On vacation in an an undisclosed location

First…a little mood music, maestro…

Ah. That’s nice.

So, here’s the dish, kiddies…your aunt’s two babies, PowerBook 12 and PowerBook 15, are gonna be taking a little trip this aft. Never mind where, only keep in mind that when they come back, they’ll have been rejuvenated and will be lookin’ fine. PowerBook 12′s hard drive melted down in spectacular fashion last week during what was supposed to be a routine software update; PowerBook 15, which has also recently gotten a new hard drive, now needs a new keyboard (the S key on this sucker sticks!) and probably a new sound card as well.

Doctor ‘Bina has been concerned about the babies’ prognosis, but she’s thankful for the Time Capsule, which has saved everything from PowerBook 12 and is now doing PowerBook 15 as well, with a little help from Nurse Leopard. She’s also pleased that the Time Capsule has enabled her to rescue her music, pix and works-in-progress from PowerBook 12; it’s kind of nice to have those on both machines, no?

But in order to have them on both machines, it’s paramount to have both machines working. And PowerBook 12 can’t work without a functional hard drive, alas. Since I’ll be taking both at the same time for repairs, I’ll be incommunicado (¿incomunicada?) until further notice. And among other things, that means I’ll be temporarily closing this blog to comments (gotta keep the spammers and trolls at bay, y’know!) I’ll also ask my regular e-mailers to keep it down to a dull roar–I can’t read, respond or unclutter my mailbox until I get the babies back, after all.

Yeah, I know–whatta drag.

Don’t worry about me; I’ll be safe, happy and busy-busy-busy in my garden, and giving the place a long-overdue spring cleaning as well. If worse comes to worst, I’ll annoy my cats.

In the meantime, have a few lulz on me:

missing-lynx.jpg

And I will see you on the other side.

Posted in Technical Notes. Comments Off »

Manuel Zelaya: almost assassinated?

Could be. Here he is, beside his lightly-damaged car, inspecting two mysterious marks on the windshield:

zelaya-car.jpg

And now, the story:


TEGUCIGALPA. Last Friday afternoon, two rocks or bullets hit the car in which the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was riding. No major damage was done, according to the president, who ruled out “political motivations”.

“I don’t know if it concerns an attempt on my life; I can’t say. The Department of Investigation is here looking into it,” said Zelaya.

“There are two impacts, no one knows if they are from rocks or gunshots, but this will be investigated. But it’s not the work of professionals. A pro wouldn’t leave you alive,” said the Honduran president. He was driving a grey Toyota Lexus, along with three motorcycle outriders and a security car. Behind the vehicle, another car followed throughout the ring road of the capital city.

Suddenly, Zelaya noticed two impacts in the windshield, but neither one hit him.

Zelaya ruled out that the incident had “political motivations” from groups he has confronted. “I don’t believe it’s anything political…they would be fools to do it,” said the leader, alluding to sectors who oppose his proposal to elect a Constituent Assembly as part of the general elections planned for November.

In the primary investigations, experts have so far found evidence of neither stones nor gunshots.

Zelaya, who has taken a left turn as a member of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), spearheaded by Cuba and Venezuela, maintains a confrontation with conservative groups who in the past had the power to make or break presidents. This confrontation, which has been going on for several months, was aggravated in March when Zelaya called a referendum–for June 28 of this year–to determine whether the general elections in November will also see the election of a Constituent Assembly (to rewrite the Honduran constitution.)

Well, if this was a murder attempt, one possible motive is clear; the 28th is just two weeks away, and if Zelaya were done away with, there would be no referendum on that date after all. No referendum would mean no chance of a constituent assembly, meaning in turn that the traditional power-brokers in Honduras would maintain their power unchallenged.

Meanwhile, a preliminary report says that the mystery marks were not produced by a firearm.

The investigation continues.

Posted in Isn't That Illegal?, Not Hiding in Honduras. Comments Off »

Music for a Sunday: Siddown, shuddup and CRANKIT!!!

Posted in Music for a Sunday. Comments Off »

Wankers of the Week: Bizarro World edition

bizarro-code.jpg

1. Joel Fucking Brinkley. Supposedly an award-winning journalist, but can he get a single word right when it comes to Venezuela? Fuck NO. All he does is repeat what every other stupid hack who can’t be bothered to research anything or interview anyone does: rely on oppo crapaganda and the usual suspect English-language sources, and never leave the privacy of his Stanford sinecure before filing his “reports”. If you want facts, look out for his name–and AVOID it. My guess is that his awards and his cushy professorship were for CIA disinformation compliance, nada más.

2. Jim Fucking Flaherty. Bad enough that there are Canadians out of work due to the recession. Can you believe that our finance minister is now out there bashing them, too? Well, of course you can–he’s a Conservative. It’s what they do, bashing those less fortunate than their own well-padded selves. It absolves them from having to do the right thing about it. It also saves them from having to take the blame for their own shitty fiscal policies, which are responsible for us being in this pickle in the first place!

3. Sarah Fucking Palin, for the umpteenth time. Girl, have you ever had an original idea? Even one? Don’t get back to us until you do. We’re sick of you AND the other worn-out conservahacks you shamelessly plagiarize.

4. Lisa Fucking Raitt. Not only is she trying to sell off the aging medical-isotope reactor at Chalk River (undoubtedly for her own profit), she’s also trying to keep the public in the dark about her shitty activities. AND she’s crying crocodile tears over having called the cancer/isotope media issue “sexy”. Is she genuinely sorry? Hell, no–if she were, she wouldn’t have waited so long to apologize for her stupid, opportunistic remarks. It looks to me like she’s been deliberately mismanaging the Chalk River reactor, the better to have an excuse to privatize it. Next up: Obstruction of justice? Don’t put it past her–she’s a Tory. They’re not exactly loath to skirt the law for private-sector money, as Brian Fucking Mulroney has made clear. In fact, she’s not even loath to cut the throats of her own co-partisans–she’s projected her own incompetence onto the federal health minister, Leona Aglukkaq (who probably complained about the lack of medical isotopes, is my educated guess.) Raitt needs to resign, NOW. And then go on trial–SOON.

5. Charles Fucking Krauthammer. This freak not only lives in Bizarro World, he loves it there…and preaches bullshit on its behalf. I’m with Jon Stewart: FUX Snooze is the channel of bullshit, so of course Charles fits right in there. Pretty much the key to understanding Charles is just to take everything he says, flip it 180 degrees…and maybe turn it upside down and inside out as well. Oh yeah: And dump a truckload of salt on it. Can’t forget the salt!

6. James W. Von Fucking Brunn: Right up there with Scott Fucking Roeder, in my eyes. BTW, by “there”, I mean on a pile of maggot-ridden bovine feces. The “Aryan gene-pool” he’s so enamored of is about as deep as a puddle of dog piss at the foot of a fire hydrant. Oh, and he thinks Hitler “didn’t gas the Jews”. Someone please take this crazy motherfucker on a trip to Auschwitz, assuming he recovers…which I rather hope he does not. (Ditto his dirty hate site, which should be taken down on the grounds that it is a public health hazard.)

7. Wiley Fucking Drake. So, Dr. Tiller’s death was “the answer to a prayer”, and now he prays “imprecations” against Barack Obama? Trust me, Wiley, you do NOT want to know what I’m praying with regard to YOU.

8. Fucking GE. For refusing to help fight global warming, preferring to suck on the public teat and then keep the results for its own profit. A worse instance of ignoble selfishness is hard to imagine. Unfuckingbelievable!

9. and 10. Fucking Dick and Tater. Nice job, leaving a huge fucking mess for the better man who replaced you to clean up. And if he can’t do it, I can just imagine who’ll be waiting in the wings to claim to have a miraculous answer to it all–THE SAME PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR LETTING IT HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!

11. Michael Fucking Steele. Uncle Tom makes some interesting, revealing points: When Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano released a report warning that the right-wing climate of hate speech and anti-Obama rhetoric would boil over into terrorist incidents (as indeed it has), Uncle Tom claimed she was singling out Repugs. Well, DUH! Who did YOU think the racists, anti-Semites and doctor-killers were, Uncle Tom? They’re the same people who would never elect YOU president because they secretly feel that your proper place is as a lawn jockey. And you, of course, are only too happy to fill precisely that place for them. That’s why I call you an Uncle Tom. The Uncle Tom of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, you see, was so well-behaved that he would not fight for what was right even when the lynchers were stringing him up for simply being black. Instead, he defended the prevailing order of social injustice to the death–HIS death.

* * *

And finally, to last week’s Wanker #5, Stuart Fucking Bensch: Congratulations, you wangled yourself a ban in just two posts by violating the no-wank warning. (Note: How cute, you just now tried for a third. Too bad you’re already spam-canned and all your e-mails are just going to get saved to my “Abusive” folder–for forwarding to the authorities, natch. Cyberstalkers aren’t tolerated here, either.)

If you’re going to go accusing people of laziness, look in the mirror first–YOU failed to update your own Internic info. What does that make you? Do the math, dumbfuck, since you think you know something about the subject. If I were your teacher, I’d give you a failing grade.

And speaking of laziness, isn’t it time you retired your hate site AND your anti-doctor e-mail address? Your victim is dead. Your murderous mission is accomplished. It may be too much to expect of you to have decency, but you might at least have some shame. But noooo, even though he’s now in his grave, you just GOTTA flog that dead doctor. Criminal insanity doesn’t get much uglier than you, Stew.

Now begone, before I wash your baby-eating, cyber-stalking, feto-fascist, TERRORIST mouth out with this soap:

cletus-fetus.jpg

Quotable: Fern Hill on the false “middle ground” option

“I’m getting damned sick of all the triangulation and Third-Way hand-wringing bullshit over reducing abortion.

“Or, looked at another way, we pro-choicers already occupy that middle ground. Most of us support all the measures that have been bruited about to reduce abortion.

“Wide access to affordable, safe birth control, check.

“Age-appropriate, fact-based, comprehensive sex ed, check.

“Financial and other support for pregnant women, check.

“Financial and other support for individuals and families with children, check.

“Quality, affordable daycare for parents who want to or have to work or go to school, check.

“Making adoption easier, sure, why not?

“If the militant anti-abortion religious right won’t budge on so-called artificial contraception and fact-based sex ed — and I highly doubt they will — there is NO middle ground.”

–Fern Hill, at DAMMIT JANET!

Well, it worked for Fidel…

garcia-history-absolve.jpg

“I pray to the Blessed St. Progress and the Sacred Free-Trade Agreement that the US and the official press will intercede for my horrible sins…”

“Don’t worry, my chosen son, official history will absolve you!”

Fetus Fetish round-up

blogging-whore.jpg

Via Unrepentant Old Hippie, I found this tale of an anti-choice blog gone wild. Does anyone else find this passage fishy?


Beushausen said she really did lose a son shortly after birth in 2005. She started her blog in March to help deal with that loss and to express her strong anti-abortion views, she said.

She had expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked.

“I’ve always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear,” Beushausen said.

“Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand,” she said. “I didn’t know how to stop. … One lie led to another.”

She waited FOUR YEARS before starting a fake blog to deal with her grief? Talk about having unresolved issues. Most people have healed and moved on after between one year and three. I don’t think grief alone was a motivator here.

coathanger-amen.jpg

Let’s hope things don’t come to this, but don’t underestimate the anti-choice fascists. They won’t stop until they’ve rolled back the clock to 1952, minimum. Required reading on what that would look like, here.

Meanwhile, even though Dr. Tiller’s clinic is closed, elsewhere on the frontlines the Lord’s work goes on. (Read John Irving’s The Cider House Rules to get the reference.)

tiller-killer.jpg

Let the lies, backpedaling and strange scapegoating begin. Stormfront and Operation Rescue are having kittens! Both kinds of fascists are saying the same thing now that their rhetoric has borne its inevitable fruit. Coincidence? Of course not.

homegrown-terrorist.jpg

And lest we forget what’s REALLY at the bottom of all this violence and madness, here’s a timely reminder. It’s the HATE, stupid!

nazi-radio.jpg

Garbage in, garbage out. Isn’t it time to take out the trash?

Festive Left Friday Blogging Too: Evo in Paraguay

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito at Petrocaribe

The Big Guy arrives and, as usual, is mobbed by reporters. I’m too busy admiring his loud (but FABULOUS!) outfit to hear what he’s saying. (Which is undoubtedly loud but fabulous, too. Isn’t he always?)

Wowzers!

for-me-oh-fabulous.jpg

I’m just blown away by all the good words from great people who linked my Wankers of the Week post from last Saturday night. I was worried about posting it at all, fearing I’d get death threats and anonymous mouth-breathers on the phone, or at the very least, a slew of woman-hating trolls wanking their toxic splooge all over this place.

Didn’t happen. Instead, I got love from:

JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie;

JABbering Stooge;

Dr. Prole at A Creative Revolution;

and I’m not sure who all else.

If anyone else linked me and I haven’t heard about it yet, it’s because I’m not a rancid ego-googler. I’m of the firm belief that those who go looking for what other people are saying about them, end up reading something that’ll set their hair on fire, and I’d rather keep mine unsinged. But if you’ve recommended my post, feel free to add your link in the comments below. I can always use more fine folks on my blogroll.

And y’know, I really must dust off my pro-choice brass knucks more often. I’d forgotten how good it feels to hit misogyny below the belt. It’s been 20 years since I helped a couple of million other Canadian women (and men!) get a bad law struck off the books, y’see…

EDIT: Also been added by Macu Naima at Milfuegos. Good to hear from you again, Macu!