Dick Mac (alive!)

On The Move!

2012-01-24T06:54:00.000-05:00

by Dick Mac

Dick Mac (alive!) will be on hiatus the week of 23-27 January.

Please seek out the rantings of another unrepentant old leftist for the next five days.

See you next week!

We Are Moving!

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-05:00

by Dick Mac

Dick Mac (alive!) will be on hiatus the week of 23-27 January.

Please seek out the rantings of another unrepentant old leftist for the next five days.

See you next week!

We are moving!

Paint It, Black - Rolling Stones

2012-01-20T06:31:00.005-05:00

by Dick Mac

"Paint It, Black" was released by The Rolling Stones in 1966. It was the first release from the album Aftermath. It is credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards; but it has been claimed that this was a publishing error and that the song is actually a Nanker-Phelge composition.

It was originally titled "Paint It Black"; and Keith Richards says the comma was added by the record label. I wonder what significance that edit could actually have? Neither title is grammatically correct or incorrect.

The single reached number one in both the United States and United Kingdom. It is ranked #176 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; and was the first number one single to feature a sitar on the recording.

Here is a live recording with Richards playing the sitar part on electric guitar:

See, wikipedia entry for "Paint It, Black"

Ibid., Nanker Phelge

See, also, The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

And eventually, the door in the background will be painted black.

Who Wants To Paint?

2012-01-19T06:25:00.003-05:00

by Dick Mac

I have less than 24 hours to finish cutting the trim in two rooms, and painting two entire other rooms, before the carpet installation guys arrive.

If you know how to paint, please come right over:

No, really! I need you to come right over. I need your help:

So, give me a call ASAP and get over here.

I have brushes, rollers and tarps.

See you later on!

Margaret Court, Bigot

2012-01-18T07:03:00.005-05:00

by Dick Mac

Australian tennis player, Margaret Court, is an evangelical Christian who admonishes gay people for indulging in abominable sexual practices and considers same-sex marriages as unhealthy, unnatural unions.

So, basically, she is a bigoted wench (and I mean that in the most offensive way you can imagine).

She is also physically ugly. Like comic-book ugly -- like you can't even believe how ugly she is! She is so physically ugly that you can't believe she goes out into public with that face.

Her bigotry is likely rooted in that physical ugliness, as it manifests in her heart as spiritual ugliness.

She is certainly a spiritually ugly person, as all bigots are.

Even attractive people, when they reveal their bigotry, begin to look ugly.

Court's ugliness is extreme. The hate must be painful.

Margaret Court should be marginalized and ignored. Perhaps that should start with me. Goodbye, Margaret Court: you are dead to me!

Laura Robson's gay rights stance reignites equality controversy

Whatever Happened To Kieger Enterprises?

2012-01-17T07:15:00.000-05:00

by Dick Mac

On Friday, March 5, 2004, the US Attorney for Minnesota announced the indictment of Kieger Enterprises and three of its former officers. They were were charged with

engaging in a fraud scheme to enrich themselves by taking advantage of funds available for disaster relief efforts, including those for the clean-up efforts related to the . . . September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. . . .
United States Attorney District of Minnesota News Release

USA Today published a follow-up story, 9/11 thefts not prosecuted after FBI misdeeds, in 2006. In that story, it was revealed that other thefts connected to 9/11 had taken place and covered-up, including the theft of artifacts from Ground Zero and The Pentagon. It was concluded that no prosecution could take place, and one reason was that

16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, had such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon

Read more at (of all places) Fox News: AP Report: Sept. 11 Thefts of Donated Goods Not Prosecuted

Yep! The Secretary of State of the United States during the Bush II Administration was in possession of artifacts stolen from a 9/11 site; and because he was in possession of these stolen artifacts, the government could not prosecute a corporation that had robbed a warehouse of relief supplies for Ground Zero.

Everybody walked away. Even the whistle-blowers were made to walk away from their jobs when they were terminated for revealing the theft.

Whatever Happened To Kieger Enterprises? Nothing!

It's good to be well-connected.

Dead Enz
Kyle G. Brixton
Limited Availability

Dead Enz
Kyle G. Brixton

Tebowie

2012-01-16T07:25:00.000-05:00

by Dick Mac

One would think that over the length and breadth of his amazing career, David Bowie would be the object of much derision, sarcastic disdain, and downright hostility. Amazingly though, this performer who dressed in girls clothes, became a publicly obvious drug addict, proclaimed his non-heterosexuality proudly, was alleged to admire Hitler and raise a Nazi salute, and has retired from rock and roll repeatedly, has remained highly-respected by those in and out of the music industry. At this point, he is entertaining his fourth generation of fans, and his absence from the public eye these last ten years has hardly weakened his reputation and image.

One of Bowie's biggest hits was "Space Oddity," a song about an astronaut becoming lost in space for eternity. It has been a popular song and has not been successfully covered by others -- it is uniquely "davidbowie"!

As a tribute to David Bowie, Jimmy Fallon created a vicious send-up of the always-troubling and never entertaining Tim Tebow, using the Space Oddity song and wonderful glam image of vintage Bowie performances.

For those who do not know about him: Tebow is a young American athlete who during his college tenure became a spokesperson and symbol for the dangerous, anti-American, self-serving, borderline insane, "conservative christian" movement.

I have written about Tebow in the past: see here.

Tebow blames Jesus Christ for everything, thereby absolving himself, as all christian extremists do, of any actual responsibility for his own behavior. "This or that happens only because Jesus wills it" or "success is only possible if Jesus pre-ordains it" and "public declarations of one's love for Jesus is the only way to successfully petition the Lord and achieve success."

I have always been offended by this brand of christian. They use their so-called faith to rationalize mistreatment of people different from them, to promote changes to civil law that isolate and harm small segments of society, and they frighten small children into a repressed lifestyle of hatred, devolution, and hypocrisy. I believe this type of "christian" is dangerous, and they make Catholics look like open-minded progressives.

After two years of having to hear Tim Tebow proclaim his love for his almighty God and savior, watch him praise the lord on television, and suffer his endorsement of homophobic and misogynistic political movements, someone has finally, FINALLY, gone public with a scathing, smart, entertaining attack on this hypocrite and his alleged relationship with Jesus Christ (his lord and savior).

Watch Jimmy Fallon use his adoration of David Bowie to highlight the silliness of a dullard like Tebow:

Here is Fallon performing Tebowie as on the always irritating Piers Morgan show.

Here is an annotated send-up of Fallon's new version of "Space Oddity":

One or more of these YouTube links may or may not continue to work:

I Can't Stand Up - Elvis

2012-01-13T07:01:00.007-05:00

by Dick Mac

Elvis Costello's first soul single!

The Attractions do their best Temptations routine, while Elvis hones his nerdy white boy routine.

Written by Homer Banks and Allen Jones, it was originally recorded and released by Sam & Dave in 1967.

This version is from Elvis' fourth (and my favorite) studio LP "Get Happy!!" (1980), and this song was released as a single in the UK on F-Beat Records.

I've always loved the line: "I've tasted the bitterness of my own tears and sadness is all my lonely heart can feel." It's one of those lyrics I wish I had written.

Enjoy and Get Happy!!

Terrorizing The Citizenry

2012-01-12T07:28:00.002-05:00

by Dick Mac

After 9/11, the security industry was subsidized to levels only the military-industrial complex had ever dreamed.

We were told we would be made safe. The bad guys would never hurt us like that again.

What we were not told is that we would day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, year-by-year, watch our personal freedoms erode to such a degree that the free world would become more like a police state than George Orwell imagined (or imagined perfectly, perhaps).

It all started sort of comically one day in 2002 when an elderly woman was forced to surrender her knitting needles to "the authorities" before boarding an airplane. We all laughed, because it was so absurd. Granny made it to her destination without her knitting, and we moved on with our lives.

And things got worse.

Our giggles have turned slowly to outrage.

On the one hand we say: "What do you expect? The people controlling our airport security only have those jobs because McDonald's wasn't hiring. They are just a bunch of idiots."

On the other hand we say: "This will keep us safe. A little inconvenience at the gate will make me safer in the air."

We have the group that says: "This is a complete and total violation of our right to privacy and unreasonable search."

We have another group that says: "I've got nothing to hide, so let them search me." (Note: this group is generally made-up of middle-class white men who are never stopped and searched for any reason.)

It's a debate we have among ourselves while the security companies change our rights quietly, hoping we pay no attention.

Congress is no help to the citizenry. This group of 630-something millionaires pretending to represent the common man see this situation as an opportunity to profiteer, not protect us. They pass laws that restrict freedom and provide funds to security companies to militarize our police force and restrict our freedom.

This problem is not unique to the United States, but is happening throughout the free world, with our closest allies.

And we sit by and we watch as seemingly isolated events happen like this: a dad is harassed for photographing his daughter eating an ice cream cone in a shopping mall because it violates the Terrorism Act. A woman is stopped and refused boarding a flight because of her cupcake because it violated anti-terrorism regulations. A family is arrested and their child removed from their custody at a supermarket over an accidental dispute over s three dollar sandwich. The list goes on.

And the middle class, the now voiceless, silent, frightened middle class silently acquiesces.

One only need look at the government's handling of the Occupy movement: the beatings and assaults on people of all ages by battle-armored urban police forces. I have few pundits question why our police use military-grade equipment on children and elderly people protesting government policy.

Are you really safer from the threat of terrorism?

Can we even discern between enemy combatants and our own police forces?

Will the middle class ever enjoy the freedoms of movement, assembly, and speech that we used to take for granted?

Just because Khloe Kardashian's genetic lineage is today's big news, does that mean we should sit by and watch our government being turned over to military and security contractors?

Please read the following stories for a little entertainment. Pretend the Kardashians are the subjects:

Father's photo of daughter in shopping centre sparks security dispute

Cupcake sparks airport terror threat

Fighting Crime at a Supermarket in Hawaii

To help you submit to the brave new world in which we live, Independent Traveler has published an Airport Security Q&A at their site.

Basketball

2012-01-11T07:59:00.001-05:00

by Dick Mac

I grew-up in Boston, in the 1960s and -70s.

In the Boston sports world there were some names that stood out:

Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Satch Sanders, Red Auerbach, K.C Jones, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Longborg, Reggie Smith, George Scott, Carlton Fisk, Jim Nance, Jim Plunkett, John Hannah, Babe Parilli, Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson, Phil Esposito, Derek Sanderson, Ted Green, and Gerry Cheevers come to mind as I type.

The NBA players were particularly revered, even if the NBA wasn't exactly embraced like the other three major sports. In my early years, the Celtics won six championships between 1964 and 1974.

The Celtics were a sports dynasty in every sense of the word. In America, only the New York Yankees, could boast a championship culture like the Celtics.

The NBA might not have been very popular, but my hometown team was pretty much the greatest basketball team ever!

As a young adult, I was hypnotized by Larry Bird and his foil, the wonderful Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Bird and Magic brought the NBA to a level of respectability that had only been forecast, but never realized. These men were class-personified on the court. Their rivalry was the stuff of books and fairy tales. They showed a mutual respect and mutual admiration: Bird in his very quiet, almost meek style, and Magic in his happily boastful and hugely entertaining style. When they looked at each other, you saw the respect, the admiration, the intensity. It was a beautiful thing. They were class personified.

This is the kind of rivalry that makes a sports league. You can't plan it or plot it or manipulate things to make it happen; you can only hope you capitalize on it when it happens.

It happened, and the NBA made all the right moves.

As time passed, newer players were promoted and marketed by the NBA. Most notably, Michael Jordan.

Jordan is not class personified. In fact, he is the antithesis of class.

The NBA changed with Jordan. It has become un-watchable. I sometimes enjoy attending a match, but I never watch it on television anymore. Attending a basketball game at Madison Square Garden is amusing. There are an amazing number of stops in the action. Besides the actual time-outs that are called by the teams, there are the breaks between quarters, and most importantly, the TV time-outs.

At the arena, music blasts at ridiculous decibels, scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court, acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess, the music blasts some more, then scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court, then acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess, and then again the music blasts even more, then the scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court some more, then acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess with members of the audience. Then there is some basketball played.

But it's not the basketball I remember from my youth, it is the NBA, which means the rules are bent a little. The more famous you are, the more steps you can take. The more popular you are, the more often you are allowed to change your pivot foot. The richer you are, the more you are allowed to physically abuse those less famous, popular, or wealthy.

The NBA is a joke. Now, two-plus decades into the post-Bird/Magic era, the influence of the NBA on youth basketball is appallingly obvious.

Professionals influence the way children behave.

Charles Barkley famously whined that he wasn't a role-model, thereby absolving himself of any responsibility as he acted like a total fucking asshole on and off the court. He WAS a role-model and many of his youthful admirers also became total fucking assholes on and off the court as they emulated him.

I know you've changed, Charles, but you blew it back then, and have to do a little more work apologizing and making the world a better place before you will gain my respect. Unlike Michael Jordan, I believe you are becoming an upstanding adult citizen and will one day be considered a positive influence on America's youth.

Not Michael Jordan. This is his legacy:

In Washington state, a high school student decided to record a basketball game to highlight the problem of bad officiating in the league (the high school league).

As the writer points-out in the article linked below:

As it turns out, the clip did more than just spotlight an officiating problem; it also made seniors Cole Vanderbilt and teammate Kennan VanHollebeke look like the dirtiest players on the court.

Here is part of the video, which I think perfectly highlights Jordan-era basketball at its most vulgar:

That is not the basketball played by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, or any of their predecessors. That is the basketball of Michael Jordan and the rest of the millionaire thugs that make-up the NBA.

Read more here: Video of flagrant foul no-calls at basketball game goes viral

Santorum

2012-01-10T07:17:00.001-05:00

by Dick Mac

Rick Santorum believes that everyone who has medical problems should pay more for health insurance than those who do not have health problems. Except him, of course, and his clan of genetically inadequate humans.

As explained on his wikipedia page:

Santorum and his wife, Karen, have seven living children. One of their children has been diagnosed with Edwards syndrome, a serious genetic disorder.

So, it is odd that he would have this position. Recently, in New Hampshire, he said:

Insurance works when people who are higher risk end up having to pay more, as they should. In your case, your son obviously did nothing wrong. Obviously there are a lot of other people that increased their health risk that did do things wrong and as a result, it resulted in higher health care costs.

Santorum To Mother Of Cancer Survivor: Sick To Blame For Pre-Existing Conditions, Should Be Charged MoreI am certain that Santorum doesn't think his family should pay more; it's the other people who should pay more. You. And your family.

As my friend, Beff, points out:

He or his wife must have had a genetic problem. They gave birth to a child with a genetic disorder. Considering that it was one of them who had this preexisting genetic problem, no insurance should have covered any of the treatment afforded their child. And his wife gave birth to a stillborn child. Clearly, something must be wrong with his wife, obviously having some sort of preexisting condition, so therefore, none of her medical expenses should have been covered by insurance. And THIS, my friends, is compassionate conservatism.

I wonder how much more Santorum plans to pay for his family's insurance coverage?

I wish someone would ask him.

Watch an exchange between Santorum and the mother of a cancer survivor here:

Yes, compassionate conservatism at its finest.

How Different Are We?

2012-01-09T07:40:00.000-05:00

by Dick Mac

I think all of us relate best to those who are like us: economically, racial, ethnically, culturally, religiously, intellectually, etc. That does not mean we do not seek out those different from ourselves; it means only that most people are most comfortable with the familiar.

When we work and play with others like us, we are empathetic and sympathetic. We relate to the challenges and confusions our peers face. Perhaps we have, or are currently, experiencing some of the same challenges and joys.

Middle class people understand the challenge their peers have with paying a mortgage and private school tuition. Working class people understand how each other struggles with the costs of transportation, energy, and the lowliest forms of entertainment. Poor people understand how other poor people struggle with the food budget, clean clothes, and housing. When our challenges are similar, we are most connected with others.

This is the process, in some way, of ghetto-ization: similar people grouping together geographically.

The rich tend to live in areas with other rich people, and suffer similar challenges.

People who work for a living (and I do not mean people who work in a multi-billion dollar company they have inherited from three generations of success) relate to the same financial woes. These are challenges the wealthy never understand and some middle-class Americans deny (lest they be labelled whiners).

When electing representatives in Congress, middle-class, working people rarely get to choose from any candidates similar to themselves. Our choices are generally a pool of very wealthy people who can afford to run for office, and are connected to corporations that fund their campaigns.

When those elected officials arrive in Washington, D.C., they represent the interests of other rich people and the corporations who have funded their victories -- even if those rich people and companies do not live in their districts. Making the wealthy and corporate entities disproportionately represented in Congress.

I know that there are people in my congressional district who live below the poverty line, and others whose net worth is probably in the multiple millions, and most are like me: middle-class and/or upwardly mobile professionals or tradesmen. I would say the percentage of multi-millionaires is minuscule, and the percentage of those living in poverty higher by triple, quadruple, or perhaps ten times that.

Yet, my district is represented by a very wealthy man who considers himself a "conservative"; and can not and does not relate to the majority of us in his district. He is in Washington representing the interests of someone other than me and the majority of my neighbors.

How many congressional districts are represented by people who earn, or have inherited, dramatically more than their constituents? It seems the number is pretty high.

But the financial gap between Americans and their representatives in Congress has widened considerably . . . according to an analysis of financial disclosures by The Washington Post.

Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents

See, also, 10 Ultra-Rich Congresspeople Who 'Represent' Some of the Most Financially Screwed Districts.

In my district, public transportation is of utmost importance to most constituents. In fact, in most urban and suburban areas, public transportation is vital to commerce. People need to get to and from work, and few cities have sufficient room and infrastructure to allow everyone to drive.

Public transportation is of no consequence to the wealthy. It is a burden and the wealthy have convinced many middle-class Americans that public transportation is a waste of taxpayer money.

Why does this matter? Just last week, Congress ended a commuter tax break for public transportation (rich people don't take subways), and retained the commuter tax break for parking costs (rich people drive).

This is basically a $561 annual tax increase on middle class and working class Americans, at a time when taxes for the wealthiest Americans are being slashed.

If we relate most to those who are like us, and I think that is pretty obvious, then how many of us are actually represented by politicians with similar concerns, hopes, challenges, and aspirations?

It seems a tiny percentage.

Why? Because American electoral politics is driven by money. The more money you have (or have behind you), the more likely you are to be elected; and the more likely you are to represent the interests of other wealthy people and/or wealthy backers.

How many working-class Americans are represented by working-class people?

Does your Congressional delegation represent your interests?

I suggest you call their office and ask how much they ear and how much they are worth.

Then, stop voting for Republicans and Democrats who are always funded by wealthy and corporate interests, and vote for your neighbor. How do you meet your politically active neighbors?

Contact the Green Party.

2011 - The Year In Review [Reprint]

2012-01-06T06:57:00.004-05:00

by Dick Mac

[1/6/12 note] This will be the last reprint of my 2011 Year in Review.

Yesterday I got an email asking why I did not include the European financial crises in my review. Those crises were not specific to 2011, they began a few years ago (one might say they began when the Western world switched to Reaganomics). So, I agree that the financial condition of Western Civilization is an incredibly important topic, but it has been going on for years.

Previously, I had been asked why I didn't include "Arab Spring" in my overview. I didn't think of it. I know that sounds odd, because it's exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't generally forget about.

But, I did; and I go on record here saying that the events surrounding Arab Spring are extraordinary and will likely change the course of human history.

And, now on to the items of interest from 2011 that I did cover:

Royalty

Rita Jenrette
Thirty years after her expose of life as a Congressman's wife in Washington, D.C., the former Rita Jenrette is back in the public eye.

I know: you didn't even know! Neither did I, until a few weeks ago, when she appeared in the pages of The New Yorker!

Jenrette was the wife of Rep. John Jenrette (D-SC) who, in 1980, was entrapped by the FBI in the ABSCAM scandal. During the myriad investigations, it was revealed that her husband had been cheating on her.

After an appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, Jenrette gave an interview to Playboy that appeared in the April 1981 issue. The article featured nude pictures of the Congressman's wife. Hey, it was Playboy, and she was hot. In a later book she created a sensation by telling the tale that the Congressman and she made love behind a pillar on the Capitol steps.

Thirty years later, the New Yorker article discusses her current project of renovating and restoring her home, Villa Aurora, in Rome.

Villa Aurora is a 500-year-old palace. Fit for a king. Or at least a Prince and his princess.

YES! Having married Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rita Jenrette is Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. That is, "Rita" to her friends and "Your Serene Highness" to the rest of us.

Read more:
Letter from Rome: The Renovation
Rita Jenrette

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
Wills, the popular son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, the most popular princess of all-time (yes, even bigger than Grace Kelly) is all grown-up.

He is a philanthropist and a military veteran, he is the second-in-line to the British throne, and until April 29, 2011, one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet.

When he awoke on the morning of April 30, 2011, he was the newlywed husband of the former Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

In a fairytale wedding that rivaled that of his late mother and his father Charles, Prince of Wales, the 28-year-old prince and his bride charmed the world.

Technology

Steve Jobs
The king is dead, long live the king.

I was never a fan of Steve Jobs, but he sure made waves in 2011 when he died young. I have always been less-than-impressed by his expensive proprietary inventions and his leadership of a multi-billion dollar company that uses slave labor and refuses to pay a dividend to its shareholders (that is, it owners).

But, the world mourned, and then moved on.

Politics

Scott Walker
The Governor of Wisconsin announced that he was given a mandate to destroy his state government and distribute as much of Wisconsin's wealth to the already-wealthiest citizens.

He is the subject of a recall campaign that has gained a remarkable amount of momentum and will likely lead to a vote on his removal from office.

He might lose.

Occupy Wall Street, NYPD, Tony Baloney, and Poo
Kalle Lasn, a founder of Adbusters, probably did not realize exactly how successful his call-to-passivity would be when he urged his readers and followers to occupy Wall Street.

They did! Literally!

Thousands of people in New York, and millions of people across the land, occupied the locations that represent the avaricious downfall of American capitalism.

The people who are doing the bidding of the billionaires who are destroying our nation are people like Scott Walker (see above), Barack Obama, and Michael Bloomberg. They and their cohorts have set their sites on the elimination of worker protection and the dismantling of unions.

Wisely, however, they are protecting one particular union: the police union. You see, these guys knew there'd be trouble eventually, and that there will likely be more trouble, and if they paid-off the cops by protecting their unions and pensions, the cops would do their bidding.

So, spineless men and women earning less than a hundred grand a year, dressed up in space-age military garb, attacked, beat, maced, stomped, dragged, sexually abused, humiliated, and arrested fellow American citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

I used to respect cops. All of them. Even the bad ones. I've always told my daughter that cops are important people, are the real heroes in New York.

I've stopped telling her that.

The New York Police in one split-second changed from being the most amazing heroes holding the mantle of 9/11, to being a despicable gang of thugs attacking American taxpayers exercising their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress.

What rationale was used for the police attacking citizen occupiers?

Poo.

Yes, poo.

Feces.

Shit.

Excrement.

The New York Police beat their neighbors and fellow citizens to a pulp because a billionaire a few blocks North decided that there were sanitation issues that trumped Constitutional rights.

These horrible, horrible New Yorkers, hiding behind their badges, sold their souls for a retirement fund, and took orders from a man who thinks poo is more important that the Constitution.

Little did they realize that their reprehensible behavior would spark people across the nation to Occupy.

When Inspector Anthony Bologna (an embarrassment to law enforcement, New York and humanity) confronted four 20-something women involved in the protest, and sprayed them directly in the face with pepper spray, he gave Occupy more publicity and more sympathy than a year of occupation possibly could.

When Tony Baloney was filmed attacking unarmed girls, Americans of every stripe were equally appalled and an amazing amount of public opinion shifted from being pro-police to being pro-Occupy.

Occupy is now an integral part of the American landscape to a degree the Koch Brothers' Tea Party will never enjoy.

The police have lost the respect of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers.

When I pass cops on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan, they are almost always looking down. I avert my eyes if they look up. I no longer say hello, or nod and smile.

Anthony Weiner
My congressman was a successful politician who was as progressive as elected officials are allowed to be.

He sent provocative photographs of himself to the wrong people.

Anthony Weiner is my former Congressman, and his seat has been filled by an idiot Republican hell-bent on destroying America.

Good job, Congressman Weiner. By the way: fuck you, you asshole.

Osama bin Laden
Speaking of fuck you: the line "fuck you and the boat you came in on" comes to mind when I think of the year Osama bin Laden had. Only it is fuck you and the boat you went out on.

American intelligence pinpointed the terrorist leader at an address in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group clandestinely entered the compound and killed him.

Then they spirited the body out Pakistan, onto a Navy ship and dumped it at sea.

Gabrielle Giffords
Thinking-people are targets for the derision of stupid, violent, right-wing Americans.

A couple years ago, Sarah Palin published a map of the United States with scope sight symbols on congressional districts that she and her fucked-up Tea Party cohorts were targeting.

Gabrielle Giffords' district was one of them.

Palin's tea party wish came true when Giffords was second amendmented during a community outreach event.

Having survived the attack, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery.

Entertainment

Leah Kardos – Feather Hammer
Contemporary classical music has always been an odd notion to me. When the term ambient music was coined it helped to describe electronic music created in the style of classical music.

Ambient music has grown in many different ways, and electronics have allowed talented musicians to create sounds that the Beethovens, Bachs, Tchaikovskys, and Wagners, never imagined.

In 2011, record label bigo & twigetti released Feather Hammer, the new work by musician/pianist, composer/producer Leah Kardos.

A resident of London for the past many years, Leah was born, raised, and educated in Australia. As a student at University of Queensland she won the Gold Coast Composition Competition [twice], and worked with Queensland Symphony Orchestra resident composer, Nigel Sabin, as a member of the Young Composers Program. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Music Composition.

More than any other composer or musician of her generation, Kardos has embraced the challenge of taming modern electronic tools in the composition of her work.

Feather Hammer is the fruits of that challenge. Engagingly listenable and attention-worthy, the cuts also work as ambient sound that tickle the brain when you don't even know the sound is there. Hardly invisible, each track is intricate and dynamic, reminiscent of David Bowie's "Low" album.

The record is one of the most amazing musical releases of 2011.

Buy Feather Hammer and listen and enjoy.

Amy Winehouse
The song "Me And Mr. Jones" has been called "derivative" and Amy Winehouse has been called a poseur.

All of this was before she died, of course. Now the critics rarely say anything critical.

I liked Amy Winehouse and all of her songs.

Her death is a loss for the world, and her legacy reverberates more than Steve Jobs', but perhaps not as much as the legacy of . . .

Elizabeth Taylor
I know, you thought she'd never die. Me too.

Rest in peace, Liz. Tell Michael Jackson we still love him.

Dead Enz, Kyle G. Brixton
The hottest software company is about to go public, raking in serious scratch. Only one problem-the mysterious death of their programming wizard!

It's 1984. The era of the desktop computer has dawned. Software companies are sprouting around the country like mushrooms. The biggest buzz in the financial press is about Locust, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its president, David Hedges, is already out of the box with a line of high-end business products. He`s itching to go public-and make his hundreds of millions-and Wall Street has his IPO all lined up.

His ace-in-the-hole is lead programmer, Rusty van Handle, whose piece of Locust will bring him a bundle. Though van Handle is a hot-shot in the digital world, he has a different reputation around town:

There's his plan to muscle-in on a real estate deal and take the property of an elderly black woman in the South End, and his claim that he owns half of the break-out pop band, Dead Enz, whose lead singer, Sal Ianucci, he regularly supplies with cocaine. Actually, van Handle was a regular supplier of cocaine to many, and he had mountains of the powder.

The day before the IPO, van Handle's body is found splattered on a street in the South End. Wearing handcuffs.

Murder? Accident? Suicide?

The Locust IPO goes on hold, and may burn-out entirely. The press is all over the scandal. David Hedges is livid and uses his influence to make sure someone-anyone-is nailed for the crime.

Kyle G. Brixton is the pen name for two Boston area writers. Beauty To Die For is the next in this series.

Friday
At the far end of the music industry and musical spectrum are laurels for resting the tribulations of teenage pop singer Rebecca Black.

With a little bit of money and a lot of faith, Black and her mother invested in a vanity recording of "Friday" which was written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson.

The song is inane and teeny-bopperish. It doesn't sound any worse than most of the other mindless pablum released by the music conglomerates.

At 13 years old, Rebecca Black was an unlikely candidate for super stardom, and the path has been fast and infuriating.

When a comedian with a Twitter account dubbed it "the worst video ever made," the dams were breached and the attention flooded over Black, her mother, and the record label. The traffic at youtube.com sky-rocketed, and download sales turned from a trickle to a torrent.

Yes, even I purchased the MP3.

Chaz Bono
Sony and Cher were huge pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s. They had hit songs and successful public appearances. They had their own variety show. They had a baby girl they named Chastity. They separated professionally and romantically. Cher went on to become a HUGE star and Sonny went on to become a tedious Republican elected official in the dullest part of California.

Throughout the years, Cher was photographed with her assorted romantic partners. Her daughter was often in tow. Her presence at these times exposed and oddly maternal side of Cher that nobody in the press ever appreciated. Cher could have relegated her daughter to a lonely life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards. Instead, (for better or worse) Cher provided a life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards, in which she, as her mother, was very present.

As an adult, Chastity came-out as a lesbian.

Cher did not handle it with the aplomb you might expect; but, in the end the mother supported the daughter unequivocally.

Time went on and Chastity's life became her own. She built good and bad relationships with different partners. As she became more an more independent, she began to question her gender-identity.

In 2011, Chastity became a transgendered man and took the name Chaz. The transformation has included chemical and surgical alterations.

Many were shocked.

Many were not.

I was not. Here we have a young woman who watched the most important female authority figures in her life embrace surgical enhancement: plastic surgery, breast enhancement, tattoo make-up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It should surprise nobody that this very rich young person would consider chemical and/or surgical solutions for an emotional problem. Children of Hollywood often do this.

Chaz was completely public about his transformation, having the entire process documented for public consumption.

The outrage was amusing, the acclaim well-earned. Then things took a sad twist: Chaz accepted a contract to appear on "Dancing With The Stars"!

What little credibility he was able to muster with the general public was now compromised and his life turned into a freak show. Just like his mother's.

Charlie Sheen
Drug addicts and alcoholics are sometimes sad, and sometimes amusing.

In the case of Charlie Sheen, the level of amusement is priceless. No amount of money can purchase this entertainment; and if a team of writers had created the story as a script, nobody would buy it.

Known for violence, bad relationships, and heavy drinking (not necessarily in that order), Sheen took a turn for the worse when he went public with criticisms of the people with whom he worked.

He became an Internet sensation and his insane life became a travelling circus. Literally. People bought tickets to watch him stand on a stage and rant on and on (like a drug addict) about the things he finds most notable. Himself mostly.

I am a fan.

I want this ride to go on for a long time.

If Sheen gets sober, and I hope to God he does, I hope he maintains this level of crazy in his new life.

George Takei
"It's OK To Be Takei" took the place of "It's OK To Be Gay" when the right-wing rose up in arms against gay and lesbian youth who were promoting the OK-ness of homosexuality.

George Takei, actor and activist, is a homosexual who does not hide his lifestyle from the world. He has taken it upon himself to make it OK for kids to be who they are. He is an ardent and tireless advocate for the rights of young gay and lesbian people around the world.

You go girl!

Finance

MF Global
As a leftist, it is easiest for me to blame the Republicans for all that is wrong with America. I believe that supply-side economic theory is at the root of all of America's economic, social and political problems. Because the supply-side economic theory when put into practice is most often referred to as Reaganomics, and Reagan is the mother of all Republican saviors, it is easy to blame the Republicans for this situation. In reality, though, the Democrats are just as giulty and should be held as accountable as their right-wing cohorts.

One embarrassing facet of supply-side economic theory is the unbridled avarice that it promotes and celebrates. When America's econmy was run with Keynsian economic theory, there was avarice, but nothing compared to the celebration of unmitigated greed that is Reaganomics.

Under Keynsian economic theory, the recent depression spurred by the collaps of the financial system could not happen, because regulation would prevent banks and other financial institutions from pulling the shit they pulled on us in 2009.

Under Reganomics, individuals and companies are able to suck the lifeblood from any institution, and walk away unscathed.

Jon Corzine, former Democratic governor of New Jersey, took his company MF Global to ruin and stood idly by as over a billion dollars vanished into the pockets of people who will never be investigated, never mind prosecuted.

The Unraveling of MF Global

If ever any patriotic American considered voting against the single-party Democratic-Republican system; this election cycle would be a good time to vote Green.

Sports

Joey Barton
The sports world needed another bad boy and sociopath like Newcastle needs extra coal. In Newcastle, they got both. Footballer (soccer player) Joey Barton, English bad boy extraordinaire, lashed out against his bosses, and took to the ether to air his grievances.

Overnight, Barton became a Twitter sensation. He exposed a side of himself that had never been seen by his fans and detractors. He is a smart man who can wax eloquently (in 140 characters or less) about Nietzsche, fascism, racism, van Gogh, social and cultural vulgarity, NPR, and parenting.

On the last topic, he and his long-time girlfriend had a baby boy at the end of 2011. Congratulations to them.

In my fantasies, Joey Barton moves to New York and joins Red Bull New York. With his criminal record, however, he probably would not receive clearance to work here.

Rafa Marquez
Rafa, Rafa, Rafa.

In the "Open Mouth Insert Foot" department, Rafa Marquez used his lack of English language skills to denigrate his co-workers.

It is possible that the translation of his remarks made him sound worse than he really is. Or, he might be an elitist snob unable to accept criticism and failure, who hides behind an alleged language barrier to avoid direct confrontation.

I don't know if it is the former, the latter, or a little of both.

If you watched the game, there were individual errors that you can’t do anything about. If we look at statistics, I stole a lot of balls. I think I made two or three bad passes out of 30-plus attempts. I almost didn't commit any errors, so I am not worried.

I think I am playing at my maximum level and doing everything I can. I don’t have, unfortunately, four defenders on my level that can help me out.

Then, discussing Tim Ream, a young, promising American defender who has an international career ahead of him, Rafa offered:

Tim is still a young player with a lot to learn. He still has quite a lot to learn, and well, he has committed errors that are very infantile and cost us goals.

See, Rafa Márquez blasts underachieving Red Bulls teammates

Because he is perceived as a failure by many supporters of the team, there was no room for generosity.

Management benched Rafa for the next match. When he returned to the team, he was booed by the supporters.

All his teammates took the high road. They deferred and demurred when asked to throw gasoline on the fire. In the end, his teammates rallied around him and while under this newly magnified microscope, Rafa raised his game and played very well as the season came to an end.

I am a fan of Rafa Marquez. I am a big fan of Rafa Marquez.

I am a fan and season-ticket holder of Red Bull New York.

I love my team and I love our marquee defender, even when he is in the pits.

There have been RBNY players who angered me. I would never boo one of my own players during a match, no matter how despicable I found them. RBNY fans who took this road, who booed Rafa after the controversy, took a lower road than Rafa. To boo your own team or one of its players is contemptible. I won't do it, and I was ashamed of my fellow supporters who booed one of our own in front of visiting teams and their fans.

Rafa Marquez returns to Red Bull Arena for the 2012 season, and I wish him the best.

Nature and Science

Tsunami and Earthquake
Japan must be cursed.

NASA Space Shuttle
In an effort to further rob the United States Treasury of what little has been left behind by the supply-siders, NASA has cancelled the space shuttle program. Our anti-government government believes that his work can be better done by private industry.

They are wrong, of course; but, when you live in a society that has spent thirty years saying its government is bad, then that society will lose its effective government and surrender its treasury and abdicate its responsibilities to the corporate world.

The cancellation of the NASA Space Shuttle program is further proof of the end of American civilization.

I don't even support or agree with the space shuttle program, and I know its cancellation is bad for the American people.

Fads

Planking
More exciting than yo-yos and hula-hoops, but duller than streaking, the fad of planking took the spotlight in 2011.

Planking is lying face down in an unusual location, with both hands touching the sides of the body. When the physical feat is accomplished, the fad is completed by photographing the event and posting it on the Internet.

For a moment of schadenfreude, find one of the many great videos out there of failed attempts at planking. Generally the video shows the plank-er slamming face first into an inanimate object. I always laugh.

I know am going to Hell.

And so are you.

But not in 2011, because 2011 is gone.

May you have a healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2012.

Dead Enz
Kyle G. Brixton

Dead Enz
Kyle G. Brixton

2011 - The Year In Review [Reprint]

2012-01-05T06:32:00.001-05:00

by Dick Mac

[1/5/12 note] I continue to get feedback about my 2011 review post!

Since I enjoyed writing it so much, I have decided that I will republish it all this first week of 2012.

I have been asked why I didn't include "Arab Spring" in my overview. I didn't think of it. I know that sounds odd, because it's exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't generally forget about.

But, I did; and I go on record here saying that the events surrounding Arab Spring are extraordinary and will likely change the course of human history.

And, now on to the items of interest from 2011 that I did cover:

Royalty

Rita Jenrette
Thirty years after her expose of life as a Congressman's wife in Washington, D.C., the former Rita Jenrette is back in the public eye.

I know: you didn't even know! Neither did I, until a few weeks ago, when she appeared in the pages of The New Yorker!

Jenrette was the wife of Rep. John Jenrette (D-SC) who, in 1980, was entrapped by the FBI in the ABSCAM scandal. During the myriad investigations, it was revealed that her husband had been cheating on her.

After an appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, Jenrette gave an interview to Playboy that appeared in the April 1981 issue. The article featured nude pictures of the Congressman's wife. Hey, it was Playboy, and she was hot. In a later book she created a sensation by telling the tale that the Congressman and she made love behind a pillar on the Capitol steps.

Thirty years later, the New Yorker article discusses her current project of renovating and restoring her home, Villa Aurora, in Rome.

Villa Aurora is a 500-year-old palace. Fit for a king. Or at least a Prince and his princess.

YES! Having married Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rita Jenrette is Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. That is, "Rita" to her friends and "Your Serene Highness" to the rest of us.

Read more:
Letter from Rome: The Renovation
Rita Jenrette

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
Wills, the popular son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, the most popular princess of all-time (yes, even bigger than Grace Kelly) is all grown-up.

He is a philanthropist and a military veteran, he is the second-in-line to the British throne, and until April 29, 2011, one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet.

When he awoke on the morning of April 30, 2011, he was the newlywed husband of the former Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

In a fairytale wedding that rivaled that of his late mother and his father Charles, Prince of Wales, the 28-year-old prince and his bride charmed the world.

Technology

Steve Jobs
The king is dead, long live the king.

I was never a fan of Steve Jobs, but he sure made waves in 2011 when he died young. I have always been less-than-impressed by his expensive proprietary inventions and his leadership of a multi-billion dollar company that uses slave labor and refuses to pay a dividend to its shareholders (that is, it owners).

But, the world mourned, and then moved on.

Politics

Scott Walker
The Governor of Wisconsin announced that he was given a mandate to destroy his state government and distribute as much of Wisconsin's wealth to the already-wealthiest citizens.

He is the subject of a recall campaign that has gained a remarkable amount of momentum and will likely lead to a vote on his removal from office.

He might lose.

Occupy Wall Street, NYPD, Tony Baloney, and Poo
Kalle Lasn, a founder of Adbusters, probably did not realize exactly how successful his call-to-passivity would be when he urged his readers and followers to occupy Wall Street.

They did! Literally!

Thousands of people in New York, and millions of people across the land, occupied the locations that represent the avaricious downfall of American capitalism.

The people who are doing the bidding of the billionaires who are destroying our nation are people like Scott Walker (see above), Barack Obama, and Michael Bloomberg. They and their cohorts have set their sites on the elimination of worker protection and the dismantling of unions.

Wisely, however, they are protecting one particular union: the police union. You see, these guys knew there'd be trouble eventually, and that there will likely be more trouble, and if they paid-off the cops by protecting their unions and pensions, the cops would do their bidding.

So, spineless men and women earning less than a hundred grand a year, dressed up in space-age military garb, attacked, beat, maced, stomped, dragged, sexually abused, humiliated, and arrested fellow American citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

I used to respect cops. All of them. Even the bad ones. I've always told my daughter that cops are important people, are the real heroes in New York.

I've stopped telling her that.

The New York Police in one split-second changed from being the most amazing heroes holding the mantle of 9/11, to being a despicable gang of thugs attacking American taxpayers exercising their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress.

What rationale was used for the police attacking citizen occupiers?

Poo.

Yes, poo.

Feces.

Shit.

Excrement.

The New York Police beat their neighbors and fellow citizens to a pulp because a billionaire a few blocks North decided that there were sanitation issues that trumped Constitutional rights.

These horrible, horrible New Yorkers, hiding behind their badges, sold their souls for a retirement fund, and took orders from a man who thinks poo is more important that the Constitution.

Little did they realize that their reprehensible behavior would spark people across the nation to Occupy.

When Inspector Anthony Bologna (an embarrassment to law enforcement, New York and humanity) confronted four 20-something women involved in the protest, and sprayed them directly in the face with pepper spray, he gave Occupy more publicity and more sympathy than a year of occupation possibly could.

When Tony Baloney was filmed attacking unarmed girls, Americans of every stripe were equally appalled and an amazing amount of public opinion shifted from being pro-police to being pro-Occupy.

Occupy is now an integral part of the American landscape to a degree the Koch Brothers' Tea Party will never enjoy.

The police have lost the respect of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers.

When I pass cops on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan, they are almost always looking down. I avert my eyes if they look up. I no longer say hello, or nod and smile.

Anthony Weiner
My congressman was a successful politician who was as progressive as elected officials are allowed to be.

He sent provocative photographs of himself to the wrong people.

Anthony Weiner is my former Congressman, and his seat has been filled by an idiot Republican hell-bent on destroying America.

Good job, Congressman Weiner. By the way: fuck you, you asshole.

Osama bin Laden
Speaking of fuck you: the line "fuck you and the boat you came in on" comes to mind when I think of the year Osama bin Laden had. Only it is fuck you and the boat you went out on.

American intelligence pinpointed the terrorist leader at an address in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group clandestinely entered the compound and killed him.

Then they spirited the body out Pakistan, onto a Navy ship and dumped it at sea.

Gabrielle Giffords
Thinking people are targets for the derision of stupid, violent, right-wing Americans.

A couple years ago, Sarah Palin published a map of the United States with scope sight symbols on congressional districts that she and her fucked-up Tea Party cohorts were targeting.

Gabrielle Giffords' district was one of them.

Palin's tea party wish came true when Giffords was second amendmented during a community outreach event.

Having survived the attack, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery.

Entertainment

Leah Kardos – Feather Hammer
Contemporary classical music has always been an odd notion to me. When the term ambient music was coined it helped to describe electronic music created in the style of classical music.

Ambient music has grown in many different ways, and electronics have allowed talented musicians to create sounds that the Beethovens, Bachs, Tchaikovskys, and Wagners, never imagined.

In 2011, record label bigo & twigetti released Feather Hammer, the new work by musician/pianist, composer/producer Leah Kardos.

A resident of London for the past many years, Leah was born, raised, and educated in Australia. As a student at University of Queensland she won the Gold Coast Composition Competition [twice], and worked with Queensland Symphony Orchestra resident composer, Nigel Sabin, as a member of the Young Composers Program. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Music Composition.

More than any other composer or musician of her generation, Kardos has embraced the challenge of taming modern electronic tools in the composition of her work.

Feather Hammer is the fruits of that challenge. Engagingly listenable and attention-worthy, the cuts also work as ambient sound that tickle the brain when you don't even know the sound is there. Hardly invisible, each track is intricate and dynamic, reminiscent of David Bowie's "Low" album.

The record is one of the most amazing musical releases of 2011.

Buy Feather Hammer and listen and enjoy.

Amy Winehouse
The song "Me And Mr. Jones" has been called "derivative" and Amy Winehouse has been called a poseur.

All of this was before she died, of course. Now the critics rarely say anything critical.

I liked Amy Winehouse and all of her songs.

Her death is a loss for the world, and her legacy reverberates more than Steve Jobs', but perhaps not as much as the legacy of . . .

Elizabeth Taylor
I know, you thought she'd never die. Me too.

Rest in peace, Liz. Tell Michael Jackson we still love him.

Dead Enz, Kyle G. Brixton
The hottest software company is about to go public, raking in serious scratch. Only one problem-the mysterious death of their programming wizard!

It's 1984. The era of the desktop computer has dawned. Software companies are sprouting around the country like mushrooms. The biggest buzz in the financial press is about Locust, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its president, David Hedges, is already out of the box with a line of high-end business products. He`s itching to go public-and make his hundreds of millions-and Wall Street has his IPO all lined up.

His ace-in-the-hole is lead programmer, Rusty van Handle, whose piece of Locust will bring him a bundle. Though van Handle is a hot-shot in the digital world, he has a different reputation around town:

There's his plan to muscle-in on a real estate deal and take the property of an elderly black woman in the South End, and his claim that he owns half of the break-out pop band, Dead Enz, whose lead singer, Sal Ianucci, he regularly supplies with cocaine. Actually, van Handle was a regular supplier of cocaine to many, and he had mountains of the powder.

The day before the IPO, van Handle's body is found splattered on a street in the South End. Wearing handcuffs.

Murder? Accident? Suicide?

The Locust IPO goes on hold, and may burn-out entirely. The press is all over the scandal. David Hedges is livid and uses his influence to make sure someone-anyone-is nailed for the crime.

Kyle G. Brixton is the pen name for two Boston area writers. Beauty To Die For is the next in this series.

Friday
At the far end of the music industry and musical spectrum are laurels for resting the tribulations of teenage pop singer Rebecca Black.

With a little bit of money and a lot of faith, Black and her mother invested in a vanity recording of "Friday" which was written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson.

The song is inane and teeny-bopperish. It doesn't sound any worse than most of the other mindless pablum released by the music conglomerates.

At 13 years old, Rebecca Black was an unlikely candidate for super stardom, and the path has been fast and infuriating.

When a comedian with a Twitter account dubbed it "the worst video ever made," the dams were breached and the attention flooded over Black, her mother, and the record label. The traffic at youtube.com sky-rocketed, and download sales turned from a trickle to a torrent.

Yes, even I purchased the MP3.

Chaz Bono
Sony and Cher were huge pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s. They had hit songs and successful public appearances. They had their own variety show. They had a baby girl they named Chastity. They separated professionally and romantically. Cher went on to become a HUGE star and Sonny went on to become a tedious Republican elected official in the dullest part of California.

Throughout the years, Cher was photographed with her assorted romantic partners. Her daughter was often in tow. Her presence at these times exposed and oddly maternal side of Cher that nobody in the press ever appreciated. Cher could have relegated her daughter to a lonely life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards. Instead, (for better or worse) Cher provided a life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards, in which she, as her mother, was very present.

As an adult, Chastity came-out as a lesbian.

Cher did not handle it with the aplomb you might expect; but, in the end the mother supported the daughter unequivocally.

Time went on and Chastity's life became her own. She built good and bad relationships with different partners. As she became more an more independent, she began to question her gender-identity.

In 2011, Chastity became a transgendered man and took the name Chaz. The transformation has included chemical and surgical alterations.

Many were shocked.

Many were not.

I was not. Here we have a young woman who watched the most important female authority figures in her life embrace surgical enhancement: plastic surgery, breast enhancement, tattoo make-up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It should surprise nobody that this very rich young person would consider chemical and/or surgical solutions for an emotional problem. Children of Hollywood often do this.

Chaz was completely public about his transformation, having the entire process documented for public consumption.

The outrage was amusing, the acclaim well-earned. Then things took a sad twist: Chaz accepted a contract to appear on "Dancing With The Stars"!

What little credibility he was able to muster with the general public was now compromised and his life turned into a freak show. Just like his mother's.

Charlie Sheen
Drug addicts and alcoholics are sometimes sad, and sometimes amusing.

In the case of Charlie Sheen, the level of amusement is priceless. No amount of money can purchase this entertainment; and if a team of writers had created the story as a script, nobody would buy it.

Known for violence, bad relationships, and heavy drinking (not necessarily in that order), Sheen took a turn for the worse when he went public with criticisms of the people with whom he worked.

He became an Internet sensation and his insane life became a travelling circus. Literally. People bought tickets to watch him stand on a stage and rant on and on (like a drug addict) about the things he finds most notable. Himself mostly.

I am a fan.

I want this ride to go on for a long time.

If Sheen gets sober, and I hope to God he does, I hope he maintains this level of crazy in his new life.

George Takei
"It's OK To Be Takei" took the place of "It's OK To Be Gay" when the right-wing rose up in arms against gay and lesbian youth who were promoting the OK-ness of homosexuality.

George Takei, actor and activist, is a homosexual who does not hide his lifestyle from the world. He has taken it upon himself to make it OK for kids to be who they are. He is an ardent and tireless advocate for the rights of young gay and lesbian people around the world.

You go girl!

Finance

MF Global
As a leftist, it is easiest for me to blame the Republicans for all that is wrong with America. I believe that supply-side economic theory is at the root of all of America's economic, social and political problems. Because the supply-side economic theory when put into practice is most often referred to as Reaganomics, and Reagan is the mother of all Republican saviors, it is easy to blame the Republicans for this situation. In reality, though, the Democrats are just as giulty and should be held as accountable as their right-wing cohorts.

One embarrassing facet of supply-side economic theory is the unbridled avarice that it promotes and celebrates. When America's econmy was run with Keynsian economic theory, there was avarice, but nothing compared to the celebration of unmitigated greed that is Reaganomics.

Under Keynsian economic theory, the recent depression spurred by the collaps of the financial system could not happen, because regulation would prevent banks and other financial institutions from pulling the shit they pulled on us in 2009.

Under Reganomics, individuals and companies are able to suck the lifeblood from any institution, and walk away unscathed.

Jon Corzine, former Democratic governor of New Jersey, took his company MF Global to ruin and stood idly by as over a billion dollars vanished into the pockets of people who will never be investigated, never mind prosecuted.

The Unraveling of MF Global

If ever any patriotic American considered voting against the single-party Democratic-Republican system; this election cycle would be a good time to vote Green.

Sports

Joey Barton
The sports world needed another bad boy and sociopath like Newcastle needs extra coal. In Newcastle, they got both. Footballer (soccer player) Joey Barton, English bad boy extraordinaire, lashed out against his bosses, and took to the ether to air his grievances.

Overnight, Barton became a Twitter sensation. He exposed a side of himself that had never been seen by his fans and detractors. He is a smart man who can wax eloquently (in 140 characters or less) about Nietzsche, fascism, racism, van Gogh, social and cultural vulgarity, NPR, and parenting.

On the last topic, he and his long-time girlfriend had a baby boy at the end of 2011. Congratulations to them.

In my fantasies, Joey Barton moves to New York and joins Red Bull New York. With his criminal record, however, he probably would not receive clearance to work here.

Rafa Marquez
Rafa, Rafa, Rafa.

In the "Open Mouth Insert Foot" department, Rafa Marquez used his lack of English language skills to denigrate his co-workers.

It is possible that the translation of his remarks made him sound worse than he really is. Or, he might be an elitist snob unable to accept criticism and failure, who hides behind an alleged language barrier to avoid direct confrontation.

I don't know if it is the former, the latter, or a little of both.

If you watched the game, there were individual errors that you can’t do anything about. If we look at statistics, I stole a lot of balls. I think I made two or three bad passes out of 30-plus attempts. I almost didn't commit any errors, so I am not worried.

I think I am playing at my maximum level and doing everything I can. I don’t have, unfortunately, four defenders on my level that can help me out.

Then, discussing Tim Ream, a young, promising American defender who has an international career ahead of him, Rafa offered:

Tim is still a young player with a lot to learn. He still has quite a lot to learn, and well, he has committed errors that are very infantile and cost us goals.

See, Rafa Márquez blasts underachieving Red Bulls teammates

2011 - The Year In Review [Reprint]

2012-01-04T07:12:00.009-05:00

by Dick Mac

[1/4 note] The response to my 2011 Year In Review article has been overwhelmingly positive.

Since I enjoyed writing it so much, I have decided that I will republish it all this first week of 2012.

I have been asked why I didn't include "Arab Spring" in my overview. I didn't think of it. I know that sounds odd, because it's exactly the kind of thing I wouldn't generally forget about.

But, I did; and I go on record here saying that the events surrounding Arab Spring are extraordinary and will likely change the course of human history.

Royalty

Rita Jenrette
Thirty years after her expose of life as a Congressman's wife in Washington, D.C., the former Rita Jenrette is back in the public eye.

I know: you didn't even know! Neither did I, until a few weeks ago, when she appeared in the pages of The New Yorker!

Jenrette was the wife of Rep. John Jenrette (D-SC) who, in 1980, was entrapped by the FBI in the ABSCAM scandal. During the myriad investigations, it was revealed that her husband had been cheating on her.

After an appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, Jenrette gave an interview to Playboy that appeared in the April 1981 issue. The article featured nude pictures of the Congressman's wife. Hey, it was Playboy, and she was hot. In a later book she created a sensation by telling the tale that the Congressman and she made love behind a pillar on the Capitol steps.

Thirty years later, the New Yorker article discusses her current project of renovating and restoring her home, Villa Aurora, in Rome.

Villa Aurora is a 500-year-old palace. Fit for a king. Or at least a Prince and his princess.

YES! Having married Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rita Jenrette is Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. That is, "Rita" to her friends and "Your Serene Highness" to the rest of us.

Read more:
Letter from Rome: The Renovation

Rita Jenrette

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
Wills, the popular son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, the most popular princess of all-time (yes, even bigger than Grace Kelly) is all grown-up.

He is a philanthropist and a military veteran, he is the second-in-line to the British throne, and until April 29, 2011, one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet.

When he awoke on the morning of April 30, 2011, he was the newlywed husband of the former Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

In a fairytale wedding that rivaled that of his late mother and his father Charles, Prince of Wales, the 28-year-old prince and his bride charmed the world.

Technology

Steve Jobs
The king is dead, long live the king.

I was never a fan of Steve Jobs, but he sure made waves in 2011 when he died young. I have always been less-than-impressed by his expensive proprietary inventions and his leadership of a multi-billion dollar company that uses slave labor and refuses to pay a dividend to its shareholders (that is, it owners).

But, the world mourned, and then moved on.

Politics

Scott Walker
The Governor of Wisconsin announced that he was given a mandate to destroy his state government and distribute as much of Wisconsin's wealth to the already-wealthiest citizens.

He is the subject of a recall campaign that has gained a remarkable amount of momentum and will likely lead to a vote on his removal from office.

He might lose.

Occupy Wall Street, NYPD, Tony Baloney, and Poo
Kalle Lasn, a founder of Adbusters, probably did not realize exactly how successful his call-to-passivity would be when he urged his readers and followers to occupy Wall Street.

They did! Literally!

Thousands of people in New York, and millions of people across the land, occupied the locations that represent the avaricious downfall of American capitalism.

The people who are doing the bidding of the billionaires who are destroying our nation are people like Scott Walker (see above), Barack Obama, and Michael Bloomberg. They and their cohorts have set their sites on the elimination of worker protection and the dismantling of unions.

Wisely, however, they are protecting one particular union: the police union. You see, these guys knew there'd be trouble eventually, and that there will likely be more trouble, and if they paid-off the cops by protecting their unions and pensions, the cops would do their bidding.

So, spineless men and women earning less than a hundred grand a year, dressed up in space-age military garb, attacked, beat, maced, stomped, dragged, sexually abused, humiliated, and arrested fellow American citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

I used to respect cops. All of them. Even the bad ones. I've always told my daughter that cops are important people, are the real heroes in New York.

I've stopped telling her that.

The New York Police in one split-second changed from being the most amazing heroes holding the mantle of 9/11, to being a despicable gang of thugs attacking American taxpayers exercising their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress.

What rationale was used for the police attacking citizen occupiers?

Poo.

Yes, poo.

Feces.

Shit.

Excrement.

The New York Police beat their neighbors and fellow citizens to a pulp because a billionaire a few blocks North decided that there were sanitation issues that trumped Constitutional rights.

These horrible, horrible New Yorkers, hiding behind their badges, sold their souls for a retirement fund, and took orders from a man who thinks poo is more important that the Constitution.

Little did they realize that their reprehensible behavior would spark people across the nation to Occupy.

When Inspector Anthony Bologna (an embarrassment to law enforcement, New York and humanity) confronted four 20-something women involved in the protest, and sprayed them directly in the face with pepper spray, he gave Occupy more publicity and more sympathy than a year of occupation possibly could.

When Tony Baloney was filmed attacking unarmed girls, Americans of every stripe were equally appalled and an amazing amount of public opinion shifted from being pro-police to being pro-Occupy.

Occupy is now an integral part of the American landscape to a degree the Koch Brothers' Tea Party will never enjoy.

The police have lost the respect of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers.

When I pass cops on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan, they are almost always looking down. I avert my eyes if they look up. I no longer say hello, or nod and smile.

Anthony Weiner
My congressman was a successful politician who was as progressive as elected officials are allowed to be.

He sent provocative photographs of himself to the wrong people.

Anthony Weiner is my former Congressman, and his seat has been filled by an idiot Republican hell-bent on destroying America.

Good job, Congressman Weiner. By the way: fuck you, you asshole.

Osama bin Laden
Speaking of fuck you: the line "fuck you and the boat you came in on" comes to mind when I think of the year Osama bin Laden had. Only it is fuck you and the boat you went out on.

American intelligence pinpointed the terrorist leader at an address in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group clandestinely entered the compound and killed him.

Then they spirited the body out Pakistan, onto a Navy ship and dumped it at sea.

Gabrielle Giffords
Thinking people are targets for the derision of stupid, violent, right-wing Americans.

A couple years ago, Sarah Palin published a map of the United States with scope sight symbols on congressional districts that she and her fucked-up Tea Party cohorts were targeting.

Gabrielle Giffords' district was one of them.

Palin's tea party wish came true when Giffords was second amendmented during a community outreach event.

Having survived the attack, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery.

Entertainment

Leah Kardos – Feather Hammer
Contemporary classical music has always been an odd notion to me. When the term ambient music was coined it helped to describe electronic music created in the style of classical music.

Ambient music has grown in many different ways, and electronics have allowed talented musicians to create sounds that the Beethovens, Bachs, Tchaikovskys, and Wagners, never imagined.

In 2011, record label bigo & twigetti released Feather Hammer, the new work by musician/pianist, composer/producer Leah Kardos.

A resident of London for the past many years, Leah was born, raised, and educated in Australia. As a student at University of Queensland she won the Gold Coast Composition Competition [twice], and worked with Queensland Symphony Orchestra resident composer, Nigel Sabin, as a member of the Young Composers Program. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Music Composition.

More than any other composer or musician of her generation, Kardos has embraced the challenge of taming modern electronic tools in the composition of her work.

Feather Hammer is the fruits of that challenge. Engagingly listenable and attention-worthy, the cuts also work as ambient sound that tickle the brain when you don't even know the sound is there. Hardly invisible, each track is intricate and dynamic, reminiscent of David Bowie's "Low" album.

The record is one of the most amazing musical releases of 2011.

Buy Feather Hammer and listen and enjoy.

Amy Winehouse
The song "Me And Mr. Jones" has been called "derivative" and Amy Winehouse has been called a poseur.

All of this was before she died, of course. Now the critics rarely say anything critical.

I liked Amy Winehouse and all of her songs.

Her death is a loss for the world, and her legacy reverberates more than Steve Jobs', but perhaps not as much as the legacy of . . .

Elizabeth Taylor
I know, you thought she'd never die. Me too.

Rest in peace, Liz. Tell Michael Jackson we still love him.

Dead Enz, Kyle G. Brixton
The hottest software company is about to go public, raking in serious scratch. Only one problem-the mysterious death of their programming wizard!

It's 1984. The era of the desktop computer has dawned. Software companies are sprouting around the country like mushrooms. The biggest buzz in the financial press is about Locust, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its president, David Hedges, is already out of the box with a line of high-end business products. He`s itching to go public-and make his hundreds of millions-and Wall Street has his IPO all lined up.

His ace-in-the-hole is lead programmer, Rusty van Handle, whose piece of Locust will bring him a bundle. Though van Handle is a hot-shot in the digital world, he has a different reputation around town:

There's his plan to muscle-in on a real estate deal and take the property of an elderly black woman in the South End, and his claim that he owns half of the break-out pop band, Dead Enz, whose lead singer, Sal Ianucci, he regularly supplies with cocaine. Actually, van Handle was a regular supplier of cocaine to many, and he had mountains of the powder.

The day before the IPO, van Handle's body is found splattered on a street in the South End. Wearing handcuffs.

Murder? Accident? Suicide?

The Locust IPO goes on hold, and may burn-out entirely. The press is all over the scandal. David Hedges is livid and uses his influence to make sure someone-anyone-is nailed for the crime.

Kyle G. Brixton is the pen name for two Boston area writers. Beauty To Die For is the next in this series.

Friday
At the far end of the music industry and musical spectrum are laurels for resting the tribulations of teenage pop singer Rebecca Black.

With a little bit of money and a lot of faith, Black and her mother invested in a vanity recording of "Friday" which was written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson.

The song is inane and teeny-bopperish. It doesn't sound any worse than most of the other mindless pablum released by the music conglomerates.

At 13 years old, Rebecca Black was an unlikely candidate for super stardom, and the path has been fast and infuriating.

When a comedian with a Twitter account dubbed it "the worst video ever made," the dams were breached and the attention flooded over Black, her mother, and the record label. The traffic at youtube.com sky-rocketed, and download sales turned from a trickle to a torrent.

Yes, even I purchased the MP3.

Chaz Bono
Sony and Cher were huge pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s. They had hit songs and successful public appearances. They had their own variety show. They had a baby girl they named Chastity. They separated professionally and romantically. Cher went on to become a HUGE star and Sonny went on to become a tedious Republican elected official in the dullest part of California.

Throughout the years, Cher was photographed with her assorted romantic partners. Her daughter was often in tow. Her presence at these times exposed and oddly maternal side of Cher that nobody in the press ever appreciated. Cher could have relegated her daughter to a lonely life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards. Instead, (for better or worse) Cher provided a life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards, in which she, as her mother, was very present.

As an adult, Chastity came-out as a lesbian.

Cher did not handle it with the aplomb you might expect; but, in the end the mother supported the daughter unequivocally.

Time went on and Chastity's life became her own. She built good and bad relationships with different partners. As she became more an more independent, she began to question her gender-identity.

In 2011, Chastity became a transgendered man and took the name Chaz. The transformation has included chemical and surgical alterations.

Many were shocked.

Many were not.

I was not. Here we have a young woman who watched the most important female authority figures in her life embrace surgical enhancement: plastic surgery, breast enhancement, tattoo make-up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It should surprise nobody that this very rich young person would consider chemical and/or surgical solutions for an emotional problem. Children of Hollywood often do this.

Chaz was completely public about his transformation, having the entire process documented for public consumption.

The outrage was amusing, the acclaim well-earned. Then things took a sad twist: Chaz accepted a contract to appear on "Dancing With The Stars"!

What little credibility he was able to muster with the general public was now compromised and his life turned into a freak show. Just like his mother's.

Charlie Sheen
Drug addicts and alcoholics are sometimes sad, and sometimes amusing.

In the case of Charlie Sheen, the level of amusement is priceless. No amount of money can purchase this entertainment; and if a team of writers had created the story as a script, nobody would buy it.

Known for violence, bad relationships, and heavy drinking (not necessarily in that order), Sheen took a turn for the worse when he went public with criticisms of the people with whom he worked.

He became an Internet sensation and his insane life became a travelling circus. Literally. People bought tickets to watch him stand on a stage and rant on and on (like a drug addict) about the things he finds most notable. Himself mostly.

I am a fan.

I want this ride to go on for a long time.

If Sheen gets sober, and I hope to God he does, I hope he maintains this level of crazy in his new life.

George Takei
"It's OK To Be Takei" took the place of "It's OK To Be Gay" when the right-wing rose up in arms against gay and lesbian youth who were promoting the OK-ness of homosexuality.

George Takei, actor and activist, is a homosexual who does not hide his lifestyle from the world. He has taken it upon himself to make it OK for kids to be who they are. He is an ardent and tireless advocate for the rights of young gay and lesbian people around the world.

You go girl!

Finance

MF Global
As a leftist, it is easiest for me to blame the Republicans for all that is wrong with America. I believe that supply-side economic theory is at the root of all of America's economic, social and political problems. Because the supply-side economic theory when put into practice is most often referred to as Reaganomics, and Reagan is the mother of all Republican saviors, it is easy to blame the Republicans for this situation. In reality, though, the Democrats are just as giulty and should be held as accountable as their right-wing cohorts.

One embarrassing facet of supply-side economic theory is the unbridled avarice that it promotes and celebrates. When America's econmy was run with Keynsian economic theory, there was avarice, but nothing compared to the celebration of unmitigated greed that is Reaganomics.

Under Keynsian economic theory, the recent depression spurred by the collaps of the financial system could not happen, because regulation would prevent banks and other financial institutions from pulling the shit they pulled on us in 2009.

Under Reganomics, individuals and companies are able to suck the lifeblood from any institution, and walk away unscathed.

Jon Corzine, former Democratic governor of New Jersey, took his company MF Global to ruin and stood idly by as over a billion dollars vanished into the pockets of people who will never be investigated, never mind prosecuted.

The Unraveling of MF Global

If ever any patriotic American considered voting against the single-party Democratic-Republican system; this election cycle would be a good time to vote Green.

Sports

Joey Barton
The sports world needed another bad boy and sociopath like Newcastle needs extra coal. In Newcastle, they got both. Footballer (soccer player) Joey Barton, English bad boy extraordinaire, lashed out against his bosses, and took to the ether to air his grievances.

Overnight, Barton became a Twitter sensation. He exposed a side of himself that had never been seen by his fans and detractors. He is a smart man who can wax eloquently (in 140 characters or less) about Nietzsche, fascism, racism, van Gogh, social and cultural vulgarity, NPR, and parenting.

On the last topic, he and his long-time girlfriend had a baby boy at the end of 2011. Congratulations to them.

In my fantasies, Joey Barton moves to New York and joins Red Bull New York. With his criminal record, however, he probably would not receive clearance to work here.

Rafa Marquez
Rafa, Rafa, Rafa.

In the "Open Mouth Insert Foot" department, Rafa Marquez used his lack of English language skills to denigrate his co-workers.

It is possible that the translation of his remarks made him sound worse than he really is. Or, he might be an elitist snob unable to accept criticism and failure, who hides behind an alleged language barrier to avoid direct confrontation.

I don't know if it is the former, the latter, or a little of both.

If you watched the game, there were individual errors that you can’t do anything about. If we look at statistics, I stole a lot of balls. I think I made two or three bad passes out of 30-plus attempts. I almost didn't commit any errors, so I am not worried.

I think I am playing at my maximum level and doing everything I can. I don’t have, unfortunately, four defenders on my level that can help me out.

Then, discussing Tim Ream, a young, promising American defender who has an international career ahead of him, Rafa offered:

Tim is still a young player with a lot to learn. He still has quite a lot to learn, and well, he has committed errors that are very infantile and cost us goals.

See, Rafa Márquez blasts underachieving Red Bulls teammates

2011 - The Year In Review

2012-01-03T06:18:00.007-05:00

by Dick Mac

Royalty

Rita Jenrette
Thirty years after her expose of life as a Congressman's wife in Washnigton, D.C., the former Rita Jenrette is back in the public eye.

I know: you didn't even know! Neither did I, until a few weeks ago, when she appeared in the pages of The New Yorker!

Jenrette was the wife of Rep. John Jenrette (D-SC) who, in 1980, was entrapped by the FBI in the ABSCAM scandal. During the myriad investigations, it was revealed that her husband had been cheating on her.

After an appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, Jenrette gave an interview to Playboy that appeared in the April 1981 issue. The article featured nude pictures of the Congressman's wife. Hey, it was Playboy, and she was hot. In a later book she created a sensation by telling the tale that the Congressman and she made love behind a pillar on the Capitol steps.

Thirty years later, the New Yorker article discusses her current project of renovating and restoring her home, Villa Aurora, in Rome.

Villa Aurora is a 500-year-old palace. Fit for a king. Or at least a Prince and his princess.

YES! Having married Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rita Jenrette is Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. That is, "Rita" to her friends and "Your Serene Highness" to the rest of us.

Read more:
Letter from Rome: The Renovation

Rita Jenrette

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
Wills, the popular son of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, the most popular princess of all-time (yes, even bigger than Grace Kelly) is all grown-up.

He is a philanthropist and a military veteran, he is the second-in-line to the British throne, and until April 29, 2011, one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet.

When he awoke on the morning of April 30, 2011, he was the newlywed husband of the former Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.

In a fairytale wedding that rivaled that of his late mother and his father Charles, Prince of Wales, the 28-year-old prince and his bride charmed the world.

Technology

Steve Jobs
The king is dead, long live the king.

I was never a fan of Steve Jobs, but he sure made waves in 2011 when he died young. I have always been less-than-impressed by his expensive proprietary inventions and his leadership of a multi-billion dollar company that uses slave labor and refuses to pay a dividend to its shareholders (that is, it owners).

But, the world mourned, and then moved on.

Politics

Scott Walker
The Governor of Wisconsin announced that he was given a mandate to destroy his state government and distribute as much of Wisconsin's wealth to the already-wealthiest citizens.

He is the subject of a recall campaign that has gained a remarkable amount of momentum and will likely lead to a vote on his removal from office.

He might lose.

Occupy Wall Street, NYPD, Tony Baloney, and Poo
Kalle Lasn, a founder of Adbusters, probably did not realize exactly how successful his call-to-passivity would be when he urged his readers and followers to occupy Wall Street.

They did! Literally!

Thousands of people in New York, and millions of people across the land, occupied the locations that represent the avaricious downfall of American capitalism.

The people who are doing the bidding of the billionaires who are destroying our nation are people like Scott Walker (see above), Barack Obama, and Michael Bloomberg. They and their cohorts have set their sites on the elimination of worker protection and the dismantling of unions.

Wisely, however, they are protecting one particular union: the police union. You see, these guys knew there'd be trouble eventually, and that there will likely be more trouble, and if they paid-off the cops by protecting their unions and pensions, the cops would do their bidding.

So, spineless men and women earning less than a hundred grand a year, dressed up in space-age military garb, attacked, beat, maced, stomped, dragged, sexually abused, humiliated, and arrested fellow American citizens engaged in peaceful protest.

I used to respect cops. All of them. Even the bad ones. I've always told my daughter that cops are important people, are the real heroes in New York.

I've stopped telling her that.

The New York Police in one split-second changed from being the most amazing heroes holding the mantle of 9/11, to being a despicable gang of thugs attacking American taxpayers exercising their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble and petition their government for redress.

What rationale was used for the police attacking citizen occupiers?

Poo.

Yes, poo.

Feces.

Shit.

Excrement.

The New York Police beat their neighbors and fellow citizens to a pulp because a billionaire a few blocks North decided that there were sanitation issues that trumped Constitutional rights.

These horrible, horrible New Yorkers, hiding behind their badges, sold their souls for a retirement fund, and took orders from a man who thinks poo is more important that the Constitution.

Little did they realize that their reprehensible behavior would spark people across the nation to Occupy.

When Inspector Anthony Bologna (an embarrassment to law enforcement, New York and humanity) confronted four 20-something women involved in the protest, and sprayed them directly in the face with pepper spray, he gave Occupy more publicity and more sympathy than a year of occupation possibly could.

When Tony Baloney was filmed attacking unarmed girls, Americans of every stripe were equally appalled and an amazing amount of public opinion shifted from being pro-police to being pro-Occupy.

Occupy is now an integral part of the American landscape to a degree the Koch Brothers' Tea Party will never enjoy.

The police have lost the respect of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers.

When I pass cops on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan, they are almost always looking down. I avert my eyes if they look up. I no longer say hello, or nod and smile.

Anthony Weiner
My congressman was a successful politician who was as progressive as elected officials are allowed to be.

He sent provocative photographs of himself to the wrong people.

Anthony Weiner is my former Congressman, and his seat has been filled by an idiot Republican hell-bent on destroying America.

Good job, Congressman Weiner. By the way: fuck you, you asshole.

Osama bin Laden
Speaking of fuck you: the line "fuck you and the boat you came in on" comes to mind when I think of the year Osama bin Laden had. Only it is fuck you and the boat you went out on.

American intelligence pinpointed the terrorist leader at an address in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Navy SEALs from the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group clandestinely entered the compound and killed him.

Then they spirited the body out Pakistan, onto a Navy ship and dumped it at sea.

Gabrielle Giffords
Thinking people are targets for the derision of stupid, violent, right-wing Americans.

A couple years ago, Sarah Palin published a map of the United States with scope sight symbols on congressional districts that she and her fucked-up Tea Party cohorts were targetting.

Gabrielle Giffords' district was one of them.

Palin's tea party wish came true when Giffords was second amendmented during a community outreach event.

Having survived the attack, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery.

Entertainment

Leah Kardos – Feather Hammer
Contemporary classical music has always been an odd notion to me. When the term ambient music was coined it helped to describe electronic music created in the style of classical music.

Ambient music has grown in many different ways, and electronics have allowed talented musicians to create sounds that the Beethovens, Bachs, Tchaikovskys, and Wagners, never imagined.

In 2011, record label bigo & twigetti released Feather Hammer, the new work by musician/pianist, composer/producer Leah Kardos.

A resident of London for the past many years, Leah was born, raised, and educated in Australia. As a student at University of Queensland she won the Gold Coast Composition Competition [twice], and worked with Queensland Symphony Orchestra resident composer, Nigel Sabin, as a member of the Young Composers Program. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Music Composition.

More than any other composer or musician of her generation, Kardos has embraced the challenge of taming modern electronic tools in the composition of her work.

Feather Hammer is the fruits of that challenge. Engagingly listenable and attention-worthy, the cuts also work as ambient sound that tickle the brain when you don't even know the sound is there. Hardly invisible, each track is intricate and dynamic, reminiscent of David Bowie's "Low" album.

The record is one of the most amazing musical releases of 2011.

Buy Feather Hammer and listen and enjoy.

Amy Winehouse
The song "Me And Mr. Jones" has been called "derivative" and Amy Winehouse has been called a poseur.

All of this was before she died, of course. Now the critics rarely say anything critical.

I liked Amy Winehouse and all of her songs.

Her death is a loss for the world, and her legacy reverberates more than Steve Jobs', but perhaps not as much as the legacy of . . .

Elizabeth Taylor
I know, you thought she'd never die. Me too.

Rest in peace, Liz. Tell Michael Jackson we still love him.

Dead Enz, Kyle G. Brixton
The hottest software company is about to go public, raking in serious scratch. Only one problem-the mysterious death of their programming wizard!

It's 1984. The era of the desktop computer has dawned. Software companies are sprouting around the country like mushrooms. The biggest buzz in the financial press is about Locust, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its president, David Hedges, is already out of the box with a line of high-end business products. He`s itching to go public-and make his hundreds of millions-and Wall Street has his IPO all lined up.

His ace-in-the-hole is lead programmer, Rusty van Handle, whose piece of Locust will bring him a bundle. Though van Handle is a hot-shot in the digital world, he has a different reputation around town:

There's his plan to muscle-in on a real estate deal and take the property of an elderly black woman in the South End, and his claim that he owns half of the break-out pop band, Dead Enz, whose lead singer, Sal Ianucci, he regularly supplies with cocaine. Actually, van Handle was a regular supplier of cocaine to many, and he had mountains of the powder.

The day before the IPO, van Handle's body is found splattered on a street in the South End. Wearing handcuffs.

Murder? Accident? Suicide?

The Locust IPO goes on hold, and may burn-out entirely. The press is all over the scandal. David Hedges is livid and uses his influence to make sure someone-anyone-is nailed for the crime.

Kyle G. Brixton is the pen name for two Boston area writers. Beauty To Die For is the next in this series.

Friday
At the far end of the music industry and musical spectrum are laurels for resting the tribulations of teenage pop singer Rebecca Black.

With a little bit of money and a lot of faith, Black and her mother invested in a vanity recording of "Friday" which was written and produced by Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson.

The song is inane and teeny-bopperish. It doesn't sound any worse than most of the other mindless pablum released by the music conglomerates.

At 13 years old, Rebecca Black was an unlikely candidate for super stardom, and the path has been fast and infuriating.

When a comedian with a Twitter account dubbed it "the worst video ever made," the dams were breached and the attention flooded over Black, her mother, and the record label. The traffic at youtube.com sky-rocketed, and download sales turned from a trickle to a torrent.

Yes, even I purchased the MP3.

Chaz Bono
Sony and Cher were huge pop stars in the 1960s and 1970s. They had hit songs and successful public appearances. They had their own variety show. They had a baby girl they named Chastity. They separated professionally and romantically. Cher went on to become a HUGE star and Sonny went on to become a tedious Republican elected official in the dullest part of California.

Throughout the years, Cher was photographed with her assorted romantic partners. Her daughter was often in tow. Her presence at these times exposed and oddly maternal side of Cher that nobody in the press ever appreciated. Cher could have relegated her daughter to a lonely life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards. Instead, (for better or worse) Cher provided a life of boarding schools, tutors, nannies, drivers and security guards, in which she, as her mother, was very present.

As an adult, Chastity came-out as a lesbian.

Cher did not handle it with the aplomb you might expect; but, in the end the mother supported the daughter unequivocally.

Time went on and Chastity's life became her own. She built good and bad relationships with different partners. As she became more an more independent, she began to question her gender-identity.

In 2011, Chastity became a transgendered man and took the name Chaz. The transformation has included chemical and surgical alterations.

Many were shocked.

Many were not.

I was not. Here we have a young woman who watched the most important female authority figures in her life embrace surgical enhancement: plastic surgery, breat enhancement, tattoo make-up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It should surprise nobody that this very rich young person would consider chemical and/or surgical solutions for an emotional problem. Children of Hollywood often do this.

Chaz was completely public about his transformation, having the entire process documented for public consumption.

The outrage was amusing, the acclaim well-earned. Then things took a sad twist: Chaz accepted a contract to appear on "Dancing With The Stars"!

What little credibility he was able to muster with the general public was now compromised and his life turned into a freak show. Just like his mother's.

Charlie Sheen
Drug addicts and alcoholics are sometimes sad, and sometimes amusing.

In the case of Charlie Sheen, the level of amusement is priceless. No amount of money can purchase this entertainment; and if a team of writers had created the story as a script, nobody would buy it.

Known for violence, bad relationships, and heavy drinking (not necessarily in that order), Sheen took a turn for the worse when he went public with criticisms of the people with whom he worked.

He became an internet sensation and his insane life became a travelling circus. Literally. People bought tickets to watch him stand on a stage and rant on and on (like a drug addict) about the things he finds most notable. Himself mostly.

I am a fan.

I want this ride to go on for a long time.

If Sheen gets sober, and I hope to God he does, I hope he maintains this level of crazy in his new life.

George Takei
"It's OK To Be Takei" took the place of "It's OK To Be Gay" when the right-wing rose up in arms against gay and lesbian youth who were promoting the OK-ness of homosexuality.

George Takei, actor and activist, is a homosexual who does not hide his lifestyle from the world. He has taken it upon himself to make it OK for kids to be who they are. He is an ardent and tireless advicate for the rights of young gay and lesbian people around the world.

You go girl!

Finance

MF Global
As a leftist, it is easiest for me to blame the Republicans for all that is wrong with America. I believe that supply-side economic theory is at the root of all of America's economic, social and political problems. Because the supply-side economic theory when put into practice is most often referred to as Reaganomics, and Reagan is the mother of all Republican saviors, it is easy to blame the Republicans for this situation. In reality, though, the Democrats are just as giulty and should be held as accountable as their right-wing cohorts.

One embarrassing facet of supply-side economic theory is the unbridled avarice that it promotes and celebrates. When America's econmy was run with Keynsian economic theory, there was avarice, but nothing compared to the celebration of unmitigated greed that is Reaganomics.

Under Keynsian economic theory, the recent depression spurred by the collaps of the financial system could not happen, because regulation would prevent banks and other financial institutions from pulling the shit they pulled on us in 2009.

Under Reganomics, individuals and companies are able to suck the lifeblood from any institution, and walk away unscathed.

Jon Corzine, former Democratic governor of New Jersey, took his company MF Global to ruin and stood idly by as over a billion dollars vanished into the pockets of people who will never be investigated, never mind prosecuted.

The Unraveling of MF Global

If ever any patriotic American considered voting against the single-party Democratic-Republican system; this election cycle would be a good time to vote Green.

Sports

Joey Barton
The sports world needed another bad boy and sociopath like Newcastle needs extra coal. In Newcastle, they got both. Footballer (soccer player) Joey Barton, English bad boy extraordinaire, lashed out against his bosses, and took to the ether to air his grievances.

Overnight, Barton became a Twitter sensation. He exposed a side of himself that had never been seen by his fans and detractors. He is a smart man who can wax eloquently (in 140 characters or less) about Nietzsche, fascism, racism, van Gogh, social and cultural vulgarity, NPR, and parenting.

On the last topic, he and his long-time girlfriend had a baby boy at the end of 2011. Congratulations to them.

In my fantasies, Joey Barton moves to New York and joins Red Bull New York. With his criminal record, however, he probably ould not receive clearance to work here.

Rafa Marquez
Rafa, Rafa, Rafa.

In the "Open Mouth Insert Foot" department, Rafa Marquez used his lack of English language skills to denigrate his co-workers.

It is possible that the translation of his remarks made him sound worse than he really is. Or, he might be an elitist snob unable to accept criticism and failure, who hides behind an alleged language barrier to avoid direct confrontation.

I don't know if it is the former, the latter, or a little of both.

If you watched the game, there were individual errors that you can’t do anything about. If we look at statistics, I stole a lot of balls. I think I made two or three bad passes out of 30-plus attempts. I almost didn't commit any errors, so I am not worried.

I think I am playing at my maximum level and doing everything I can. I don’t have, unfortunately, four defenders on my level that can help me out.

Then, discussing Tim Ream, a young, promising American defender who has an international career ahead of him, Rafa offered:

Tim is still a young player with a lot to learn. He still has quite a lot to learn, and well, he has committed errors that are very infantile and cost us goals.

See, Rafa Márquez blasts underachieving Red Bulls teammates