moments for nothing

In an effort to bring some coherent and orderly structure back to my blog, I will be fiddling around with and addressing the random nature of some of my posts.

I will be adding a category: “Into The Void” in which I address the general philosophical questions of the state of modern mankind. The category will be named after a blog I posted on January 18, 2009 by the same name. It is reposted below.

Whereas “Into The Void” will address the “bigger” issues, “simplicity”, an existing category, is designed to address specific lifestyle questions which are natural extensions of my world view (as expressed in “Void”).

I’ve neglected much of this and now is the time to streamline and organize those thoughts, since they are what I feel strongest about.

Repost of Into The Void from January 18.
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Pure ideology is dying; just as planet Earth was no longer able to sustain and house the dinosaur, planet Earth is no longer able to nourish and provide a home for ideology. Mankind can pretend to entertain various ideologies and many try. Inevitably, each ideology must face a crippling series of self-conflicting and inconsistent building blocks within its own battered foundation which ultimately leads to its demise and loss of unbridled worship.

Modern society is incapable of sustaining true ideology. Unless one subscribes to an ideology which celebrates a lifestyle that is slovenly, gluttonous, materialistic and lazy, it is humanly impossible for modern man to maintain and abide by a consistent set of beliefs and values when the whoring call of modern spoils, unprincipled and inhuman, beckon and tarnish his existence while whittling away at his fierce and wild nature.

For a man is both part animal and part higher being. But he finds he is unable to reconcile the higher state of being with the beast that howls within his soul. He has created bridges, pathways, by which the beast can meet the god…religion, cultural mores, cultural morals, laws, societal structures, insidious pleasures…but inevitably man has demonstrated with an uncomfortable sense of clarity that at this point in history he can only be one or the other, but not both.

Modern man has shown he is quite willing to abandon the beast in favor of the god, but rather than embrace the godlike existence he senses near, he chooses to wallow in the muck of the intermediate area between the two which is awash in the filth of the “self’s-”: absorption/conciousness/loathing/pity. Man has traversed so far from the beast and yet wandered astray of his idol god by such a vast distance that he has found himself a lost, weak boy trying to survive in the wilderness with only the scourge of modern society to show for it.

At his most primitive level, the beast, man’s bodyis his greatest limitation. His body brings him into this world; and his body steals him from this world. And for all the moments in between, his body brings him pleasure, pain, misery, sadness, grief, joy, power and victory.

As man conquers the limitations of the body, he evolves into the realm of the mind. Seeking bliss and perfection and enlightenment, he discovers the body is an anchor which forever pulls him down into the blackness of the ocean where thousands and millions of his ancestors and their genetic memories live.

Thus, at a loss to conjure a sense of permanence and contentedness, much less a sense of belonging, in this netherworld that sits nestled along his evolutionary journey from beast to god, he builds civilization. The point of the journey where man, short of godness but at a loss of patience due to his frantically evolving mind, strives to attain immortality with material objects, which though magnificent and awesomely technological, still leave him empty and distressingly beastly.

Though we have come far, and we have come quickly, we are further from god than from beast. Why the rush?

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Anyone who maintains a blog knows how much time goes into clearing and deleting those damned annoying spam comments and trackbacks. If I don’t keep up with it on a daily basis, it’s not surprising to find 300-500 spam in just a few days.

So earlier I was going about my usual spam housekeeping when I found this appetizing item about Michael Jackson’s nose, skin, etc from February.

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No effin way, Michael Jackson is still having work done on that face?

Dude! If you must succumb to another damn Hollywood addiction, why don’t you snort coke or drink gin by the gallon? But all this damn plastic surgery?

The 50-year-old singer reportedly contracted the skin infection - which is resistant to conventional antibiotics - while having surgery to reconstruct his nose.

A source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper: “The infection has spread throughout his face and body and is being aggressively treated by doctors

Forget the infection and all that…I want to know about that additional nose reconstruction. What the hey? Does he have any of his real nose left? That little stump on his face must be pure plastic and silicon by now.

“In some worse cases surgeons will have to remove the infected tissue if it dies - leaving the patient needing major reconstructive surgery. It is particularly worrying if it’s on the face.”

Uh…for the normal person, it is worrying. For Michael Jackson, having scalpels digging into his face is just another day, pass the salt please.

He said: “Mr. Jackson is in fine health and finalising negotiations with a major entertainment company and television network for both a world tour and a series of specials and appearances.”

Sure, I’m buying.
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Wow, so it got me thinking.

Serious bacterial infections can easily invade the heart and weaken walls, arteries, vessels, etc.
I wonder…?

Well this happens.
You create metallic tubes weighing tons and propel them over long distances through the air using engines with tremendous power and steered by the most fragile of tiny moving surfaces, crashes will happen.

Airbus just seems to be fulfilling the odds all in the span of a few weeks. There had been no major plane accidents in 7, 8 years, now planes are falling out of the sky. Bad weather. Bad weather is certainly nothing new, is it?

My worst plane ride was in bad weather to NYC in 1997. The plane was dipping and shaking like an epileptic victim. The reason I survived (mentally) intact? I was drunk off my ass.

153 aboard, only one survivor found, a 5-year-old boy, the plane belonged to Yemenia airlines. Crashed off the coast of Comoros. You know, Comoros. Don’t act like you don’t know!

Today’s tragedy disguised as a geography lesson.

The video of Agha-Sultan is so darkly and morosely ubiquitous that I won’t even bother linking it.

Let’s just say most of us have seen it.
Powerfully, bloody, moving.
It stirs emotions of shock and fear…and puzzlement.
We seek to understand why and pin a reason on a person or persons.

Sultan beginning to bleed out after being shot. Caught by a camera with auspicious placement and uploaded to Youtube quicker than Dick Cheney could pull the trigger on his hunting rifle.

The global Western-influenced media naturally hails the stark lesson of a young woman’s death. And it pins the murder on today’s bogeyman, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A bogeyman whose existence and perceived growing menace benefits a few global entities intent on subverting and taking over the Iranian region. Certain entities with meddlesome and guiltless natures.

First they prop up Ahmadinejad to the role of unlikely victor.
Then a mysterious shooting of a pretty Iranian girl protesting the same president. Early accounts volunteer scads of conflicting info reminiscent of the Grassy Knoll. Oliver Stone, where are you. We need to clarify some facts about Agha-Sultan’s murder.

Strangeness abounds and the haunting traces of a ruthless and well-placed PR campaign fueled by the young girl’s blood lingers throughout the news stories detailing her murder at the hands of the big bad Persian wolf, Ahmadinejad.

Alex Jones’ Prison Planet, one of my guilty pleasures, printed an excellent dissection of this incident.

Read it.

While the rest of the West is hooting and hollering and rallying around the memory of Agha-Sultan without really comprehending what tools we have become, you can learn much you won’t hear on CNN or MSNBC or Fox. It’s your internet…use it.

When I first posted my thoughts on the Iranian election, my first paranoid suspicion naturally fell on the CIA or the Mossad as primary players in the election racket. I maintained that the Israeli hawks and the pro-Israel neocon members of our government had the most to gain from a tarnished and evil Iran. And the CIA and the Mossad are known to, uh, “interlope” in foreign election affairs, let’s just say…

On the heels of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who has come to symbolize the Iranian resistance and all that is evil about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his henchmen. Now he is pointing out inconsistencies and suspicious circumstances regarding her death.

More on this later today.

But the Iranian ambassador, Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Ghadirito, pointed out “…if the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the government elements, then choosing women is an appropriate choice, because the death of a woman draws more sympathy.”

The CIA of course has denied this.

It was with great alarm that I signed on to CNN Weather a few minutes ago and discovered that arctic conditions have invaded Los Angeles.

I guess I can give the A/C a break today.
Oh, and maybe I can unplug the fridge and leave the doors open.

We refer to gray June mornings in L.A. as “June Gloom” but this is ridiculous.

And you’ll note that Fahrenheit is set as the default unit, none of this Celsius foolishness.

When Bernard Madoff steps before federal Manhattan judge Denny Chin for final sentencing tomorrow, it will bring an end to one chapter of the deconstruction of the global economy.

The world will be listening to his decision

This is not to assert that Madoff was single-handedly responsible for the banking crisis and the ensuing collapse of major elements of the economic structure; I’m merely stating that Madoff happens to be a very timely and fitting symbol of the crazed smoke and mirrors approach to cash generation which possessed the planet’s bankers, pre-2008.

U.S. Attorneys, based on the number of Madoff victims, the severity of his crimes and the amount of money involved, have asked for a maximum 150-year federal prison sentence.

Public enemy

Harsh? Hardly.
Madoff, he of the international financial Ponzi scheme which robbed millions billions of dollars from throngs of investors, did single-handedly destroy the lives of present and future generations with his sociopathic greed. Not a violent man in the typical Hollywoodian sense…there were no guns or knives or chains involved in his brutalization; no, his weapons of choice were on paper, they were verbal, they were monetary…violent, nevertheless. Mayhem is mayhem…you beat a man to a pulp with a baseball bat or you can rob him of his security and assets with your cold schemes…what is the difference?

150 years is a start.

Prosecutors ask for outlandish life sentences all the time. Three life terms, 500 years, etc. These are symbolic and though the offender in question may ultimately only be able to serve a small percentage of the total time involved (for the normal human lifespan limits our abilities to inflict incredibly long punishments), the message is unmistakable. Your crimes are so horrific that your punishment is inhumanly impossible, thus, your transgressions are inhuman as well…thus you are inhuman.

So it was with great amusement that I read about Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, trying in his best confounding lawyerly way, to circumvent the 150-year sentence by deferring to tools of that actuarial trade. Namely, asking for the judge to reduce the sentence based on the amount of time that Madoff can be expected to live based on average life expectancies for a man his age.

Ira Lee Sorkin, lawyer and actuary

According to this CNN Money story, Sorkin wrote a letter to Chin and asked for a 12-year sentence.

His reasoning is…exquisite. And desperate. Sorkin wrote:

“Mr. Madoff is currently 71 years old and has an approximate life expectancy of 13 years. A prison term of 12 years — just short of an effective life sentence — will sufficiently address the goals of deterrence, protecting the public and promoting respect for the law.”

Someone has missed the point. Eleven years in federal prison will only extend Madoff’s life. The rest, the relaxation, the television…I’m sure he is good for another 15 years, having lived the life of luxury and comfort that he has.

Can this really be a precedent we need? Life sentences based on life expectancy, minus 1 year?

I betcha there are some nervous guys in suits and mansions and Bentleys out there after Michelle Braun of Orange County plead guilty in front of a federal federal judge in Santa Ana last week.

Really just a typical run-of-the-mill high-priced hooker story.
Braun’s company, Global Travel Network, Inc., is accused of being a front for a prostitution ring in which customers paid a $1,500 initiation fee and up to $50,000 for one night of “travel services.”

The prostitution ring allegedly used women from the L.A. area who worked as porn stars, models and actresses.

The lovely part which caught my eye was the paragraph detailing her “client list.” It’s always the client list! Ask Elliot Spitzer.

This sensitive list has yet to be released, but according to Braun’s attorney, Marc Nurik, “Let’s just say you’d be shocked. They ranged from captains of industry, Hollywood types, sports figures and even people more influential.” Hmm, that’s Braun’s advocate telling us this. No doubt salivating at the goldmine of incriminating information his client possesses. Undoubtedly, many of these “captains” are married or otherwise have made careers of immaculate and saintly images.

Braun, who pleaded not guilty last month, changed her tune and pleaded guilty to money laundering and transporting a person from Orange County to New York for the purposes of prostitution. That’s a total plea bargain. Prosecutors asked for a $30,000 fine, 6 months of home confinement and 5 years probation. That amounts to a slap on the hand. A $30,000 fine?? She probably makes that from a couple days work.

Michelle, better days…

…and not so better days….

She does have the goods with that list. I wonder if it bought her a little “judicial compassion”? And the fact she was tried in her own backyard definitely creates the image of improrpriety. Hmm…I’m sure she has no scruples, next high bidder just might get a hold of that list.

Let me get this out on the table first.
I’m not thrilled with the governmental bailout of GM. Actually, quite honestly, I think they should have been left to fail in the absence of any private buyers. And I feel the exact same way when it comes to the banking industry. In fact, I find that situation even more detestable because the magnitude to which the banking industry gutted our economy dwards the inept shenanigans of the auto industry. However, bitterness aside, I fully realize why they could not be allowed to fail. The ramifications of such an event would have been horrifying and destructive to the futures of millions of Americans. I believe there was no other way.

As MSNBC reports in this story , those pillars of consistency and thoughtfulness and intellectual emptiness, the conservative commentators, are vociferously condemning the GM bailout. Some have even called for a boycott of “Government Motors” as they enjoy calling it.

Hugh Hewitt, the knee jerk conservative fluff boy is at the forefront of calling for a boycott.

Sure, great idea Einstein, this is an American company, employing American people.

What do you drive Hugh? You’re one of those out-of-touch, head in the sand Orange County RW elitists…I’ll venture to guess: a Mercedes-Benz, an Audi or a Lexus. I’d put ten bucks on that.

Typical of most right-wingers, Hewitt delights in contriving hybrid forms of the English language and creating new words in order to convey their message. So for Hewitt, one of his precious little inventions was the “Obamaization” of the American auto industry. Obama this, Obama that. “Obamacare” is another.

In Hewitt’s words, Americans must resist purchasing anything from Government Motors because by golly, every dollar “spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise.”

Whatever Hugh. Hugh is on of those typical blinded conservative dolts who would rather throw his country under the bus than have see the U.S. prosper under a Democratic administration. Let’s call it what it is. These people are the most fickle, self-absorbed and selfish glob of humanity, concerned only with their egotistically-driven idealogical fixation, this fetishization of antiquated conservative values. And they will delight in dragging everyone down with them!

I want to know where Hewitt was during the “Bushization” of the banking industry. Where was he when Citigroup and Bank of America continued raping the collective American pocketbook even after receiving billions of life-saving dollars from the very tax base whose dollars breathed life back into them in the first place?

Where were you Hugh?

Unbelievable.
Can someone please stop this planet so I can get off?
So I can get away from this crazy world that has given up on caring for humans and instead is obsessed with absorbing animals into human civilization, and which seems intent on treating them better than most humans.

Watch this ridiculous clip from NBC.

An MSNBC Today article by Lara Alameddine, a “pet stylist”…a most repugnant sign of the times signifying society’s gradual descent into madness. She is advising her clients on how best to present their dogs at their weddings.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think this is the sign of a sick and immature and self-absorbed culture; a culture given to ridiculous and lazy fancies and which lacks the spine and balls and heart to take care of people first and foremost. How in the world can anyone justify having dogs in their weddings besides some big-name lunatic movie stars and celebrities…a hopelessly and shamelessly “out of touch” segment of the population as you’re ever to find.

Alameddine proudly states

As a designer to Hollywood’s “A-list” dogs, I am constantly keeping my client in mind while I am designing. You want the dog to wear the clothes and not the clothes to wear the dog. Otherwise they look like they are wearing a costume.

Uhm, no, sorry, you can’t get around it, at least not to logical folk who don’t live in your demented fantasy world: any dog wearing clothing looks like an aberration and the clothes can look like nothing but a costume for chrissakes!

Look at this line up. It’s a sample of Western Civilization’s lasts gasps.


And last, but hardly least:

There is something really wrong with this.
Our world is imploding.
We are dressing dogs in tuxedos and wedding attire and treating them like human guests.

Alameddine further advises

Get your pup’s measurements (neck, neck to tail, girth). The key to looking good, as we all know, is wearing the right size. Also, understand your pup’s body type. Now I know you are asking yourselves, what do you mean by body type? Well, dogs, just like us humans, come in all shapes and sizes, and to look their best they need to dress appropriately. Everyone hates Chihuahuas because they are the fashion models of the dog world — perfectly proportionate and they can wear anything and rock it! On the other hand, when you have a full-figured breed like a pug, you have to be more considerate about how you dress them in order to show off the right assets.

Wow, it must be nice to have a life where you have nothing better to do than disguise dogs as human and spend all your sweet time using some lame-ass faux skill (like pet stylist) in order to anthropomorphise pets; what a lazy and sickeningly complacent existence they must delight in. Let’s put a that tuxedo on a dog…might as well put lipstick on a pig while we’re at it.