Monday, January 25, 2010

Neon gear at JC Penney


Now it's easier than ever to look like you listen to MGMT without knowing who they are.

If you cannot read it, the shirt says "HELLO MY NAME IS ______ AND I'M A TEXTAHOLIC". Front page of the JC Penney circular. Damn.

This is strongly reminiscent of the "grunge" fashion wave that took the world by storm for a month in 1992. The main differences are that this shit always looked stupid and it never had any basis in anything.

Friday, January 22, 2010

A resounding victory on the way to corporate liberation


Thank mighty fucking Jah that the corporate rights movement has been able to advance past this inhuman hurdle of limiting their spending on political campaigns. If I can give, then why the hell can't they? It's WRONG, just as sure as god punished Haitians for drinking goat blood when they sold themselves to the devil so that France, which was on god's side, would leave them alone.

Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

Corporations have at least the same (and I would like to think more) rights that we do. I say hooray for corporate free speech! Spending money is free speech, obviously.

It's been a hard-fought battle, but finally, corporations are starting to garner their long-overdue rights.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

They need their rights more now than ever. Just look at what these FILTHY ultra-extremist commieliberals would have you believe:

Joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stevens said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings.

Better break out the aluminum foil helmets, boys. Those liberals are coming!

I tell you, I just cannot stand by while these corporations are repressed and silenced by the American people whom they serve so diligently and benevolently.

Onward corporate soldiers!

Some thoughts on Haiti to consider, especially if you deal with idiots


And most of us do. From today's New York Times. Thanks to Nicholas Kristof for another great, thoughtful article on the world outside.

Why is Haiti so poor? Is it because Haitians are dimwitted or incapable of getting their act together?

Haiti isn’t impoverished because the devil got his due; it’s impoverished partly because of debts due. France imposed a huge debt that strangled Haiti. And when foreigners weren’t looting Haiti, its own rulers were.

The greatest predation was the deforestation of Haiti, so that only 2 percent of the country is forested today. Some trees have been — and continue to be — cut by local peasants, but many were destroyed either by foreigners or to pay off debts to foreigners. Last year, I drove across the island of Hispaniola, and it was surreal: You traverse what in places is a Haitian moonscape until you reach the border with the Dominican Republic — and jungle.

Without trees, Haiti lost its topsoil through erosion, crippling agriculture.

To visit Haiti is to know that its problem isn’t its people. They are its treasure — smart, industrious and hospitable — and Haitians tend to be successful in the United States (and everywhere but in Haiti).

Can our billions in aid to Haitians accomplish anything? After all, a Wall Street Journal column argues, “To help Haiti, end foreign aid.”

First, don’t exaggerate how much we give or they get.

Haiti ranks 42nd among poor countries in worldwide aid received per person ($103 in 2008, more than one-quarter of which comes from the United States). David Roodman of the Center for Global Development calculates that in 2008, official American aid to Haiti amounted to 92 cents per American.

The United States gives more to Haiti than any other country. But it ranks 11th in per capita giving. Canadians give five times as much per person as we do.

As for whether aid promotes economic growth, that’s a bitter and unresolved argument. But even the leading critics of aid — William Easterly, a New York University economist, and Dambisa Moyo, a banker turned author — believe in assisting Haiti after the earthquake.

“I think we have a moral imperative,” Ms. Moyo told me. “I do believe the international community should act.”

Likewise, Professor Easterly said: “Of course, I am in favor of aid to Haiti earthquake victims!”

So, is Haiti hopeless? Is Bill O’Reilly right? He said: “Once again, we will do more than anyone else on the planet, and one year from today Haiti will be just as bad as it is right now.”

No, he’s not right. And this is the most pernicious myth of all. In fact, Haiti in recent years has been much better managed under President René Préval and has shown signs of being on the mend.

Far more than most other impoverished countries — particularly those in Africa — Haiti could plausibly turn itself around. It has an excellent geographic location, there are no regional wars, and it could boom if it could just export to the American market.

A report for the United Nations by a prominent British economist, Paul Collier, outlined the best strategy for Haiti: building garment factories. That idea (sweatshops!) may sound horrific to Americans. But it’s a strategy that has worked for other countries, such as Bangladesh, and Haitians in the slums would tell you that their most fervent wish is for jobs. A few dozen major shirt factories could be transformational for Haiti.

So in the coming months as we help Haitians rebuild, let’s dispatch not only aid workers, but also business investors. Haiti desperately needs new schools and hospitals, but also new factories.

And let’s challenge the myth that because Haiti has been poor, it always will be. That kind of self-fulfilling fatalism may be the biggest threat of all to Haiti, the real pact with the devil.

THE SUBLIME PICTURE HAS BEEN TAKEN

Sorry folks. My boy Frank went out to Quakertown last night to get it. All it took was the promise of one pound of "choice doobage" with orange hairs on it. Good thing picture brah had the wherewithal to suggest that Frank "GooglesearchMapquest it."




Unfortunately, we do not have the first two conversations, where picture brah told me that "I do love to smoke" and the second, where he declared to Frank that "If there is one thing in this world I love to do, it's puff nuggets."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

"Sublime Photo Rare, Authentic 1992 - $500 (Quakertown)"


Get in touch with this guy, definitely. I've spoken with him, and he will absolutely trade the photo for a nice quantity of weed. I'm completely serious.

Authentic 5 1/2 x 7 Kodak. I have a Rare authentic photo of Bradley Nowell and Sublime. In the photo is Brad, Eric and Bud of Sublime. They are hanging out in the basement after a show. Brad is looking directly at the camera smiling, sitting on the couch. Bud is taking a nap on the couch behind Brad and Eric is sitting in a chair talking. On the wall behind Brad, written in black majic marker graffitti style is written "SUBLIME". It was taken by a friend of mine who knew them personally. Call for more infromation if needed. 215-536-1273. Must see to believe. Serious inquiries only!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Peer Pressure - "Late Night Special"

Still fucking funny.

Pat Robertson on the Haitian earthquake

Wow, Pat. Just wow.


"True story." Again, wow.

It's funny, but then you realize why he's bringing this up, what he's saying about the Haitian people, how much he hates black people and how utterly indifferent he is to other people suffering.

"Calif. apartments evacuated as cliff crumbles"


Old news, I know, but I've been real fuckin busy the last four weeks. Anyway, I feel bad for these people, cause "apartments" doesn't tend to indicate extreme wealth, and I don't even know what wound up happening with this situation, but let me tell you, I cannot fucking WAIT for this shit to start happening to the rich, stupid fucks who have all their homes and vacation homes on the fucking beach.

It will happen.

They can build all the artificial dunes and walls they want, but there is a threshold above which people simply cannot stop nature.

I have lived by the ocean all my life, and see these shortsighted, arrogant people claim the plots of land closest to the open water for themselves, so that they may construct ostentatious, decadent homes for themselves and deny everyone else access to the water. They destroy so much habitat in this process, and it doesn't matter because they have money and the power that comes with it.

The best part is that they are profoundly stupid, in that they seem to honestly believe that they can keep the water where it is, as though that is where it has always been.

They think that just because they can buy a small parcel of land and that they want it means that they should buy it and they can do whatever they wish with it. It's as though most people don't understand the incredible risks that come with deliberately living so close to something as volatile as an ocean. Truly insane.

Sea Shepherd, twelve days ago

One of the Japanese whaling ships rammed and eventually sank a Sea Shepherd boat:

SYDNEY - The high-tech anti-whaling boat damaged in a collision with a Japanese whaler sank off Antarctica on Friday, but posed no threat to the pristine environment, a conservation group said.

The bow of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Ady Gil was sheared off Wednesday in a collision with a far larger Japanese whaling ship, in the most serious clash in what has become an annual confrontation off the frozen continent.

The whaler, Shonan Maru No. 2, suffered no apparent damage. Both sides blame the other for the collision, which occurred as the Ady Gil harassed the Japanese fleet.

No, it's not the same thing, as the Japanese ships are engaged in poaching. They are not only hunting in violation of international law, but they also do much of their hunting in a whale sanctuary:

Japan kills about 1,200 whales a year in Antarctica under what it says is a scientific program allowed by the International Whaling Commission despite a moratorium on commercial whaling. Critics say the program is a front for illegal whaling, and Sea Shepherd sends ships to Antarctica each season to try to stop the hunt — an effort portrayed on the Animal Planet TV series "Whale Wars."

The whaling is conducted in international waters, but usually within the huge patch of ocean that is designated Australia's maritime rescue zone and that Canberra considers a whale sanctuary.

Also, Sea Shepherd doesn't ram speedboats.

Anyway, here's Rachel Maddow talking about the ramming, and then brings in Bob Barker who seems pretty awesome, especially for an eighty-six year old man:



Damn, Bob! Five million? That's something else. Good for him, good for Sea Shepherd. I hope they sink the Japanese whaling fleet physically and financially. Fuck them.

Sea Shepherd, eleven months ago

Paul Watson is a fucking hero.


People are so concerned with protecting everyone's "rights" and accepting the untouchability of a "traditions" defense that they are afraid to do anything aside from sit around and criticize others who actually do things.

Paul Watson and his crew get things done.

Yes, they ram ships. Yes, they have sunk ships. What do you do when no one will enforce the law?

I support them with no apologies. Paul is man whose courage makes me cry.

We can't even imagine what our world would be like if we had more like him in other situations.