THE REAL NEWS
.
CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
WHAT YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT R. CRUMB,
GLOBAL WARMING & THE CALIFORNIA FREE LUNCH
Unless You're Not One Of Those FuxSnooze Watchers, And Can Think For Yourself
In that case, I'd like to talk to you. Otherwise, please continue to not exist, intellectually.
See, we were cruising around the Internets last night, and we came across several posts that we thought were chouette. That's French for "kewl" (or it used to be). So it's even more kewl. No matter what Les Oeufs Republicaines say.
First, we ventured into Doctorow Territory, high in the Canadian Himalayas, where the Yeti-eh roam free. The subject was the release of the new book of R.Crumb's work. It brought back memories. Regardez-vous:
R. CRUMB IN SITU
BOINGBOING
"R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions"
Here's the original post: Clickez-ci-dessus à lire.
MY RESPONSE:
#45 posted by cosanostradamus, June 29, 2009 9:12 PM
.
For those who are too young to have enjoyed it while it was still fresh & hot, the Sixties in general and the "underground comics" of the era were pre-PC, and all about complete freedom & untrammeled self-expression. The artists and the booksellers were hunted and hounded from all sides for just that.
Musicians & performers like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, and artists & writers like Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson and R. Crumb presented us with our own Id's, squirming & stinking in the unaccustomed daylight. If you weren't offended by any of it, you weren't alive. The attitude was, "This is YOUR guts, M-F'er! DEAL with it! Bwah-haw-haw-ha!!!" Drugs and the general chaos of the times may have had something to do with it.
Crumb himself was a character in his own comix, even in life, a sort of nebbishy Everyman boiling over with embarrassing thoughts & emotions. Rather than pretending that they didn't exist, as previous generations had, or trying to force himself into a political straight-jacket, as the next wave would demand, Crumb insisted on not only showing but being our own inner *ssh*le.
Maybe it was psychosis or neurosis on Crumb's part, but scenes from those comix actually helped start a lot of conversations that previously would have been taboo, between men and women, gays and straights, blacks & whites, Christians and Jews, and started a dialogue that, unfortunately, has led to dogma in some quarters. As any one of Crumb's characters might have said, "F**k 'em if they can't take a joke!"
Crumb's way of examining & criticizing society's *ssh*les, and his own irrational inner demons, was to draw them out, write them up, expose them on the pages of his comix. It was up to you to deal with it. Cassandra was a seer, not a politician or a prosecutor. If you don't like what you see in that mirror, blinding or banning the artist or the seer who holds the mirror up won't help. If it makes you uncomfortable, that's a good sign. There's hope for you. That was Crumb's intention, maybe. Or maybe he just thinks you're an *ssh*le, too. Dunno. Don't know the guy. But neither do you.
***
The LA Library says books will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no books. But we're talking Zap Comix fans here. I'm afraid they might think that pot will get them through times of no books better than books will get them through times of no pot.
I'll be looking on the remainder tables in my local perverted book stores.
That's stores that sell perverted books, not perverted bookstores. I think. Got a match?
.
Next, we came across a review of the day's news on Tyler Cowen's blog on libertarian cultural economics or something, where a spirited (read: "Stupid") discussion of global warming ensued just because of a link about it. I won't bore you with the actual verbiage, since religion is not the subject of this blog, or of much interest to most sane people. But it should be obvious by now that there are the Believers and the Unbelievers in Global Warming. Their arguments are too obscure and abstruse (read: "Boring") for the lay reader who'd rather be getting laid, so we'll just give you our take, which is, "Who cares what you believe?"
GLOBAL WARMING ON A BET
MARGINAL REVOLUTION
"Assorted links: 4. Global warming graphs and analysis."
Here's the post linked that launched a thousand characters. And we do mean characters. Gawd bless the Internets They keep these dweebs off the streets!
And here is our response to this high-minded theological discussion, q.v.
Posted by: cosanostradamus at Jun 30, 2009 5:28:32 AM
.
You know, this is like having an argument about whether the brakes need fixing. Sure, maybe the brakes don't need fixing. But we could check, just to be safe. And if they're a little worn, and we're liable to be carrying people we care about, sure, fix them. Why not?
Why not fix global warming, Republicans? Why wait until we crash? Your sole argument is that there will be an economic cost. There's an economic cost to everything, even not doing something. But if you're wrong, the downside here is economic ruin for the whole world. In less than a century, most major cities, which tend to be on the water, are going to be flooded: With salt water in many places, which will ruin aquifers and deprive millions of fresh, clean, cheap drinking water & water for irrigation of food crops. Millions of square miles of coastal, lake & riverside land is going to be permanently underwater. Crops are going to be destroyed and whole farm economies wiped out.
Speculation? Yeah, that's what intelligent people do. Plan for the future. "Hope for the best, expect the worst." And act accordingly. So far, that rather conservative approach has worked out pretty well for the U.S. Why are you right-wingers now so intent on taking the most reckless action, which is to do nothing? Because you want to bet our entire future that you're right, based on your understanding of science as "intelligent designers" who think the Universe is only 6,000 years old? Seriously, you finished reading one book. Now try another one. Maybe a science book. And not one written by the coal industry.
And get those brakes fixed. They're squealing, and everybody but you can hear them.
.
Finally, we have the California Free Lunch, which we discovered on Christopher's blog, somewhere in Upstate New York. Maybe he's bi-coastal. It seems the 31st State is in deep doo-doo, and now they want Uncle Sam to bail them out, like did for the bankers & brokers & insurance companies & finance companies & car companies, etc, etc, etc. Well, why not? Here's why not:
CALIFORNIA BOTTOMING OUT?
FROM THE LEFT
"White House to California: Drop Dead"
Read the whole thing on Christopher's blog.
While I sympathize with those who are about to be even more screwed than usual, I don't think we should bail out the rest of those granolians. This is my response:
.
Obama, DINO that he is turning out to be, is in no way responsible for profligate Californians’ troubles. I would not like to see my Federal tax dollars going to shore up a broken system there, with no help for Hawaii or New Jersey or Georgia or Michigan, which have “worked hard and played by the rules,” any more than I liked seeing tax dollars go to Wall St. or Detroit with no reforms attached, while other industries suffered BECAUSE of the corruption and incompetence of those two.
California and Texas have blessed us with our worst Presidents and our worst political scams in the last 80 years. Johnson & Bush II dragged us into ruinous wars, without providing for any way to pay for them. Nixon & Reagan preyed on fear and hate and greed and envy, with their pie-in-the-sky promises of a better life at no additional cost, even as they gutted the social welfare infrastructure set up by FDR & JFK. Those two monstrously large States have helped to drag this country down into the mud where we all find ourselves today.
The “conservatives” destroyed California itself years ago with their no-tax + big-spending fantasies. Californians willingly got on board the Free-Lunch Express in 1978 when they voted overwhelmingly to freeze their own property taxes with Prop 13. Since then, it has been nearly impossible to run the Golden State with any kind of fiscal discipline, short of the occasional draconian measures being employed now. The Prop 8 mess is just another example of the childish, selfish, immature and irresponsible nature of the Cali voter. The Bear Republic has become completely dysfunctional.
The long-term result is a State economy in shambles, the best public education system in the country is now one of the worst, and no one from Mexico to Oregon has the guts to say “BASTA!” It’s time they went cold turkey, stopped philandering with Repukelickin’ & DINO no-tax whores, voted in fiscally savvy progressives and started living responsibly, like the rest of us.
Having lived in SD, LA, SF and the desert, I do know and love California, and her many kookie people. It’s a great place. But it’s like an alcoholic or a junkie who is out of control and near rock bottom. Avoidance, denial, enabling, co-dependency, and just getting scammed by an attractive addict are not in CA’s interest, or ours as non-Californians. If they haven’t “bottomed out” yet, Gawd help them.
The only thing we should do is rebuild the social safety net for all Americans, so that the poorest and weakest among us do not have to suffer even more now because of the excesses of the richest and the strongest.
.
.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
WHAT YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT R. CRUMB,
GLOBAL WARMING & THE CALIFORNIA FREE LUNCH
Unless You're Not One Of Those FuxSnooze Watchers, And Can Think For Yourself
In that case, I'd like to talk to you. Otherwise, please continue to not exist, intellectually.
See, we were cruising around the Internets last night, and we came across several posts that we thought were chouette. That's French for "kewl" (or it used to be). So it's even more kewl. No matter what Les Oeufs Republicaines say.
First, we ventured into Doctorow Territory, high in the Canadian Himalayas, where the Yeti-eh roam free. The subject was the release of the new book of R.Crumb's work. It brought back memories. Regardez-vous:
R. CRUMB IN SITU
BOINGBOING
"R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions"
Here's the original post: Clickez-ci-dessus à lire.
' Even with the 20% discount Amazon has for R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions, I can't afford it. Retail price is $700. Randy Robert: Crumb's secret fantasies revealed: They have little to do with the standard procreative urge, Mr. Crumb admits. He has also said he finds nothing more boring than someone else's sexual obsessions, and yet through his long career the world's most famous underground cartoonist has felt compelled to include his own sex fantasies in his art. He explains it as a compulsive catharsis, while fans call R. Crumb's erotic fantasies the Master at his best. Now Crumb has selected his most intimately revealing comic strips and single page drawings to create a 256 page encyclopedic trip through his sexual psyche. All images were created between 1980 and 2006, and all strips are colored for a lush vibrancy never seen in his comic books. In total the book features 14 complete stories, including My Troubles With Women II, If I Were a King, A Bitchin' Bod and How To Have Fun With a Strong Girl, as well as 62 single page drawings. '
MY RESPONSE:
#45 posted by cosanostradamus, June 29, 2009 9:12 PM
.
For those who are too young to have enjoyed it while it was still fresh & hot, the Sixties in general and the "underground comics" of the era were pre-PC, and all about complete freedom & untrammeled self-expression. The artists and the booksellers were hunted and hounded from all sides for just that.
Musicians & performers like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, and artists & writers like Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson and R. Crumb presented us with our own Id's, squirming & stinking in the unaccustomed daylight. If you weren't offended by any of it, you weren't alive. The attitude was, "This is YOUR guts, M-F'er! DEAL with it! Bwah-haw-haw-ha!!!" Drugs and the general chaos of the times may have had something to do with it.
Crumb himself was a character in his own comix, even in life, a sort of nebbishy Everyman boiling over with embarrassing thoughts & emotions. Rather than pretending that they didn't exist, as previous generations had, or trying to force himself into a political straight-jacket, as the next wave would demand, Crumb insisted on not only showing but being our own inner *ssh*le.
Maybe it was psychosis or neurosis on Crumb's part, but scenes from those comix actually helped start a lot of conversations that previously would have been taboo, between men and women, gays and straights, blacks & whites, Christians and Jews, and started a dialogue that, unfortunately, has led to dogma in some quarters. As any one of Crumb's characters might have said, "F**k 'em if they can't take a joke!"
Crumb's way of examining & criticizing society's *ssh*les, and his own irrational inner demons, was to draw them out, write them up, expose them on the pages of his comix. It was up to you to deal with it. Cassandra was a seer, not a politician or a prosecutor. If you don't like what you see in that mirror, blinding or banning the artist or the seer who holds the mirror up won't help. If it makes you uncomfortable, that's a good sign. There's hope for you. That was Crumb's intention, maybe. Or maybe he just thinks you're an *ssh*le, too. Dunno. Don't know the guy. But neither do you.
***
The LA Library says books will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no books. But we're talking Zap Comix fans here. I'm afraid they might think that pot will get them through times of no books better than books will get them through times of no pot.
I'll be looking on the remainder tables in my local perverted book stores.
That's stores that sell perverted books, not perverted bookstores. I think. Got a match?
.
Next, we came across a review of the day's news on Tyler Cowen's blog on libertarian cultural economics or something, where a spirited (read: "Stupid") discussion of global warming ensued just because of a link about it. I won't bore you with the actual verbiage, since religion is not the subject of this blog, or of much interest to most sane people. But it should be obvious by now that there are the Believers and the Unbelievers in Global Warming. Their arguments are too obscure and abstruse (read: "Boring") for the lay reader who'd rather be getting laid, so we'll just give you our take, which is, "Who cares what you believe?"
GLOBAL WARMING ON A BET
MARGINAL REVOLUTION
"Assorted links: 4. Global warming graphs and analysis."
Here's the post linked that launched a thousand characters. And we do mean characters. Gawd bless the Internets They keep these dweebs off the streets!
' The decade of the 2000s is almost over; there’s only a bit more than 6 months to go. This decade has witnessed the hottest year on record (2005), the lowest summer arctic ice extent ever observed (2007), and the highest sea level in recorded history (2008, although data for 2009 are not yet available). It has also seen a war against truth and the scientific community, waged by the forces of ignorance and dishonesty who deny that global warming is real, is man-made, and is dangerous. '
And here is our response to this high-minded theological discussion, q.v.
Posted by: cosanostradamus at Jun 30, 2009 5:28:32 AM
.
You know, this is like having an argument about whether the brakes need fixing. Sure, maybe the brakes don't need fixing. But we could check, just to be safe. And if they're a little worn, and we're liable to be carrying people we care about, sure, fix them. Why not?
Why not fix global warming, Republicans? Why wait until we crash? Your sole argument is that there will be an economic cost. There's an economic cost to everything, even not doing something. But if you're wrong, the downside here is economic ruin for the whole world. In less than a century, most major cities, which tend to be on the water, are going to be flooded: With salt water in many places, which will ruin aquifers and deprive millions of fresh, clean, cheap drinking water & water for irrigation of food crops. Millions of square miles of coastal, lake & riverside land is going to be permanently underwater. Crops are going to be destroyed and whole farm economies wiped out.
Speculation? Yeah, that's what intelligent people do. Plan for the future. "Hope for the best, expect the worst." And act accordingly. So far, that rather conservative approach has worked out pretty well for the U.S. Why are you right-wingers now so intent on taking the most reckless action, which is to do nothing? Because you want to bet our entire future that you're right, based on your understanding of science as "intelligent designers" who think the Universe is only 6,000 years old? Seriously, you finished reading one book. Now try another one. Maybe a science book. And not one written by the coal industry.
And get those brakes fixed. They're squealing, and everybody but you can hear them.
.
Finally, we have the California Free Lunch, which we discovered on Christopher's blog, somewhere in Upstate New York. Maybe he's bi-coastal. It seems the 31st State is in deep doo-doo, and now they want Uncle Sam to bail them out, like did for the bankers & brokers & insurance companies & finance companies & car companies, etc, etc, etc. Well, why not? Here's why not:
CALIFORNIA BOTTOMING OUT?
FROM THE LEFT
"White House to California: Drop Dead"
Read the whole thing on Christopher's blog.
' With California’s state government deadlocked over a $24 billion hole in its budget, the Golden State is hurtling toward financial apocalypse. And the response from the Obama White House? Deal with it yourselves. What caused California’s economic conditions. A catastrophic convergence of events starting with Bush’s failed economic policies which included billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich during war times, a protracted national recession, to the state’s over reliance on revenues from its richest residents, has left California’s budget drowning in a sea of red ink. '
While I sympathize with those who are about to be even more screwed than usual, I don't think we should bail out the rest of those granolians. This is my response:
.
Obama, DINO that he is turning out to be, is in no way responsible for profligate Californians’ troubles. I would not like to see my Federal tax dollars going to shore up a broken system there, with no help for Hawaii or New Jersey or Georgia or Michigan, which have “worked hard and played by the rules,” any more than I liked seeing tax dollars go to Wall St. or Detroit with no reforms attached, while other industries suffered BECAUSE of the corruption and incompetence of those two.
California and Texas have blessed us with our worst Presidents and our worst political scams in the last 80 years. Johnson & Bush II dragged us into ruinous wars, without providing for any way to pay for them. Nixon & Reagan preyed on fear and hate and greed and envy, with their pie-in-the-sky promises of a better life at no additional cost, even as they gutted the social welfare infrastructure set up by FDR & JFK. Those two monstrously large States have helped to drag this country down into the mud where we all find ourselves today.
The “conservatives” destroyed California itself years ago with their no-tax + big-spending fantasies. Californians willingly got on board the Free-Lunch Express in 1978 when they voted overwhelmingly to freeze their own property taxes with Prop 13. Since then, it has been nearly impossible to run the Golden State with any kind of fiscal discipline, short of the occasional draconian measures being employed now. The Prop 8 mess is just another example of the childish, selfish, immature and irresponsible nature of the Cali voter. The Bear Republic has become completely dysfunctional.
The long-term result is a State economy in shambles, the best public education system in the country is now one of the worst, and no one from Mexico to Oregon has the guts to say “BASTA!” It’s time they went cold turkey, stopped philandering with Repukelickin’ & DINO no-tax whores, voted in fiscally savvy progressives and started living responsibly, like the rest of us.
Having lived in SD, LA, SF and the desert, I do know and love California, and her many kookie people. It’s a great place. But it’s like an alcoholic or a junkie who is out of control and near rock bottom. Avoidance, denial, enabling, co-dependency, and just getting scammed by an attractive addict are not in CA’s interest, or ours as non-Californians. If they haven’t “bottomed out” yet, Gawd help them.
The only thing we should do is rebuild the social safety net for all Americans, so that the poorest and weakest among us do not have to suffer even more now because of the excesses of the richest and the strongest.
.
.
Labels: 60's, bankrupt, California, deniers, eco-catastrophe, economic inconvenience, Federal bail-out, global warming, irresponsible granolians, R. Crumb, underground comics, Zap Comix
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posted by Cosa Nostradamus @ 6/30/2009 12:02:00 AM
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