New ventures and mind cleaning

Been working on a couple things I mentioned last post, but most importantly, something I’ve been looking for a very long time – a way to conglomerate my most useful interests and projects all into one.

And I think I’ve found it.

More on that soon.

Been on Twitter a lot, under real and assumed names – poking around this digital playground for some answers to some very real-life problems.

People are so touchy on there though! Very easy to piss people off. And I do sometimes. And it’s fun sometimes.

The image in this post is by NartyArt, her art is really something. I’ve been wanting to put more images in these posts for a while now, and now I can say I discovered a really amazing artist – also check out her flickr.

I’m planning on using one of her pieces for the cover of the upcoming Handcuff Hospital album Western Hairstyles.

By the way, you can listen to two of those songs over at the Handcuff Hospital MySpace.

I’ve probably said that before. I’m just pleased with how the recording came out. They need mastering, but otherwise, it’s done.

Really, I should sleep – just wanted to put up a little update.

Working on more topical posts, don’t you worry!

five ads, Twitter, Handcuff Hospital

As many of you know, I deleted my old Twitter account.

The messages to my phone were out of control.

This time, I’m following less people.

WAY less people.

But I’ve been learning about psychology on there.

Every day.

My new account is twitter.com/fiveads.

Mostly because I started up fiveads.com.

I’ve also been recording Handcuff Hospital.

I’ve kinda been a busy beaver.

However, I say hello to all of you again, and damn glad you’re still reading.

“Social networks”, human stupidity, great recent art, the usual

Haven’t posted in a while since I had to settle in after moving and get a new job to pay off bills/debts. I’ve been stifled. Sweaty. Tropical.

So there’s a little insight into me.

Now for the rest of the crap.

I’d like it to be known that I utterly hate Facebook.

I know, I know, I have a profile.

And I want to delete it every time I log in.

The overload of information on the site is ridiculous and annoying and the site itself isn’t nearly as useful as say, MySpace.

So here come the flames (ha) but I’ve said it before. One of these days I’m going to give up on Facebook. That being said though, I love Twitter. And MySpace of course (for some weird reason).

Maybe it’s because MySpace feels more organized, you can ignore more of the bullshit, and the layout is so much better, Facebook is just jumbled, ugly and overbearing. I don’t get why it’s so popular right now.

But enough of that for today.

I’ve also been writing (HandcuffHospital.com), may have found a drummer, etc. Okay, I lied – one more thing about MySpace. Look at these Google results for Handcuff Hospital.

What’s first on there?

That’s right.

Anyway, I know this post isn’t much in the way of explosiveness, but there will be more organized thoughts soon.

I’ve been listening to Bad Religion (their new one, New Maps of Hell – it’s fantastic). Lots of punk. Some great local bands I’ve found lately (the RunnAmucks, Floridas Dying, SuperAIDS, and Libyan Hit Squad) some of the new Superdrag (Industry Giants)

(video for Superdrag’s “Aspartame”)

Meat Puppets of course (new album Sewn Together drops THIS MONTH!!)

(live video of “Rotten Shame”)

and I’m also looking forward to Terminator Salvation.

(the amazing trailer)

Come on, postapocalyptic special effects, Christian Bale, and nine inch nails?!?!? What a trailer.

Damn.

So there’s your art reviews and reccomends for the day. Never done that before on here!

Just a little insight to the man behind the words.

I’ll leave you with two great quotes from the latest Bad Religion album:

“I don’t want to be in a land known as destitute and free – with the grains of wrath blazing a path from sea to shining sea”….

and

“We’re animals… with golden rules who won’t be moved by rational views”.

Suck on those for a while.

I just had some hardcore deja vu. Weeeeird.

ECONOMISTS say : LEGALIZE DRUGS to stop violence, and to fix the economy.

“The Economy is our shepherd, we shall not want!”

That is from the last VERY insightful South Park. Quite a good parody.

So this is one more post this month, with two things. First.

“Is Obama a one-term president”?

Mull that stupid question over for a minute and then read this.

Obama has a billion critics and not many people who have other real solutions.

I have one, though, as does this ECONOMIST:

LEGALIZE DRUGS.

It’s the economy, stupid,

Listen to the ECONOMISTS.

Fix this goddamn country already, you useless, uptight prohibitionists. 

Realize that ESPECIALLY marijuana prohibition came from RACISM, MISINFORMATION and other factors.

And finally.

Third. One more thing.

I present to you readers a ridiculous diatribe from an email I was forwarded from a stereotyping, polarizing, generalizing conservative “law student” who I’m sure is white, well-off, and also lives in one of the whitest, hippie-filled places in the United States, Maine.

Here goes!

………

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950’s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood. 

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.

We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U. N. but we will no longer be paying the bill. 

We’ll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find. 

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We’ll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World. 

We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag. 

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in 15 years. 

Sincerely, 

John J. Wall, Law Student and an American 

P. S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.

……

Yeah, let’s split up this country over political spectrum lines, this land mass we stole from the natives and made our own, as IMMIGRANTS.

Stupid.

It nauseates me that I have this on sD here, but hey. I like to show both “sides” of this stupid country.

I also just found a GREAT line-by-line analysis of the great John J. Wall’s ignorant worldview online here, along with the letter from the blue states to the red states, which is too excellent not to post here, and reads as follows.

Dear Red States:

We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss. We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,

Blue States

(Booya!)

Ways Rush Limbaugh proves he is STILL an idiot

"I just couldn't get through my day without it!"

I saw a poll on the front of CNN.com about how RUSH thinks OBAMA is using FEAR to push A LIBERAL AGENDA.

Uh…WHAAAT?

That’s right. Read it again if you have to, and let the sheer STUPIDITY of that sink in.

For one, that doesn’t make sense, he’s not doing that, AND… wasn’t the Republican administration that was JUST in office using fear to promote a conservative agenda?

Hm. (and the answer is YES.)

Apparently Rush is the only spokesman the “right” has right now. How sad.

Luckily, the poll is at 70 percent no and 30 yes or something like that.

Check out this article too. Whaaaat an idiot. Al Franken was and still is right.

But people still listen. Damn.

Hunter S. Thompson and anger

Tonight I watched an excellent documentary on the late Hunter S. Thompson called Gonzo, and it got me thinking (as I knew it would).

The man had two very clear sides to his personality, a humanitarian, loving, generous side, and a very dark side.

I think all of us have this inside ourselves. And this is my issue.

When I was younger I was incredibly, unstoppably anti-authoritarian (and some would say I still am!)

However, this rage and anger, this fear and loathing many of us lodge against “The System”, the corporations, the politicians, the governments… we are told it is futile, although we are passionate, and then, sometimes, someone like me has anger into depression problems. Then, we re-evaluate everything we think.

My much-loved ideals led to my personal breakdown, my “not being able to deal with things”.

So we tone it down. We let things slide. We try to prevent the anger.

But sometimes, anger is so USEFUL – indeed, occasionally, it is the only thing that motivates us to GET SOMETHING DONE.

So that is the problem. How much anger makes us passionate, and how much destroys us?

A question for all of you to ponder. Is there a line? A gauge? A meter, in order to determine what is a healthy amount of anger?

Poverty-induced suicide

I am disturbed by this story I read on CNN.

There is something wrong with this country, we are so obsessed with success and survival has become so difficult that people are resorting to drastic measures.

It’s also bullshit about “people should reach out for help” – I can say personally, as a person who applied for all manner of financial help and assistance with the state, this is often the most difficult thing to do.

The state does NOT want to give out money.

I, for one, know very well about being underpaid, overworked and overwhelmed, as much of America does.

I am pissed off at Oprah Winfrey because she is an idiot.

 

Big girls are HOT and FABULOUS (PIC LINK IS NSFW!)

 

Why, you ask?

I just read on the FRONT OF CNN that she “feels like a fat cow” at 200 pounds.

Now, she has struggled with her weight for years, of course, but what will saying she feels like a fat cow make her millions of watchers feel like, many of whom are not deathly skinny either?

I think it’s a bad move.

Even Oprah is wrapped up with this society’s obsession with weight, and for a 28 year old man who enjoys bigger women (ones that at least have curves, and some who are VERY voluptuous – I am MARRIED to one!), I resent Oprah’s insensitivity to these lovely ladies.

So what is going on? This role model for many needs to re-assess her views and the kind of thoughts she projects on the populace.

She’s adding to the problem and not the solution.

Some women (and people in general) are FINE with being a little bigger (thankfully, for guys like me).

In societies of the past, being a little round was a sign of prosperity and wealth, now it’s a bane and everyone is expected to look like these ugly little Kate Moss waifs.

And we wonder why there is an epidemic of eating disorders in this country?

Maybe because our fuller-figured role models are making girls feel worse about their size.

I’m sick of it and I’m taking a stand.

Automakers say consumers will suffer, consumers say WE ALREADY DO

Apparently now our “big three” automakers here in the U.S. are whining because they’re having financial problems, and claim that us, the consumers, will suffer (more) if they go under. (Look how sad they look.)

The big sad automakers

I can see the loss of jobs being adverse for their employees, but I have never bought an American car because the quality isn’t there, and hasn’t been for years. Maybe that should be part of what they consider when they’re going through with these talks.

The only remotely interesting American car of the last few years is the Chevy Volt, which was slated for 2010, and now may not even come out properly, or at all. (I wrote about the Volt in a previous post.)

The automakers saying the consumer will suffer is laughable. No more “incentives” as they call it – for vehicles that are already thousands of dollars, these companies have never been interested in the CONSUMERS or saving us any money, EVER.

It has ALWAYS been about the bottom line, and the immense, IMMENSE profits they make and have made from the sale of EVERY CAR.

They have only recently, and BARELY tried making their cars more sustainable, more efficient, or anything at at all.

So, REALLY, automakers? We’re going to suffer MORE? More than what you already gouge us for even a USED car, such as the two of which I’m still paying thousands of dollars for years to come, despite both having mileages well above 70,000?

Add in interest, insurance, repairs, everything else, and us “consumers” are just going to drive less or find other options.

It’s about time some of the biggest, most bloated companies this country calls ours suffer a little bit.

An update to this, here is a funny story about the poor CEOs and the private jets they flew to the bailout meetings today (from which I borrowed the hilarious picture above).

Also, Mitt Romney finally contributed something intelligent to the world – in this article he wrote about why the automakers should NOT be bailed out.

And Naomi Klein, in all her glory, also had this to say about bailout profiteers.

How Stride gum commercials expose one of the fatal flaws of capitalism.

Those Stride gum TV commercials. 

You know which ones I’m talking about.

The seriously unfunny ones involving the CEO of Stride gum and animals/strongmen sent out to get chewers of Stride gum to “spit out that first piece” because the flavor supposedly lasts SO long. That’s what the ads are talking about.

Here’s one, if you haven’t seen it:

So, what’s the problem, you ask? How do these stupid TV ads expose a flaw in our precious capitalism/market system?

Well, here’s how.

Okay, you have a company that has supposedly created and manufactured a product SO GOOD (in this case, gum that probably has Aspartame) that its’ very purchase by a consumer renders future purchases obsolete.

They thought that this would be a funny thing, but let’s analyze this. 

Company makes supposedly amazing product.

Consumer purchases product once and does not need to purchase more, thereby eliminating all future profits for the company.

What we have today in our capitalist market systems are companies that PURPOSEFULLY create products that need refills, or the purchase of other products in the future, to continue the use of said product.

So, the companies, by need of future profit, must manufacture often sub-par products that will need replacement.

Which products, you ask?

Tires, for one. Did you know that there is supposedly a way to make tires that would last the life of (or close to the life of) your vehicle? 

Probably not.

And the tire manufacturers wouldn’t want you to know that, either. How would they make more money if buying tires was a one-time deal?

Also consider batteries – THOSE could certainly be made to last longer. But where’s the long-term profits for Duracell or Energizer or any of the makers of car batteries?

So this is (one of) the fatal flaw(s) of capitalism. 

Increased or unnecessary production of goods of lesser quality and shorter life in order to require future purchase of the same or other products.

Also, one other disturbing consideration, since the consumer BOUGHT the gum originally, and now the very company that sold it is forcing it to be spit out (in other words, rendered unchewable and most likely dirty from the ground), doesn’t that make the Stride people THIEVES? They are TAKING the VERY PRODUCT they sold to the consumer and rendering it useless themselves, on purpose. Very troublesome, even in a (hopefully) fictional scenario. Hah.

So there’s our advertising/marketing lesson for the day.