From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V13 #317 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, November 5 2004 Volume 13 : Number 317 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: various brief political replies [2fs ] Re: some small consolation [2fs ] Re: Hello from Haiti! [2fs ] Re: hilarious (well, kinda sad too...) [2fs ] Re: some small consolation [James Dignan ] Re: hilarious (well, kinda sad too...) [Rex Broome ] Re: and in other political news [steve ] Re: Hello from Haiti! [steve ] Re: ...Unbelievable [steve ] trying to make myself feel better [Jill Brand ] Let's All Howl [steve ] Re: Disaster ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: ...Unbelievable [2fs ] Re: Disaster [2fs ] Robyn at the Kitty Cat Klub 11/4/2004 [Charles Gillett ] chicago sun times spooked review [bisontentacle ] austin american-statesman/austin360 article [bisontentacle ] chicago tribune article [bisontentacle ] Re: ...Unbelievable ["The Mammal Brain" ] more Robyn at the Kitty Cat Klub [Charles Gillett ] Re: Fwd: Hello from Haiti! ["Matt Sewell" ] I can almost hear it raining [Michael R Godwin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 14:14:02 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: various brief political replies On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 11:12:32 -0800, Rex Broome wrote: > My new theory is that Americans are just flat out > devolving and/or suck donkey balls. Elephant balls. I'm not giving up - although when I hear the word "reconciliation," I reach for my bucket. "Reconcile"? Fuck that shit: Bush has no respect for nearly everything that's made this country great, and contempt for much of it. (uh-and also: 48-49% of the largest turnout ever = more votes for prez than anyone else has ever gotten - except W, alas.) - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 14:17:03 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: some small consolation On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 14:23:09 -0500, rubrshrk@harborside.com wrote: > But just in case, even as you enjoy the sense of speeding toward a bright > and hopeful future, grab your ass and brace for impact. Just know that it > ain't your fault. That was inspiring. But can I grab someone else's ass instead? - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 16:11:15 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Hello from Haiti! On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 12:36:00 -0800, Tom Clark wrote: > Good idea. Now let's take part of North Dakota and give it to the > Scientologists. That's funny - I was just thinking we could solve the problem painfully displayed by the recent election by offering Montana to the fundamentalists, as an independent nation. Let 'em all congregate there with the survivalists in their off-the-grid shacks - no doubt they'll factionalize like rabbits, and maybe kill one another off... As for the "nation based on religion" thing: the difference would be whether members of any particular religion are granted rights denied to non-members of that religion. When that happens, it's wrong - even if 99.9% of the country is of the same religion, or even if the state promotes that religion. - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 16:14:45 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: hilarious (well, kinda sad too...) On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 16:05:59 -0500, FSThomas wrote: > Eb wrote: > > > http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/m/p/mpm265/election.htm > Two sources: http://www.sq.4mg.com/IQstates.htm and (more reliably) > http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/gop.asp > This article is in fact the work of politic satirist Will Durst, a 9 > September 2004 example of one of the columns he publishes on a > semi-weekly basis. Not to mention that, in fact, college-educated males have historically skewed Republican. Education may be a good thing (I hope it is, since it's my career) but it doesn't make people wiser, or better, or more tolerant, or anything else except, uh, more edumacated. - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:56:10 +1300 From: James Dignan Subject: Re: some small consolation >Why this Election is a win-win Situation for us All! you know, this analogy would have me feeling a lot better if it wasn't that - to continue the analogy - if the US is the ship, then planet Earth as a whole is the Detroit Docks. James - -- James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- =-.-=-.-=-.- You talk to me as if from a distance .-=-.-=-.-=-. -=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time .-=- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 15:38:32 -0800 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: hilarious (well, kinda sad too...) Jeffrey > Not to mention that, in fact, college-educated males have historically > skewed Republican. > > Education may be a good thing (I hope it is, since it's my career) but > it doesn't make people wiser, or better, or more tolerant, or anything > else except, uh, more edumacated. And theoretically more employable at higher levels, and therefore more affluent, entrenched, and, yeah, Republican. Two of which I wouldn't especially mind being... guess I'd either really have to count on my own sense of myself, or at least continue to live in California, to avoid the latter two. - -Rex - -- "Maybe baby election twelve who I really am!" - -Miranda Mellbye Broome ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 20:29:02 -0600 From: steve Subject: Re: and in other political news On Nov 4, 2004, at 10:14 AM, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > Also, Bush needs to appoint a Latino/a Clarence Thomas so Scalia > can have another token puppet. Let's be fair to Clarence. He's just bad on his own. - - Steve __________ When I watch the Fox News channel, I can't believe how much nerve those people have and how they assume that people are just going to swallow that shit. - Thom Yorke ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 20:55:31 -0600 From: steve Subject: Re: Hello from Haiti! >> 1- Count on a lot of death and destruction on the >> agenda for the next 4 years (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Palestine, etc, >> anyone >> Israel wants on the list will be on the list.)\ On Nov 4, 2004, at 1:27 PM, Benjamin Lukoff wrote: > That's not a fair way to characterize Israel. Ever wonder who forged that yellowcake document? The guy who passed it was in the US twice and the FBI didn't even bother to question him. - - Steve __________ blumenthal gloss jenny avert cabot nuzzle bulge inconsequential bottom volterra birth alive keats absentia illegitimacy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:00:45 -0600 From: steve Subject: Re: ...Unbelievable On Nov 4, 2004, at 1:27 PM, FSThomas wrote: > Buckley only took 2% of the vote in the state. I'll admit I voted for > Isakson, and that was based on the fact that his opponent (Denise > Majette) is a bald-faced liar when it comes to Isakson's support for > the Fair Tax initiative. I wonder what builders will say about people having to pay 23 percent sales tax when they buy a house? And the automakers, when the federal tax bill on the average car would be $5750.00. - - Steve __________ For kids who are 20 years younger than me, Linux is a great way to cut your teeth. It's a cultural phenomenon and a business phenomenon. Mac OS X is a rock-solid system that's beautifully designed. I much prefer it to Linux. - Bill Joy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 22:18:14 -0500 (EST) From: Jill Brand Subject: trying to make myself feel better A week ago today it would have been nigh on impossible to dampen my spirits, or those of anyone else who had a Red Sox bumper sticker. Today (and yesterday, to be sure) I am so very m i s e r a b l e. I'm ready to trade in that World Series banner for a new election in which only my people can vote. Max, it's yours. Make A-Rod happy. And how poignant that this misery befalls with the greatest effect the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, home of John Kerry. This is the only state in which the Republicans actually lost anything (Mitt Romney's attempt to make gains on the state level came back to bite him in the ass). It's as if we were being punished for the Red Sox victory - the curse lives. This reminds me of what Doris Kearns Goodwin had to say about the 1955 Dodgers. She was brought up a raging Dodgers fan, and she lived not far from Ebbets Field. She remembers with jubilation the Dodgers first (and only) World Series win in Brooklyn, but she also associates that time with doom and gloom. Yes, they won, but then, just three years later, they picked up and moved to LA. And I believe that her father also died soon after, so she will forever associate one of the happiest days of her life with one of its bleakest periods. Brace yourself, Massachusans, we ain't seen nothing yet. However, part of me does feel that Bush should wallow around in this dungheap he has created. I just don't want to wallow with him. Jill, thinking of popping in her 3 Games to Glory II Patriots DVD ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:19:46 -0600 From: steve Subject: Let's All Howl Choose your flavor. - - Steve __________ We've created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective. It pays to be subjective as much as possible. It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket. I'm glad we found it actually. - Weekly Standard writer Matt Labash, on right wing media http://www.tzone.org/~llin/clips/Howl_NTV_clip2.mpg ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 18:19:25 -0500 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Disaster Matt Sewell wrote: > > Room for one more over in Canada? yes, yes, there's plenty room here. Though temper your enthusuiasm with the fact that parts of Alberta have already seen -20 degC. You know you're turning Canadian when you feel righteous indignation over softwood lumber tarriffs. Stewart (who has room in the basement for several more folks) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:42:31 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: ...Unbelievable On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:27:35 -0500, FSThomas wrote: > When Bush recently mentioned "over-hauling our out-dated tax code," I > hope he meant it. A flat national sales tax would go a long, long way > to revenue generation. The practical problem, immediately, would be that life would become massively more expensive for the people currently least able to afford it anyway. If income tax revenue is shifted towards a sales tax (which seems to be what you're suggesting), obviously that sales tax would have to be considerably higher than it is today. But to pay for the government programs that people want (leaving aside the arg. over what they actually do want), that rate would have to be massively higher for most people. Same problem with a flat income tax: the only way to take in the same amount of revenue and have a flat tax would be to massively increase the tax rate on the lower-earning half of the population. (This is, of course, why wealthy folks like Steve Forbes favor it.) I'm not sure why anyone who *isn't* rich would favor a flat tax. Either services would be cut back to a bare minimum, or taxes for most people would rise dramatically. Most people wouldn't want either alternative. The only semi-flat tax I might favor would work something like this: set a level of income that's a comfortable mean. (Not the actual mean; somewhere above it, with the idea being this is an income people can live on, but not get wealthy on, or starve on.) Calculate what overall revenue should be. Use that comfortable mean level as a baseline for after-tax income, and have a very *slight* curve such that people w/income below that line don't suffer needlessly, while people above it, since they can afford it, pay a bit more. But this is rather silly: that simply describes the basic curve of our current tax system. The complications come in when you include deductions, etc. But you need those, since everyone's life circumstance is different, and finances are complex, and some things that support necessities oughtn't be taxed at the same as other things. And ultimately, people in the US pay very little in taxes. The fact is, the 1040 isn't that complicated.* When it is, it's because people have complicated their own financial lives, in an effort to (a) increase income and (b) decrease taxes. That those folks have to spend more time and money working their taxes is only fair - they've created the complexity in their financial situation. Someone like my wife and me, with a moderate income (in US terms, we're on the low end of upper-middle class, I guess) and with uncomplicated financial situations (we're not jumping through hoops trying to increase our income or decrease our taxes) can do our taxes in a few hours using off-the-shelf tax software. If we wanted to spend a few more hours, we could do it ourselves - but it's worht $50 to us to use the software. Incidentally, I'm not sure what Bush means when he refers to "outdated." Are there deductions for horseshoes and trolley-riding that I'm unaware of? * this assumes we're talking about people who are also not challenged by, saying, programming their VCRs.. - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:45:24 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Disaster On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 18:19:25 -0500, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > You know you're turning Canadian when you feel righteous indignation > over softwood lumber tarriffs. Wanna buy some wood? - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 23:02:00 -0600 From: Charles Gillett Subject: Robyn at the Kitty Cat Klub 11/4/2004 Just a setlist for now.... Ghost Ship A Skull, A Suitcase, And A Long Red Bottle Of Wine Mexican God One Long Pair Of Eyes I Often Dream Of Trains Viva! Sea-Tac My Favorite Buildings Beautiful Girl Peggy Sue Chinese Bones My Mind Is Connected To Your Dreams Only The Stones Remain W Sucks Queen Elvis The Main Thing > Take A Chance With Me Up On Cripple Creek Television De Chirico Street Sleeping With Your Devil Mask Ole Tarantula - --------------- A Day In The Life Ted, Woody And Junior Good times. - -- Charles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 00:19:48 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: chicago sun times spooked review ROBYN HITCHCOCK, "SPOOKED" (YEP ROC) *** Soft Boys and Egyptians mainstay Robyn Hitchcock's affection for folk in general and Bob Dylan in particular has been known for some time. Witness his anniversary restaging of Mr. Zimmerman's legendary 1966 Manchester show. So it's no surprise that he covers "Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door," from "Time Out of Mind" here. What does grab one's attention, though, is the intimate, folkie shadings, which offer a stark and straightforward setting for Hitchcock's clever wordplay and loopy worldview. Aided by the production work of retro-country-folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Hitchcock offers a handful of wacky ("Television," "We're Gonna Live in the Trees") and whimsical ("English Girl," "Full Moon in My Soul") musings that can stand up to some of the finer moments of the Brit singer-songwriter's quirky yet compelling career. Jeff Wisser Note: Robyn Hitchcock will perform Saturday at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 00:16:16 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: austin american-statesman/austin360 article Hitchcock's 'Spooked' has Dylan (and others) covered By Joe Gross Oct. 28, 2004 Robyn Hitchcock is the sort of songwriter lots of songwriters would like to be. He doesn't have piles of money or paparazzi-worthy star fame, but he's not suffering, either. It helps that he's always been able to get his music to his fans. "I don't sell a great deal of records," Hitchcock says from his home in London. "I'm not a hot proposition in that way. But I can make people look cool, if they're into that kind of thing." The 52-year-old songwriter has had a remarkable career. He began in the late '70s with the mannered British guitar band the Soft Boys, who reunited in 2001 and kicked off their tour here at South by Southwest: "You really need to get that sort of reunion thing out of the way before you're all 50," he notes. Robyn Hitchcock will be at the Cactus Cafe on Saturday to promote his new collaboration, an album with alt-country favorites Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. He's been on his own (or with his band the Egyptians) for more than two decades; his music became a college-radio staple and a hipster rite of passage. He never became wildly famous, but his tunes have influenced everyone from R.E.M. to Oasis. "From the time I was young, what I wanted to do was write good songs," Hitchcock says. "I think I'm lucky that I was clear-headed enough to know that that's what counted." Hitchcock will be in Austin on Saturday, appearing at the Cactus Cafe to promote "Spooked," his new collaboration with alt-country cult favorites Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings. (Welch and Rawlings are not appearing with him.) "I met them after one of their shows in London, and I found out they used to listen to my stuff when they were in college," Hitchcock says. "We swapped some phone numbers and that was that for a while." In January, Hitchcock came to the United States to shoot a small part in Jonathan Demme's remake of "The Manchurian Candidate." "It turned out that I wasn't needed for the second week," he says. "So I flew to Nashville, we got together and put down the majority of the album in about six days." In addition to his own songs, Hitchcock, Welch and Rawlings bonded over their mutual obsession with Bob Dylan ("most of our mealtimes were punctuated with Dylan conversations") and a love of a good cover. "These were our 'basement tapes,' " Hitchcock says, referring to Dylan's famous, endless jam session with the Band that produced dozens of oft-bootlegged songs. "There was a Rex song and a Talking Heads song, John Lennon ... quite a number of recordings, really." When it became clear there was a real album here (and not just a jam among friends), Hitchcock returned to Nashville in April to finish up the recordings. "Gillian and David very sweetly postponed their own projects to wrap this record up," Hitchcock says. "It was really quite kind of them, and now they're working on their own stuff, which is why they're not out with me." The songs on "Spooked" show the full range of Hitchcock and his collaborators' interests: Beatles-pop, '60s psychedelic rock, rootsy Americana. But it was Dylan they kept coming back to, even putting their cover of "Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door," from Dylan's 1997 album "Time Out of Mind," on "Spooked." "If I hadn't heard Dylan, I would have had to have been a poet or a comedian or an artist," Hitchcock says. The artist Hitchcock is most often compared to is Syd Barrett, the brilliant-but-unstable leader of Pink Floyd who eventually vanished into his own head after the first Floyd album and a couple of extraordinary solo records. "Syd Barrett was sort of the English Bob Dylan, this curly-haired enfant terrible of unfathomable intuitive talent and deeply beautiful lyrics," Hitchcock says. Hitchcock gets on a roll when he talks about Dylan (after all, in 2002 he self-released "Robyn Sings," a collection of Dylan covers). "His great gift was this ability ..." Hitchcock searches for the right words. "Dylan's songs never say 'Do as I do' but 'See as I see.' That's much more persuasive." After this tour, Hitchcock heads back to England and putting together a band for a spring tour, which should see him coming back to Austin in March for SXSW, an event he looks forward to every year. "You can see everyone you know in the business in three days," he says. "It's brilliant." Of course, Hitchcock doesn't need to be at SXSW; most everyone who is ever going to know who Robyn Hitchcock is knows about him already. But he comes here because he can, because he wants to. That's the nice thing about being Robyn Hitchcock at 52: You can pretty much do what you like. "At my stage of the game, records are just another pancake on the pile," Hitchcock says, "but I think this one is a very good pancake." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 00:22:43 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: chicago tribune article Hitchcock gets 'Spooked' By Greg Kot When British psychedelic rocker Robyn Hitchcock hooked up with mountain-soul torch-bearers Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to record his latest album, the sparse, darkly luminous "Spooked" (Yep Roc), it sounded almost counter-intuitive. At first listen, there's a chasm between their styles. Hitchcock specializes in twisted melodies brimming with wordplay that makes Syd Barrett sound stable. Welch's Southern drawl and stark melodies evoke 78-r.p.m. Carter Family records. But Hitchcock's wife is a big fan of Welch and Rawlings, and last year she hooked him too. "We went to see them play in London and I thought, it's the other leg of the table from what the White Stripes are," says Hitchcock. "It's the courage to be a duo without feeling that you've got to have a rhythm section--I think that's so sassy. They didn't use pickups on their guitars, just got this very sexy sound out of discreet feedback. They could've walked out of the 1940s, they had this utter disinterest in being in any point in time. And yet they're not dated. I saw them do [Jimi Hendrix's] `Manic Depression' acoustic and I thought, `A-ha! Some kind of rockers in drag.' Gillian later told me that David plays rock music with a folk attitude." It also turned out that Welch and Rawlings were big Hitchcock fans; Rawlings once asked Hitchcock to autograph a guitar at a show in the '80s. The duo were more than eager to collaborate with one of their heroes, and eventually booked studio time in Nashville last January, when they bonded on Bob Dylan and his "The Basement Tapes" recordings with the Band. Those discussions, and the casual, intimate style of Dylan and the Band, inspired dozens of songs recorded in a similar mold over one week. "It was three people sitting around picking and singing their favorite songs," says Hitchcock of the "Spooked" recording session. "On `The Basement Tapes,' you hear Dylan's most singer-friendly songs. You can do them at parties. They don't demand that everyone sit around in a circle listening, because you can all sing the chorus. If you were going to play Dylan songs to children I think `The Basement Tapes' is where you'd start." The Welch-Rawlings harmonies heightened the atmosphere of Hitchcock's songs, in which a playful ghosts-and-goblins Halloween vibe morphs into a deeper, more chilling dread. That's especially true of songs such as "If You Know Time" and "Sometimes a Blonde," in which "ghosts walk in the bodies of the children with their own guns proud to be on video." "I was looking out of this very window," says Hitchcock, speaking from his home in England. "I could see the kids walking on the road back from school, 15-year-olds. They're not usually armed, but they wish they were. At that age you do feel indestructible and you don't care if you aren't. You haven't lived long enough to have a life that you're desperately trying to conserve for a few more years. And it's people at that age who are usually manipulated into doing the killing. They're the ones who are most eager to pick up the guns." The chaos outside the living room window gives the album's shadowy songs a deeper bite. Though never regarded as a political songwriter, Hitchcock says he'd love to write more in that vein, but "you can't write songs like that just because you feel you ought to." A tirade against President George W. Bush got left unfinished because "it tells you what you already know." He attributes hitting the mark on "If You Know Time" and "Sometimes a Blonde" to the presence of his collaborators. "That kind of stuff comes to the fore because we weren't hung up on production or the drum sound," Hitchcock says. "There's no sheen on it. You're not distracted by a layer of sugar that you lick off that will give you a buzz for 15 minutes and then leave you with a headache." In that respect, "Spooked" is of a piece with lean, introspective Hitchcock masterworks such as "I Often Dream of Trains" (1984) and "Eye" (1990). Those albums provide an instant answer to anyone who accuses Hitchcock of merely proffering acid-pop ditties about insects and lizards. "When I was a young wanna-be writer, I was able to write funny songs before I was able to write sad ones," he says. "Some people would say, `Well, you're OK, but you just write novelty songs.' It took me quite a long time to develop a palette that had other emotions in it. And working with David and Gil, I couldn't help but gravitate in that direction again." Greg Kot is the Chicago Tribune rock critic. Originally published Nov. 4, 2004. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 22:28:23 -0800 (PST) From: "The Mammal Brain" Subject: Re: ...Unbelievable <"Progressive" taxes are repressive.> mm-hmm. let me guess: private property, "intellectual property", rentierism (is that a word?), colonial/imperial wars, international usury (imf & world bank style), military keynesianism, "externalities", slavery, wage slavery, dumping, nepotism, inheritance, tax shelters, corporate giveaways of public resources (AKA "privatisation"), corporate welfare, corporate bailouts, corporate personhood, protectionism (including when masked in "free trade" agreements), pinkertons/union busting, public sector r&d, the revolving door, corruption, institutional racism, price supports, & cetera are the cat's meow, right? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 02:02:13 -0600 From: Charles Gillett Subject: more Robyn at the Kitty Cat Klub I don't know why I can't get my head together enough to write a proper review. I was able to knock together this: http://home.earthlink.net/~eelpout/pictures/robyn.html The pieces of paper are all requests left at his feet, at his suggestion. Robyn seemed to be in a good mood. Most of his talk was about America's post-election situation, trying to console us a bit. The "W Sucks" song didn't feel like it was totally improvised to me, but it could have been. I believe "the innocence of mice" was rhymed with "Condoleeza Rice." And, of course, "Rumsfeld is the antichrist." I missed the Let It Be instore because I was working at a different record store at that time, but my wife was there and reports that he played: The Leopard Listening To The Higsons I Feel Beautiful The Devil's Coachman Creeped Out Full Moon In My Soul Linctus House Though not in that order. She also says that someone was there taping the performance. I don't know if the Cedar and KCK shows were taped...I'll be watching easytree.org. - -- Charles ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 11:19:18 +0000 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: Re: Fwd: Hello from Haiti! For someone from outside the US, that sounds rather an arrogant assertion. To be quite honest it pisses me right off when Americans go on about how their country is the best, their political system is the best, etc etc ad nauseum. It's irritating when the world's superpower is the most wasteful country on Earth, one of the most right wing, waging war for control of resources, trying to "open up" the world's economies in order to ruthlessly exploit them, and while all this is happening the nation is group-hugging and saying "we're the greatest". And don't even get me started on the State of Israel... Cheers Matt >From: Benjamin Lukoff >Lame as this outcome is, this is *so* not Haiti. For all its ills, the >U.S. is still the best place to live in the world, as far as I'm >concerned. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 13:57:05 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: I can almost hear it raining According to the original quote was from German playwright Hans Johst's play Schlageter, "Wenn ich Kultur hvre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear the word culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). I assume that this means that the non-intellectual speaker is fed up with being made to feel inferior by the arty classes. Goering apparently abbreviated this to "When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver'. In my view, Robyn's adapation "When I hear the word democracy I reach for my shotgun", means that he doesn't trust politicians who over-use abstract nouns to (a) avoid confronting reality and (b) make their meaningless speeches sound good. The only time I saw him in Bath (with the Egyptians) he said the song was based on Ronald Reagan's visit to Bitburg cemetary. - - Mike Godwin PS Don't get me started on the Levant again. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Philistines of Ashkelon, Gath, and Gaza are the ancestors of the Palestinians, and that they were there first (see Moses, Joshua, David vs Goliath etc). And of course they all speak Semitic languages, whether Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic or whatever. Not that it matters that much who got there first, the question is how to get 10 million people to reach some sort of agreement which starts them respecting each other's human rights and stops them killing one another. is informative, if slow. I haven't had much luck finding the population figures, but pro-Jewish site: suggests 5m Jewish and 5m Arab, while pro-Arab site: suggests something like 4m Arab. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V13 #317 ********************************