Quotable: Kieran Bonner on the banality of evil

“We are not suffering from a secret cabal of evil masterminds who plotted to bring down the world economy. The problem was not secrecy. On the contrary, the ballooning debt of the last 20 years, the massive student levels of student debt, the internet bubble, the real-estate bubble, the rise of speculation, the replacement of pensions with market-oriented retirement investing—none of these were secrets. Plenty of smart people warned us that we were walking on thin air, but we chose, collectively, not to listen.”

— Kieran Bonner, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities

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Stupid Sex Tricks: Who gives a flying fuck?

Erm…apparently, these two do:

The Federal Aviation Administration says it will look into a videotaped skydiving sex stunt to determine if the pilot might have been distracted during the incident over Kern County.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says any activity that could distract the pilot while he’s flying could be a violation of federal regulations.

Skydive Taft owner David Chrouch says he fired part-time skydiving instructor and porn star Alex Torres and hasn’t decided whether to fire the company’s receptionist, Hope Howell, who he said was Torres’ partner in the video.

The video shows the two having sex in a plane before jumping out in tandem and continuing the act midair.

NBC station KGET-TV in Bakersfield reported that Chrouch said that Torres put the stunt together in an attempt to get the attention of Howard Stern. “Apparently they told my pilot it was OK to do this. And got here early in the morning before anyone got here and shot this,” Chrouch told KGET.

Authorities say Torres had posted the video on his blog but removed it on Monday. Chrouch said he found out about the stunt when a Taft police officer told him that the video was making the rounds at a local school.

Exactly what the point of the exercise was, I’m not sure. Only to prove that you can have unsmart, unsatisfying (and potentially very unsafe) sex just about anywhere, apparently. And that some people are brainless enough to rise to that challenge, if no other.

PS: Video here. General consensus is that it’s fake. I agree; no sign of a penis. The only naked thing in it is the girl, predictably. The soundtrack sucks, and so do the actors. Fake sex, fake enthusiasm, fake orgasm. About the only things real in it are her boobs. Too small and cute to be silicone, and too bad he doesn’t know how to treat ’em with respect. He just scrunches those poor babies up like two tinfoil balls. And what’s with that hand-on-her-neck thing he does, not once but twice? You don’t even do that in a fight unless you want to fucking kill someone. That’s not “edgy”, that’s over the edge and straight into gross misogynist territory. I don’t blame the school’s owner for canning this creep; I hope he vets his instructors better in future.

Final verdict: Even stupider than I imagined. Don’t get your sex tips from the pornos, boys.

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Music for a Sunday: The earliest indignada?

I’m not sure if she was writing an actual protest song here, but this old tune of Sade’s certainly applies to a lot of people out there, occupying the world:

“We are hungry, but we’re not gonna give in…”

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Wankers of the Week: Banksters, gangsters and other wanksters

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, how are we liking our crapitalism today? Not at all? Not a surprise! Considering how it’s costing everyone more and more to derive less and less benefit, unless you’re a 1%er, that’s only to be expected. And equally predictable, all the wanking coming from this week’s wankers, in no particular order:

1. Ann Fucking Coulter. Anyone still think she’s a friend of the gays? You can’t be that and defend DADT at the same time. And you sure as hell can’t be a friend of anyone if you’re a fascist ghoul…unless you’re talking Wall St. banksters. One thing this bitch certainly isn’t, is a friend of the troops. So Coultergeist, kindly stow the “pro-military” bullshit. You’re not pro-anything that doesn’t directly benefit your own bank account. Admit it! PS: Could somebody please feed this screeching homophobe a sandwich? Preferably the knuckle kind?

2. Not-Joe the Fucking Non-Plumber. What a coinkydink, just as Sarah Fucking Palin winds down her political ambitions, up pops THIS clown again. A little early for Halloween, and a little late for his own involvement, seeing as he peaked in ’08 and has been rolling rapidly downhill ever since. Now he’s running for Congress. Please, you in the Peanut Gallery, TRY to stifle your giggles. Okay?

3. Hank Fucking Williams, Jr.–AGAIN. Stay classy, motherfucker. You too, Sean Fucking Hannity.

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4. Herman Fucking Cain. Janeane Garofalo is about the furthest thing from pathetic that I can think of. This guy, on the other hand…well. Let’s just say that Gloria Steinem was at least half right. I don’t know if the truth will make HIM free (it might, eventually), but it certainly pissed him off. Nice work, Janeane! PS: Learn to pronounce Uzbekistan, already.

5. Geraldo Fucking Rivera. Well, so much for the intrepid reporter who broke into Al Capone’s (empty) vault. When told that FUX Snooze lies, he fled. The truth didn’t piss him off, it just scared him shitless.

6. Eric Fucking Cantor. No, dear, the mob is who RUNS Wall St. Those occupying it are the democratic citizenry of the United States. You know, the ones whom it’s your job (assigned by the mob) to suck up to and convince them to vote Repugnican?

7. Patrick Fucking Howley. Right-wing would-be agent provocateur gets pepper-sprayed while trying to punk a leftist demo? Serves the fucker right. I’m only sorry he didn’t get thrown in the slammer, too. Next time don’t brag about it, asshole. And if you’re going to “confront authority”, try doing it WITHOUT violence or stupidity, like a REAL man. In other words: A LEFTIST MAN.

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(Or, in this case, a leftist CAT.)

8. Tony Fucking Clement. If you’re going to make spending cuts, a good place to do it would be bureaucrats’ salaries. Instead, Pork Barrel Tony is going to be handing out bonuses to those who wield the ol’ budgetary meat cleaver the most like John Belushi and his famous samurai sword. And that bonus money is going to come from WHERE?

9. Rick Fucking Santorum. When all you’ve got’s a hammer, everything looks like a nail. All Icky Ricky Man-on-Dog Fetus-Fetish McButt-Ooze has to offer is his Family Values™, so he makes them into his magic cure-all for everything. Kids not doing well in school? Try Family Values™! Queers wanna marry? Try Family Values™! Women having abortions for economic reasons? Try Family Values™! And so on. So as the economy slides into a full-fledged depression, you know where he will be found. No, not occupying Wall St. in solidarity with the 99%ers. He’ll be on TV, peddling snake oil…er, Family Values™! (And if that doesn’t work, how about a war on China? After all, THEIR snake oil is cheaper…)

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10. Erick Fucking Erickson. I swear, it’s only a matter of time before someone sets up a website mocking him. And I guarandamntee you that when that happens, it will be ten thousand times wittier and funnier than anything this buffoon ever comes up with in his vanity-soaked quest to piss on those 99%ers just below him on that ever-slipperier totem pole.

11. Whoever the fuck stole Roscoe the Pug’s wheelchair. You are lower than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut.

12. Fiona Fucking Ma. I have a confession to make: I’ve been studiously ignoring the whole rave thing for about twenty years now, mainly because I can’t for the life of me see the appeal of spending hours getting into those ridiculous get-ups, then wrapping a glowstick around one’s head while sucking on a pacifier (do they make those in adult sizes? Seriously?) and spaced out on Ecstasy (which you’d need to dance to the music, as it’d get terribly monotonous if you weren’t on drugs of some kind). Yeah, you could say I’m not keen on either the music or the trappings (never to speak of the drugs). But really: BANNING the trappings? Banning the music (such as it is)? You really thought you could DO that? Because of the DRUGS? Cart, meet horse. See if you can figure out which fucking end to attach yourself to.

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13. Bill O’Fucking Reilly. Did he tell Tavis Smiley and Cornel West to stop being black? Because it sure sounded that way to me.

14. James O’Fucking Keefe. If you suddenly have trouble finding Lucky Charms in your supermarket, blame him. Wouldn’t it be funny if Lucky the Leprechaun were the creation of a real Irishman, though? Oh wait…haha…he WAS! The cereal was invented by one John Holahan. Sure sounds Irish to me! PS: And if you’re going to talk about stereotyping the Irish, Jimmy, there’s always that fake IRA terrorist-in-a-kilt stunt. WTF was that all about?

15. Joe Fucking Walsh. There is no such thing as a verbal agreement not to pay child support. And even if there were, it wouldn’t be legally binding. And in any case, it appears there was no such agreement of any kind; else why would she be suing for it? Now pay up, you fucking deadbeat.

16. The Fucking Fratboys of Kappa Fucking Sigma. So, they’re “THE 1%”? Yeah, bottom end of the bell curve sounds about right. Oh, boys, just wait till you see that life is not one big fucking kegger. And thanks for reminding me why I went to not one, but TWO frat-free universities. (Not that I particularly needed reminding, but thanks.)

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17. Curry Fucking Todd. Well, now we know why he sponsored a bill to allow gun nuts to pack heat in bars. What’s next, a bill to allow gun nuts to drive loaded?

18. Warren Fucking Gherasim. Because one drunken disgrace to the RCMP is never enough. Make it a two-fer!

19. Bill Fucking Clinton. The Wall Street demonstrators HAVE goals. Stop wagging the finger and listen, Big Fuckin’ Dawg.

20. Fucking Reuters. George Soros is WHERE? Behind WHAT? You’re shittin’ me. Where do you think he got all that money that he throws behind all those liberal-but-not-liberal-enough-to-matter causes? If you’re going to play follow-the-money, try following the Koch brothers. Now THAT would be a fucking story!

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21. Michael Fucking Bloomberg. Sanitation is a flimsy excuse; any street in New York is no cleaner than Zuccotti Park, or Liberty Square (if you will). And if you’re going to talk about groping and lewdness, better look to your cops. Seems they’ve got some cleaning up of their own to do.

22. Don Fucking Cherry. The troops are coming home in caskets or with PTSD, but you’ll never hear him mention that, any more than you’ll hear him mention what really killed Wade Belak. It’s called dementia pugilistica; look it up. It’s been around a looooong time. And doctors have been calling for an end to prizefighting since the 1950s because of it. And as long as there are professional sports that not only allow but EXPECT competitors to hit each other, it’s going to be there, and killing them. But what does Sour Grapes care, as long as those rockum-sockum dead hockey players make HIM money?

23. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Why?

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THAT’s why.

24. Greg Fucking Brophy. When you don’t have any legitimate reasons to be cranky about the Occupy Wall Street movement, just slam 99% of your fellow citizens as dirty fucking hippies. Then claim you’re worried that someone will attack the police, which actually hasn’t happened anywhere, let alone in Denver. This very clean and tidy hippie would ask to sniff you, but I already know what you smell of. Bullshit and brimstone, a piss-poor combination.

25. The Fucking Emergency Committee for Israel. And especially YOU, Daniel Fucking Loeb. Figures that a hedge-fund scammer wants to slam the Wall Street protesters as Jew-haters. Keep crying wolf, people. When there’s a REAL antisemitism problem to be tackled, I just know you will all suddenly develop laryngitis and be worse than fucking useless.

26. Alice Fucking Walton. Yay! The rich are NOT so different from the rest of us after all. This WallyWorld heiress spent her birthday night in the drunk tank, just like anyone else who’d flunked a roadside breathalyzer. But unlike anyone else who’d tried to use wealth and name recognition to get out of a DWI, this one failed to intimidate the arresting officer. Now, if only this would result in more humane conditions for Wal-Mart workers…

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27. Pat Fucking Robertson. I’m thinking it’s high time his lord and master called ol’ Patwa home. And I don’t mean Jesus. This man is just another moneychanger in the temple. And we all know how Jesus dealt with THEM. (See illustration, above.)

28. The Fucking Harper Government™. Doctors who do abortions are NOT “terrorists”. But those who kill such doctors are. Next time, don’t omit the prefix, it’s kind of critical to the whole shit thing making sense, y’know?

29. The Fucking MRA “Movement”. Yes, ALL of it. And note the quotes. These guys are all, without exception, misogynous fucking psychos. They are marginal among men, and there’s a good reason for that. When you make excuses for a mass murderer of women, no matter how “justified” you think he was in doing it (because you have your own anti-woman axe to grind), you don’t deserve to be listened to or taken seriously in any debate. You do, however, deserve to be dragged out and locked up, preferably in a max-security psych ward. This kind of shit doesn’t deserve to be dignified with any pretenses to being a “movement”, other than of the bowels.

30. Mark Fucking Driscoll. His theory of masturbation-as-a-form-of-homosexuality is, well, a wank in the most literal sense of the word. Also makes me wonder how often he plays with himself, and if he fantasizes strange things about Jesus in so doing…

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Some people call that Christianity. I call it Date Night.

And finally, to all those still dismissing the 99% movement. Now that it’s gone global, with indignados occupying central squares in every major city everywhere, I dare you to go on pissing on all those heads any longer. Might be yours rolling in the street tomorrow. Think about it.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: Happy 1-month birthday, OWS!

Occupy Wall Street is now one month old, and still going strong. It’s also spreading across the continent and around the world. Virtually all major cities in North America (and quite a few minor ones as well) now have “Occupy” movements. And, if the news is to be believed, the powers-that-be are getting mighty nervous of all this growing evidence of people power:

More than 7,000 Canadians signed an online petition Friday opposing the feared eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters from New York’s Zuccotti Park, a property owned by a Canadian holding company.

Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the park where protesters have been camped out for four weeks, said it delayed the planned cleanup of the park at the request of local political officials.

The move came after thousands of people sent online messages to Brookfield and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and also showed up prepared to be arrested in defense of the right to protest in the park.

Among the online protesters were more than 7,000 Canadians who signed a petition at Leadnow.ca, a website run by a Canadian advocacy organization best know for sponsoring “vote mobs” in the last federal election.

[…]

“Frankly I think they backed down in the face of overwhelming public pressure,” said James Biggar, executive director of Leadnow.ca, said of Brookfield’s about-face.

“I don’t think either Brookfield or Mayor Bloomberg wanted to have a huge, messy, ridiculously violent confrontation, which would have been the only way to get them out of there,” Biggar said.

Brookfield Properties said the delay was temporary.

“At the request of a number of local political leaders, Brookfield Properties has deferred the cleaning of Zuccotti Park for a short period of time while an attempt is made to reach a resolution regarding the manner in which Zuccotti Park is being used by the protesters,” the company said in a statement.

“Any such resolution will be respectful of the laws of the City of New York and will ensure that the park is used in a way that maintains the health, safety and viability of the surrounding residential and business community.”

Viability???

Yes, heaven forfend that the viability of capitalism should be questioned, never mind compromised. That’s what this is really all about: first the questioning, then the compromising. And then what? Well, it remains to be seen. But the indignation is snowballing, and it shows no signs of a meltdown. So far, all indications are that the protests will only grow and gain in strength, and that petitions on their behalf ARE working.

BTW, the occupation was at the top of tonight’s CBC newscast. Quite the change from two or three weeks ago, when almost no one was covering it. What was it that Gandhi said? “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”, I believe it was. For the first week they ignored, for the second week they laughed, and now, in the end of the third and fourth weeks, they’re fighting, complete with police brutality. Guess what comes next.

So, happy one month, OWS. May you enjoy many more. And may you not stop fighting this fight until the people win.

PS: There’s more, kiddies!

Fuck the Galt-going Randroids and their mythical Atlas. That’s my friend Dan there on the right, holding up the world from one of the many demos in California yesterday.

And just to add a little more awesome sauce, how about this?

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and other expressions of frustration with the global economic and financial system highlight the need for policy makers to show they are serious about forcing change, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says.

In a television interview, Mr. Carney acknowledged that the movement is an understandable product of the “increase in inequality” – particularly in the United States – that started with globalization and was thrust into sharp relief by the worst downturn since the Great Depression, which hit the less well-educated and blue-collar segments of the population hardest.

“You’ve had a big increase in the ratio of CEO earnings to workers on the shop floor,” Mr. Carney said, according to a transcript of the interview with Peter Mansbridge of CBC News, parts of which aired on Friday evening. “And then on top of that, a financial crisis.”

But Mr. Carney – a former Goldman Sachs Co. investment banker – suggested that while he understands the frustration, some of it is rooted in an overly pessimistic view of policy makers’ resolve to make it harder for financial firms to take the sort of risks that led to the meltdown of 2008 and the brutal recession that followed.

“There’s a frustration with policy and a frustration that, ‘are things going back to business as usual,'” Mr. Carney said in the interview. “If I may say, that is not going to happen, but I can understand the frustrations.”

Demonstrations like the Occupy Wall Street protests, which will hit Canadian cities this weekend, are a “democratic expression of views” and “entirely constructive,” Mr. Carney said.

And check out who showed up in London:

Yup, Julian Assange was there. Considering how quickly the sexual assault charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dropped, shouldn’t HE have had his trial a long time ago? That is, if it really WERE a question of rape? Oh yeah, that’s right…Julian Assange isn’t actually being tried for that, but for revealing the secrets the powers-that-be don’t want revealed. Naughty, naughty.

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Cops Behaving Badly: A phrase goes literal

This was taken at Occupy Wall Street. Somehow, I don’t think this will go down as an effective way to improve police/community relations.

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The True Story of Che Guevara

A documentary about the life and death of the Argentine hero of the Cuban Revolution. Features Jon Lee Anderson, the author of the best Che bio by far.

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Posted in Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Don't Cry For Argentina, Fascism Without Swastikas, Spooks, Teh Russkies, The Bold and the Badass, The United States of Amnesia | 4 Comments

Heroes for Today: Alan Grayson

Don’t you love how, in just a minute and a half, he shuts up a whole table full of rightards with nothing but the facts? (And yeah, how about that prick in the green, P.J. O’Rourke? He hauls out every tired right-wing media stereotype of hippies, but doesn’t describe a single leftist that I’ve actually met, hippies included. Someone kindly inform him that we leftists are more likely to be clean and sober and educated than HIS trough-swilling ilk, whom we don’t call “pigs” for nothing.)

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Economics for Dummies, Heroes for Today, Isn't It Ironic?, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia | 2 Comments

Stupid Sex Tricks: Well, that’s ONE way to get their attention…

But if you really want to hold it, you may have to chain them up:

Not recommended for use with customers, obviously.

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Music for a Sunday: When I close my eyes

What I give thanks for: places that aren’t gone…yet.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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