A MUCKRAKER OTHER

WARNING: No minced words here. İ rake the muck of the 'other', the so-called open-minded side who's preference is to whine and distort reality. If still suckling mom's tit or warped by delusions of polıtıcally correct equality you WİLL be offended by such materıal. Welcome to Reality.





Zimbabwe: Can you spare a dime? Nickel? Anything?!

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I may only have a backpacker's budget but this blackpacker still has more Benjamins than Zimbabwe. According to the country's Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe only has itty-bitty $217 in its gov't account; Yes, as in two hundred and seventeen US dollars.

Hahahahahaha! Damn.... 
Excuse me as I laugh again: Hahahahahaha!

However did President Mugabe fuck up things this atrociously! Bet folks are rethinking 'bout those good ol colonial days right about now.


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
Yeah but I still look good

The importance of dismissing volunteers

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At Lulu.com, the online publisher, there is a forum for volunteers to share their tips - page formatting, uploading steps, marketing, etc - with other users. But this has gone to the heads of some users. You know how full-time firemen tend to get annoyed by die-hard volunteer firemen?
Those who can't, teach; and those who can't do that, diss & moan 
About a handful of these volunteer 'experts' presume themselves bona fide literary critiques because all they do is live online giving their two cents here and there to aspiring writers; and they do it online because real live people don't trouble themselves with them. It matters a great deal who compliments/criticizes you. And, so, when they started at me with toxic messages about my latest book (A Travelleer Other) I had to wonder who these people thought they were? 

Because I know they are not 

  • bestselling authors or
  • 'make-or-break' publishing houses or
  • sought after editors or
  • renown critics or
  • even filthy rich writers
They are merely virtual somebodies which is a backhanded way of saying they are nobodies or, as I like to use my little Latin, personis non grata. Those who can't, teach; and those who can't do that, diss & moan. One opined I wouldn't succeed because the majority of book buyers are white (and then proceeded to impersonate Ebonics). Another griped about my misleading, boring book cover. Still another questioned my motives for travelling altogether. To these self-important volunteers I replied, "Sorry I gave you the impression your two cents matter to me. They don't." Exeunt Stage Right

Anywho, I don't principally write my travel stories (Don't Go To Canuckistan) for Romney's 47% anyway. Hello! 


My new book !!

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Available in ebook next month

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

More 'schwule' than San Francisco

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Germany: where homophilic propaganda is de riguer. You don't have to know German to get the gist of this billboard...and you don't have to have 20/20 vision to suspect the man in the picture would ever reproduce because it's a biological fact of Reality that men cannot bear children. In celebration of National AIDS Day this man has a baby! 

Welcome to modern times. 

Verily, Alice had an easier time making sense of Wonderland. 

Alex Jones outsmarts Piers Morgan

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Piers Morgan is shit. Or, in British parlance, a liddle shyte. He by no means fills the shoes of his predecessor Larry King - how he ever got the job is a wonder! - or even comes close to good interviewing in the same league as Oprah Winfrey, Wm F. Buckley, Jr; Barbara Walters, Tom Snyder, or Ted Koppel. Morgan is not a class act interviewer or warming host and we all know his journalist credibility is atrocious. 
Alex Jones loudly gives Morgan a big dose of cura te ipsum
Piers Morgan is a smarmy, clever twat whose English accent, let's face it, still rings high-brow and charming to foreign ears -- until you get beyond the accent and hear how stupid and priggish he really is. But as clever as he is he wasn't clever enough for radio host Alex Jones.

Alex Jones loudly gives Morgan a big dose of cura te ipsum and does not fall for the T.V. host's tricks of manipulative banter and slippery slope factoids. 
Click the following link to see it for yourself:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2258827/Piers-Morgan-Alex-Jones-explodes-CNN-interview-gun-control.html

Worldstar HipHop (VIDEO)

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We can do away with vulgar reality television or Maury Povich or that punk twat Jeremy Kyle (and his British counterpart in California, Piers Morgan) but, good ladies and gentlemen, you dying breed, we still have by-standing 'free-lance' provocateurs & pirates always eager to hold up their cell phones and record un-shining examples of humanity. Whether it be some poor soul mobbed, pushed in front of oncoming vehicles, or simply beat up the modern Good Samaritans know the best tool of assistance is to whip out the cell phone video. 
by-standing 'free-lance' provocateurs eager to hold up their cell phones and record un-shining examples of humanity
If Kitty Genovese lived during these times she'd be a viral STAR rather than an academic footnote in Social Psychology 101...albeit an oft quoted one. And who doesn't want to be a star? And that's the point! But not everyone can go to  college to study psychology as this mother recently learned the hard way when New York City encountered the mighty Hurricane Sandy. It's what you may call a Kitty Genovese redux. Alas, Glenda Moore, too, must settle for the margins of crib notes; no selfish bastard giggly video recorded her demise.

But that's neither here nor there. It's STARS we want; Individuals just perfect for the camera; and you can find oodles of them on the Internet at World Star Hip-hop...courtesy of innumerable, anonymous people just like you
Exempli gratia:     

Lisa Steed is bull dyke bitch

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Another documented case in point of why I don't trust pigs: Utah Highway Patrolman, Lisa Steed FINALLY got fired - two months ago - for persistent police brutality and is now staring down the barrel of a class action lawsuit for her corruption.
why is it that real life policewomen nearly always look like bull dyke lesbians?
Seems Miss God-complex habitually bullied and arrested innocent people, falsified charges and was not trigger shy about using the Taser gun (another reason why I am not spellbound by the short-sighted anti-gun criers: those with guns brazenly abuse those without guns. It's a fact: the Wild West wasn't nearly as shoot-'em-up as Hollywood Westerns portray!). Her particular specialty was slapping motorists with hefty DUI crimes -- for which the bitch was rewarded with "Trooper of the Year" in 2007. Still believe policemen don't have quotas to fill?
(video clip)
Since Lisa Steed is no rookie on the Force this means her criminal behaviour - and it is criminal - was not only habitual but callous id est I'm above the Law because I am the Law!  What she is is a cow. Seriously, why is it that real life policewomen nearly always look like bull dyke lesbians...and isn't that really, after all, what a masculine bovine amounts to?

 Mooo. Burp!

Michael Jackson: IMMORTAL

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Amazing transitions from one pop hit to the next with tunes ranging from The Jackson 5 to "Blood On the Dance Floor" and, of course, it wouldn't be a Cirque du Soleil production sans fantastic impossible costumes, soaring, flipping, twisting acrobats and contortionists, and dance numbers that rivaled the lighting and video effects.

Read more: Don't Go To Canuckistan....

President Obama is...

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In case the world does end this year, he's still:

Quote this, itch!

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Believe it or not, each of these are bona fide quotations. Put that in your pipe and smoke it:







take that Oscar Wilde, you pansy poof

and then God got his ass 
in gear: Hello Global Warming!

ooooh yeah...and don't I know it!

I know about Steve Saemmler Klein

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Where in the world is Steve Saemmler Klein...ripping off more rich dummies desperate to hide their moolah in offshore accounts?

The German native Mr Klein, or SSK as he wants to be cooly nicknamed, had a good thing going down in corrupt Cancun, Mexico, and Belize City. I should know. I worked for him. Hell, I lived in his compound and mansion. It was sick.
No, really. I hated the work; and, as no less a figure than Aldous Huxley noted, Belize is the end of the world.
Is he still unmarried and diddling little boys in Third World countries?
I was just thinking about the pear shaped Mr Potato head today. Where is that fat, rich faggot nowadays? I wondered whilst sitting on the toilet. Is he still unmarried and diddling little boys in Third World countries? Is he still fleecing rich dummies left and right? Or has the man turned over a new leaf and joined a monastery in Croatia?

Those are just make believe nonsense questions. I have real stuff on "SSK" and his right-hand henpecked assistant, Herr Mueller. Just ask me!
Or these forums:



Yo Steve I thought we were boys. Call me!

ciao

Greek xenophobia: I told ya so!

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Why are white people always 'surprised' by accounts of racism? To read the news articles, you'd think these reporters lived under a rock. Or just try telling folks first-hand experiences: White peoples' eyes start out of their hands like it's the most incredible, fantastic Marco Polo story they ever heard in their lilly white lives.


On top of Greece's comeuppance rioting over austerity measures the Greeks have to confront another irritating reality: racism. They were fine with degrading and disrespecting dark-skinned foreigners so long as life was going well for themselves; but now, what with the economic crises hitting home, xenophobic Greeks hear the wolves at the door -- and blame the far poorer darky 'nobodies' than their own fat, corrupt uncles. Racist attacks increase on the streets

The far-right Golden Dawn party - gotta love that name - claims no credit for immigrants' increasing discomfort in Greece but, standing by their anti-immigrant platform, ain't shy about tut-tutting, I told ya so!

Something to smile about


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Smile. Because you're anonymous you when right about now it sucks to be either:
I lied about saving lives during 9/11 to feel like a hero
this guy

or this guy

But I still nailed Sheryl Crow this many times!
and definitely this guy
 


 

Munsters in the White House..?

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Who needs Photoshop when Reality speaks for itself? Just look at Paul Ryan's hair line! 
This is too funny. 

Will you vote like Homer Simpson?

-


It's just a month away. Get ready to vote, suckers. I won't bother with it...but you probably will.
Good luck!

Slave sought on Craigslist

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Below is an actual ad posted on Craigslist Berlin. This brutally cheeky albeit unreal - but honest! - job description is spot-on for my post-graduate job hunting experiences...right down to the "female" requirement:

Native English Female Office Slave (Charlottenburg)

Officially, we are offering an internship in ecommerce, but it's really a slave-position - there is nothing to learn here. Our company sucks, our products suck and our boss is a nightmarish caricature, combining the worst character traits of Jay Gatsby, Eric Cartman and Pinocchio. Your tasks will be mundane, point- and mindless and the office's general atmosphere is hostile or apathetic, depending on the boss' presence and mood.

Only reply, if:

You are desperate and have no expectations
You are a native speaker of the English language and female
You have a CV and some kind of college education

  • Location: Charlottenburg
  • Compensation: 600
  • Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
  • Please, no phone calls about this job!
  • Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
PostingID: 3315317579

Easier to step on you when you're lying down

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I don't use Facebook. Nearly everyone I know does (along with two handfuls of other social networking applications). Nearly everyone I know must be a very important professional though, for the life of me, I can't see it; and they're regularly late so...so much for multi-tasking and organization. Maybe that's the curse of popularity: one can't walk two steps without stopping to shake a hand or deliver someone's baby. And as they are so well known all of their business is online...right there for the taking.
At this rate, we'll be putting spying out of business!

Hear what Alan Dershowitz has to say about privacy standards in the modern world:

Pope in faggot porn...?

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Did you hear the one about the Pope, a seminary student with a big dick and screwing boys on camera? Oh there's no punchline. See, that's just it: it's no joke. A fag douchebag named George Duroy owns Bel Ami, a gay porn company, and claims to have actual footage of goings on in the Holy See in his upcoming xxx-video Scandals in the Vatican.

Want to read more? Click here

half a dozen fuckmeats holding me...all so young
and yummy and sweet!! Who's first?

I'm becoming a Mormon

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So this is what all the murderous fuss is about?! This painful cinematic production of god awful amateurish acting and costume and set design?! Goddamn, Islamists are thin skinned (or is the bon mot barbarian?). 
Hundreds and hundreds of American soldiers keep dying because of bad wars in Arab lands and now a handful of American diplomats in Arab lands have died because of a bad - id est shitty quality - two-bit motion picture -- online. I've seen better special effects and acting in porn videos!   
This trailer is as upsetting to watch as a whole Steven Seagall movie BUT if Muslims rule the world - tsk, tsk, tsk - it'll be the death of us all.

 INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS


Fuck this. Bring on Brigham Young. Booyah!  

Wabash man. Unemployed man

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My Wabash degree doesn't mean shit.

My college years were, really, the happiest of my life; and, per mirabile, I would travel in time to loop through those  undergraduate semesters. But since graduating over ten years ago that college degree has only gotten me one - one! - job and that job, incidentally, was the first and only one which directly applied to my studies.

Outside of that isolated work 'experience' I've had to interview before and work alongside and under people who have never completed a year of studies let alone graduated from university.

worthwhile sheepskin, my ass 
And now, once again, I have no job...no future. Administrative assistant...copywriter...hotel reception...dishwasher...locker room attendant...military officer...museum guide...retail (clothing)...translator...sales? Nothing. I've applied for them all -- around the world. Nothing! If any employer gives a damn about this college degree, then it probably amounts to something colored by resentment; at best, indifference. Don't believe that White lie about Americans not wanting to work certain jobs. Employers hire desperate immigrant labor because they prefer it that way: cheap, desperate, dumb, expendable.

Wabash College degree: A worthwhile sheepskin, my ass. 

Albert Einstein

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It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
-- Albert Einstein

Pixelhead

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Now you see me, now you don't.
This pixellated balaclava is designed by a German artist and complements our increasingly fish bowl societies and the moronic guppies who thrive on "networking" in it.
Read about it here 

Media contempt for Julian Assange?

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If you won't listen to what this man has been trying to announce, then maybe this sobering Guardian article by British journalist Glenn Greenwald can cut through the mustard.

Began work on my next book

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It was a wonderfully hot, hot sunny, sunny day in Germany BUT I stuck to the creative work mantra "seat of pants in seat of chair" and stayed hours in the city library working on my next book, a piece of travel writing based on my travel web log Don't Go To Canuckistan

Sure, I was sorely tempted to go relax by the river in Frankfurt Am Main and just chill bare-chested under a tree snacking on soft pretzels; but - no! - discipline, discipline, discipline. Pleased to share that I pretty much completed the first draft! Productivity is a good feeling, ain't it. I'd like to have this complete from soup to nuts long before mid-fall...so I give myself three weeks to accomplish it. As concerns the deadline, the actual writing isn't what worries me at all; rather it's the damn formatting technicalities of self-publication.

The red flags of writing contests

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Writers have a love-hate relationship with contests. Some people adore them, eager to submit regularly, and others back away, fearful of potential scams.

Read more by C. Hope Clark @ Writer Beware

The infallibility of women in Christian society

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We were sound asleep in our beds when they burst in shouting, laughing, and throwing water -- in the middle of the night. Jumping up and down and singing, they even dragged one of us from our beds. What's the appropriate reaction to this boys-will-be-boys behaviour? Now imagine you can maintain that verdict when I flip your mind:  "we" are boys and "they" are girls.

Not just any girls. Dumb, punch-drunk girls...from England for what it's worth. (Certainly not the type whose parentage ever fretted over "presenting" them to society.) I believe the local word for them is...twats?

With the weekend headlines about Chad Johnson's unlucky weekend (arrest for domestic abuse quickly followed by job termination quickly followed by TV show cancellation quickly followed by divorce papers) and military rape cover-ups to say nothing of the haters' unyielding vitriol for Tiger Woods, Alec Baldwin and Chris Brown I'm reminded again of how the "fairer sex" becomes invisible and untouchable; which, in effect, is nothing short of a license to be stupid and reckless. The bullshit infallibility of women in Christian society - face it, you don't have things like Girls Gone Wild and Lindsay Lohans in Muslim cultures because Muslims, being far less progressive than their Christian counterparts, don't harp about gender equity and free love - is, oh I've already said it: bullshit. And damaging. It spoils girls and like any spoiled child, they can't really fathom beyond their own wants or hurts or find any fault in their wanting, period. And it's never their fault. 
Women never incite violence. It just visits them -- like an unlucky lottery 
If just one guy, drunk or not, had pulled the stunt that gaggle of girls pulled, he not only would have been thrown out of the hostel but probably would've been thrown in jail, to boot. And it's not hard to imagine the possible charges. Assault...battery...sexual assault...intent to do bodily harm...intent to rape...rape...public intoxication...invasion of privacy...disturbance of the peace...public nuisance, etc. But, short of setting a bed afire, a woman isn't held accountable for anything. Women never incite violence. It just visits - or re-visits - them -- like an unlucky lottery draw. Good girls never get pregnant. He gave her the baby. Women never get drunk. The sneaky liquor sneaks up on them. Women never consent to sex (with a stranger). He forced himself on her or, of course, spiked her drink, the snake! And speaking of snakes, wasn't it he who charmed us into all this mess to begin with?  

Thanks to my nighttime pill I was able to roll over and fall back to sleep -- eventually. (I think I dreamt of wicked schoolgirls chanting for more pudding.) First thing the following morning, though, I requested a room change and got my black ass out of there. Oh they batted their eyes and cooed "Sorry...sorry! Just having a laugh!" Bitch(es) please. Sorry doesn't sway the Law (or Public opinion) for a man accused of battery. Be gone.  


Ralph Lauren Olympic faux pas


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Ralph Lauren is about image


...therefore his "designs" (how one can call a thing his design when all he does is buy in bulk and sew a logo on it, beats me) look the American spirit with red, WHITE, and blue prosperity; but in this case he even missed that mark. I'm speaking of the Summer Olympics and the ceremonial uniforms for American athletes. 


Oh the photographer did well to include the American flag in the above image but, barring that, I think the chap appears quite French (notice the beret) or, perhaps, Swedish aristocracy. He most definitely does not strike me as American; save, of course, for the big - gauche - Polo logo. Now that bit is very, very us... because, as we say, if it ain't worth overdoing, then it ain't worth doing. 

Another consequence of the war on drugs

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The Global Commission on Drug Policy has issued a befuddling verdict: aggressive drug policies , by estimates, spread, of all things, HIV and AIDS.


Whu, what?!


Growing conventional wisdom agrees the war on drugs fails to curtail, let alone terminate, rampant recreational drug use and drug trafficking but, as reported in Time magazine, an unforeseen result has it also increasing documented cases of immune disease. Click below to read the article:


War on drugs fuels HIV

BIG BROTHER what, what?


-
Well we're four years removed from baby Bush but are we any farther from the dystopian future of Big Brother?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepete/2316949393/

I am loving this sterling!

-
The pound currency takes some getting used to. It has a slew of funny-sounding names per denomination and weirdly sized coins - e.g., 2cents is much larger than 5cents - and, of course, the notes come in different colors and sizes as opposed to our simple one size greenbacks. BUT the biggest headache is getting used to the prices. The standard of living don't come cheap in Great Britain even if all you can afford is fish & chips and a pint to wash them down with!


But - ta-da! - I'm getting the hang of this British sterling...and loving it, darling. The pound has hit yet another high level against the euro. For one already expert at making the penny stretch this is welcomed news.


God save the Queen, y'all!

"Fear Itself"

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Denver artist Andy Bell took to the unusual medium Skittles candy to render an amazing portrait of George Zimmerman entitled "Fear Itself". The piece involves more than 10,000 candies! A lesser artist would have lazily simply called it "Killer".  



ObaMMA

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Ha! If only...

Anti-gay ain't homophobia

-
I've met and known far more homophobic liberals, secularists, and democrats/progressives than homophobic conservatives, Christians, and republicans/traditionalists. 

Let the motherfuckers burn

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Athens, Greece, is burning. Let it.

Enter condoms, exit raunchy porn

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As the reality of condom regulation looms for California's porn machine, it is very, very, very, VERY likely the bulk of porn studios will simply pull up stock and leave sunny, trashy L.A. for another section of the country where their reportedly $8 billion annual revenue will be "welcomed" if, albeit, morally condemned. It's no secret to the other forty-nine members of the Union, L.A. (and California as a whole) is full of itself (ditto NYC); so this latest dig in, of all industries, adult entertainment is probably water cooler fodder but, hell, that's only for those fortunate enough to have a job from which to take a work break. The law which would legally require porn shoots use condoms is commonly referred to as Measure B.


Read all about it:
Porno mulls leaving Los Angeles 

UPDATE: Measure B passedCan I get a whoop-whoop!

Feliz Ano Nuevo 2012

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I live my life to be able to look any man in the eye and, if need be, tell him to go to Hell. What you think of me is none of my business. To quote Johnnie Walker, Keep walking....


New Years 2012
(Istanbul, Turkey)

Greek airport security (Athens)

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I get the full-body pat down, including two-finger swipe around the inside of my waistband. And although the X-ray machines were being used they did not work either because my carry-on luggage had everything removed from it. 


Read moreDon't Go To Canuckistan; ó Rick Steves Blows: Racist Greek airport security (Athens) 

So...the First Lady don't got back?

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I missed this news item (I don't have television in Athens) about a GOP somebody sneering about the First Lady's ample posterior...which, apparently, is not so ample after all...?
This rebuff comes courtesy of a website devoted to publishing photographs of Michelle Obama. 


So...Michelle don't got back? They say the proof is in the picture (or was that pudding?)

I don't argue with Scientology. I ignore it.

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Scientology is so full of...itself. It wants to be academic (reachable) and inclusive while, at the same time, above it all (supernatural). And Scientologists are sure they can help me because they and their spaceship and yachts and compounds are the answer to the world's problems.

Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion. -L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction author who later started the Church of Scientology (1911-1986)

I used to not have any qualms about this group - and I still love Tom Cruise movies - but Scientology's smug self-importance has rubbed thin. When "fishing" they strive for debates -- albeit with a smile. I don't stop in the streets and argue with Catholics or Jehovah's Witnesses over their doctrines and I don't intend to do so with friendly Scientologists. Scientology's crusade against pharmaceuticals' over medication for Man's ills is all very real and good but L. Ron Hubbard, the man, was a big, fat phony.  
-

Son of a field negro

-
Seen on a man's T-shirt in Paris last month:
Son of a Field Negro
... the struggle continues

My memoir is better than his

-
As this Penn State U. boy scandal unfolds, the dry turd is going to smell fresher and fresher. I just learned the title of Jerry Sandusky's memoir is, get this, "Touched" (2000). 
Damn, and I thought my book's title was self-explanatory! 


vs.

Bye-bye Berlusconi

Don't Go To Canuckistan; ó Rick Steves Blows: - What a difference a year makes. Last year around this time I was in Rome - saw the Coliseum, Vatican City, the pyramid, Sistine Chapel!...


(click title to read more)


From the fridge to the ditch

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The old pimp colonel has finally been dumped in the ground Muslim fashion after being on display P.T. Barnum fashion - how rightfully undignified! - in a commercial meat locker for relieved and curious spectators; Guess you can he went from the fridge to the ditch (sorry, I does like rhyme and cadence). 


Qadhafi had it all -- and blazed out in a dramatic fall. It's been said so, so many times it's testament to human-ness: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. What part of that didn't you get Moamar? Jesus, it's like talking to a guy with shit for brains -- or a hole in his head.



Qadahfi: The rat bastard is dead

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Oh so this is how you kill a rat dictator: click to see raw footage (graphic)
In honor of his favorite color, the link is green!
And, yeah, he really was a bastard...didn't have or even know his French father. 

Failed multiculturalism in Germany

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Germany's chancellor, the über Teutonic Angela Merkel, had some tough words to her nation: this whole intermingling diversity thing just ain't working.

Michael Stern Hart 1947 - 2011 (E-book pioneer)

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Mr Hart is the man we have most to thank for electronic books, or e-books, as we now know them. Way, way back in 1971 (the "personal computer" didn't even exist because conventional wisdom cried, Who would want to take work home?) as a freshman at the University of Illinois he had access to the mainframe computer and, bored silly, typed the entire Declaration of Independence into the system. When six people downloaded it the young Hart was encouraged to go forth.


He called himself a "cyber-hippie" (but did a stint in the US Army before college) and would go on to found Project Gutenberg, an online library. Quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1999:
I'm not doing this to make the academic community happy. I am a revolutionary in this neo-industrial revolution. That's why they have trouble with me. How can anyone be troubled by free information?
He died in Urbana, Ill. He was sixty-four. 


Project Gutenberg

Woman journalist questions male audiences preference for action heroes

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This summer's unleash of comic book heroes on the big screens prompted Tribune newspapers writer Rebecca Keegan to pen "Flex time" in which she questioned the merit of so much cinematic muscular action on male audiences. Her cornerstone concern: Muscular summer actions have swaggered back into style [as opposed to the prima donna pretty boys, anti-heroes, and boyish action stars like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider Man] but what are they saying to male audiences?


My beef with this 'concern' is why isn't it ever asked aloud regarding the chorus line of effete, scrawny, unmanly and queer characters ubiquitous on television (cable and network) and popping up all over movies? Seems to be that influence warrants an obvious "Hmmm?" But it's not asked in the Tribune newspapers or Newsweek or sophisticated style magazines - Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair - because that would come off as, oh, intolerant...small-minded...homophobic...male chauvinistic. 


Jason Momoa as Conan
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - the wonderful actor Guy Pierce was very believable! - Glee, The Big Bang Theory (which is not remotely funny), Ugly Betty apparently say nothing of import to the blockbuster demographic 17-34 y/o males but too many macho images and intellectuals want to organize dialogues. Thor, Captain America, the Green Lantern, Conan the Barbarian, and HBO's "Game of Thrones" all cut a swath through viewership this summer. No shortage of testosterone and biceps there! 


All these manly muscle men leave some experts, according to Keegan, to "tempt men both in and outside of show business to consider using illicit products to keep up" because, hey, "steroid use still occurs in Hollywood."  There are also dozens of fitness centers and body transformers ("gym" is oh so Neanderthal) and real live models all over L.A. fueling the billion dollar fitness industry. It is possible for boys and men to improve self-esteem via building muscle and to go at it naturally and sanely. The question isn't what influence behemoth action characters have on men - that's obvious - but why male audiences still prefer said characters? But, then again, that's obvious too --it's just a thorn in some academics' sides.


Original Muscle Beach in Venice Beach, CA

It could be worse

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And, Lawd, don't I know it first hand! This is me working at optimism during peaceful, good times: It could be worse. I tell myself this now so as not to be broadsided by the sudden ill wind. Of course it can always be worse or better, but compared to what?! 

I use specifics. 

Although I'm without steady work it could be worse:
  1. I'm in a much, much, much better situation than General Qaddahfi. Here is a man who has gone from ruling and owning a country for 42 years to hiding in underground tunnels -- like a rat. On top of that media outlets can't agree on a uniform spelling of his name. Damn, you'd think a world leader would at least have his name gotten right.
  2. I have a clean place to sleep and eat and take hot showers and work online.
  3. I have helpful friends.
  4. the funds are low but I'm not piss poor broke! nor hounded by creditors.
  5. I'm not washed up like lesbian Lindsay Lohan
  6. I'm not a worthless piece of shit like the pitiful lot of homeless addicts I see in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Scary mofos!
  7. I don't have broken bones
  8. my sense of humor is still intact, too

Greendot prepaid cards = ANOTHER SCAM

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Avoid the trap of buying one of these cards. Consumer complaints about them and PayPal are eerily similar: THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY and give you the runaround about sending out an investigation team.

 

The Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial (D.C.)

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The new memorial sits on the Washington Mall between statues of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and stands a huge 30 feet tall.


The statue depicts King emerging from a stone. The concept for the memorial was taken from a line in the "I Have a Dream" speech, which is carved into the stone: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." Visitors to the memorial pass through a sculpture of the mountain of despair and come upon the stone of hope.





"...A stone of hope" is so much more than President Obama has turned out to be. Instead of laying down a standard of new shoes to fill the nation's first black president - just saying that still rings amazing - proves just how hard it is to match up to a giant of a man who was a helluva leader.  

My beef with FedEx

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Before leaving Mexico I shipped a parcel to a relative in the States. Using the online tracking system I saw the parcel arrived to FedEx office in Virginia where my relative lives. Next thing I know I'm receiving a text from my relative saying the package was back en route to Mexico! Turns out the lazy bums NEVER - never - tried to deliver the parcel to the house address but, instead, relied on telephoning the house. Since the phone was never answered FedEx returned the item from whence it came and refused to send it back to Virginia because the company didn't want to pay for the cost.
Back in Mexico I figure I could have a friend pick it up. No dice. Mexican Customs assigned a $117usd cost to it and unless I 1) paid the Customs fee and 2) paid another delivery fee the parcel is to remain in FedEx warehouse -- barring no employee has stolen it already.

Since FedEx took my money and failed to actually attempt to DELIVER the parcel and in the act of returning it "to sender" incurred a steep Customs charge I feel I don't warrant fault at all. I've spent months calling telephone customer service and really worry the parcel, which I went through so much effort to mail, will be stolen.   

This sounds like a matter for the small claims courts.
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