Bob Garfield get it in his article, Why Bob Dylan's Ligerie Ad is All Wrong. Although Bob can't stop chuckling ("Oh yeah, I've been singing those songs all my life, man"), I'm told some of the girls—who show a far greater appreciation of Dylan's all-round prowess than do young Stevenson and Garfield, are extremely upset. If you'll excuse me, I must go comfort them.

Bob Dylan's Venice Shoot Fiasco

Victoria's Secret Safe for Now

"There's no way to tell by the first kiss," snarls jilted songster


Mr. Dylan's Venice shoot was not a success...

I'm walking through streets that are dead | Walking, walking with you in my head | My feet are so tired, my brain is so wired | And the clouds are weeping...

A mustachioed Mr. Dylan, 62 years old, appears in a new television ad for the sexy chain's "Angels" line while models cavort to a remixed version of his 1997 song "Love Sick." Mr. Dylan spent two days on a shoot in Venice after Victoria's Secret approached his label, Sony's Columbia Records. The TV spot debuted this week during "American Idol" on News Corp.'s Fox, and is expected to air on various channels for about three weeks, according to Mr. Razek. The commercial, created in-house, may return in the fall, he adds. Wall Street Journal

Did I hear someone tell a lie? | Did I hear someone's distant cry? | I spoke like a child; you destroyed me with a smile | While I was sleeping...

The 63-year-old singer has joined forces with an Italian vineyard to produce a new red wine which will be called "Planet Waves" — the name of his 1974 album. ... He had already called one of his wines after a Dylan song — "Visions of Joanna" from the "Blonde on Blonde" album. It won top prize at Italy's Slow Food festival in 2001. ... "A mysteriously Dylan-esque encounter between the severity of Montepuliano and the softness of Merlot," is how wine producer Antonio Terni describes the Dylan vintage, produced in the Marches region of Italy's Adriatic coast. AFP

I'm sick of love but I'm in the thick of it | This kind of love I'm so sick of it...

Bob Dylan | Love Sick

Note For Bob according to Bob, the Los Angeles Times' offers Robert Hillburn's Rock's Enigmatic Poet Opens a Long-Private Door. Link from Expecting Rain

SPCA launches Nigerian branch...

...rescues negligent bloggers' pets

All donations gratefully accepted


Mrs. Abacha was distraught...

Following reports of animal neglect by negligent bloggers, mobile units of the Nigerian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) confiscated several malnourished animals belonging to bloggers living in an upmarket suburb of Lagos.

"We're shocked," said a distraught Mrs. Miriam Abacha, widow of Nigeria's former disgraced leader. "I have a large family to keep and no way of realising my assets. It makes it extraordinarily difficult to put food on the table and we can no longer keep our animals in the manner to which they have grown accustomed. How can they do this to us?" Mrs. Abacha's sentiments were echoed by the weeping widow of former Zairian strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko. "Our pets mean everything to us. We love them dearly and appeal to the international community for help. To feed our animals appropriately, we need to liquidate assets held illegally by that madman Obasanjo. Anybody fronting for us, and who makes a small deposit into our joint account at the Tropicana Bank, stands to make US$25,000,000 in hard cash; or crack cocaine if they so choose."

The grieving widows have asked interested parties to contact respected Nigerian financier and banker, Mr. Mohamed Habib, manager of the Tropicana Bank in Lagos. Those using Blogger, Movable Type, Type Pad, or any hosted blogging tools should receive an e-mail providing further instructions in the near future.

Nigerian Daily Post

Note Link via Boing Boing, David Weinberger, and Yule Heibel. There's a hell of a lot more to these pictures than meets the eye. Yule and Joel, who made a trenchant comment on Yule's site, have set me to thinking... More later.

Remember Mogadishu...

...as Resistance Dismembers Dogs of War

Military and media mercenaries pose threat to Fallujah


Blackwater USA 13 : Iraqi Resistance 4

"Blackwater USA is comprised of five companies; Blackwater Training Center, Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, Blackwater Canine, and Blackwater Air (AWS). We have established a global presence and provide training and tactical solutions for the 21st century. Our clients include federal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Transportation, local and state entities from around the country, multi-national corporations, and friendly nations from all over the globe. We customize and execute solutions for our clients to help keep them at the level of readiness required to meet today's law enforcement, homeland security, and defense challenges.

Gary Jackson President Blackwater USA

Having learnt nothing from making themselves a mockery and their country the global laughing stock, the ink-stained knuckleheads of the shit-brained U.S. press are at it again. Spewing lies as freely as a drunken teenager vomits his alcoholic excesses, press reports have it that four American civilians, working for a security company charged with delivering food to suffering Iraqis, were "butchered" in Fallujah by crazed "criminals" behaving in a "dreadful", "unacceptable", and "bestial" manner. This dastardly act, we are told, will not go unpunished.

How exactly are people generally described by a snot-brained press as being no better than shark shit, supposed to behave? Iraqi resistance fighters kill four highly paid mercenaries from a private, up-market Norfolk-based killing outfit on a dollar-rich gore fest and, as is tradition, barbecue and dismember the buggers. Suddenly, after months of hiding the fact that tens of thousands of freelance murderers specializing in mayhem and carnage of a general nature are doing the Halliburton-sponsored U.S. military's job while it hides behind 15-foot slabs of concrete (donated by Blackwater), the bottom-feeders of the mainstream media would have the world believe the lid has blown off Hell.

Forget it.

My concern is the residents of Fallujah. It's a hot spot. The high-caliber, heavily armed retards (remember the military advisers in South-east Asia) doing duty for the U.S. military, including some 1,000 South African mercenaries who face prosecution should they be nabbed by our inept police force on their return, are costing the U.S. taxpayer dearly. That they cost the average Iraqi, blown to bloodied chunks of meat on a daily basis, even more appears to phase nobody. Will the bombing of Fallujah, following the Vietnamese pattern, make headlines? It must surely be on the cards. The U.S., which couldn't give a damn about the disemboweling of four yobboes who kill for fun and profit, obviously want to use these deaths for something.

Are we to see the razing of the city that is home to many who cry, far more convincingly than the pathetic U.S. warlord George W. Bush, "Bring 'em on"? I think so. However, for every Iraqi combatant killed as he or she righteously tries to turn the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq into a crushing defeat for the U.S., hundreds of civilians stand to be slaughtered by the overwhelming firepower of a grotesque, dollar-driven war-machine run amok.

Will they die, their screams muted by the thunder of an inferno unleashed by bombs capable of shading any nightmare, for nothing? Probably. Through sanctions designed to bring Iraq to its knees and its oil to the West, U.S. and British business interests claiming parliamentary privilege killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over 12 years. Nobody cared. Why, I ask, should they start caring now? Americans, as we all know, avert their eyes. If they opened them to the carnage wrought in their name in the decades following WWII, they'd not perpetuate a horror that turns the stomachs of all those who make a stab at being civilized.

The world's only hope is that the ongoing illegal occupation of Iraq will reinforce and widen Middle Eastern and global resistance to it, turning the bloodbath there into an unimaginable world-wide hell from which U.S. citizens can no longer hide. For now though, the score remains Blackwater USA 13 : Iraqi Resistance 4 and war remains good business.

Ask Gary Jackson.

For that matter, ask the likes of Ariel Sharon, whose hold on office is contingent on ongoing violence in Palestine and whose hawks, in 97 / 98, were apparently not averse to flogging the "...Phalcon airborne early warning and control system, the Python air-combat missile, and the F-10 fighter aircraft, containing 'state-of-the-art U.S. electronics...'" to China.

Yeah, how do Palestinian paramilitaries, starved of everything from antibiotics to loaves of bread, acquire an increasingly large and sophisticated weapons stockpile? Simple. It's something we in Africa learned a long time ago. Markets are conversations, but some people converse in bad faith. Guilty of it ourselves, we dare not discriminate.


Blackwater: A full-spectrum solutions provider meeting today's defense challenges...

Blackwater Security Consulting ... a strategic division of Blackwater USA ... has historically provided a spectrum of support to military, government agencies, law enforcement and civilian entities in training, targets and range operations as a solution provider. Blackwater Security Consulting has it roots in the Special Operations community and continues to sustain the skills that have been acquired over the years as effective tools [supporting] both national and commercial objectives. Our staff has a wealth of ... experience worldwide and is renowned for dealing with high-risk situations and complex operations. Our mission is to provide the client with veteran military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals with demonstrated field operations performance.... We employ only the most highly motivated and professional operators, all drawn from various U.S. and international Special Operations Forces, Intelligence and Law Enforcement organizations. ... With a growing base of satisfied customers, we will continue to enhance our reputation of responsiveness, professionalism, and excellence. We stand ready to offer this exceptional and talented group of men and women to assist you in meeting organizational requirements.

And, yuh, after business-language classes, we deliver bread and democracy to the poor...

April 7, 2004

American fighter aircraft slammed a Hell Fire missile and a laser-guided precision bomb into the mosque in Fallujah - a Sunni Muslim stronghold west of Baghdad - after three US marines were wounded by rebel fire.

"We want to kill the people inside," said Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan Byrne, adding there were as many as 40 rebels holed up in the building. more...

Ah well, there we go then: as predictable as all hell.

Live at Honeymoon Lake

World Music from Whidbey Island

Honeymoon Lake, Whidbey Island, Puget Sound.

And if you listen now | You might hear | A new sound coming in | As an old one disappears | See the world in just one grain of sand | You better take a closer look | Don't let it slip right thru your hand | Won't you please hear the call | The world says | Put the message in the box | Put the box into the car | Drive the car around the world | Until you get heard...

Guarding the entrance to Puget Sound in Washington's Pacific Northwest, Whidbey Island conjures up images of a long-forgotten past, a continent not yet settled or broken, and fragmented whispers of Skagit occupation blowing off the Juan de Fuca Straits into Admiralty Inlet. Not knowing the place at all, I distil it to every National Geographic image of Washington and Oregon I have seen; a vast moss-and-lichen covered area of forests, lakes, bays, mountains, inlets, peaks, coves, and promontories sheltering an abundance of elk, deer, salmon, herons and hawks.

It probably looks like New York.

But I wouldn't know that so when, a couple of weeks ago, I caught up with Gordon Coale, guest Jean Mann, and friends at Gordy's place on Honeymoon Lake, I did so in a place coloured by my imagination. For me, it was 05:00 Tuesday morning and my feet were rooted to the Cape Town earth. However, for most spending the hour with us, it was Monday evening and they trooped in from all over, from Virginia to Alaska and several places between. We'd gathered for an hour of music, courtesy of TestingTesting and guests, and music is what we got. Hell, I know as much about the music as I do the place, so I'm not going to categorise it, but if you've ever lost yourself inside a folk club where the band's bringing the roof down with guitars and mandolins and fiddles and stuff, you'll know the type I mean. It ranges from the rootin' tootin' to high-and-low and soft-and-slow, from pop to rock to ballads from long ago.

Or at least that's what it seemed like to me at 05:00 on a Tuesday morning in Cape Town, South Africa. The whole experience was strange and the Internet took a sharp turn to meaning for me. Here I was, swapping chit-chat with a group of people brought together by a guy I've known a couple of years (through blogging) as easily and naturally as a bunch of lifelong friends idling away a pleasant evening at a local pub. The eerie part of it was that the music being lent wings among the lakes and trees of Whidbey was circling the globe, transcending time, space, and any sense of separation. As Jean sang, her voice tracked a sun simultaneously setting on the Pacific Northwest and rising on the shores of Africa and the South Atlantic.

Gordon Coale's weblog is a staple on the Web. His outlook is global and his views and assessment of current events tend to match mine to a degree where I feel comfortable knowing he's able to keep me sane and honest. In other words, he's much like many on my blogroll. Whatever the merits of the TestingTesting real-time Webcast's use of Net technologies, it was the music that got me. It offers another side of the Whidbey blogger and it's a side we'd all do well to nurture; that spontaneously creative side of our selves that knows little but fun and laughter.

Listening to the band, Joe Duemer's recent concerns about wealth surfaced. I mean, Gordon and his buddies live a world removed from the horrors of Third World terror (yes, terror, you know it not) in one of the Earth's most beautiful places. The pictures I've ripped off Gordon and reduced to fit this entry don't do them justice. The image of the lake [top] is a 0.5MB panorama of remarkable beauty. They have no concerns, eh? No worries? No problems? Well, I don't know about that. Everybody has personal problems but, yes, it's true, Gordon Coale and his friends are extremely fortunate to live on Whidbey Island in the middle of Puget Sound. Yet, despite that good fortune, here they were, sharing this 'stuff', this gentle laughter and their beautiful music, with the world. They don't have to or need to. They do so because they want to and choose to. They take what they make (and that is what they have) and they give it to anybody who cares to drop in for a listen. Look, one doesn't get the globe dropping into your living room but, damn it, it's as near as you can get to with a decent machine and a DSL line.

Here I was, on a grumpy Tuesday morning, transformed to thinking "Ah, fuck it, I'll get in late today. I'm taking part in this. It's way more important than earning a living." And, yes, I had a smile on my face all the time I wasn't tapping at the keyboard. That's the kind of vibe these guys generate. It's special.

And I guess it answered Joe Duemer's question for me. It's not what you have, but what you're prepared to do with it that matters. Sharing, especially for writers and artists (musical or otherwise), can be difficult. It's a personal thing. But, as Joe gives, so do these guys. They spread a little bit of Whidbey around the world. And that matters; whoever's listening.

There are others like them, running stations out of home studios stuck in the frozen wastes of the Alaskan and Canadian badlands (do they have Badlands?). Which is why, later on that day, I got to thinking. Where was everybody else? Why not several dozen participating listeners? Why not more? Are there really gazillions of home-based Internet radio stations offering live music out there? Do broadband bloggers from Asia to the Middle East to Africa and Europe and Scandinavia tune in to these things on a regular basis? Have I been living in the dark so long? Don't answer that, smartass; you know what I mean. Or are people so jaded that they can't muster the effort to tune in come broadcast time?

I dunno. Perhaps 'joining hands across the world' is not your scene. Heh... it's not mine either. Officially. But this is very different. I like to think most either don't have access (locally, only Net junkies or the wealthy can justify broadband costs to themselves) or don't know that Gordy Coale and his friends invite anybody and everybody to join them for an hour of easy listening and gentle chit-chat every second Monday at 19:00 local time. The next TestingTesting show with Amaranth airs on April 5.

Do yourself a favor...


The reg'lar crowd shuffles in... join us.

Note As the man says above his blog, quoting a Brazilian folk song: "If you dream alone, it's just a dream. If you dream together, it's reality." You can pick up on the archived show I caught a couple of weeks back (or others) at the TestingTesting site.

The World says | Give a little bit | Give a little bit of your love to me | Cos I'm waiting right here with my open arms | Give a little bit | Give a little bit of your soul to me | Cos I'm waiting to behold your many charms | Is that love in the air? | She says | Until you get heard | Until you get heard | Until you get heard | Until you get heard...

World Party | Put the Message in the Box