Welcome ?????? to GSpam- Live ??????from Korea

Dear people at GMail-

Despite the increased storage size, despite your supposedly "easier" to use interface and search features- I doubt I will ever use this gmail address as my primary email, and I am definitely not going to be recommending to anymore people until you FIX THE SPAM FILTER!

How hard is it to block all email addresses with ??? in the name? Huh? Especially when I have added two dozen or more such addresses to my spam filter? Get with it- this is not building confidence in your service AT ALL.

And- yes- I know that the ??? is only what I see from the Universal Encoding, and that, in same Asian encoding set, it is actually someone's name. Well, if people in one end of the IP spectrum are abusing your service, stop signing up people that fall within that IP range until you fix your spam filter...

Thanks for listening...

mtl????????anglo????????

America- meet Frank McKenna

I've meet Frank McKenna, back when he was the Liberal Premier of New Brunswick. I've eaten with the man at fundraisers and Canada Club lunches. I have to agree with The Hour host George Stroumboulopoulos' (thank GOD for cut and paste- that is one hell of a name!) comment that Frank is a straight shooter:

"I believe that we've given in large measure what the Americans want, which is the ability to use Norad and their intercept information in order to be able to target weaponry "

Now, this may not be a shocker to some of us who know that our role in the proposed "Missile Shield" is going to consist mainly of us allowing long range radar sweeps over our air space (and maybe some highly secret anti-missile batteries in the Arctic). But the general populace doesn't know or understand this.

So when the Honourable Mr. McKenna made the above statement- the press pool on Parliament Hill were a bit stunned. For a second- then their erections got the better of them and they started prying for more... and McKenna gave them all a slap on the wrist (sorry- I'm forced to paraphrase here):

"Do you know what George Bush means when he asks Canada to fully participate in the program?"

Frank's going to have quite the job if he is confirmed as the new Canadian Ambassador to the United States. He's well on his way to being a media darling while hopefully raising the quality of questions our journalists are going to ask. And W. will love him (they are already golf buddies, if I recall correctly)- he is plain spoken and has the jawline of Dick Tracy- Bush will "like the cut of his jib." The rift between our two countries will be healed, and we will sally forth in joy and prosperity.

When Frank is done in D.C. he'll return to Ottawa and run for Prime Minister. Liberals all across Canada are all looking forward to it...

- maybe even current PM Paul Martin, who is finding out just how rough the ride can be in the big chair. Don't worry, Paul- the time will flash by before you can so Vote of Confidence...

"These are bad times for people who like to sit outside the library at dawn on a rainy morning and get ripped to the tits on crank and powerful music..."

On the occasion of Richard Nixon's death:

"Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.
Nixon laughed when I told him this. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you.'"
from Better Than Sex- Confessions of A Political Junkie by Hunter S. Thompson (1994)

The good Doctor decided to take his own life last night, in Aspen, Colorado, while his wife was out to the store. His son Juan is reported to have had found him- and I guess it must have been a gruesome sight. I feel deeply for his family for their loss.

I always hoped his end would involve the firearms he was so enthusiastic about. He loved "high-powered weapons" more than he did the drugs. I'm glad he didn't overdose in some strange opium den- that would have been a shame. I wouldn't have liked that media storm- was it a suicide or an inadvertent overdose? His enemies (and he still had quite a few- memories in the Doctor's business are long and the kind of stakes he was playing with were huge...) might have twisted his death into some sort of morality play.

Too bad the film version of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas was so popular- it really is clouding the media focus on his death. His most important work began with his next book, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972. This tome follows Hunter through the mind, body and soul wrenching experience of covering the '72 election all the way from the first Democratic primary right to Nixon's Coronation Inauguration. He threatened petty officials on crowded Cessna's with physical harm for asking him to extinguish his Dunhills, he called respected politicians Rats, madmen, and perverts. He snorted drugs in the back of the press bus.

And in it all he made dramatic exposure of what lies beneath the veneer of respectability displayed as the US electoral process. It is a mad power grab for the highest stakes- and it is not for the weak of heart.

From then on, Hunter was called on repeatedly by Rolling Stone to cover, explain, and make palatable the electoral process for their tuned in and dropped out readers. How successful he was in bringing American youth to some comprehension about "How It All Works" in American politics is too difficult for me to judge- but I know that the choir he did convert will be singing his praises for decades to come.

As writers, and specifically as bloggers, I think we owe a huge debt to this man for escaping the confines of "objective journalism" some forty years ago and playing fast and loose with decorum, drug and firearm laws, community standards and libel laws. The written word can paint a much more diverse picture thanks to him, and he will be sorely missed.

Mtlanglo, February 21, 2005
Montreal

Five Days in Bangkok

CBC.ca - Arts - Film - Five Days in Bangkok
I am loving the new CBC Arts site, they have gone the extra mile and have original content from some of Canada's best minds. Today it was Don McKellar writing on the Bangkok Film Festival he attended. And there, in the middle, is some great reporting- some great humanity- some real politik that has made me think I am not the only person who views the world in a clinical manner:

"The day before I arrived, the Thai Prime Minister made a statement: Thailand will not ask the world for aid. It is not a Third World country, and it will never be taken seriously again if it presents itself begging for money. Joy tells me how these words filled her with pride."

And this quote, from the very kind people at Oxfam-Québec, landed in my email, thanking myself and the other organizers of our little house music benefit show late last month:

"On behalf of the people of South Asia, we are deeply grateful for your generosity and proud to welcome you to the Oxfam-Québec family."

That's a whole lotta thanks. I hope our meager contribution is going to good use.

One final note on the Tsunami disaster: to all of you who think the Canadian Government shouldn't have sent the DART military unit over there at the expense of $48 million or so- that the money would have been better spent by NGO's- you're naive fools. You send over a fully outfitted military squad to do soil sampling, covert target assessment; and to make estimates of military preparedness of the "host" country. They're there to check out the stability of the government, the neighboring governments- to get the lay of the land. So to speak...

(addendum- I'll expand here for clarity- yes, NGO's could have used the money better for purely humanitarian relief. But it is highly unlikely that was their sole mission in being there. I have yet to meet an NGO employee who would take kindly to an Intelligence de-briefing.)

The Darkness Reigns

Napster Terrorists

napster terrorists
Originally uploaded by blkshrt.

Have you seen these Napster ads on the web? It looks like they are holding 70's cartoon style bombs...

"Im gonna get, you wascally mawines..."

Or remote detonating switches.

How to Torture a Devout Male Muslim

Yahoo! News - A FEW MUSINGS ABOUT VALENTINE'S DAY:
Smack dab in this banal ramble about feminism and Valentine's Day- a shocker:

"Hold your moral outrage: These female officers would sidle up against the mostly Arab men, half strip in front of them and then -- hold your breath -- pretend to be taking menstrual blood from under their own pants before smearing it on the horrified men's bodies. That way, the prisoners would be 'unclean' in Muslim terms for prayer."

I don't care what deity you pray to, our what country you are "protecting"; attacking your prisoners' faith in such a maniacally evil, calculated way is beyond the pale.

And these are our closest allies and trading partners? Are 3000 dead from 9/11 really a justification to betray your humanity like this? And the Pentagon is going to try to pin it on the two female officers who allegedly performed said torture (I mean, really, let's stop burying our collective heads in the sand and call it what it is, torture):

The newspaper quoted Defense Department officials as saying two female interrogators have been reprimanded for such tactics.

It's not likely these two were sitting around one day having a conversation like this:

Female Officer #1: How was your leave?

Female Officer #2: Pretty good, relaxing. Watched a lot of TV with the hubby.

Female Officer #1: Ahhh- I miss my TiVo...

Female Officer #2:-and I saw this amazing show on PBS-

Female Officer #1: Hahaha...PBS!!!

Female Officer #2: -no, really! It was all about the rise of Islam and about their cultural and religious beliefs and systems. It got me thinking about all these guys we have in "The Pen"...

Female Officer #1: Yeah- like how they are all freaks against God!

Female Officer #2: Naw, more useful- they have all these hang-ups about women, about touching us, about us "touching" them, and about menstrual blood and praying...

Female Officer #1: -yeah, the praying thing freaks me out daily. All of them pointing the same way in the yard, even after we put the hoods on 'em and spin 'em around...

Female Officer #2: Yeah, totally, but if we put our menstrual blood on them (or pretend to) then they will be "unclean" before Allah and won't want to pray for fear of being struck down or something--- I was pretty tired towards the end, but that's the idea I got.



Female Officer #1: Wow, who would have thought PBS could be so interesting! Let's get some pigs blood from the mess and try this out tonight. All that chanting gives me the willies.

Female Officer #2: Yeah- but don't you think we should run this by that CIA guy at least to see if this would be helpful? To see if it fits in the guidelines... I mean, it's not like we're gonna hook their balls up to a car battery or anything, but you never know...

Female Officer #1: That CIA guy is pretty hot- all mysterious, and stuff- and everyone just calling him Agent Brown all the time. It gets my panties wet just---naw- let's surprise him. Bring your camera- we'll show him the pictures later. It shows initiative...we might even get promotions out of it!

Female Officer #2: Yeah...you're right! I wanna put on some "provocative" panties, too.

Female Officer #1: To really rile up the prisoners?

Female Officer #2: No, silly! For Agent Brown! If he's gonna see these photos, I wanna look HOT!

Both: (Giggles)

--dear God, I hope it didn't happen like that. Not at all.

Finally- the fiefdoms may end.

CBC Montreal - Feds may shift thousands of PS jobs
In a move that may change the way we see the bureaucracy that is the Canadian government, the CBC has gleaned from leaked budget documents that there may be a move to "one stop" service offices for all things you need the Gov Of CA for.

It would provide one-stop shopping for Canadians who need anything from jobs to employment-insurance forms to passports to health services for veterans.

Sounds great- think of the money that would be saved on expensive urban office space, the bloated middle management in each department that exists simply to make sure the front-line staff punches in on time and is paid properly- all of that gone.

I wouldn't bet the farm on it, though- I'm sure the various unions affected will be up in arms and this will never see the light of day.

-unless the feds offer to finally come good on pay-equity as a trade. Yeah- I wouldn't be holding my breath for any of this... hopefully the union's sense of being "public servants" will be taken into account before deep sixing this as a threat to their members' jobs.

Waking Up in Bliss: December 2004

Ackk- I think I blew my load in December. It was my finest blogging month for sure. January had its moments, but December absolutely fucking rocked.

Oh, well- I need to get out of the house more and get some adventures going to get back in the swing of things...

Mentors I

I'm glad Kenneth Smith is still writing for The Comics Journal. He was the first person who pointed out to my young 16 year old mind that Frank Miller's Dark Knight portrayed Batman as an unrepentant Fascist with a capital "F" (Batman on The Joker- "There's nothing wrong with him that I can't fix...with my hands") .



...and that there was room for intellectual and aesthetic criticism in any art form.

Too bad he looks like an extra from a television advert for one of those "Learn how to Draw by Correspondence" schools...

More talk on comics on the CBC, too. Go on, waste some time reliving your child/teenage years. Or last weekend ;)

This just in-

...I am considering reorganizing my room to create better Feng Shui for my new occasional guest. I've been trying to explain my rather boring scientific view of the world to her, but she is persuasively happy and ... balanced.

There might be something to all this yoga and middle eastern philosophy. There might also be something up with my theory that my kitten is the Anti-Christ and that Cthullu is living next door-



-WAITING

I did confess to her last night that I read a bunch of Carlos Casteneda's books in my early twenties- but that I thought it was mainly fictional, much like Journey to the East was.

Anyway- time to move the bed...

If I was the King of Nepal

Would I suspend the constitution, enforce martial law and kick out the bloated, self-congratulatory bureaucrats the people elected so I could get my 78,000 man Royal Nepalese Army (of which I am the Supreme Commander, BTW- it gives me a hard on just thinking of it!) back to the job of hunting down and humiliating the Maoist rebels who have been disturbing MY country for the past eight years.

Damn straight I would. This "multi-party democracy" thing never really worked, anyway...

"Critics argue that the governmental reforms did not appreciably improve the political order because the new government was also characterized by extreme corruption bordering on kleptocracy."- from Wikipedia

Why are all the Western media and governments wringing their collective hands over this "human rights issue"? Because- it's a knee-jerk reaction to any perceived loss of "human rights" by people who aren't our enemies. I didn't see CNN, CBC, or Tony Blair getting their panties wet when the Homeland security bill was passed- or when the US military turned their little tip of Cuba into a concentration camp that even offends the sensibilities of people I have suspected of being slightly fascist...

But if someone else is giving special powers to the military to shut down radio stations, place the leaders of the political parties under house arrest and starts diverting commercial air-traffic- well then, maybe they haven't really got this democracy thing figured out...

_________________________________________________________

Have a look at this man on the right:

و قد أدان كل من بوشبا كمال دهال (pushpa kamal dahal)

His name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal. His group of Maoist rebels have been involved in an "insurgency" (to use the current term in vogue) that has lead to the deaths of over 10,000 people in the last 7 years. Why? Because they want a socialist state.

Great! Why not just win an election? What's that.... not Maoist enough for you? Need a cultural revolution, do you?

Fuck you- we've got LOTS of AK-47s to go around and those discounted Russian helicopter gunships I traded for some mineral rights just arrived (courtesy of the Georgians) and they should make quick work of your "mountain fighters" once we Agent Orange the lower valleys and drive you into the arms of the Indian border patrols- who, let me assure you, are prepared to mow you down, on site, and have rigged the entire border with enough flechette anti-personnel mines to make the Korean DMZ look like Main Street at Disney Land.

Soviet made MI24 Helicopter gunship- Boxing Day sale, now 30% off!

This is what running a country is about- take notes. When push comes to shove and all you lefties are crying over "peace" and "human rights" my troops will be out there protecting the good Nepalese people. They'll be defending them with guns, jet fighters, ample amounts of napalm, and assault helicopters. If that makes some white-assed academics and liberal bleeding hearts in the West upset, I say go get your own country and let me know how that works out for you.

I can even start you out with 10,000 Maoist rebels who will soon be out of work.

King Gyanendra

OK- here we go

Despite my general lack of exposure to current pop and rock, I think it is time for me to check out this band Metric- I seem to recall Bunny reviewing them and people I rely on musically have all given thumbs up.

Here we go...

Putting a kind face on a Frightening Concept

We are currently at Master Shake level here people (see side bar!)
You have to love the crew over at Geekandproud.net, they certainly make some entertaining stuff! I wish I could find the site yesterday who summed it up perfectly, I'll paraphrase:

"You either get the idea of a sketchy six-foot tall talking milkshake or you don't..."

The New High Art

"Sheep porn with Gimps, Security, and the Moral Majority Looking Aghast"
2005 Media- pixels on MS Paint

Taken with ATI Radeon AIW 9600 Pro on ViewSonic G220f monitor.

And I think we mean "High" in this case. If you are in Montreal next weekend you HAVE to go to the Underground Legacy party and mix it up with us house-heads- click the photo for details.

Haloscan commenting and trackback

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog. Please test her out and experiment with the trackback feature, too!

Would love to know who's talking about me. In the end; isn't this a form a narcissism?



Oh, and Anti- thanks for the link to the Crunktionary yesterday! And to here last month! Your readers seem to like it around here- can't thank you enough!

(ps- Haloscan advises for me not to post, etc. for 24 hours in order for blogger to "save" the code properly...here goes...)

Google search: Crunkfest

The Crunktionary- redefining life one word at a time
We be getting massive bling hits for the word "crunkfest" lately. And we Number 1, with a bullet.

Get on the links, dawgs- we been crunky over here.

Mtlanglo,
Doctor of Crunkology.

Gimme some Microsoft crack

The hazards of late night instant messaging. The Sheep will rise again!

Daily Briefing: There Will Be Violence Edition

Wonkette - Daily Briefing: There Will Be Violence Edition
I gotta hand it to this site- Wonkette sure knows how to write a headline. I read this EVERYDAY, almost all day- it is exhausting and exhaustive...

Anyway! The week in review!!- randomly, since I was nursing the dreaded Montreal Death Flu coupled with a bout of "I can not leave my apartment because the weather will smite me."


It is Sunday morning as I write this- I have had no additives(and only 2 beers!) since last Saturday afternoon and yet I am wide awake with only 4 hours sleep since waking up Friday... I am listening to Benny Benassi after having relieved RE-SFACTION from HEAVY rotation four months ago because I was going to get evicted for playing it so much. I'm totally falling for it again and I am JUMPING BACK AND FORTH in my room with the head phones on...
Who's spinning at Stereo right now??? Why aren't I there??

I was biologically pre-destined to go dancing, it seems. Or for late night/early morning blogging; whichever is kinkier...

But I should sleep- I have a breakfast meeting with my promoting partner as we are putting the finishing touches on a Tsunami Relief benefit at Juice Night club on St. Laurent. It's going down on Jan 27th--DJ's are still a secret- but I'll post the "fly-ah" as soon as I get it :-)

And then I am going skating- which I have not done since I was a whelp. Back in the Trudeau years---yes, that's a looooong time ago. Why am I going? Because a cute girl asked me to! And it seemed like the perfect follow up date- a dash of embarrassment, a bad skater, cold weather followed by mulled wine- almost Rockwellian...


-except I think I'll be the one with the bruised ass!

Too much TV- during my convalescence I seem to have taken 200+ screen captures of various TV shows I was surfing. I have no idea what now to do with this vast array of bizarre images except embarrass myself and my contacts at flickr by uploading them in lieu of me actually developing any of the film I've shot in the past 3 years... If any of my readers wanted to donate a Pro upgrade to my cause there are instructions on the site :)


Too much CNN- is Lou Dobbs the densest person in the world? Does he not get ANYTHING? There were two US Supreme Court rulings this week, one about judges following federal Guidelines for sentencing, the other didn't get much media play as it came out the same day.

They ruled that the US can not keep immigrants in prison ad infinitum after their sentences have been served if (for various reasons) they can not deport them to their country of origin.

Standard US policy now is that non-landed immigrants who have been convicted of a felony serve their sentence and are summarily deported. This doesn't work so well with countries like Cuba, so they have just been keeping them in prison, long after their sentence has been served!

And Lou Dobbs- he is flummoxed-"Now what are we going to do?"(unspoken--on lips "...with these people")- Hey, Lou... How about giving these people a kick at the freedom can? I know they screwed it up LAST TIME you offered them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- but if your prisons can't turn a decent Cuban refugee into someone you can fucking golf with, why are you so hot to send these broken shells of humanity back to their poverty stricken homelands? Didn't they serve their sentence, Lou, thus repaying their "debt to society"- ie: your society?

Jeesh, Lou, stop taking your wife's medication and start having an opinion once in a while! You're on FREAKING CNN, Lou!! You have the ball and the only person left downfield is the place kicker- give him a straight arm and get the 6 points. Form a complete moral idea that isn't based on who's an American and who isn't- that shit is old and once this war hangover wears off people are gonna start calling all of you on it again, and it ain't gonna be pretty.

This weekend, please

Check out The Pinocchio Theory off of my link list- there is a great, informative (and, informed) review of After the New Economy by Doug Henwood.


If you're even slightly interested in economics, that is :)

My Blog looks like Ass in MS IE

I apologize to all you Microserfs out there- I am on it...

mtlanglo

Aftermath

It's a mere four weeks until George W. Bush is inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States of America and I am still trying to piece together an intelligent, cohesive vision of what has been happening south of the border. Here's what I've got so far.

The Left (pardon the phrase;as unhelpful as it is, it is of their own making) is taking this opportunity to demonize those voters who pulled the Republican handle in the voting booth. First and foremost of these is the site Sorry Everybody which compiles photos of Americans who voted for Kerry apologizing for their Republican neighbours. Some of the photos are poetic, some are touching- but the sentiment isn't very constructive. And the medium isn't very conducive to addressing any of the deeper issues:

• since many people who actually think about these kinds of things know that foreign troops will be in Iraq for close to ten years. And that the resulting traumatized state left behind will be no long term friend of the West...
  
• that the world view on US foreign policy is not going to be altered much until the Bush Doctrine is abandoned and vilified as the illegal Cowboy Diplomacy it is.
  
• that there is a strong chance that America's over-all level of hubris and spite will isolate them even more in the coming decades from their traditional allies.
  
• that their electoral system is allowing a faction of the Republican party to create a thinly veiled theocracy that threatens to plunge their nation into some kind of deformed consumerist, anti-intellectual, militarized ghetto.

The war in Afghanistan was the most shocking event of my life time. It set a Christian super-power upon an actual Muslim Theocracy. The long term implications of this in the rest of the Muslim world is incalculable; but the lack of acknowledgement or even awareness of this amongst the American population is a stunning example of how far removed the U.S. population is from having the tools to engage in useful discourse about foreign policy, government, morality... Bushes re-election is one symptom of that- Kerry's utter failure to bring light to this and other foreign policy issues is another.

Shouting out "It's the Crusades, stupid!" would be stretching the point a bit too far, but not by much. President George W. Bush said it first:

"This is a new kind of, a new kind of evil. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while. And American people must be patient."
Washington, D.C., Sept. 16, 2001

Without any ability to understand why they are under siege, without any hope of entering a dialogue with their enemy, there will be no peace for America. This legacy can not be laid at the feet of this administration, nor any party's.

I fear, more than anything, I fear that it is the end result of that thing we call American culture. The American Dream. The rampant pursuit of wealth in the face of environmental degradation. Holywood's perpetual habit of selling narcissism and jingoism as entertainment. The use of American capitol to manipulate foreign markets and economies. The Myth of the American Century, the American millennia. All has lead to a society full of gaily coloured peacocks, set loose in a wonderland of 24/7 convenience and technological marvel, protected by a vastly expensive military that refuses to show it's own dead arriving home.

This is what I fear America is becoming and, I fear, by extension and proximity, what we may become as well.

Scratch one off of the wishlist

Amazon.ca: DVD: Akira (Signature Series)


I hope my neighbours aren't going to mind feeling the full effects of my Dolby 5.1 surround sound system tonight, biatches!!! THIS should make me feel MUCH BETTER...

See my wishlist here.

Miho Hatori

Miho Hatori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You may have noticed a lack of original content lately... too bad- it is a web/ log and I think I have the flu- MY GOD my head hurts!- so- here is another random sampling of what I am webbing- hope it continues to entertain and enlighten...

Dim Sum Plates