Radiohead - Harry Patch (In memory of)

Henry John "Harry" Patch (17 June 1898 25 July 2009)—known as "the Last Tommy"—was a British supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe and the last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War.Patch was, with Claude Choules, one of the last two surviving British veterans of the First World War, and along with Frank Buckles and John Babcock, one of the last four worldwide. He was, at the age of 111 years, 38 days, the verified third-oldest man in the world, the oldest man in Europe and one of the 70 oldest men ever.

Blackwater Approved Iraqi Payments After Shootings

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Four former Blackwater executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then the company’s president, had approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where Blackwater maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.

Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials...

@'NY Times'

Scotland's Secret Shame

A BBC Panorama Documentary which looks at the sectarian problem's in Scotland (Glasgow in particular) and how the problems are associated with two of the biggest football clubs in the world - Rangers and Celtic.

Produced by Murdoch Rodgers.
Transcript:
HERE
(Painful, painful reading!)

Congrats Murdoch!!!

An investigation into the quality of home care for older people - which led to the brief arrest of its journalist, who went undercover to report the story - was among the winners at a celebration of Scottish TV and film.

At the BAFTA Scotland awards last Saturday night, the News and Current Affairs title went to 'Panorama - Britain's Homecare Scandal', whose reporter, Arifa Farooq was arrested for giving false information about her identity while applying for a job that gave her access to the standards of domiciliary care.

The programme was made by the BBC Scotland Investigations Unit. In the end, the Procurator Fiscal chose not to pursue Farooq, whose efforts led to inquiry being held by the Scottish Parliament into home care contracts.

The producer was Murdoch Rodgers and the assistant producer was ex-Sunday Herald reporter, Liam McDougall.

This is the third year in a row that BBC Scotland has won the News and Current Affairs title at the Scottish BAFTAs.

Disclaimer: Murdoch is my 'brother-in-law'

"Gie him a big kiss frae me sis!"

Morrisey should just have taken Josh Homme's advice and "buttfuck 12 year old dickless boys"!

No one fugn knows indeed!

Gurlz, gurlz, gurlz!

(For Jackiesan!)

Fakir Musafar

Nineteen inches 1959

Chained 1978

Fakir Musafar

Karl Rove's adoptive Father's piercings
@'Boing Boing'

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart (featuring Doleres O'Riordan) - The Sun Does Rise

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart - Becoming More Like God

Morning Yotte!

Alamut

This and especially this may be of interest to you...

Alan Moore on 'Dodgem Logic'

So there's an overtly political thrust to the mag?

To a certain extent. In the second issue I'm doing a piece on anarchy: the practicalities of it, and how it might be made to work without just fucking everything up forever (laughs). I've been reading some stuff about Sortition, which is basically a bit like the old Athenian government by lot. Which strikes me as a way you could still have a government which would not contradict the central anarchist tenet of no leaders. Yes, you need massive constitutional reform, but on the other hand when circumstances are as desperate as they are at the moment, when our political masters are buying mink coats for their swans on expenses, then what is unthinkable, politically, in this day and age?

These are ideas I'm going to be pushing and I suppose there is a political agenda, but it's mainly a humanitarian one...

Alan Moore launches his bi-monthly magazine Dodgem Logic in November, featuring articles and artwork by himself and various other contributors, including Mustard magazine. We spoke to him at his Northampton home.
@'Mustard'

Remember that Alan Moore knows the score...

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, the Drug of the Nation

The Beatnigs - Television (On-U Sound Remix by Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail & Mark Stewart)

(A shout out to the 'Devotional Hooligan' in Bristol!)

On their debut album, this striking San Francisco quintet explodes in a tight and danceable riot of industrial percussion, vocals and tape manipulations. According to an enclosed booklet ("Aural Instruction Manual"), the word "nig" is defined as "a positive acronym...[it] has taken on a universal meaning in describing all oppressed people who have actively taken a stand against those who perpetuate ethnic notions and discriminate on the basis of them." Assailing "Television" (the medium, not the band), poverty and hunger ("Burritos"), the "CIA" and South Africa ("Control"), the Beatnigs cross Devo, Test Dept. and the Dead Kennedys in a brilliant, original coincidence of extremist musical ideas and radical politics. "Television" was subsequently given a pair of head-spinning remixes by Adrian Sherwood, Gary Clail and Mark Stewart and issued on a four-version 12-inch.

Beatnigs leader Michael Franti went on to front the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and then Spearhead in the '90s.
(Ira Robbins - Trouser Press)

Bonus:Audio
The Beatnigs - Television (On-U Sound Remix)

David Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging (The Kenny Everett Video Show)

30-Years On: David Bowie's Lodger Comes In From The Cold
@'The Quietus'

Lord McCluskey calls for drugs to be legalised

One of Scotland’s most senior former judges has called for the legalisation of heroin and other illicit drugs.

Lord McCluskey said government policy had failed to cut the number of drug deaths or level of drug-related crime.

The former solicitor general for Scotland and High Court judge added that he was appalled by the effect that illegal substances were having on Scotland’s communities.

McCluskey, who defended Sir Paul McCartney against drugs charges in 1973, said he believed that heroin should be given to addicts in controlled medical settings to cut off the flow of money to organised crime. “If people are addicted to heroin, give them heroin. I’m not suggesting you sell it at newsagents, but if you were to offer it to addicts in a medically controlled setting, there would be no criminal market,” he said.

McCluskey said treating drugs as a criminal issue was wrong, and they should be regarded as a health problem...

@'The Times'