Who also said that "comedy, like sodomy is an unnatural act."Monday, 2 November 2009
“The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.” (Marty Feldman)
Who also said that "comedy, like sodomy is an unnatural act."
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Volcano Choir - Island, IS
The mighty Justin Vernon strikes again!
(And what a fugn brilliant video!)
(And what a fugn brilliant video!)
Abdullah Says He Is Withdrawing From Afghan Election
Abdullah Abdullah, the chief rival to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, announced on Sunday that he would not participate in the Nov. 7 runoff election, but he stopped short of calling on his supporters to boycott the balloting,
Concern over fate of star student who spoke out to Khamenei
It was near the end of a meeting Wednesday between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a group of university students when the man who is Iran's highest political and spiritual authority asked if there were any other questions. He spotted a young man in the corner with his hand raised and called on him, asking him to go to the podium to speak through the public address system.
What followed was an extraordinarily candid 20-minute speech by the student, later identified as national math Olympiad winner Mahmoud Vahidnia, in which he publicly and explicitly criticized Khamenei for the government's conduct in the unrest that followed Iran's June 12 elections.
Vahidnia, a first-year student of mathematics at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University, spoke without notes.
He criticized the violence against protesters during the election. He said Khamenei lived in a bubble, unaware of the sentiments against his rule. He critiqued what he described as Iran's "cycle of power" in which entrenched elites in institutions such as the Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts exert what he described as a stranglehold over the nation's political life.
He criticized state broadcasting and the media, saying their unwillingness to criticize Khamenei deepened Iran's divisions.
“Does the state broadcasting really reflect the realities of the country and the whole world, or does it draw an unrealistic caricature of the world?" he said. "Does state broadcasting permit diverse opinions?"
He said he had never seen anyone publicly criticize Khamenei in the media."I think if they let criticism against you get published, then simple problems are not overplayed and will not lead to schism and division and hatred," he said, according to reformist websites which recounted the exchange, but also Khamenei's own website (in Farsi).
"When a simple criticism cannot find an environment to be expressed, then gradually it gets tainted with ill intentions," he said.
Sporadic applause punctuated his speech. A live broadcast of the event on television was shut down. A moderator interrupted, saying time was up. Somebody else interjected, addressing Vahidnia. "If criticism were not allowed, you would not be criticizing," he said.
But Khamenei insisted on replying. Though he acknowledged that he appointed the head of state broadcasting, he said it didn't always do what he wanted. He, too, had complaints about the conduct of state broadcasting.
"We have never said not to criticize us," he said. "We have no objection. We welcome criticism.There are lots criticism against me. We take in the criticism, and we understand the criticism.”
Reformist websites said Vahidnia was harassed by security forces at the meeting as the event ended, and many fear that he has been locked up.
@'LA Times'
Sporadic applause punctuated his speech. A live broadcast of the event on television was shut down. A moderator interrupted, saying time was up. Somebody else interjected, addressing Vahidnia. "If criticism were not allowed, you would not be criticizing," he said.
But Khamenei insisted on replying. Though he acknowledged that he appointed the head of state broadcasting, he said it didn't always do what he wanted. He, too, had complaints about the conduct of state broadcasting.
"We have never said not to criticize us," he said. "We have no objection. We welcome criticism.There are lots criticism against me. We take in the criticism, and we understand the criticism.”
Reformist websites said Vahidnia was harassed by security forces at the meeting as the event ended, and many fear that he has been locked up.
@'LA Times'
Meanhile not so long ago...
The Tories were today forced to deny that a video clip purporting to show a long-haired party-goer at a 1988 outdoor rave was the party leader David Cameron. The purple-tinted video, set to a hypnotic acid house rave track, shows a man bearing a striking similarity to Cameron with shoulder-length hair and wearing dungarees. The video, called 'Acid House Sunrise 1988 Part 4', has surfaced on YouTube and has been picked up by political blogger Guido Fawkes.
Held during the so-called second Summer of Love in 1988, the long-haired man appears to be joining in the fun at the outdoor event. Tory blogger Guido Fawkes, aka Paul Staines, was Head of PR for the 1988-89 rave party planners, Sunrise. It was Fawkes who received the emails sent by Brown's special advisor Damian McBride about slurs on top Tories which led to McBride's sacking. Posting on his blog, Guido asks his readers to decide for themselves whether the man in the clip really is the Tory leader and Old Etonian. Alongside stills from the video, he says: 'This has been building up for a few weeks and now Guido is getting calls from Dead Tree Press diarists, it is probably time to bring it out into the open. 'Is this a picture of a long-haired 22 year-old David Cameron? 'The pictures are taken from a video of a Sunrise Party held in the summer of 1988. You decide… ' However a Tory press spokesperson 'categorically' denied that the man in the clip was Cameron. Raves, fuelled by dance music, boomed during the late 1980s and were infamous for the widespread use Ecstasy. The all-night parties, frequently illegal, were held at secret locations in warehouses or in fields. In 2007, it was revealed that Cameron narrowly avoided being expelled from Eton after being named by a fellow pupil as a cannabis user. Cameron repeatedly refused to answer questions during his successful Tory leadership campaign on whether or not he had taken drugs. And he has stuck by his insistence that all politicians are entitled to a 'private past' and should not be required to reveal everything of their lives before they enter politics.
Ministers face rebellion over UK drug tsar's sacking
The government was at the centre of a furious backlash from leading scientists last night following its sacking of Britain's top drugs adviser.The decision by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, to call on Professor David Nutt to resign as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has thrown the future of the respected independent body into severe doubt. There were claims last night that many of those who sit on the 31-strong council – which advises ministers on what evidence there is of harm caused by drugs – may resign en masse, raising serious doubts about how ministers will justify policy decisions.
Several were this weekend seeking urgent reassurances from the government that it will not try to control their agenda and will allow them to speak out before they decide whether to quit. One is said to have already resigned.
The government's decision to dismiss Nutt came after he wrote a paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) at King's College London that questioned the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from illegal drugs.
Nutt told the Observer he had received hundreds of messages of support and had been contacted by several members of the council. "I actually think it might be an untenable position," Nutt said of the chairmanship. "I can't believe that any independent-minded scientists would want to take it on. People will think, if you can't speak your mind and be honest about what you think, why take on the job? It might be that the council becomes unviable."
He said he had not approached members of the council – who include police officers and social services professionals as well as medical experts – but about a third had already contacted him.
"All the ones that have contacted me are considering their positions," he said. "There is uniform support, uniform horror at what happened. We have been abused by government, misused by government."
Nutt accused the former home secretary, Jacqui Smith, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. He said Smith's decision to reclassify cannabis meant she had fallen victim to a "skunk scare", and in another dig at the government claimed that advocates of downgrading ecstasy from class A to class B had "won the intellectual argument".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, Nutt was also fiercely critical of Gordon Brown's role in shaping drugs policy. "He is the first prime minister... that has ever in the history of the Misuse of Drugs Act gone against the advice of its scientific panel," he said.
Now that Helloweenie is over, you are ALL going to hell!
Fifi's yard"I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference."
@'Charisma'
(Thanx to RB)
(Thanx to RB)
Pastaklubben - Asperger, (Phantom Channel 2009)
Pastaklubben is an exquisite corpse of music. A joyful depression. A vivid tranquility and a painful pleasure. Formed in Copenhagen in 2007, these 4 young Cyber-Punks, armed with an array of effects units, guitars and laptops have a penchant for creating live and improvised dark, emotional and atmospheric sounds.
In a constant flux of development, no two Pastaklubben performances are ever cloned. ‘Asperger’, recorded in just one take, paints a fascinating, futuristic world, mirroring that of Ridley Scott’s bleak, dystopian vision of Los Angeles, in his outstanding Bladerunner motion picture.
A dizzying amalgam of pitch-black ambience, dismembered electronics and static-drenched, particle-sized beats, ‘Asperger’ is a must for fans of Murcof, Autechre and, of course the Vangelis score that so enhanced Scott’s film. ‘Asperger’ is spacious yet claustrophobic, an alchemy of contradictions, much like its creators. Please listen to the uncut, uncensored facts.
More web releases from Phantom Channel
HERE
In a constant flux of development, no two Pastaklubben performances are ever cloned. ‘Asperger’, recorded in just one take, paints a fascinating, futuristic world, mirroring that of Ridley Scott’s bleak, dystopian vision of Los Angeles, in his outstanding Bladerunner motion picture.
A dizzying amalgam of pitch-black ambience, dismembered electronics and static-drenched, particle-sized beats, ‘Asperger’ is a must for fans of Murcof, Autechre and, of course the Vangelis score that so enhanced Scott’s film. ‘Asperger’ is spacious yet claustrophobic, an alchemy of contradictions, much like its creators. Please listen to the uncut, uncensored facts.
More web releases from Phantom Channel
HERE
Antiwar Activists Reawaken as Obama Weighs Afghanistan Strategy
Sitting in the front row at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, directly in sight of committee Chairman John Kerry, two women discreetly held up two pink cardboard signs that read "U.S. War = Terrorism" and "Drone Attacks Kill Civilians." The women, Toby Blome and Martha Hubert, are part of Code Pink, a nationwide antiwar group that formed in 2002. They were quietly protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as former CIA agent Robert Grenier testified that a significant increase in troops is required to fend off al-Qaida in the latter country. Since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, Code Pink protesters had been a common, often colorful, presence on Capitol Hill.
Abdullah to make run-off decision
President Hamid Karzai's rival in the second round of the Afghan presidential poll says he will announce on Sunday whether he intends to quit the race.Dr Abdullah Abdullah called for the resignation of key election officials and others as a way to mitigate fraud and corruption in the vote.
But those demands were rejected earlier in the week in talks with Mr Karzai.
A senior adviser said that in talks on Friday, Mr Abdullah's team decided he should not take part in the poll.
But Mr Adbullah's campaign said on Saturday that no final decision had been made, and that the former foreign minister would announce his next move on Sunday.
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul says that if he withdraws it will raise serious questions about the credibility of the election.
However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said a runoff with only one candidate would not necessarily threaten the legitimacy of the process.
"We see that happen in our own country where, for whatever combination of reasons, one of the candidates decides not to go forward," Mrs Clinton told reporters in the United Arab Emirates.
@'BBC'
US warily leans to new Iran sanctions over nukes
Frustrated by Iran's continued defiance of demands to come clean on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is leaning toward imposing new sanctions, even it must act alone.Administration officials acknowledged growing concern that there may not be international consensus to expand the existing U.N. sanctions, despite Tehran's apparent rejection of a confidence-building measure proposed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog in hopes of making progress on the nuclear issue.
To that end, the administration is quietly supporting legislation in Congress that would give President Barack Obama a broad new array of authority to target Iran's energy sector by penalizing foreign firms that sell and ship refined petroleum products to Iran. The regime is heavily dependent on gasoline, kerosene and propane imports.
The legislation would also allow the administration to go after insurance and reinsurance concerns that cover oil tankers and their cargo. And the U.S. could also target companies that provide Iran with covert technology used to crack down on protesters and democracy advocates as it did during demonstrations this summer after a disputed national election.
U.S. officials took a neutral public stance on the legislation when it cleared two key congressional panels this week. They were anxious not to endanger ongoing negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Tehran over a deal that would see most of Iran's low enriched uranium shipped out of the country for reprocessing, handicapping its ability to use the uranium for weapons instead of energy.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview with CNN on Friday that the administration wants to let the negotiating process "play out."
But White House press secretary Robert Gibbs expressed limited patience with Iraq. "The president's time is not unlimited," he said when asked whether it was time to pursue tougher sanctions.
And privately, officials said they welcomed approval of the bills by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration planning.
"We have to be prepared to act and we are not going to let this drag out forever," said one administration official.
@'Antiwar'
"We have to be prepared to act and we are not going to let this drag out forever," said one administration official.
@'Antiwar'
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