Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fugitifying ...
....is a new word coined by Mr. Eric Gordy over at East of Ethnia to define the action whereby a government or an interested party is actively engaged in protecting a citizen by launching him/her into that plastic existential time/space characterization of being a "fugitive". I think the Fugees were referring to non-criminal fugitives when they sang about the refugee process and were not considering Mr. Karadzic in their songbook.
In this post, he links to today's various launch points into the continuing psycho melodrama of Radovan Karadzic and his "fugitifying".
In this post, he links to today's various launch points into the continuing psycho melodrama of Radovan Karadzic and his "fugitifying".
Labels: Humans
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
War Crime Poetry
A short piece from the New Yorker regarding Radovan Karadzic's poetry. A short bite: "Like many megalomaniacs, Karadzic fancied himself a poet. (In the mid-seventies, he took a few poetry classes at Columbia University while studying psychiatry.) Infuriatingly, Karadzic managed to release a new book of verse, a novel, and a play while living underground. "
Within this piece is a link to an abstract written by Jay Surdukowski in 2005, suggesting that "Is Poetry a War Crime? Reckoning for Radovan Karadzic the Poet Warrior". In lawyerese, Mr. Surdowski "suggests in particular that the materials at least have evidentiary value in the mens rea determination for genocide, the most significant crime Karadzic has been indicted for and the offense that has been branded the "ultimate crime." "
Wait until the poets start critiquing his poetry!? Then, we'll hear about the crimes to language and the needless death of trees.
For those with patience and a high threshold for seething, here are three of his poems.
An excerpt from one of them, Sarajevo:
"The town burns like a piece of incense
In the smoke rumbles our consciousness.
Empty suits slide down the town.
Red is the stone that dies, built into a house. The Plague!"
Why bother with a trial? Resuscitate old wounds to have him rub sea salt into?
Labels: People
Radovan 24/7
Mr. Eric Gordy, on his East of Ethnia site, is your source for Radovan Karadžić related information, bent to make it even more interesting while staying within the playing field of truth. In this link, he provides info regarding Mr.
An excerpt, revealing the defense strategy: "Karadzic's lawyer in Serbia, Svetozar Vujacic, said his client was in good mental and physical condition. He was not talking to investigators, but "defending himself with silence."
"He is going to have a legal team in Serbia but he will be defending himself (without a lawyer) during his trial at The Hague," Vujacic told Reuters.
"He is convinced that with the help of God he will win.""
This "God" guy Mr. Vujavic is referring to is not the same God we've heard about over here, is it?
Here's Eric's report on the mysterious doings of Radovan Karadžić's other self, Dragan David Dabić. An excerpt, "He did not appear to make a strong impression on his neighbours in Novi Beograd, who if they remember him as well remember him as quiet and polite with a dress sense that was unusual, what Californians might describe as "elegant casual." " These killer despots....always imitating/insulting the California life-style.
Another excellent 24/7 Radovan Karadžić is Finding Karadzic. He provides links to the secret Radovan Karadžić. Karadžić's presence on the Internet is rather spooky, aside from casting even a deeper pall on the alternative health maintenance industry. Check out his Ten Favorite Chinese Proverbs at the bottom of this site. This guy's ego knows no bounds.
Labels: People
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The 'Do is Done
Radovan Karadžić , the noted poet/psychologist/ex-government head/alleged ethnic cleanser/champion hide-'n-seeker has been outed, caught, and whisked away. Poets and psychologists world-wide can now exhale knowing that the truly Bad Boy of their profession will be marched to Th Hague where, at the least, he will be forced to relinquish any ties he had with psychiatry and poetry. A short trip through a photo gallery shows that he has been busy inventing another hairstyle while tucked away somewhere in Serbia. Interesting to note that Mr. Karadžić not only has not lost any of his famous hair but has actually quadrupled its quantity. The black streak running through the top of his pompadour was certainly purposeful so as to not confuse him with Mr. Kaczynski's famous 'do. It is still a mystery as to whether judges or barbers will sit in on judgment of Mr. Karadžić's innumerable charges against humanity and cosmetology.So, here's the newest visitor to The Hague at a "medical" conference.
n.b.: Tip of the Hat to Eric over at East Ethnia, who clued me into the last link, from the BBC. His entry on Mr. Karadžić is worth reading as his sly wit is noted vis-a-vis the Belgrade Transportation System.
Labels: People
No! Not me! (PLEASE, not me!)
My behaviour recently, that is, the critique of my recent behaviour has been such that it required a singular word to capture its full effect. Based on words spoken to me, it seems this mot juste, doryphore, might just do the trick. No excuses are offered. No explanations of circumstances possibly causing this "Colorado beetle" like behaviour will be given. Either would serve only to provide the fuel for the commenting fire.My own conclusion of this (hopefully short-timed) phenomenon is that being the passenger in a car v. being the driver causes personality changes (hopefully short-termed) that encourages the left side (or is it the right side) of my brain to fully engage its critiquing ability. Though no harm is intended, it seems my quest for efficiency, especially in others, is only successful in making a listener reach a level of displeasure and offense rapidly. Although my (perceived) aim is true, my targets would appreciate more misses than hits. It's an awful thing, this act of being a questing prig. I mean, you'd want the brain surgeon sawing into your skull to be a doryphore while he/she were poking up there in your hippocampus (no matter how small it had gotten. Funny. If you had asked me which part of your brain did get smaller due to this, I would have said, "Oh, yeah that college campus part". But, you didn't ask, so I'll just return to where I had left off...). But after the operation, I doubt you'd want to be confined to a bed and have to deal with the nit-picking medical genius, pointing out all of the errors of your way of living.
I will strive to minimize my role of auto passenger and thus, hopefully, decrease my innate doryphore. I'm way too old to try to change this; I'm at the age where self-suppression works best. That, or carry a large sock o' horse manure to insert in my mouth whenever I get an urge to point out deficiencies.
Perhaps, If everybody did their job, I'd be less cantankerously picky.
See more funny videos at Funny or Die
Labels: People, Self-Therapy
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Cover
There have been enough comments, editorials, denials, espousals, and babies and bath water thrown out regarding the New Yorker cover. I won't throw my own two cents into the overflowing fountain of copper coinage. But, I would like to express some displeasure with The New Yorker.
Personally, I love Mr. Blitt's cover commentary. This cover was hilarious, as was this one, this one, and, well, this one, especially. In this week's New Yorker blog entry by the estimable Hendrik Hertzberg, it's noted that "The target (of the cover) was the grotesque pack of lies about the Obamas that have been widely disseminated, not only by the marginal right-wing Web sites and the sicko viral e-mail campaigns but also by such nominally respectable outfits as Fox News."
I have two issues with the New Yorker. The first would be the the usage by Mr. Hertzberg, a writer whose New Yorker pieces always seem to be well thought out and presented, of the words "respectable outfit" in conjunction with "Fox News". At first I thought he was being sly about it but a repetitive reading made it clear he was being sincere. I'm not one to pile on Fox News.....o.k. I am. But the point is I expect a nuclear meltdown before I see the words "respectable" and "Fox News" lying close to each other in connubial bliss.
My second issue with The New Yorker is their weekly issue, or the lack of delivery of such within a reasonable time. There it was. The big New Yorker Cover Scandal on Monday morning. Monday evening. Tuesday morning.... I had to go to the New Yorker site to catch a peak when I should have been able to stare at my own issue on Monday morning. What's with The New Yorker delivery process? I could swear I got my issue on Saturday or, at the latest, on Monday. It's not as if I live in the boondocks. There are lawyers, dentists, and doctors living and working on top of each other here in upper Delaware. I mean their offices require the latest New Yorker decorating their client waiting room. These days, I'm lucky if the current week's New Yorker arrives by Wed., usually it's Thursday.
Ever since I started sending my subscription payment out to their office in Denver a few years back, this latter part of the week delivery status has set in. Hey! I want my (paid)controversy to arrive on a more timely basis! Hear me, Mr. Remnick!
n.b.: NYT opinion page from Missoula, Montana worth reading.
Personally, I love Mr. Blitt's cover commentary. This cover was hilarious, as was this one, this one, and, well, this one, especially. In this week's New Yorker blog entry by the estimable Hendrik Hertzberg, it's noted that "The target (of the cover) was the grotesque pack of lies about the Obamas that have been widely disseminated, not only by the marginal right-wing Web sites and the sicko viral e-mail campaigns but also by such nominally respectable outfits as Fox News."
I have two issues with the New Yorker. The first would be the the usage by Mr. Hertzberg, a writer whose New Yorker pieces always seem to be well thought out and presented, of the words "respectable outfit" in conjunction with "Fox News". At first I thought he was being sly about it but a repetitive reading made it clear he was being sincere. I'm not one to pile on Fox News.....o.k. I am. But the point is I expect a nuclear meltdown before I see the words "respectable" and "Fox News" lying close to each other in connubial bliss.
My second issue with The New Yorker is their weekly issue, or the lack of delivery of such within a reasonable time. There it was. The big New Yorker Cover Scandal on Monday morning. Monday evening. Tuesday morning.... I had to go to the New Yorker site to catch a peak when I should have been able to stare at my own issue on Monday morning. What's with The New Yorker delivery process? I could swear I got my issue on Saturday or, at the latest, on Monday. It's not as if I live in the boondocks. There are lawyers, dentists, and doctors living and working on top of each other here in upper Delaware. I mean their offices require the latest New Yorker decorating their client waiting room. These days, I'm lucky if the current week's New Yorker arrives by Wed., usually it's Thursday.
Ever since I started sending my subscription payment out to their office in Denver a few years back, this latter part of the week delivery status has set in. Hey! I want my (paid)controversy to arrive on a more timely basis! Hear me, Mr. Remnick!
n.b.: NYT opinion page from Missoula, Montana worth reading.
Labels: Humans, New Yorker
Friday, July 18, 2008
I, Flathead. I, Love it.
Ry Cooder brings his Cal Trilogy to a close with late June's CD release I, Flathead. The guy's simply amazin'. The first album, 2005's Chavez Ravine, revolved around Mexicans, Los Angeles, Urban Growth, and the victims of the latter. Buddy, a cat and center piece of 2007's My Name is Buddy was another California based background concept album delving into the downtrodden, the homeless, and unions and strikes. Both albums were strong on those folks most affected by politics and least likely to affect politics.In "I, Flathead", Mr. Cooder gets a bit more personal, less global. Some reviews thought this album to be lighter in weight than the preceding two reflecting that a lighter touch is a less affecting one. I beg to differ. This is simply another strong outing with songs that will stay with you long after you leave your car. And this CD is a Car CD, meant to be played loud while wasting expensive gasoline. Mr. Cooder has taken the price of gas into the song equations. The 14 songs are short, dense, and sweet. Averaging 3:47 minutes, that's about 3 3/4 miles of traveling while doing 60 mph. Four songs, maximum five should be enough to get you to most of your daily excursions.
Personal favorites are "Waitin' for Some Girl"
I was robbed I was framed
What ever happens now ain't no fault of mine
I got Born I got blamed
Guess I should have read that detour sign
I took off I hid out
Jesus promised me he'd show me a sign
Take your little world and shove it up you're askin' me buddy I'm tellin' you friend
You ain't gonna pin that rap on me this time
'Cause I'm waitin' for some girl to pick me up on her way down
She'll know me in the suspect book in the show-up line in the lost and found.."
to pick me up on her way down. A great loser's clip.
Mr. Cooder, as the Singer/salt flats racer Kash Buk, is excellent in "Drive Like I Never Been Hurt" and "5000 Country Music Songs".
As Mr. Buk writes in the liner notes, "Get in the vehicle and play this damn thing looud and drive, where to I don't much care".
Two versions are available, CD with very short story and lyrics or DELUXE edition with a novella (that would fill in holes in the lyrics where supposition trumps intention). As is usual, Nonesuch's production, design and enclosures are excellent, save for two segments in "Waitin' for Some Girl" that sound as if the CD is skipping. Otherwise, like all Nonesuch releases, it just seems this company is incapable of producing a dud.
Reviews have been mixed. I found The Independent's take on the album closest to my own. The Guardian quipped that "It's a classy album, but by Cooder's standards it sounds just a little too effortless." A bit snarky, I thought. The Rolling Stone's David Fricke saw I, Flathead as the movie score of a film not yet existing.
Labels: Reviews, Road Trips
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Dubious Coverage
I was putzing around the I'net and came to this site, which offers radio station information. WVUD, the University of Delaware station, has a 1,000 Watt signal. Not very strong; we've been trying to get a stronger signal to allow the fine shows to at least make it down to the beach areas of Delaware. But approval has been slow, i.e., not forth-coming. As a point of comparison, UPenn's radio station WXPN (it's a funny private sort of thing that seems to be a for profit enterprise) broadcasts at 5,000 Watts and WHYY, the Mother of all Public Radio Stations in the Philly Metro area booms out at 13,500 Watts.
The picture here (a Tip of the Hat to Radio Locator) notes the coverage WVUD supposedly has. As I work in the outer southern reaches of that coverage, I can attest that WVUD never gets down there. Perhaps, if all of the other radio stations broadcasting in the are were to go dead, 'VUD might be heard on some super-receiver. But your regular car radio? Nada.
The reason I wanted to post this picture is to point out the coverage "rings". The red is for local coverage. The purple is for distant coverage while the blue is for fringe. This must be the theoretical coverage. Realistically, you can barely hear 'VUD past the red circle. Crackliness hits soon after. If you're in the "fringe", forget it. You'd need a boiling imagination and a copious amount of (prescribed, of course) drugs to "hear" anything from WVUD.
What interests me about the coverage "rings" is that they are not more circular. In fact, on the western and northern areas of the "rings", the circle caves in as if might radio forces are hitting those flanks, preventing the non-profit dj-run shows from "invading" the pre-programmed humungous stations' space. It's not as if there are huge mountains in that part of Delaware of Pennsylvania holding back the soundwaves form our dinky station. We are but a flea in the radio market around here
Labels: WVUD 91.3
Monday, July 14, 2008
Packing Packer
The witch is (metaphorically) dead!
Billy Packer, the CBS analyst who put a whole new spin on what it means to be a homer will not be heard during next year's NCAA B'Ball tournament. Looks like a lot of folks are still incredulous. Is this some cruel joke on CBS' part to attract attention to one of the only sports must-sees that that station still has? Billy Packer, the guy who never saw a bad ACC team, will take his act somewhere else.
Yes, yes there is a TV God somewhere.
Billy Packer, the CBS analyst who put a whole new spin on what it means to be a homer will not be heard during next year's NCAA B'Ball tournament. Looks like a lot of folks are still incredulous. Is this some cruel joke on CBS' part to attract attention to one of the only sports must-sees that that station still has? Billy Packer, the guy who never saw a bad ACC team, will take his act somewhere else.
Yes, yes there is a TV God somewhere.
Labels: Effluvia, The Sporting Thing
Friday, July 11, 2008
Oprah/The Bible. Which to Follow?
Well,
If you're looking to latch onto someone God-like in these days lacking in persons to admire, I guess you can't be too far off if you follow the Tao of Oprah. Seems, a certain "Lo" decided to hitch her fame and her (she hopes) fortune to Oprah's shirt tails. "Lo", a 35-year-old actress, writer, and yoga teacher, is trying to do everything Oprah recommends for a whole year.
Hmmmmm.
Sound Familiar? It should. Last year, A.J Jacobs hit the book-pedaling circuit to foist off his tome, The Year of Living Biblically. Now Mr. Jacobs, aside from being quite the funny guy, is also a fairly well-respected writer. His earlier book, The Know it All, came out in 2005 to quite good reviews. I've got The Year of Living Biblically on the To Read list. I'll admit that I've never read the Bible, not even one Book of... (insert any name here). My limited knowledge of the Bible is completely strained from other folks' interpretation of the Good Book. I feel a bit ashamed as I've assumed most of the Earth's goodnesses and ills have to do with the interpretation or mis-interpretation of the Good Book. So, I feel I should be directly familiar withe the source of all of our human doings, but......
To date, my most favorite interpretation of the Old Testament is that rendered by the paternal character, ex-boxer Reuben Shapiro , in Mordecai Richler's semi-autobiographical "Joshua, Then and Now". In the film version, the father is portrayed by the most excellent Alan Arkin, whose scene-stealing in the film should have landed him doing life in cinematic Sing Sing. I FF to his bits on the dvd every once in a while just for some insight and humour on the Book, a better combo of understanding I cannot comprehend.
So,
1) Two thumbs and two big toes up for both the book and movie version of Joshua, Then and Now.
2) On anticipatory yelp for A.J Jacobs' "The Year of Living Biblically"
3) Curiosity for "Lo"'s Lesser Goddess Oprah following.
On a tangental point, check out (what most of you folks have probably heard already) this hilarious bit from a 2004 This American Life show entitled God & Hockey. It's about the NY Rangers, Saturday, and an Orthodox Jew/Rangers fan.
N.B.: The link to Lo comes courtesy of The BookSlut.
If you're looking to latch onto someone God-like in these days lacking in persons to admire, I guess you can't be too far off if you follow the Tao of Oprah. Seems, a certain "Lo" decided to hitch her fame and her (she hopes) fortune to Oprah's shirt tails. "Lo", a 35-year-old actress, writer, and yoga teacher, is trying to do everything Oprah recommends for a whole year.
Hmmmmm.
Sound Familiar? It should. Last year, A.J Jacobs hit the book-pedaling circuit to foist off his tome, The Year of Living Biblically. Now Mr. Jacobs, aside from being quite the funny guy, is also a fairly well-respected writer. His earlier book, The Know it All, came out in 2005 to quite good reviews. I've got The Year of Living Biblically on the To Read list. I'll admit that I've never read the Bible, not even one Book of... (insert any name here). My limited knowledge of the Bible is completely strained from other folks' interpretation of the Good Book. I feel a bit ashamed as I've assumed most of the Earth's goodnesses and ills have to do with the interpretation or mis-interpretation of the Good Book. So, I feel I should be directly familiar withe the source of all of our human doings, but......
To date, my most favorite interpretation of the Old Testament is that rendered by the paternal character, ex-boxer Reuben Shapiro , in Mordecai Richler's semi-autobiographical "Joshua, Then and Now". In the film version, the father is portrayed by the most excellent Alan Arkin, whose scene-stealing in the film should have landed him doing life in cinematic Sing Sing. I FF to his bits on the dvd every once in a while just for some insight and humour on the Book, a better combo of understanding I cannot comprehend.
So,
1) Two thumbs and two big toes up for both the book and movie version of Joshua, Then and Now.
2) On anticipatory yelp for A.J Jacobs' "The Year of Living Biblically"
3) Curiosity for "Lo"'s Lesser Goddess Oprah following.
On a tangental point, check out (what most of you folks have probably heard already) this hilarious bit from a 2004 This American Life show entitled God & Hockey. It's about the NY Rangers, Saturday, and an Orthodox Jew/Rangers fan.
N.B.: The link to Lo comes courtesy of The BookSlut.
Labels: Reviews
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Token Pictures
Slow day here, so some pix of the pooch are laid out here. Click on any of them for larger views. Aside from walking him, oh, about once every 10 minutes, 24/7, he is quite an enjoyable addition. Don't know if 
it's his ears, his widdle tongue, or his ability to hop straight up on all fours while maintaining a four-feet-on-the-floor stance, but his total package invites instant conversation in our little neighborhood. 
I always considered myself a "cat person" (NB: I never chewed anyone's ear about that), but Barko's opening up new personalities I must have unknowingly kept under wraps.Labels: Barko
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Why we're different.
Aside from naming our last letter "Z" rather than "Zed" (rhyming with Ned as in Beatty), other more important differences distinguish us from our neighbours to the north (like using the "ou" where, here, an "o" will do).
Nationalized Health Care will most probably stay up north and not wander down below the 49th parallel. The life expectancy of 80.3 years up north v. our 77.8 years will stay up there as well. Child mortality of 6.4 per 1,000 live births will also stay with us as opposed to the lower 4.6 per thousand up in the cold country.
Value Added Tax (VAT), a national sales tax currently at 5%, is, thankfully, still only used up North. An aside here, the phrase for the combination of the VAT and the provincial tax is Harmonized Sales Tax. You've got to admit that the Canadian legislation has a sense of humour. Harmonized, indeed.
Today, as per Whisky Prajer's entry, British Columbia kicked in the provincial carbon tax. While I have no argument with the science of global warming, I do have one with the legislator/global warming combination. There's a stink to this type of nebulous taxing that reminds me of the argument in New Jersey for casino tax as supporting its senior citizens. The accounting of these benefits is murky, at best. And, if you are as I am, seeing and touching is certainly not believing. The Atlantic City of today does not carry over the verve, prosperity, and enjoyment of my youth. What was magical is now miserable.
So, hopefully the fog of the carbon tax will not become a reality here in the States. When (or should I say "If") the carbon tax issue is made clear, both in purpose and execution, I'll be first in line to hand over the extra money. 'Til then, let's see how it works out North of the Border.
Now, about that national health care thing.... How about we give that a whirl down here? It would be nice to gain those additional 2.5 years of life that the Canadians are enjoying right now.
Nationalized Health Care will most probably stay up north and not wander down below the 49th parallel. The life expectancy of 80.3 years up north v. our 77.8 years will stay up there as well. Child mortality of 6.4 per 1,000 live births will also stay with us as opposed to the lower 4.6 per thousand up in the cold country.
Value Added Tax (VAT), a national sales tax currently at 5%, is, thankfully, still only used up North. An aside here, the phrase for the combination of the VAT and the provincial tax is Harmonized Sales Tax. You've got to admit that the Canadian legislation has a sense of humour. Harmonized, indeed.
Today, as per Whisky Prajer's entry, British Columbia kicked in the provincial carbon tax. While I have no argument with the science of global warming, I do have one with the legislator/global warming combination. There's a stink to this type of nebulous taxing that reminds me of the argument in New Jersey for casino tax as supporting its senior citizens. The accounting of these benefits is murky, at best. And, if you are as I am, seeing and touching is certainly not believing. The Atlantic City of today does not carry over the verve, prosperity, and enjoyment of my youth. What was magical is now miserable.
So, hopefully the fog of the carbon tax will not become a reality here in the States. When (or should I say "If") the carbon tax issue is made clear, both in purpose and execution, I'll be first in line to hand over the extra money. 'Til then, let's see how it works out North of the Border.
Now, about that national health care thing.... How about we give that a whirl down here? It would be nice to gain those additional 2.5 years of life that the Canadians are enjoying right now.
Labels: Canada
