Friday, 1 January 2010
Jack Kerouac's new year resolutions
We're sure Jack Kerouac is celebrating a stupendous New Year's somewhere in the great beyond. In fact, this coming year will mark the forty-first anniversary of the Beat Generation writer's death (due to cirrhosis of the liver, evidence of many a wild earthbound New Year's). While these chunks of wisdom, taken from his Belief and Technique in Modern Prose (or, at least, the style of rapid-fire modern prose he invented and brought down with him), are geared toward writers, they're words to live by in the new decade:
1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside your own house
4. Be in love with your life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in your morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see your exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You're a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
Karl Rove granted divorce in Texas
That would be the 'traditional family values' at work would it?
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters Speaks Out in Support of Gaza Freedom March, Blasts Israeli-Egyptian “Siege” of Gaza
In a Democracy Now!exclusive interview, British musician Roger Waters of the iconic rock band Pink Floyd speaks out about the Gaza Freedom March. “I actually would be very interested to hear what the President of the United States has to say about this nonviolent, democratic demonstration of ordinary people from forty-two countries all over the world,” says Waters. “They feel solidarity with their brothers and sisters, other human beings who are living in conditions that none of us would stand for, for a single second, in any of our countries.”
Well, Roger Waters is also a supporter of the Gaza Freedom March and an outspoken critic of Israel’s separation wall with the West Bank and the underground wall Egypt’s building with Gaza that Ali Abunimah was just talking about.
Democracy Now!’s Miguel Nogueira spoke with Roger Waters this weekend and asked him about Gaza.
- ROGER WATERS: We implore the Egyptian government to allow this peaceful, nonviolent protest at the siege of this country to proceed. I have a feeling they will. This again points to the power, or the potential power, of this demonstration. I think the Egyptian government may find that if they deny this due process of the rights of human beings to peacefully protest when they see a crime being committed, then they will find themselves on very dangerous shifting sands and put into a very difficult position themselves. So this again speaks to the fact that the organizing committee of the Freedom March on Gaza have already achieved—even before they start, they’ve achieved, to some extent, their aim, because this is becoming big news around the world, and it will become bigger and bigger news. And if, as we all hope, they actually make it across the border and they meet with Palestinians, I think it’s hard to imagine what an amazing surge of hope that could engender in the hearts of the Palestinian people who actually meet with them and get to talk to people from the outside, and so on and so forth, and for them to understand that we have not forgotten them. We saw a year ago, when the Israelis invaded and razed Gaza practically to the ground, although I know what happened there, as well as it is possible, because I pay attention, most of the media in the US and in the UK really played it down. Otherwise, if they hadn’t played it down, it seems impossible that the uprising of shock and horror at what was done to the Palestinians in Gaza a year ago would have entirely demanded that the US government and the UK government take action and impose some kind of sanctions on the Israelis, or something, or at least say something, deplore the action, or do something. What actually happened, of course, is that when the Goldstone report came out, they sort of went, “Oh, well, maybe this guy is a bit strange, and we don’t”—you know? There is a huge and unfathomable tendency to want this problem to go away. And this is too difficult for us to deal with, and it would mean us actually confronting our Israeli allies. I actually would be very interested to hear what the President of the United States has to say about this nonviolent, democratic demonstration of ordinary people from forty-two countries all over the world marching into a very uncomfortable place because they feel solidarity with their brothers and sisters, other human beings who are living in conditions that none of us would stand for, for a single second, in any of our countries. So I hope Barack Obama will respond to this, and I hope he makes a statement about it. And I hope he will come out and support this march. And I hope he will come out and say, “Listen, this siege of this country is illegal, and we must support—we must support the law. We must support the rights that human beings have under the law.”
ز آنمیر حسین موسوی: بیانیه شماره ۱۷ موسوی به مناسبت وقایع عاشورا و روزهای پس
Mir Hossein Mousavi has issued his first statement after Sunday’s Ashura demonstrations. Criticizing the brutal confrontation of the Government’s forces with the mourning nation of Iran, Mousavi offers a five-stage resolution.
Mousavi’s stages are 1) the acceptance by the administration, the Parliament. and the judiciary of direct responsibility for recent events, 2) a transparent law for elections that can create public trust, 3) release of political prisoners restoring their dignity and honour, 4) recognition of the freedom of press and media, and 5) confirmation of the people’s right of legal demonstrations.
Without singling out the martyrdom of his nephew on Ashura, Mousavi reiterates that he has no fear of becoming a martyr in the people’s quest for their legitimate religious and political demands. He declares that any order for the execution, murder, or imprisonment of Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi Mousavi, or other prominent reformists will not solve Iran’s problems.
We watch to see if Tehran’s Friday Prayers, led by Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, bring a significant show of support for the regime to follow Wednesday’s rally. Meanwhile Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli has issued a statement on the events of Ashura, expressing his sorrow and concern over violence involving police against protesters. Javadi-Amoli said it was essential that while those who were breaking the law were dealt with, while those were demonstrating peacefully should not
be treated justly.
Afghan suicide bomber invited onto base
The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
A former senior intelligence official says the man was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside the camp. An experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said.
The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The CIA would not confirm the details, and said it was still gathering evidence on the incident.
"It's far too early to draw conclusions about something that happened just yesterday," said spokesman George Little.
A separate U.S. official suggested the bomber may have set off the explosives as he was about to be searched.
The bombing on Wednesday dealt a blow to the tight-knit spy agency. Among those killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. Six more agency personnel were wounded in what was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly even since the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut.
It also was the single deadliest attack for Americans in Afghanistan since eight soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack on a base in the east on Oct. 3...
Rising UK alcohol addiction costs 'could cripple the NHS'
The cost of treating the growing number of people drinking heavily threatens to cripple NHS hospitals, warn experts.If the trend continues the burden will be unsustainable, the Royal College of Physicians and NHS Confederation say.
With a quarter of England's population consuming hazardous amounts, alcohol addiction already costs the NHS more than £2.7 billion a year.
Services need work together to avert a crisis, with the emphasis on prevention, they say in a joint report.
Currently, most of the money is being spent on hospital and ambulance services.
 |  This burden is no longer sustainable  Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians |
Increasing out-of-hospital provision could be more cost effective, it says.
This would include GPs screening and counselling their patients on alcohol misuse.
Trials suggest that brief advice from a GP, or practice nurse, leads to one in eight people reducing their drinking to within sensible levels.
This, says the report, compares well with smoking cessation, where only one in 20 change their behaviour.
Changing the way alcohol-related services are delivered could save hospitals 1,000 bed days and Primary Care Trusts up to £650,000 a year, experts estimate.
Breaking point
Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "The nation's growing addiction to alcohol is putting an immense strain on health services, especially in hospitals, costing the NHS over £2.7 billion each year."
And this sum has doubled in under five years.
"This burden is no longer sustainable," he said.
"The role of the NHS should not just be about treating the consequences of alcohol related-harm but also about active prevention, early intervention, and working in partnership with services in local communities to raise awareness of alcohol-related harm."
Steve Barnett, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: "We hope this report helps to outline the scale of the problems facing the NHS and acts as a warning that if we carry on drinking in the way that we are currently, the bar bill will be paid in worse health and a health system struggling to cope."
A Department of Health spokesperson welcomed the report: "We agree the level of alcohol-related hospital admissions, crime, and deaths are still unacceptable.
"We are now seeing a real will by the NHS for change and improvement in alcohol services.
"Two thirds of PCTs have adopted reducing alcohol-related hospital admissions as a local priority for the first time.
"The department is providing Primary Care Trusts with the support, tools and incentives to deliver alcohol services in their own areas effectively according to local needs."
(Thanx Michael)
LOL!
(Click to enlarge)
They say that Google is yr friend but...
They say that Google is yr friend but...
Hope you had luck!
Not that I condone such behaviour y'unnerstand, but you are free to do whatever you want with yr nostrils!
Not that I condone such behaviour y'unnerstand, but you are free to do whatever you want with yr nostrils!
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