Before and After

Before! Kabul had an InterContinental. Sweet hotel chain. Looks pretty damn dope in the postcard. But alas, there was a Cold War and the two adversaries felt compelled to fuck with other countries instead of each other directly. Afghanistan, for one.

Kabul, 1970 on the left. Sometime recently on the right.  After 3 decades of war launched on Afghanistan by the USSR and the USA and in the vacuum created, Pakistan, there's not much left. But behold this wonder:

The graduating class of 1966 at Kabul University. Amazing. Take a good look, and then consider what has happened to that society. Gone. Obliterated in years of war and religious fundamentalism. Fundamentalism so perverse they burn women with acid and blow up ancient and epic historical treasures.

After! But still, there is hope.

Don't think it can't happen here though - a "modern" society degressing back to stone age religious shit hole. I ask you to consider this: The rise of religious fundamentalism in the Islamic world is concurrent with the rise of American Christian fundamentalism.

Make NO mistakes: There are Christian Talibani here in in America right now who'd burn girls for their wickedness and behead scores of men for impiety. Who'd destroy this country in order to "save" it. Some of these Wingnuts might be on your local school board, as a matter of fact. Or in your State senate. Most certainly in Congress.

The only way to save ourselves from their "paradise" is to stop them at every legislative turn, since "We" - reason and common sense - have the numbers. But do we have the will? Make no further mistake - they do. They're fucking nuts!

What is it good for (except for billions of dollars)?

Amen, man. And truly, for sooth! Because of the "Drug War", America has the highest prison population percentage wise in the world. On par with the heights of Stalinist USSR - no joke. It's insane what has happened to our country because of the "Drug War" and it's fucking HIGH TIME it ended. And ending it is - thank you Washington and Colorado! You've broken the damn that will break this foolish war. Until then, bravo to all the medical marijuana states - 16 or so since last count, gaining numbers every year. It's time to stop fighting a war on something that grows in the ground.

Like carrots, man. Like jasmine and thyme and little anaheim peppers. If only carrots were bullets, and bombs broccoli. This green earth would be that much greener.

Like Son

Only in Europe! Cowboy Reagan riding a cruise missile. Totally not phallic, but rather emblematic of the "freedom by gun" principle America is so famous for. St. Ronaldus Magnus of course the hero of all time for banishing evil forever, defeating the USSR, destroying the Unions, and liberating the COMMUNIST occupied country of Grenada. Also, Star Wars, in the not cool sense. He was the harbinger of the bellicose, ignorant American sitting astride the world, LOL'ing while bombing.

You see, before Ronnie, all Americans of power at least tried to act intelligent and civilized, even if they were faking it. But Ronnie was dumb and proud, a common sense man from a ranch where he tilled the Earth and whispered to horses and didn't have time for your elite, liberal chatter. Like you and me! This plays well to the mob, and tied with several historical trends and a deliberate manipulation of American society via propaganda, we have the America of today. Violent has hell, with more people in jail percentage wise than anyone on Earth, enthralled to a dumb party of religious bigots who don't even understand in the least the religion they try and shove down your throats. An obese society led by morans. And in this society the GUN is holy and sacred, a totem of your freedom and power, the means to overthrow tyrants and zombies, should they arise.

Due to incredibly successful propaganda from, in large part, the NRA, guns are the thing you must own (if you're white. If any other color, sorry, no) if you are a Real American. And not just one, but dozens. And even though your odds of dying by gun go way up as soon as you have one in your house, instead you think this gun will protect you from all your fears. Your many, many fears - black men, communists, anarchists, feminists, jack booted government thugs, on and on, the fears are legion. And so a gun for each. Don't forget the kids, either.

Just playing war, you might say. Sure. And kids played war in the past, or cops and robbers, or cowboys and indians, and this is true. All these games are basically the same. I ask you though, how long have American children been playing these games? Since the 50's? Earlier? If so, when? I think post WW2 is roughly the time these games became popular with children, helped in part by toys marketed towards these games - cap guns, army men, tanks and battleships. Other than the urban crime generated by prohibition in the 20's, America has never seen crime and violence like in the 60's and 70's. Co-incidence? Maybe.

Just another "kid" playing army man. A far more intense, immersive version, almost real in some degrees. I know this will not be popular with my audience, but violent video games have an affect. Playing with guns has an affect. Being soaked in violence on TV, movies, and in music has an affect. Culture has an affect. Politics has an affect. And most everything about America in the last 30 years - maybe forever - has been violent and cruel. We're a death culture, and that has an affect in the people raised within that culture.

Everything we do, say, and think has an affect. Especially on our children, who learn by watching us, of course. When we teach these kids to be Wingnuts, then aye, we shall reap the Wingnut Whirlwind. Which is death, violence, discrimination, and wanton cruelty.

Accept this and cede, hide out of the way, hope the next shooting won't involve you or your loved ones. Or fight it.

Now's the time for fighting, by the way.

Posses Inside

Sadly, it is no isolated incident. Killing children either by crazed loner with guns or nations with armies, or gangs with lust, or tribes with madness in their minds, kids have been victims for as long as there have been kids, which is forever. We're getting better, overall, we really are! It's just hard to accept that fact in times like this - when kindergarten children are shot repeatedly in the face with an assault rifle for no possible reason at all. Unlike the reason above, right? These are the children of Lidice. Read and weep.

But then rejoice, for we are alive, and our kids are about, and life is good despite all the shit. Never forget your absolute blessing in being here in the first place! Hug those nearby in celebration of all your success, which again, is existing. Life is the gift without equal and we all revel in the giving. Love, and let the hate fall by the wayside.

Beyond the Pale Blue Dot

Click for big if you can't read the text. Wise words, and it puts things in perspective. A True perspective, but then you'll find that the objective, absolute Truth often does not matter, but instead what does is our subjective truths. Or even our lies.

Send your mind out into space - past Neptune, past Pluto, past Sirius, past Orion, past Andromeda, keep going out billions of light years, and there are more stars, more galaxies, more planets, but keep going, it never ends - space stretching out to infinity in all directions, and here we are, simultaneously at the center of everything and just another speck in the cosmic infinities. This is all Truth, and in this Truth the value of a single life is insignificant. In fact, the value of our planet, our solar system, our star, is utterly insignificant in comparison to the scale of our Universe, and perhaps even the Multiverse. But then there's this:

Caroline Previdi, age 6 when she died yesterday at the hands of a truly sick individual with guns. And you think of the terror and the horror she must have experienced in her last moments, and all the ensuing horror for her parents, her family, her friends, and all the other people affected by the events in Newtown, CT yesterday. And it's all very significant, isn't it?

Will this horror change anything here on planet Earth, in the country of America? I sure hope so. Today it seems like it might. But I've grown cynical enough over the past... 20 years... that I'm pessimistic.

I spend a lot of time (too much) in the "trenches", so to speak, of Right Wing thought. Let me summarize them for you: No matter how bad you think they are, they're worse then you know, maybe even worse then you can imagine. After being shocked then thinking I cannot be shocked any more, I was once again shocked yesterday reading their reactions to this tragedy. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that in our subjective little insignificant reality, there's real people, real issues, and real evil out there who don't give a fuck. And you can't use mental illness as an excuse for these people. For the leadership of the NRA, for example. For the Republican party, for example. These people are actually evil - in our subjective state - and unfortunately we often live, and die, at their whims. In their quest for nothing more than money.

A sad day, a sad world. And yet one we can make better. If we try. Will we?

Space Ship Time Schedule

Alas, Jeremy A. Shapiro, I doubt your reservation to any of these destinations will be met within your lifetime. What once seemed an inevitable conquest of the solar system has turned into a silent program of satellite launches. Nixon has a large part to play in this shame, for shame, yet again, Tricky Dick. You ruined so much.

Click for big of course - as with all photos here at Redshirt's Lament. Supposedly these are all the ships of Sci Fi as of 2003, to scale. A nerd's delight.

Sci Fi has kept our dreams alive - I mean this literally, as in our genes want to leave this planet, must leave this planet if they are to live forever. We will be driven to do so if we have the technology to make it possible, eventually. Sci Fi movies and shows keep this reminder in the public mind, regardless of actual progress.

Soviet Strong

A few things: As long as there is scarcity of resources, Communism cannot work in the large scale. If there were no scarcity of resources (AKA Star Trek's "replicator" which takes elements then fabricates items on command - take heed of the development of the 3d printer. It's the beginning of the replicator), then pure Communism is a must. Everyone's equal in the scheme of things, there's no money, everyone's happy and their children are nurtured and healthy, education for all, entertainment for all, science for all: The Soviet future, one in which every single person is a sovietnik. Look it up. And enjoy these pictures.

I've got a ton of Soviet propaganda art on the old HD "Cloud" because I find it stunningly beautiful. The style of it. Gorgeous and inspiring and awesome now that the USSR is no longer an immanent threat to end the world.

This might be one of Galactus's heralds. Make no mistake: It was the Cold War that created NASA and got man on the moon in ten freaking years  - which is simply incredible. A staggering accomplishment that shall echo in history for as long as we have it. Since the fall of the USSR records reveal what many suspected of the Soviet space program: more duct tape and spit than fearsome space conqueroring machine. They had some smart folks (also some NAZI's just like the USA) and the power of the state behind them, and the Soviet space program accomplished great things - first satellite in space; first animal in space; first man in space; first woman in space. Remarkable stuff, but as soon as NASA was funded and the space race began in earnest, the Soviets could not keep up. Not enough bucks, you see. The crippling affects of the past 30 years had caught up to them. And so it was the space race that truly began the fall of the USSR and its empire. Yay, space! Because in truth the USSR was mostly awful, though with many positives. But still mostly awful and worth fighting. Yay, also, America!

Also too:

At last! It's time someone actually took the fight to the KKK and any other race based hate organization. In a tolerant society you've got to tolerate almost everyone, be they religious, atheist, man, woman, black, red, yellow, white, gay, straight, lame, hipster, uptight, etc. But the one person we as a society cannot tolerate is the intolerant. Those who would seek to limit the rights of others, for whatever reason. They are the enemies of tolerance and must be opposed wherever they rear their hoary heads, for they are poison upon the body Tolerance and if given enough sway can end it. So, tolerance for all! Except for the intolerant, who must be opposed vociferously and actively.

Ergo, go Black Panther! Fuck the CSA.

Blackwater Comics presents

ROLL HARD

This is a real thing - a graphic novel published by and about Blackwater heroics in Iraq. Sadly, a non-ironic review of it at Wired. We're through the looking glass people! Corporate armies of mercenaries publishing corporate army propaganda which is then treated like a work of art/journalism.

Here's a page from a CIA comic dropped over Grenada prior to the glorious USA liberation of the oppressed country from the clutches of evil Communists. It's a pretty convincing comic and if I was a Communist soldier I would have laid down my weapon and converted to Capitalism on the spot.

Aw, a big HELL NYET to that y'all! Power to the people! Most super heroes are stooges of the bourgeois who, by controlling the means of production with the aid of super powered mercenaries, keep us all in chains. Rise up and smash the levers of counter-revolution!

Also, it's awesome the Communist uniform is overalls and a beret. Very practical.

Magazine subscriptions

That's some serious spreadsheet. Lots of data. Jealous? Curious? You should be - what could be so interesting that requires so many pages?

Muhammad is a long time Elle subscriber and as such he's up to date on current trends and knows confidence comes from the inside, as well as beauty.

In the latest issue, IW focuses on Poplar, the hip, "it" wood. 

RIF

Hi, Gary? Yeah, Phil here from Random House. Yeah, yeah, look, I've just been assigned to edit your book, and the folks upstairs have some specific requests to cut the book back by 6 to 8 thousand pages. There's some wiggle room there, but yeah, we're gonna need to come up with a more streamlined version of your amazing book. I know, I know, every page is gold. But you know the market these days!

Some scans from the new Louisiana school "science" book for 5th graders. Teach the controversy!

If I were a parent in a school with a book such as this, I'd get very agitated, and bring lawyers into the situation, and be "that" atheist. Cuz separating religion from education is just as important as keeping it away from government. Religion is a poison that spreads through immersion. Break the immersion and the magic spell is shattered.

It's not just religions that use lies as foundational truths. Countries do the same. I'll admit I was fairly shocked the first time I learned how horrible America had been to the native populations of this continent. Or truly how terrible slavery was. As a young child you are force fed patriotic pablum in place of the truth, and I suppose the goal is for the population to never waver from these myth making ("Manifest Destiny") lies.  But waver we shall, for the truth is out there and can be known.

Click for big. To wit: Read 1984 and Brave New World. Thought provoking representations of totalitarian states.

Librarian Laughs

Poor Uranus. It's a lovely planet - an Ice Giant with more water than all the water on Earth times 1000 or even more. And yet, forever a joke, because of its name. Do you think this joke will ever pass? Doesn't seem likely does it. As such, I propose we change Uranus's name to something cooler. How about Caelus?

Another sign that our times are progressive and getting better. Within my lifetime there were once banned books in America, land of Freedom. Ulysses, all of Henry Miller's work, Catch-22, The Grapes of Wrath, Naked Lunch, and let us not forget The Canterbury Tales. Yes, banned in America in the 1870's due to the awesome Comstock Law. But today, as far as I know, there are no banned books. We're free to read all the crap we want. But don't, because, really, who the hell reads anymore?

Redshirt in London

Click for huge! Your humble blogger went to London way, way back in 2004. I loved everything about London, and especially the British Library and the British Museum. Simply heaven. And herewith I present some photos I took at these places before I was shut down at the BL by this super snaggled tooth security lady. I sincerely did not know photography was prohibited - but note! I never used flash so I consider my crime victimless, aye, even more, a victory.

I know the names or authors of none of these books, unfortunately, as I did not take notes for my pics of these ancient books - this one's from like 1320 or some such. Also, I assume the pic above is from a complete book of medieval porn/botany.

More botany. And snakes.

Illuminated Texts is the name of the genre - huge manuscripts hand written by small armies of monks squirreled away in far off castles and monasteries. Beautifully painted and simply gleaming under light, no doubt due to the actual silver on the page. Books were once magical, mystical items of great import and rarity and as such, they were venerated. Now, we have Kindles and iPads and cheap ass paperback editions. It's the future, people.

Bonus British Library collection of John Dee's magical items. Dee was fairly awesome, but yeah, it seems like there were so many awesome people back then. In history, that is. As opposed to now. We're all lame.

Voynich (Bacon?)

Behold! The most mysterious manuscript of all time (to date): The Voynich Manuscript. It's clearly a language, but no one has ever translated it. And it's similar to the biology texts of the 1400's, yet shows plants no one knows of or has ever seen.

"Scholars" seem to bet on Roger Bacon being the author. Probably related to Francis Bacon, somehow. Them Bacon Boys are wicked smart.

Remember! No one has made so much as heads or tails of any of this language.

A fever dream of some middle ages dude super high on Laudanum or some such? Proto-Hacker circa 1402? Alien Spirit inhabiting some medieval bro? Angel on Earth? So many questions.

Check it - the approximately 650 year old book has fold out sections for more insanity! There are missing pages too in this most wondrous of books (Like Art), and I hope they were POP UP pages.

Weird sun dude says *&h^d-+!@a

Furious Anger

Arabic calligraphy in the form of Jules and Vincent, Marsellus Wallace henchmen. I'm Team Jules, FYI.

The Arabic script seems intrinsically beautiful, like scrolling art. As does so much of Islamic culture and history. Al'gebra, man. Two of my favorite stars in the sky are in the handle of the Big Dipper, Mizar and Alcor, a binary star system which also pairs with another binary star system making this a quadruple star system. Swinging, right? Also Arabic names. Think on that, Wingnut - high above you, pouring out into the night sky: Islam.

You won't see Alcor in the city though, so don't bother trying. Country star only. In sooth even in the country you might have a hard time. Spotting Alcor used to be a vision test in olden times.

And so, in conclusion, Vincent was just a hitman junkie destined for a bad end while Jules was a holy man trapped in the role of hitman meant for a higher calling. To walk the earth.

To truly walk this earth is art, praise be unto it.

in order

Click for big. Some brave soul put the movie "Pulp Fiction" - famously known to be out of order - into a very informative, chronologically correct infographic. Serious nerd cred. Check it out in detail. Zed's dead, baby.

Pretty boring movie all straight ahead like that though.

Next slide, please

As you can see on slide 3, there will be 7 years of seals, trumpets, and bowls after the Rapture but before the Return of Christ - in Glory, at that. Not sure why he's gotta wait 7 years - why not come back right away? Maybe he's got other plans. Anyways, it's all here in this chart, which as you can see is very scientific. Next slide, please.

Maybe Jesus doesn't want to smell all the dead - in 7 years, one would expect the industrious survivors of the Rapture to have properly disposed of the many billions of bodies, as shown in this slide. Please note the last step which is properly filling death certificates and other information at Central Registration. Thank you, any questions? No? Thank you again.