Friday, December 31, 2004

Should auld acquaintance be forgot . . .

I get regular emails from slick.org that are obituaries of the famous and infamous. Here is a list of people who died in 2004.

David Bale, husband of Gloria Steinem, 62
Patricia Roc, actress, 88
Enric Bernat Fontlladosa, candy maker, 80
Takashi Ishihara, ex-Nissan president, 91
Paul Hopkins, athlete, 99
Etta Moten Barnett, singer and actress, 102
Vestal Goodman, gospel singer, 74
Arthur R. von Hippel, MIT scientist, 105
James "Doc" Counsilman, Olympic coach, 83
Tug McGraw, former MLB pitcher, 59
John Toland, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 91
Francesco Scavullo, fashion photographer, 82
Uta Hagen, actress, 84
Ingrid Thulin, actress, 76
Ron O"Neal, actor, 66
Olivia Goldsmith, author, 54
Philip Crosby, entertainer and celebrity son, 69
Randy VanWarmer, songwriter, 48
Yinka Dare, athlete, 32
Ray Stark, producer, 88
Gus Suhr, athlete, 98
Jerry Nachman, newsman, 57
Charlie McCarty, photojournalism pioneer, 88
Molly Kelly, inspiration for movie, 87
Ray Rayner, television host, 84
Ann Miller, actress and dancer, 81
Bob Keeshan, "Captain Kangaroo", 76
Helmut Newton, photographer, 83
Billy May, musician & arranger, 87
Jack Paar, television talk show pioneer, 85
Mary-Ellis Bunim, Reality TV Pioneer, 57
Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, athlete, 80
Eddie Clontz, tabloid editor, 56
Janet Frame, author, 79
Ticky Holgado, French actor, 59
Robert Harth, Carnegie Hall Artistic Director, 47
Eleanor Holm Whalen, athlete and actress, 91
Frances Partridge, last survivor of the Bloomsbury Set, 103
Barbara Gamarekian, reporter, 78
May O"Donnell, Dancer and Modern Choreographer, 97
Thomas Moorer, Ex-Joint Chiefs Chair, 91
Cem Karaca, Turkish musician, 58
Samuel M. Rubin, concessionaire, 85
Julius "Julie" Schwartz, comics editor, 89
Claude Ryan, Former Quebec leader, 79
Ryszard Kuklinski, cold war masterspy, 74
Adella Wotherspoon, disaster survivor, 100
Noble Willingham, actor, 72
Marco Pantani, former Tour de France winner, 34
Lawrence Ritter, author, 81
Jan Miner, actress, 86
Bruce McCall, Texas banker with presidential pardon, 79
A.C. Reed, musician, 77
Estelle Axton, Stax Records co-founder, 85
Joe Viterelli, tough-guy character actor, 66
Vijay Anand, film director, 71
Boris Trajkovski, Macedonian President, 47
Carl Anderson, "Superstar" Judas, 58
John Randolph, Character actor, 88
Marge Schott, former Cincinnati Reds owner, 75
Jerome Lawrence, Playwright, 88
Hal Shaper, songwriter, 72
Spalding Gray, actor, 62
Frances Dee, actress, 94
Robert Pastorelli, "Murphy Brown" actor, 49
Paul Winfield, actor, 62
John McGeoch, musician, 49
Abu Abbas, Achille Lauro hijacker, 55
Dave Blood, Dead Milkmen bassist
Franz Koenig, Cardinal, 98
Natan Yonatan, Israeli poet, 81
Albert Axelrod, Olympic fencer, 83
Claude Nougaro, French singer, 74
Jack Sperling, musician, 81
Jorge Guinle, Brazilian playboy, 88
John Henry Williams, celebrity son, 35
Joan Riudavets Moll, (former) world's oldest man, 114
Cecily Adams, actress, 39
Sydney Carter, composer, 88
Sarah Jacobson, film maker, 33
Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, 89
William H. Pickering, space race titan, 93
Edmund Sylvers, "Boogie Fever" singer, 47
Mercedes McCambridge, "Exorcist" voice actress, 87
J.J. Jackson, original MTV VJ, 62
Brian Maxwell, PowerBar founder, 51
Juliana, Dutch queen mother, 94
Boonreung Buachan, world champion "snake man", 34
Ray "Hercules Hernandez" Fernandez, wrestler, 46
Ludmila Tcherina, French dancer, 79
John C. West, former governor, 81
Renata Vanni, actress, 94
Edward Zubler, halogen lamp inventor, 79
Nathan Heard, author, 67
Jan Berry, surf-music star, 62
Jan Sterling, actress, 82
Sir Peter Ustinov, actor, 82
Alistair Cooke, broadcaster, 95
Sylvia Froos, Vaudeville child star, 89
Art James, game show announcer, 74
Gabriella Ferri, Italian singer, 62
Paul Atkinson, Zombies guitarist, 58
Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of LDS Church President, 92
Justin Knowles, painter, 68
Sir John Pople, Nobel laureate, 78
Fred Winter, jockey, 77
Spoli Mills, actress, 80
Niki Sullivan, musician, 66
George Bamberger, Pitching Coach, 80
Jack Smith, former ABC newsman, 58
Timi Yuro, singer, 63
Carrie Snodgrass, actress, 57
Nick and Mary Yankovic, celebrity parents, 86 & 81
Micheline Charest, television producer, 51
Norman Campbell, television producer, 80
Aaron Bank, "the father of the Green Berets", 101
James Richard Cantalupo, McDonald's CEO, 60
Frank Morrison, former Nebraska governor, 98
Ray Condo, Canadian rockabilly legend, 53
Caron Keating, television presesnter, 41
Norris McWhirter, Guinness World Records founder, 78
Harry Babbitt, singer and "Woody Woodpecker" laugh, 90
Pat Tillman, former football player, 27
Alex Madonna, Madonna Inn builder, 85
Jose Giovanni, French director, 80
Mary McGrory, political columnist, 85
Estee Lauder, cosmetics legend, 97
Hubert Selby, author, 75
Claude (Fiddler) Williams, musician, 96
Darrell Johnson, Boston Red Sox manager, 75
Alexandre Minkowski, pioneering doctor, 88
Gilbert Kauhi, actor, 66
Barney Kessel, jazz guitarist, 80
Alan King, comedian and actor, 76
Olive Osmond, celebrity mother, 79
Caspar Pound, music producer, 33
Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, record producer, 72
Lizzy Mercier Descloux, punk musician, 47
Felix Haug, musician, 52
Virginia Capers, actress, 78
Phil Gersh, Hollywood agent, 92
John Whitehead, musician, 55
Syd Hoff, cartoonist, 91
Tony Randall, actor, 84
Anna Lee, actress, 91
Charlotte Benkner, once world's oldest person, 114
Robert Morgan, famed WWII bomber commander, 85
Elvin Jones, musician, 76
June Taylor, Emmy-Winning Choreographer, 86
Lincoln Kilpatrick, actor, 72
Jack Eckerd, drugstore founder, 91
Elvin Ray Jones, Coltrane drummer, 76
Archibald Cox, Watergate prosecutor, 92
Arnold Beckman, Inventor, 104
David Dellinger, protester & radical pacifist, 88
Marion F. "Marty" Garner, musician, 77
Richard Biggs, actor, 44
Roger W. Straus Jr., publisher, 87
Sam Dash, Watergate counsel, 79
William Manchester, biographer, 82
Ronald Reagan, former U.S. President, 93
Victor Reuther, Former UAW Activist, 92
Frances Shand Kydd, celebrity mother, 68
Ronald Wilson Reagan, former US president, 93
Irene Manning, actress, 91
Nino Manfredi, actor, 83
Alberta Martin, Confederate Widow, 97
Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan, world's oldest woman, 114
Brian Linehan, Canadian celebrity interviewer, 58
Loyd Sigmon, Creator of California Traffic Alerts, 95
Robert Quine, Voidoids guitarist, 61
Edmund DiGiulio, Steadicam developer, 76
Ray Charles, musician, 73
Egon Von Furstenberg, fashion designer, 57
Ulrich Inderbinen, Swiss mountain guide, 103
Sir Stuart Hampshire, author and academic, 89
Eamonn McGirr, pub owner & endurance singer, 63
James Grigson, Dr. Death, 72
Mattie Stepanek, poet, 13
Ben Shabalala, musician, late 40's
Al Lapin Jr., IHOP founder, 76
Marlon Brando, actor, 80
Anthony J. "Tony" Hope, celebrity son, 63
Herman H. Goldstine, mathematician, 90
Robert W. "Bob" Bemer, computer pioneer, 84
Stanley M. Gortikov, recording industry leader, 85
Eric Douglas, actor & celebrity son, 46
Jeff Smith, the "Frugal Gourmet", 65
Doris Dowling, actress, 81
Agnes Cunningham, co-founder of folk-song journal, 95
Colin McCormack, actor, 62
Laurance Rockefellar, billionaire philanthropist, 94
Isabel Sanford, actress, 86
Joe Gold, founder of Gold's Gym, 82
Arthur Kane, New York Dolls bassist, 55
Sam McKim, Disney Imagineer, 79
Carlo DiPalma, Italian cinematographer, 79
Michael Tata, Nevada casino executive and television celebrity, 33
Zenko Suzuki, former Japanese Prime Minister, 93
Bella Lewitzky, dancer and choreographer, 88
Pat Roach, actor, 67
Joseph D'Alessandro, musician, 79
Rodger Ward, racing champion, 83
Joseph Hendrick Jr., auto racer, 84
Jeff Julian, professional golfer, 42
Charles W. Sweeney, pilot who dropped atom bomb on Nagasaki, 84
Sir Julian Hodge, banker, 99
Syreeta Wright, musician, 58
Sacha Distel, musician, 71
Jerry Goldsmith, Oscar-winning composer, 75
Antonio Gades, flamenco dancer and choreographer, 67
Illinois Jacquet, musician, 81
Serge Reggiani, singer and actor, 82
Georgine Darcy, actress, 71
Joe Cahill, I.R.A. Commander, 84
Wim Verstappen, film director, 67
Bill Randle, disc jockey, 81
Fred LaRue, rumored Watergate "Deep Throat", 75
Irvin "Shorty" Yeaworth Jr, "The Blob" director, 78
Jackson Beck, voice actor, 92
Francis Crick, DNA co-discoverer, 88
Eugene Roche, actor, 75
Alexandra Scott, cancer patient and fund-raiser, 8
Walter Frentz, photographer, 96
Carmine De Sapio, last of the Tammany bosses, 95
Sam Edwards, actor, 89
Don Tosti, musician, 81
Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer, 95
Lacy Van Zant, "father" of Southern rock, 89
Rick James, "Super Freak", 56
Red Adair, world-renowned firefighter, 89
Fay Wray, actress, 96
Julia Child, famed TV chef, 91
Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet and Nobel laureate, 93
Philip Abelson, scientist, 91
Donald Justice, poet, 78
Ellen Auerbach, photographer, 98
Bob Murphy, broadcaster, 79
Virginia Grey, actress, 87
Neal Fredericks, "Blair Witch" cinematographer, 35
Carl Mydans, photojournalist, 97
Frank Santo Cotroni, reputed crime boss, 72
Milton Pollack, noted federal judge, 97
Tony Mottola, musician, 86
Alexander Hammid, filmmaker, 96
Elmer Bernstein, film composer, 82
Al Dvorin, "Elvis has left the building" announcer, 81
Frank Sanache, World War II "code talker", 86
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, "On Death and Dying" author, 78
Daniel Petrie, "A Raisin in the Sun" director, 83
Dennis Miles, Body Count guitarist, 45
Laura Branigan, "Gloria" singer, 47
Fred L. Whipple, pioneer in comet research, 97
Tom Capone, Brazilian Music Producer, 37
Frank Thomas, Disney animator, 92
Andre Noble, actor, 25
Frank Maxwell, Actor and union activist, 87
Timothy G. Elbourne, presidential aide, 65
Charles Eaton, Member of Famous Theatre Family, 94
Robert David Lion Gardiner, heir of Gardiner's Island, 93
Susan Peretz, actress and acting coach, 59
Larry Desmedt, biking legend, 55
William Pierson, actor, 78
E. Harvie Ward, amateur golfer, 78
Kirk Fordice, former Mississippi governor, 70
Noble "Thin Man" Watts, musician, 78
Ernie Ball, guitar string maker, 74
Fred Ebb, "Chicago" songwriter, 76
Kenny Buttrey, session drummer, 59
Johnny Ramone, Ramones co-founder, 55
Eddie Adams, Pulitzer-winning photographer, 71
Skeeter Davis, Nashville singer, 72
Russ Meyer, filmmaker, 82
Ellis Marsalis Sr, jazz family patriarch, 96
Roy Drusky, musician, 74
Francoise Sagan, author, 69
Marvin Davis, billionaire & former 20th Century Fox studios owner, 79
Ray Traylor, pro wrestler "Big Bossman", 41
Geoffrey Beene, fashion designer, 77
Izora Rhodes Armstead, "It"s Raining Men" singer, age unknown
Scott Muni, rock disc jockey "The Professor", 74
Justin Strzelczyk, former NFL Pittsburgh Steelers lineman, 36
Richard Avedon, famed photographer, 81
Janet Leigh, actress, 77
John Cerutti, commentator and former athlete, 44
Moe Norman, golfer, 75
Gordon Cooper, astronaut, 77
Carl Wayne, singer, 61
Rodney Dangerfield, comic, 82
Joyce Jillson, Hollywood astrologer, 58
Jacques Derrida, French philosopher, 74
Andres Nazario Sargen, leader of paramilitary group Alpha 66, 88
Christopher Reeve, actor, 52
Ken Caminiti, athlete, 41
Bruce Palmer, musician, 58
Pierre Salinger, former ABC newsman, 79
Phil Harper, radio voice of "Harry Nile", 64
Malcolm Summers, JFK assassination witness, 80
Doug Bennett, musician, 52
Anita Bitri Prapaniku, Albanian pop singer, 36
Paul H. Nitze, cold war strategist, 97
Betty Hill, alien abductee, 85
Samuel Lee Gravely Jr., first black U.S. admiral, 82
James A. Hickey, Cardinal, 84
Greg Shaw, record producer, 55
John Peel, disc jockey and broadcaster, 65
Robert Merrill, opera singer, 87
Fritha Goodey, actress, 31
Lester Lanin, society bandleader, 97
Vaughn Meader, satirist , 68
Princess Alice, British royal, 102
Theo van Gogh, Dutch film maker, 47
James Edward Hanson, industrialist, 82
Peggy Ryan, actress, 80
Joe Bushkin, jazz pianist, 87
Robert Heaton, musician, 44
Richard Terrance Knight, music manager, 61
Johnny Warren, Australian soccer player, 61
Gibson Kente, South African playwright, 72
Howard Keel, actor, 85
Chandler Harper, a Hall of Fame golfer, 90
Emlyn Hughes, athlete, 57
Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, 75
Iris Chang, author, 36
Russell Jones a/k/a Ol' Dirty Bastard, rapper, 35
Harry Lampert, creator of "The Flash", 88
Dayton Allen, voice of "Deputy Dawg" and "Heckle and Jeckle", 85
Melba Phillips, Physicist, 97
Edward S. Waters, writer/producer, 74
Jhonn Balance, musician, 42
Michel Colombier, film composer, 65
Norman Rose, actor, 87
Cy Coleman, Broadway composer, 75
Fred Hale Sr., world's oldest man, 113
Terry Melcher, musician, 62
Robin Kenyatta, musician, 62
Arthur Robinson, cartographer, 89
Samuel Billison, Navajo code talker
Marion Hamner Hawkes, real-life "Mary Ellen Walton", 74
Arthur Hailey, author, 84
Philippe de Broca, filmmaker, 71
Marion Hamner Hawkes, real-life "Mary Ellen Walton", 74
John Drew Barrymore, actor, 72
Ed Paschke, artist, 65
Billy James Hargis, evangelist, 79
Larry Brown, author, 53
Pierre Berton, Canadian author, 84
Verona Johnston, oldest American, 114
Mona Van Duyn, first female poet laureate, 83
John Dunn, broadcaster, 70
Molly Weir, actress, 94
Dame Alicia Markova, Ballet Star, 94
Joseph Hansen, novelist and activist, 81
Jerry Scoggins, musician, 93
"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, musician, 38
Ralph Blizard, musician, 85
Frederick Fennell, conductor, 90
Kevin Coyne, musician, 60
Connie Johnson, athlete, 81
Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano, 82
Lorenzo "Larry" J. Ponza Jr., pitching machine creator, 86
Freddie Perren, Jackson 5 producer, 61
Son Seals, blues musician, 62
Johnny Oates, former manager for MLB Orioles, Rangers, 58
Reggie White, former NFL defensive end, 43
Susan Sontag, author, 71
Hank Garland, Elvis' guitarist, 74
Jerry Orbach, actor, 69
Artie Shaw, musician, 94
Dick Heckstall-Smith, musician, 70
Julius Axelrod, Nobel Prize winner, 92
Sidonie Goossens, harpist, 105

I thought there was an inordinate number of musicians, singers, and music-industry people on the list this year. Maybe I am mistaken, but it seems inordinate.

Who will die tonight?



Join me in some revelry:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
And days of auld lang syne, my dear,
And days of auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine.
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne,
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld ang syne.

We twa hae sported i' the burn,
From morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne.
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

And ther's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.




A happy and healthy new year for you and yours.

Peace.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Complete Poems
Marianne Moore




Thursday, December 30, 2004

Happy Holiday Travels

"Hey, I have a good idea! Let's deregulate the airline industry! It will be better: prices will go down, conglomeration will stop, service will be improved because competition will be stronger, employment opportunities will flourish. It will be great!"

OK, so that isn't exactly what was said when the airline industry was deregulated, but it is certainly was implied. Those exact sentences may not have been uttered, but all those proclamations were made!

Each time an industry has been deregulated we have been promised lower prices, more competition, more jobs, and better service. The conversation you never hear afterwards is the embarrassment that is total conglomeration, massive job loss, lower wages, higher prices, and less competition. Total failure!

Sadly, nothing will ever help the airline industry in the United States, because we fail to promote alternative forms of transportation, we fail to promote competition.

No airline is going to make money shuttling commuters between Los Angeles and San Francisco, or New York and Boston. It's just not profitable. Still, those commuters have to get between those cities and driving is not an option. So, the airlines provide those routes and lose money on them.

Most civilized nations have a rail system that provides domestic travelers a cheap, simple and efficient mode of transportation. High-speed trains have been developed and they work splendidly.

You can hold Great Britain up as an example of failed rail service, but I think it's important to know that the Brits have been privatizing the rail system in a piece-meal fashion that has led to massive corporate corruption, a breakdown of rail maintenance, and gross cover-ups of irresponsibility. British Rail is not failing because it is a railway system, it is failing because it is being raped and plundered by corporate vultures.

When you take the United States and Great Britain out of the analysis, because they have been deliberately undermining rail service, it is obvious that rail is the most efficient mode of transportation for short-distance, and medium-distance domestic travel.

Over the Christmas holidays this year, US Airways and Delta experienced horrible delays, computer difficulties, and staffing problems.

Both of these airlines have grown in size (not service or quality) since deregulation, and they are horrible service providers, horrible employers, horrible neighbors, and are all top-heavy with overpaid executives who continually cut the salaries of those who actually run the airline.

Delta grounded over 1,100 flights this Christmas! If you figure there were only 25 people booked on each flight (which is probably a gross underestimate), this means that 27,500 travelers were stuck in airports far away from their destination. Chances are the numbers were probably in the hundreds of thousands, not the tens of thousands.

Adding to the technical problems was an inordinate number of employees calling to say they would be staying home because they were sick. Union officials deny there was any organized sick-out.

If you're an employee for a bad employer and you have sick-time at your disposal and the holidays are upon us, and you're treated like crap, and you're looking at a pay cut next year, would you let your sick days expire without use or would you take some time off at the holidays to be with your family? That is not a sick-out.

So, we have fewer companies controlling more jets and more routes with crappy computer systems and disgruntled workers. What could the result be?

If we had viable high-speed rail systems (like civilized, first-world nations around the world), many of these stranded passengers would not have even been flying, they would have used the more comfortable mode of travel, a train.

There should be a train to get you from New York to Boston in two hours, or Washington, D.C. to Chicago in seven hours, or Los Angeles to San Francisco in four hours. Trains can easily average over one-hundred miles per hour with the proper infrastructure.

There is no reason to use an airline to travel four hundred miles! It is not faster than a train! When you include the time it takes to get to an airport (and in some major cities it is well over an hour travel), then add the time in the airport (at least one-hour you are required to be present before take-off), then add the time to travel away from the airport at your destination, and finally add the time for the inevitable delays all on top of the actual flight time, and a four hundred mile trip will take more than four hours. Much more than four hours.

Some say that the federal government should not be expected to prop-up the rail industry by providing a state-of-the-art track system at taxpayer expense. We prop-up the automobile industry by providing a road system at taxpayer expense (not every taxpayer owns a car), and we prop-up the airlines by providing airports at taxpayer expense (not every taxpayer travels by jet). Why is it wrong to provide a rail system at taxpayer expense? It is not wrong, it is sensible and smart and is a wise plan for the future.

Of course, the current American system of corporate welfare means any attempt to build a rail system would be wrought with corporate crime and rich guys keeping taxpayer dollars for themselves without actually building the railway, but that is a different story that I will tell over and over again. Oh, wait, I don't have to tell the story, you all know that story!

The current disrepair of our travel industry is directly connected to the failure of deregulation, the greed of corporate executives and their Republican lackeys in Congress and the White House, and the idiocy of American voters who elect these corporate rapists because they think they will stop abortion and gay marriage!

It's beyond time to reverse the failures of deregulation. How many more flights need to be cancelled? How many more workers need to get a pay-cut? How many more industries need to fail before we admit our short-comings and return to the sensible regulation of all industry.

If you voted for the current American regime or either of the two Reagan terms, I hope your flight was cancelled and you spent Christmas in an airport!



Dick Mac Recommends:
Airline Deregulation and Laissez-Faire Mythology
by Stephen Paul Dempsey and Andrew R. Goetz





Shopping Blue


I was discouraged by this piece of information from choosetheblue.com:

Dell Computer donated $381,538 to political parties during the election campaigns in 2003-2004. Dell sent 22% ($84,786) to Democrats and 77% ($296,752) to Republicans. I own a Dell computer, but my next computer will not be a Dell and I will be certain to call then and let them know why.

Put your money where your mouth is and shop blue!

Peace!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Farewell, Zealot Of Seriousness

Susan Sontag is dead.



Susan Sontag
1933-2004


Who will take her place?

America's young women have shunned feminism for capital. The bright ones seem to be on television and the stupid ones are voting for Republicans.

Thank you Susan Sontag for your decades of hard work, challenging discourse, and meaningful prose.

According to her official biography, "Ms. Sontag's many honors are the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for In America (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for On Photography (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow."

Your death leaves a void that can never be filled.

Rest in peace.



Visit susansontag.com.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Regarding the Pain of Others
by Susan Sontag






Tsunami Vicitim Toll now over 65,000


Natural disasters are amazing. There is nothing like an earthquake, hurricane, typhoon, volcano, or tsunami to let us know how powerless we really are as a species. Mother nature always wins.

The number of dead in Southern and Southeastern Asia, and East Africa, is staggering. Has there been a natural disaster of this magnitude in modern times?

Do not rely on the United States government to send aid, because they will want to send money via the World Bank, which means each of those stricken nations will have to sacrifice their fresh-water supply to a private corporation in order to collect the aid. We must hope none of these nations accept that offer, because it will have worse long-term imapct than the disaster itself.

We must send money ourselves.

Donate via UNICEF


Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Ground Zero

The current regime in Washington has used the crimes committed at the World Trade Center to profit handsomely, dismantle the Bill of Rights, and create more give-aways of our tax dollars to corporate America.

While consistently lying through his teeth, the current American president has said he would provide funding to rebuild the World Trade Center (he has not), and would provide funding so that New York could meet the new fascist security requirements implemented by the Department of Homeland We're A Bunch Of Asses, er Security Department (but most of that money has gone to Florida, Texas and Montana).

The current American president constantly invokes the horrific memory of two jets slamming into the World Trade Center while trying to justify his stupid war in Iraq and hide his utter failure to even attempt to find his old friend Osama binLaden. He capitalizes on this heinous crime but has no intention of allowing one extra penny of American tax dollars to help rectify the situation.

The latest gift to New York from the current American regime is the refusal of the EPA to monitor the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building that was destroyed, but did not fall down, on September 11, 2001.

That's right! We have a building sitting at Ground Zero that is going to fall if it is not dismantled. It was built in an era when the use of asbestos and other toxic materials was commonplace. It is a building in which gazillions of dollars were generated in the process of making America the most powerful nation on Earth. It is a building that will cost a lot of money to dismantle and it needs to be monitored carefully. The EPA, though, can't be bothered monitoring the process.

This is what America can expect from a regime who lowers taxes for billionaires, starts an unnecessary war funded and fought by working people, dismantles the Bill of Rights, and guts what few governmental agencies have been helping humanity.

If you defend this regime, you're an ass!



UPI is selling an article about this issue.

Congressman Jerry Nadler has been trying to get things done.

The Sierra Club has some amazing pictures of Ground Zero.



Dick Mac Recommends:
It Takes A Village
by Hillary Rodham Clinton






Monday, December 27, 2004

What Is Truth?

I have often said that I have had enough of truth. Truth is so subjective as to render it useless. Honesty is much more important than truth. Honesty to oneself is most important.

I recently learned about a website that promotes itself this way: "We are the voice of the troops, a non-partisan group created to help them share stories of life on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. We are also working to help veterans get the support they need." The site is Operation Truth and it is fascinating.

The ugly truths about the current American regime and their dishonesty is always cloaked in phoney patriotism and hollow promises of successful militarism. They eliminate services for veterans and land on aircraft carriers at Thanksgiving offering fake turkeys to children about to sacrifice their lives, and they avoid discussions about fossil fuels and energy prices. They plan to sacrifice an entire generation of American boys and girls (well, not rich boys and girls) so they can guarantee the control of oil is tipped, not in America's favor, but in their own personal favor.

They have engaged us in a war based on lies and for which we were ill-prepared. They have created more danger in the world while ignoring the actual danger in the world.

George Bush, his regime, and all true believers are dangerous, bad, evil unChristian people who must be stopped before they eliminate what is left of America after their first four years of disaster.

The men and women who run the Operation Truth website are focused on one part of this regimes failures: the military. They are exposing the fact that Halliburton contractors earn $120,000 for the same job we expect from enlisted men earning $20,000. It is vulgar and inappropriate and is thievery of our Treasury.

Operation Truth is exposing the private contractors who live in luxury, drive armor-plated vehicles and use taxpayers' body armor while our troops in battle face grave danger without the use of the materials for which we have paid.

Don't even get me started about the food we are forcing our enlisted men and women to eat.

Operation Truth needs support. Visit their site and drop a few bucks.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Donating Money To Operation Truth




Saturday, December 25, 2004

Christmas 2004

Is there anything more exciting than watching a child open a gift?

May your life be filled with love, and may the spirit of charity and generosity fill your heart with joy.

Peace.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Give Me Stuff

Hey! It's the birthday of Jesus Christ and you should give me stuff!

There is a "Give Me Money" section in the right-hand column and you can send money (using cash or credit card) via PayPal by clicking the "Make A Donation" button. Remember, the greatest nation in the world: Donation!

You could spread some money my way by using the amazon.com or Ads by Google buttons on these pages.

You could buy some of the excellent products from No Sweat.

Still, just sending me cash is ideal.

My eBegging page Help Dick Mac Live is entertaining (especially the "Other Opportunities" section) and you could easily send me some money when you finish reading it!

Or you could send me one of the MP3s I want:

MP3s I Want v2
Indiana Wants Me - R. Dean Taylor
Everybody's Boring - Pearl Harbor & The Explosions
To Sir With Love - Lou Miami & The Kozmetix
Academy Fight Song - Mission of Burma
Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend - Emmylou Harris
Johnny Are You Queer? - Josie Cotton
Kung-Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
Georgy Girl - The Seekers
To Sir With Love (Film Soundtrack Version) - Lulu
Hey Joe - Patti Smith
Enola Gay - Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark
Do You Know The Way To San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison
White Lines - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
American Fun - The Stompers
Oh Bondage Up Yours - X-Ray Spex
Happiness Is A Warm Gun - The Beatles
96 Tears - ? and The Mysterians
Money - Flying Lizards
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Christine (fast and/or slow versions) - Garland Jeffreys
Hey D.J. - Worlds Famous Supreme Team
Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Buffalo Love - Malcolm McLaren
My Generation - The Who
Grazing In The Grass - Friends Of Distinction
Gloria - Them
Skin And Bone - The Kinks
On Broadway - Lou Rawls
Little Red Corvette - Prince
Bella Lagosi's Dead - Bauhaus
Ode To Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry
Walk On By - The Stranglers
Turn The Beat Around - Vickie Sue Robinson
Piss Factory - Patti Smith
Schock den Affen - Peter Gabriel
Go - Tones On Tails
The Harder They Come (Acapella) - Donnie Calvin/Rocker's Revenge
Every Beat You Hear - Otis Ligget
Harper Valley P.T.A. - Jeanne C. Riley
Sex Dwarf - Soft Cell
Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Immigrant Song - Led Zepplin
Angel From Montgomrey - Bonnie Raitt
Then He Kissed Me - Hollywood Brats

Or you could make a donation in my name to: Save the Children, or Baby Milk Action, or AIDS Action Committee

Happy Holidays!



Dick Mac Recommends:
David Bowie Live in New York
by Myriam Santos-Kayda









Thursday, December 23, 2004

The Martha Stewart Thing

Martha Stewart deserved her prison time.

Many argued that prosecutors should not be going after her, they should be going after the big guys.

What makes someone a big guy? Is it the amount of money they control? The number of corporations they manage? How much they weigh? How heinous their crime?

Martha Stewart is certainly not a little-guy.

Sure there are bigger fish who have broken bigger laws and they should be in jail, too; but that does not mean Stewart should have been let-go. She is a very wealthy person who used her privilege to cheat and she got caught and she went to jail.

Yes, of course it is absurd that she was sent to prison while Henry Kissinger is walking the streets, and all of those Enron bastards are free. Still, she was stupid and she got caught.

America hates a strong, smart woman with a will to win, and as soon as a strong, smart woman does something stupid they pay a higher price than their male counterparts. It might even be true that if she was a man, she would not be in prison.

There are so many perspectives.

I would have like to have heard John Kerry's opinion during the last presidential campaign.

I think Tim Allen was really funny when he said: "Boy, I feel safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. & Kobe are walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean and work in the yard and haul her ass to jail."

Who needs to get the bad guys when you can get the Martha Stewarts! I'm so glad the Justice Department is getting the job done!



Thanks to Pat for sending along the Tim Allen quote!



Dick Mac Recommends:
Chelsea Market Baskets



Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Make a Donation for Wounded Soldiers

Yellow ribbons tied around trees, and red, white and blue stickers on the backs of SUVs saying "Support our Troops" are things that make civilians feel good, but do nothing for the men and women in uniform. So they are a waste of time and money and people should stop buying them and start doing something ANYTHING useful with their time and money!

Please consider the following:

Walter Reed hospital distributes phone cards to wounded soldiers. Many will be hospitalized throughout the holidays. Phone cards provide long-distance and internet access. Please send phone cards of any amount to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

Some people say this is a hoax; but, the hospital does supply wounded soldiers with phone cards, so it can't hurt to follow-through.

If you do not like this idea, Stars & Stripes magazine provides this list of other ways to support the troops. Some programs listed here also request phone cards.

Mrs. Mac and I have done it, and we hope you will, too!

Peace.



Dick Mac Recommends:
The Lies of George W. Bush
by David Corn


Bush Monkeys Follow-up

Thanks to Liz (all the way over in London) for pointing out that this story is very much (alive!)

I have not yet seen a picture, but anonymous donors have paid to put the image on a billboard at the Holland Tunnel in Lower Manhattan! Now it will be seen by 400,000 people a day.

Pittspurgh Post-Gazette article that explains the entire story. I had some some details incorrect in yesterday's article.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer article

Workmade: Chris Savido's website

BBC News UK Edition article

Bush Monkeys Auction


Bid on the Bush Monkeys original, acrylic on canvas, at ebay!



Dick Mac Recommends:
The Lies of George W. Bush
by David Corn







Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Bill Moyers

This past weekend, Bill Moyers stepped down as host of Now. This is a huge loss to journalism, and we can only hope that Moyers continues to grace the American press by publishing or broadcasting the occasional reminder that thinking is important. I received the following by email:

Earlier this month, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School presented its fourth annual Global Environment Citizen Award to Mr. Moyers. Here is the text of his acceptance. (Reprinted without permission.)

Bill Moyers on Health and the Global Environment
Originally published on Dec 4, 2004, 08:00 at YubaNet.com

I accept this award on behalf of all the people behind the camera whom you never see. And for all those scientists, advocates, activists, and just plain citizens whose stories we have covered in reporting on how environmental change affects our daily lives. We journalists are simply beachcombers on the shores of other people's knowledge, other people's experience, and other people's wisdom. We tell their stories.

The journalist who truly deserves this award is my friend, Bill McKibben. He enjoys the most conspicuous place in my own pantheon of journalistic heroes for his pioneer work in writing about the environment. His bestseller The End of Nature carried on where Rachel Carson's Silent Spring left off.

Writing in Mother Jones recently, Bill described how the problems we journalists routinely cover - conventional, manageable programs like budget shortfalls and pollution -- may be about to convert to chaotic, unpredictable, unmanageable situations. The most unmanageable of all, he writes, could be the accelerating deterioration of the environment, creating perils with huge momentum like the greenhouse effect that is causing the melt of the artic to release so much freshwater into the North Atlantic that even the Pentagon is growing alarmed that a weakening gulf stream could yield abrupt and overwhelming changes, the kind of changes that could radically alter civilizations.

That's one challenge we journalists face -- how to tell such a story without coming across as Cassandras, without turning off the people we most want to understand what's happening, who must act on what they read and hear.

As difficult as it is, however, for journalists to fashion a readable narrative for complex issues without depressing our readers and viewers, there is an even harder challenge -- to pierce the ideology that governs official policy today. One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the bible is literally true -- one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right -- the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the twelve volumes of the left-behind series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.

Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): once Israel has occupied the rest of its 'biblical lands,' legions of the anti-Christ will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow.

I'm not making this up. Like Monbiot, I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelations where four angels 'which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man.' A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144-just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of god will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.

So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist, Glenn Scherer - 'the road to environmental apocalypse. Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election - 231 legislators in total -- more since the election -- are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the senate floor: "the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land.' he seemed to be relishing the thought.

And why not? There's a constituency for it. A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the bible? Â Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same god who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"

Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the lord will provide. One of their texts is a high school history book, America's providential history. You'll find there these words: "the secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie...that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece.' however, "[t]he Christian knows that the potential in god is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in god's earth. . . . while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that god has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people." No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers." He turned out millions of the foot soldiers on November 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics.

I can see in the look on your faces just how had it is for the journalist to report a story like this with any credibility. So let me put it on a personal level. I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I think of my friend on Wall Street whom I once asked: "What do you think of the market?" "I'm optimistic," he answered. "Then why do you look so worried?" And he answered: "Because I am not sure my optimism is justified."

I'm not, either. Once upon a time I agreed with the Eric Chivian and the Center for Health and the Global Environment that people will protect the natural environment when they realize its importance to their health and to the health and lives of their children. Now I am not so sure. It's not that I don't want to believe that - it's just that I read the news and connect the dots:

I read that the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared the election a mandate for President Bush on the environment. This for an administration that wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act protecting rare plant and animal species and their habitats, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act that requires the government to judge beforehand if actions might damage natural resources. That wants to relax pollution limits for ozone; eliminate vehicle tailpipe inspections; and ease pollution standards for cars, sports utility vehicles and diesel-powered big trucks and heavy equipment.

That wants a new international audit law to allow corporations to keep certain information about environmental problems secret from the public.

That wants to drop all its new-source review suits against polluting coal-fired power plans and weaken consent decrees reached earlier with coal companies.

That wants to open the artic wildlife refuge to drilling and increase drilling in Padre Island National Seashore, the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world and the last great coastal wild land in America.

I read the news just this week and learned how the Environmental Protection Agency had planned to spend nine million dollars - $2 million of it from the administration's friends at the American Chemistry Council - to pay poor families to continue to use pesticides in their homes. These pesticides have been linked to neurological damage in children, but instead of ordering an end to their use, the government and the industry were going to offer the families $970 each, as well as a camcorder and children's clothing, to serve as guinea pigs for the study.

I read all this in the news.

I read the news just last night and learned that the administration's friends at the international policy network, which is supported by Exxon Mobile and others of like mind, have issued a new report that climate change is 'a myth, sea levels are not rising, scientists who believe catastrophe is possible are 'an embarrassment.

I not only read the news but the fine print of the recent appropriations bill passed by Congress, with the obscure (and obscene) riders attached to it: a clause removing all endangered species protections from pesticides; language prohibiting judicial review for a forest in Oregon; a waiver of environmental review for grazing permits on public lands; a rider pressed by developers to weaken protection for crucial habitats in California.

I read all this and look up at the pictures on my desk, next to the computer - pictures of my grandchildren: Henry, age 12; of Thomas, age 10; of Nancy, 7; Jassie, 3; Sara Jane, nine months. I see the future looking back at me from those photographs and I say, 'Father, forgive us, for we know now what we do.' And then I am stopped short by the thought: 'That's not right. We do know what we are doing. We are stealing their future. Betraying their trust. Despoiling their world.'

And I ask myself: Why? Is it because we don't care? Because we are greedy? Because we have lost our capacity for outrage, our ability to sustain indignation at injustice?

What has happened to out moral imagination?

On the heath Lear asks Gloucester: 'How do you see the world?" And Gloucester, who is blind, answers: "I see it feelingly.'"

I see it feelingly.

The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free - not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. And the will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. What we need to match the science of human health is what the ancient Israelites called 'hocma' the science of the heart . . . the capacity to see . . . to feel . . . and then to act . . . as if the future depended on you.

Believe me, it does.



Thanks to Jim for sending this along!



Dick Mac Recommends:
Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times
by Bill Moyers









Monday, December 20, 2004

Will The Bush Monkeys Become Extinct?

Chris Savido is a young artist trying to make a name for himself. Like many young artists, his work was included in a group show hanging in a public space.

You've seen these shows in lobbies, and cafes, and markets. Sometimes the establishment does a good job hanging the show and the work gets the attention it deserves; sometimes it is just thrown up on any blank wall because the landlord is too cheap to decorate.

In the late 90s I bought a painting that I found hanging on the wall of a Starbucks in Downtown Boston. Paintings were lovingly displayed. Brochures, a price list, and a contact number were all available. The artists name is Tuesdee Halbert and the painting is an abstract work that currently hangs in my daughter's bedroom.

It is not easy for artists like Halbert or Savido to get publicity for their art, and I'd be willing to bet that this is the only internet article every to mention Miss Halbert's piece that was purchased at a Starbucks. I Googled Tuesdee Halbert and found references to her at an Austin, Texas, catering site, and a series of obituaries for her grandfather. Her name is unique enough that I assume it is the same Tuesdee Halbert.

This article is not about Tuesdee Halbert, however, it is about Chris Savido, whose recent painting "Bush Monkeys" has been the catalyst for an attack on Free Speech mounted by the Right Wi . . ., er, Reich Wing.

This is the story I heard:

Chelsea Market in New York City uses part of their public space to hang art exhibitions. Mr. Savido's "Bush Monkeys" was one of many pieces selected for the show. A patron who saw the painting complained that he was offended by it. Which is good. Art should evoke feeling and dialogue. Mr. Offended Public complained to building management, or the curators, or someone in authority that he was offended by the piece. As I said, this is good because he was sparked to talk about how the art was impacting him. Sadly, Mr. O.P. is obviously a member of the Right Wi . . ., er, Reich Wing, because he was not interested in discussing the feelings evoked by the art, he simply wanted it removed! However, the great thing about freedom of speech is we all get to talk about what we don't like, but we don't get to prevent others from disagreeing or presenting their opinions. Nothing was done by the management or curators. Then next day, Mr. O.P. confronted management again and demanded that the piece be removed. The curators acquiesced, removed the piece, and replaced it with a quote about Freedom of Speech from George Washington. Then next day, Mr. O.P. saw the quote and surmising (probably correctly) that it was directed specifically at his personal attack on the United States Constitution, complained further. So, the curators removed the quote and replaced it with the original "Bush Monkeys" piece. I suspect that Mr. O.P. must be not just a member of the general public at Chelsea Market, but is someone with authority or the power of persuasion within the Chelsea Market organization, because the issue escalated. Now, I repeat: this is the story I heard -- I have no facts about the sequence of events, but it sounds plausible and very much like the tactics used by the Right Wi . . ., er, Reich Wing. When the show finally came to its Opening, the owner/president/head honcho of Chelsea Market had security remove Mr. Savido from the premises, along with the curators of the show. They were put on the street without their coats, briefcases, or personal possessions, and were told to leave now and come back to have the entire show removed from the market by the following midnight. I do not know if they were able to meet the deadline, but I do know that "Bush Monkeys" is now hanging in a gallery in New York's East Village. You can see a photograph of the painting and the painter at Reuters.

I think this is an important news story because it points to a problem you hear discussed regularly: the erosion of personal freedom and the dismantling of constitutional rights. Oddly, this story is not news. I have found almost nothing about it in the Untied States media, even the New York City media. When I Google News "bush monkey" I find hundreds of news entries, but of the top ten entries, the first seven are from India, England, Phillipines, Qatar and Ireland, and only the next three are from the USA (and they only reprint the AP feed). No New York media outlet deemed this story worthy of news coverage!

Yahoo! Entertainment found room for it, but it did not appear in their news section.

The building that houses Chelsea Market is also the home of NY1, a cable news channel owned by CNN. A television station specifically for broadcasting NEWS does not think the removal of controversial art, art that is protected by the First Amendment, from their building is newsworthy. I can only suspect that NY1 officials who broadcast plenty about the lack of freedom in Saddaam's Iraq have no interest in discussing freedom so close to their office.

Yes, it is true that Chelsea Market is a private business and has no constitutional obligation to display anything it does not like; but their fascist tactics leave something to be desired and point to the bigger problem we face: The Right Wi . . ., er, Reich Wing thinks they can behave in an uncivilized, bullying manner, and they know they can threaten anyone they dislike because they know there will be no ramifications! They know the media will not expose them, and if anything, the media will shield them from criticism. They know that American citizens will not speak-out about injustice. They know you are all too stoned on television and iPods to take any action at all.

If the owners of Chelsea Market received any tax breaks or government assistance to develop their project, if any public monies or givebacks have been involved with their project, then they should be required to abide by the Constitution when it comes to displays of work and speech in their public space. It would be interesting to know if the New York City government assisted these fascists during development.

Why is the media silent about this event?

Will the media ever stand up and expose incidents like this?

Good luck Mr. Savido! I hope you make a bundle on prints of the piece. Remember, when you sell the piece, you should retain publication rights so you can make the prints! I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hang a picture of George Bush in their home, but it might sell big!

In the meantime, I encourage all my New York friends to please contact Chelsea Market and all the vendors inside and ask them what they think of this decision, and the removal of the artwork. Then, refuse to do any business with those who support these tactics or refuse to take a position. Your power is in your money. So, put your money where you mouth is!

The tenants of Chelsea Market are:

Manhattan Fruit Exchange & The Juice Factory
212.989-2444
www.manhattanfruitexchange.com

GOUPIL & DECARLO PATISSERIE
212.807.1908

SARABETH
212.989.2424
info@sarabeth.com

BOWERY KITCHEN SUPPLY
212-376-4982
bowerykitchen@yahoo.com

AMY'S BREAD
212.462.4338
amy@amysbread.com

Imports From Marrakech
212-675-9700

BUON ITALIA
212-633-9090
info@buonitalia.com

THE CLEAVER CO.
212.741.9174

CHELSEA MARKET BASKETS
888.727.7887
info@chelseamarketbaskets.com

You will be pleased to know that Chelsea Market Baskets replied to my email to say they thought it was wrong to remove the artwork. I did not ask their political affiliation, but they obviously support the Bill of Rights and that’s good enough for me to support them. So, buy something from Chelsea Market Baskets! (If other vendors reply to my contact, I will publish an update.)


Portico
(212) 941-7800

Ronnybrook Farm Dairy
212.741.6455
info@ronnybrook.com

The Lobster Place
212-255-5672
info@lobsterplace.com

Hale & Hearty Soups
212.255.2400

CHELSEA THAI
212.924.2999

Freight
212-242-6555

FATWITCH BAKERY
212-807-1335
fatwitch@fatwitch.com

CHELSEA WINE VAULT
212-462-4244
chelseawinevault@erols.com

FRANK'S BUTCHER SHOP
212.242.1234

Hugh McMahon, The Pumpkin Man
718.625.6171
fmcmahon@voyager.net

ELENI'S COOKIES
212.255.7990
sales@elenis.com

CHELSEA WHOLESALE FLOWER MARKET
212-620-7500
chelseawholesale@earthlink.net

Ruthy's Bakery & Cafe
212-463-8800

Let them know what you think of this issue, and ask them what they thing about this issue!




Dick Mac Recommends:
Freda Payne's Greatest Hits








Friday, December 17, 2004

Actual blurbs from church bulletins

The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 p.m. there will be a hymn sing in the park across from the church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

The associate minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge -- Up Yours."

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the BS is done.

Low Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. Please use the back door.

The Lutheran men's group will meet at 6 p.m.: steak, mashed potatoes, beans, bread, and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.

Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church. Come and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday in the recreation hall. Come and watch us kill Christ the King.

Miss Charlene Mason sang, "I Will Not Pass This Way Again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.

Next Sunday is the family hayride and bonfire. Bring your own hot dogs and guns.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water."
The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community.

Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off. Let the Church help.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5 p.m. Prayer and medication to follow.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement Friday at 7 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Some Short Stories About
Nasty People I Don't Like

by Mitzel










Thursday, December 16, 2004

Top 10s!

I asked you for top ten lists and got very few. Liz sent her Top 100 LPs and I might publish them at a later date. But, send in your lists today and I will add them to this article!

damnedbowiegeek's list:
1. David Bowie - Station to Station
2. The Damned - History of the World, Part 1
3. The Cramps - Kizmiaz
4. Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Supernaturally
6. The Misfits - Angelfuck
7. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
8. Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
9. Cheap Trick - Surrender
10. Del Shannon - Runaway

gercasty's list:
1. Drive-In Saturday - David Bowie
2. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
3. Julie With... - Brian Eno
4. All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
5. Abraham, Martin & John - Marvin Gaye
6. The Dream Before - Laurie Anderson
7. Dancing Queen - Abba
8. Listening Wind - Talking Heads
9. Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
10. What You Do With What You've Got - Eddi Reader




Here's my list Ten Favorite Songs About A Boy:
Rebel, Rebel - David Bowie
Lola - The Kinks
Leader Of The Pack - Shangri-Las
(I Want To Be) Bobby's Girl - Marcie Blaine
My Boyfriend's Back - The Angels
My Man - Billie Holiday
Everybody's Boring But My Baby - Pearl Harbor & The Explosions
Johnny Are You Queer? - Josie Cotton
Rickie Don't Lose That Number - Tom Robinson Band
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash

And my Ten Favorite Songs About A Girl:
Bernadette - The Four Tops
China Girl - Iggy Pop
Ballad Of Lucy Jordan - Marianne Faithfull
Sweet Jane - Velvet Underground
I Want To Be Jackie Onassis - Human Sexual Response
Gloria - Patti Smith
Little Girl Blue - Ella Fitzgerald
Garland Jeffreys - Christine
Alison - Elvis Costello
Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen



Dick Mac Recommends:
Velvet Underground & Nico




Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Diary of a Snow-Shoveler

Author unknown


December 8, 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9: We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a lovelier place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.

December 12: The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry; we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

December 14: Snow, lovely snow! 8" last night. The temperature dropped to 20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way. I wish I wouldn't huff and puff so.

December 15: 20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and two extra shovels. Stocked the freezer.The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska, after all.

December 16: Ice storm this morning. Fell on my butt on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17: Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for five hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20: Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night. More shovelling. Took all day. Goddamn snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower, and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22: Bob was right about a white Christmas, because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt 'til August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel, and then I had to piss. By the time I got undressed, pissed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel! Tried to hire Bob, who has a plow on his truck, for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the asshole is lying.

December 23: Only 2" of snow today, and it warmed up to "zero". The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What, is she nuts!!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did, but I think she's lying.

December 24: 6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch who drives that snowplow, I'll drag him through the snow by his balls and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at a 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over everywhere I've just been! Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the Goddamn snow plough.

December 25: Merry F#%^@*&^ Christmas. 20 more inches of the &%^%*$**#$ slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shovelling makes my blood boil. God, I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26: Still snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27: Temperature dropped to -30, and the pipes froze. Plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him; he only charged me $1,400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28: Warmed up to above -30. Still snowed in. The BITCH is driving me crazy!!!!!

December 29: 10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30: Roof caved in. I beat up the snowplow driver. He is now suing me for a million dollars; not for only the beating I gave him, but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his ass. The wife went home to her mother. 9" predicted.

December 31: I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.

January 8: Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?



Dick Mac Recommends:
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by Al Franken.