Sarah Palin -- what a slap in the face to politically active women

Sarah Palin -- what a contemptuously cynical selection -- as cynical as replacing Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas -- a puppet who can be counted on to parrot the party line:

"Hey you Hillary fans -- she's a woman, right? Look, breasts, vulva -- what more do you want? So what if she's against a woman's right to choose? So what if she's obsessive about drilling in ANWR and everywhere else? So what if her "reform" of the oil laws and "opposition to big oil" was no more than a demand that the state of Alaska gets a bigger piece of the oil pie, increasing taxes on the companies drilling in the state? SHE'S A WOMAN so what more do you bitches want?"

I always thought the worst of the Karl Roving of McCain in the year 2000, the most vicious and egregious slander was that he was brave and all but the torture in the POW camp unhinged him and made him really kind of insane .. can't trust his mind any more...

But after months of hearing him speak, hearing reports of his insane short temper, such things as (verified by reporters) calling his wife a "cunt" who was "painted up like a trollop" in front of a group he was addressing... I'm actually starting to think that was the ONE attack that actually had a basis in fact...

Victor Pelevin -- his early books wonderful and each one gets better

In September, Viktor Pelevin's forthcoming novel -- The Secret Book of the Werewolf will be published by Viking in the USA, and having read it a month ago -- and still hearing resonances from it ringing through my mind -- I would be remiss in my duty as a literate human if I should fail to tell any and all -- BUY IT READ IT -- more likely, you'll have to tell your local bookseller to order it.(You'll have to go to more than one publisher, Viking for the new one, also New Directions, Farrar Straus Giroux.

He's probably best know in English translation for the collection of short pieces collectively titled The Werewolf Problem in Central Russia, but other books by him -- novels -- are each wonderful in their own ways -- not all about werewolves by any means.

Omon Ra, Buddha's Little Finger, and Homo Zapiens are also able to knock one on one's literary ass -- but none are what you might expect after reading any of the other books. Amazing breadth of mind.

Although there's a subtle theme running through most of what he writes, that our age of overly available information is also one of woefully deficient knowledge.

And oh -- Helmet of Horror:The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur


Here's a list of links to articles about Viktor Pelevin himself and/or a specific book of his in the New York Times

********Oh -- caveat most of his novels have been published in the UK with different titles (i.e. Buddha's Little Finger became The Clay Machine Gun.) --

But no problem if you inadvertently buy one you have or have read under a different title -- give it to someone as a gift -- but make sure you really like that person, because introducing someone to this writer may get you a lifelong friend.
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And oh -- I have no commercial interest in this or any of his books and will not profit from your purchase (except maybe, in the sense of metaphysical satisfaction at having made the world a slightly better and stranger place.
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WOW -- Prez Bush tells Prez Hu that religion is good and he should allow more of it in China

Well aside from being pea-brained and insulting, ("Well, don't take this the wrong way, You-Hu, but you really don't know how to run your own country. You really need some know-nothing to lecture you across the seats at a sporting event.") Bush actually seems to think anyone in the world cares about his opinion -- even as president the weight of his moral authority is somewhat less than that of a popcorn fart.

But ok -- I suggest Bush does something he's never done in his life -- back up his big talk with some substance -- send Pat Robertson, Rev Wildmon, Jimmy Swaggart, et al to live in China, there to bring them the benefits of religion.

Of course Prez Hu has probably seen them via satellite and knows what sleazoid hucksters they are, and probably would deal with it diplomatically. ("Very interesting. Well, let them come here. We have lovely homes set up for them in Tibet.")

George W Bush lecturing the leader of the most populous nation on Earth about social and moral responsibility -- ok, THAT'S Funny.

Scientists closer to invisibility cloak

From Salon.com

Aug 10th, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows...


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---And casting auditions for Porky's 3,843,379 -- Invisible Pee Wee in the Girls' Locker Room -- are ready to begin.

May 4, 2002: 11 microbiologists involved in bioweapons research died within 5 months of 9-11-2001 -- what were the odds?

OK -- so this happened last week

Anthrax suspect dies in apparent suicide

Well, "blame it on the dead guy" is a practice with long-standing provenance, and "apparent suicides" isn't exactly a defining conclusion, more like a traditional practice of some shadow organizations, and now that we hear that Prez Bush "beat up the FBI director to say that the anthrax attacks were the doings of al Qaeda...")

So it brings me back to THIS report from May 2002 -- a report about 11 bioweapons scientists who died suddenly in the months after 9-11-2001.

Scientists' deaths are under the microscope


The Globe and Mail

Saturday, May 4, 2002

ALANNA MITCHELL

It's a tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream up.

Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of bioterrorism.

Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.

The first three died in the space of just over a week in November. Benito Que, 52, was an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke.

Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the mysterious disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola and influenza.

He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge.

Just five days after that, the world-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Valdimir Pasechnik, 64, fell dead. The pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also happened to be associated with Britain's spy agency, concluded he died of a stroke.

Dr. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, played a huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to figure out how to modify cruise missiles to deliver the agents of mass biological destruction.

The next two deaths came four days apart in December. Robert Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans have been charged.

Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic micro-organisms, who worked at the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon, Va.

Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, died at work in Geelong, Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen. Other scientists at the animal diseases facility of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization had just come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of mousepox, which could be modified to affect smallpox.

Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor Korshunov, 56, an expert in intestinal bacteria of children around the world, was bashed over the head near his home in Moscow. Five days later the British microbiologist Ian Langford, 40, was found dead in his home near Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair. He was an expert in environmental risks and disease.

Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San Francisco. Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who moved to the U.S. in 1989, focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine.

She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, 38, who shot her seven times when she opened the door to a pizza delivery. Then he shot himself.

The final two deaths came one day after the other in March. David Wynn-Williams, 55, a respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer space, died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He was hit by a car while he was jogging.

The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known as Dr. Flu for his expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in bioterrorism, died when the airplane he was piloting crashed near Denver.

So what does any of it mean?

"Statistically, what are the chances?" wondered a prominent North American microbiologist reached last night at an international meeting of infectious-disease specialists in Chicago.

Janet Shoemaker, director of public and scientific affairs of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C., pointed out yesterday that there are about 20,000 academic researchers in microbiology in the U.S. Still, not all of these are of the elevated calibre of those recently deceased.

She had a chilling, final thought. When microbiologists die in a lab, there's a way of taking note of the deaths and adding them up. When they die in freakish accidents outside the lab, nobody keeps track.

Suspicious deaths

The sudden and suspicious deaths of 11 of the world's leading microbiologists.

Who they were:

1. Nov. 12, 2001:

Benito Que was said to have been beaten in a Miami parking lot and died later.

2. Nov. 16, 2001:

Don C. Wiley went missing. Was found Dec. 20. Investigators said he got dizzy on a Memphis bridge and fell to his death in a river.

3. Nov. 21, 2001:

Vladimir Pasechnik, former high-level Russian microbiologist who defected in 1989 to the U.K. apparently died from a stroke.

4. Dec. 10, 2001:

Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death in Leesberg, Va. Three Satanists have been arrested.

5. Dec. 14, 2001:

Nguyen Van Set died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia.

6. Feb. 9, 2002:

Victor Korshunov had his head bashed in near his home in Moscow.

7. Feb. 14, 2002:

Ian Langford was found partially naked and wedged under a chair in Norwich, England.

8. 9. Feb. 28, 2002:

San Francisco resident Tanya Holzmayer was killed by a microbiologist colleague, Guyang Huang, who shot her as she took delivery of a pizza and then apparently shot himself.

10. March 24, 2002:

David Wynn-Williams died in a road accident near his home in Cambridge, England.

11. March 25, 2002:

Steven Mostow of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre, killed in a plane he was flying near Denver.


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In the words of Woodward and Bernstein: "Don't be silly -- the PRESIDENT would NEVER be involved in something like THAT!"

Keerist -- he thinks he really IS The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who as a child saw Russian tanks in Austria several years after WWII ended, now imagines he can see a light at the end of the metaphor ... just lay that road to history across the backs of the people who work for the state...

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Schwarzenegger Lays Off 10,000 California Workers to Ease Budget Crisis

Saturday 02 August 2008

by: Dan Glaister, The Guardian UK


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cuts 22,000 state jobs and reduced 200,000 workers to the minimum wage.

Order could reduce pay of 200,000 to federal minimum. Move marks effort to reduce $15bn state budget deficit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, delivered on his threat to lay off thousands of state employees on Thursday when he signed an executive order in an attempt to solve the state's budget crisis.

The move, dismissed by critics as a gesture to force legislators to reach a compromise on how to resolve the state's $15bn budget deficit, left more than 10,000 part-time and temporary employees without work yesterday. The order also reduced the pay of up to 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour, below California's minimum.

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That's his answer?

The son of a Nazi cop figured out how to make the numbers come out right.
He played it that way his daddy played it -- as a thug.

Hey Ahnold -- fuck you -- people aren't numbers -- you said you wanted to "give back" to California, but of course the way YOU want to give back is to turn your movie role as a fucking bully into a reality role as a fucking bully.

That's it?

That's the brilliant plan?

To smash the lives of people who work for the state?

Oh my oh my -- and you think 210,000 pissed off Californians who have been economically fucked-over BY YOU are just going to take it?

You think they're not going to show you how THEY give back --- maybe "payback" is a better word.

The only movie you ever made that was worth pissing on was The Last Action hero in which you found out you're just a man.

You should have paid more attention to that script.

The silly homo-eroticism of the state legislature and senate won't last forever, not when there's an election in around 3 months.
They won't giggle and bend over for you forever.

There's an old saying:

"Beware the asses you kick on the way up ---
They're the same ones you have to lick on the way down."


And that doesn't just mean the Kennedys.

The old song from O Lucky Man says

"When there's a bluebird singing by your windowpane
And the sun shines bright all day through
Don't forget boy, Look over your shoulder
'Cause there's always someone coming after you."

Not me, but watch out for that committee of 210,000.

Times like this, I REALLY wish I could believe ANYTHING our current government says...

Aug 2nd, 2008 | PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A spokesman for a top Taliban official in Pakistan denied Saturday a U.S. media report that al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, may have been critically wounded or killed in a missile strike in recent days.

CBS News reported Friday it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter from unidentified sources in Pakistan which urgently requested a doctor to treat al-Zawahri. The letter was purportedly from Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and said al-Zawahri was in "severe pain" and his "injuries are infected."

Mehsud spokesman Maulvi Umar said, "We deny it categorically."

Pakistan army and intelligence officials also said they had no information that al-Zawahri was hit in a missile strike reported Monday in South Waziristan.

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The problem with Cheney and Bush and Redrum and the rest of the lying sonsofbitches lying lying lying all the time is that when it's "truth be told" time we roll our eyes and shrug our shoulders and ask, whether to oneself or aloud, "Yeah, when's the last time we could actually BELIEVE anything that came from any of their mouths or press releases?"

They're the boys who played wolf too many times.


But if it's true...

Within a week after 9-11, a CIA op said that the only organization in the world that could have pulled off the synchronized horrors of that terrible day was Egyptian Hamas, saying "And I'm including the CIA in that list of organizations that couldn't have done it."

And that al-Zawhiri had been and still WAS Egyptian Hamas.

That Ben Ladn was just a figurehead, that al-Zawhiri was the strategist, the brains of Al-Quaeda, and that if we took out that nasty little bedbug who looked like Joe Pesci with beard and glasses, Ben Ladn could play hero all he wanted, but the ability to do major damage would be gone.

So -- THIS TIME AROUND -- despite everything, I can still hope that the murdering bastards in OUR government are speaking truth and actually took out the actual main man of THEIR murdering bastards.

And even though there's an election coming up and everyone knows this administration manufactures red alerts and good news according to their need, I WANT to believe this time.

My wife says I'm an optimist.