But I must post a disclaimer, I know nothing about the Amanda Knox story, although were I to hazard a guess, I don't think I would be be a million miles away. Having given over enough of my life to one media circus, three years in fact, the last thing I needed was an interest in another one.
I know just where you're coming from old lad, but you missed out the best bit of Americanese ever.
When some disingenuous pol is caught lying his (or her) arse off, they weren't lying like a bastard, no not at all, they just ''Misspoke.''
Well that's alright then.
I didn't create this world of ours. I merely recorded it.
I write of the great, eternal truths that bind together all mankind. The whole world over, we eat, we shit, we fuck, we kill and we die. Marquis de Sade
I heard the other day that the Marquis de Sade's old château was on the market for fifteen million Euros. The masochists offered twenty million, and the sadists turned 'em down.
Drive on.
George Carlin - On Language
"You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse.
I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum, can't take any more input. The nervous system has either snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was 70 years ago. Then a whole generation went by. And the second world war came along and the very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to be as hard to say. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock...battle fatigue.
Then we had the war in Korea in 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time. And the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey we're up to 8 syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase now. It's totally sterile now. Operational Exhaustion: sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about 16 or 17 years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still 8 syllables, but we've added a hyphen. And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I bet you, if we'd still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I bet you that.
But it didn't happen. And one of the reasons is because we were using that soft language, that language that takes out the life out of life. And it is a function of time it does keep getting worse.
Give you another example. Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the land fill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy became partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest room dining. Constipation became occasional irregularity.
When I was a little kid if I got sick they wanted me to go to a hospital and see the doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization. Or a wellness center to consult a health care delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy sub-standard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke. They don't have a negative cash flow position. They're f--kin' broke! Because a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area. So many people are no longer viable members of the work force. Smug, greedy well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill people anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they?
And some of this stuff is just silly. We know that. Like when the airlines tell us to pre-board. What the hell is pre-board? What does that mean? To get on before you get on?
They say they're going to pre-board those passengers in need of special assistance ...cripples! Simple honest direct language. There's no shame attached to the word cripple I can find in any dictionary. In fact it's a word used in Bible translations. "Jesus healed the cripples." Doesn't take seven words to describe that condition. But we don't have cripples in this country anymore. We have the physically challenged. Is that a grotesque enough evasion for you? How about differently-abled? I've heard them called that. Differently-abled! You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They say: "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullsh-tted by the system into believing that if you change the name of the condition somehow you'll change the condition. Well hey cousin ... doesn't happen!
We have no more deaf people in this country. Hearing impaired. No more blind people. Partially sighted or visually impaired. No more stupid people, everyone has a learning disorder. Or he's minimally exceptional. How would you like to told that about your child? 'He's minimally exceptional.' Psychologists have actually started calling ugly people those with severe appearance deficits. It's getting so bad that any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an unwilling sperm recipient!
And we have no more old people in this country. No more old people. We shipped them all away and we brought in these senior citizens. Isn't that a typically American twentieth century phrase? Bloodless. Lifeless. No pulse in one of them. A senior citizen. But I've accepted that one. I've come to terms with it. I know it's here to stay. We'll never get rid of it. But the one I do resist, the one I keep resisting, is when they look at an old guy and say, "Look at him Dan, he's ninety years young." Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word old to describe someone. To have to use an antonym.
And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started conning myself when I got in my forties. I'd look in the mirror and say, "Well...I guess I'm getting ...older." Older sounds a little better than old, doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. I'm getting old. And it's okay. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die. I'll pass away. Or I'll expire, like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure.
I'm telling ya, some of this language makes me want to vomit. Well, maybe not vomit ...makes me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill. scribd.com
''If you want to join in the fight against extremism, call, People for the American Way.''
Americans, what are they like? Americans don't do irony, but I do.
''It is no slogan that America remains the most resolutely religious country on God's great earth, and it is no slogan that America will always occupy a special place in God's heart.'' George HW Bush.
Yes of course, he his after all very much like yourselves, a petty, vengeful, jealous, genocidal maniac.
God wilfully directs or commands the wholesale slaughter of thousands of men, women, children and animals, for no other reason than that "his" people should have their land. The Village Atheist
And who better to carry out God's work than you lot? You are after all ''His'' people.
Here's a video below, showing America carrying out God's work. He really must have had a special place in his heart for America on that day. And one or two others. What was the butchers bill for that little genocidal jolly, three, or was it four million?
Featured at: "I was ashamed to be an American today" One clip on the Fred & Wilma Museum, and one on a schoolboard's persecution of a sixteen year old atheist schoolgirl.
Pat Robertson's true colours come shining through, and it ain't purple. But just as importantly see how he is being coached (supposedly off air) and the talk of better screening for the telephone calls he is to receive. And all this on that nice Mister Larry King's Show. Shurely Shome Mishtake?
Gay Marriage: End of the world for some Christians. Catch the second fellow, he has a vote!
He does come in for some stick, does poor old Mr Winky.
Bill Maher on the homophobic Jerry Falwell.
Maher on Mormons.
Might I remind you that there is a man, two in fact, that aspire to become the next President of the United States of America, who believe this shit.
Featured at: Utah Tops The Wanking League More, ''everything you wanted to know about batshit crazy religions'' including the best ''Scientology explained'' clip that I have come across. Strap in, five point harness and airbag essential, check your brain at the door.
Spitting Image, Bush 41
Well he would be wouldn't he, he is after all an American.
United States Air Force AKA The Ministry Of Truth Interesting story on USAF censorship. We trust you to bomb shit out of people with multi-million dollar war planes, but we don't trust you enough to let you read blogs. Nasty old bloggers!
This picture gallery is to accompany the post above. (God, hate and hypocrisy)
SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF IRONY–
Jay Fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first American to get to grips with the concept of irony. "It was weird," Fullmer said. "I was in London and, like, talking to this guy and it was raining and he pulled a face and said, "Great weather, eh?" and I thought "Wait a minute, no way is it great weather." Fullmer then realised that the other man’s "mistake" was in fact deliberate. Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 3, plans to use irony himself in future. "I’m, like, using it all the time," he said. "Last weekend I was grilling steaks and I burned them to shit and I said "Hey, great weather!".
3rd update: I had the misfortune a few nights ago, to watch this forty five minute testament to homophobia and hate. And make no mistake, that's exactly what it was, pure hate.
Such hatred that can only be found in the ignorant and backward, especially when the flames for such hatred are fanned by the equally ignorant and backward Evangelical Christian missionaries of America. Who incidentally, don't have a Christian bone in their bodies, whatever one of those might be; Christian bones, not bodies.
I don't want to delve into all the talking points that the documentary raised, but I will make mention of one thing. Towards the end of the documentary, film maker Mariana Van Zeller, asks Scott Lively, Why Uganda? His reply was the usual blah blah, albeit said somewhat sheepishly, picking up on Van Zeller's implied but unasked question.
It doesn't take a great leap of faith to disregard Lively's blah blah, and come up with the answer that Uganda, complete with its ignorant and backward Christian sheep, was that just like the fertile soil of the country itself, so too were its adherents of the Christian faith, equally fertile, where the seeds of homophobia and hatred, once planted, flourish at an alarming rate.
It is without doubt, that Uganda and its people are ignorant and backward. Why else would such stories as these be so easily sourced on the Net?
Witch-doctors reveal extent of child sacrifice in Uganda BBC 15m clip. (Grisly)
Experience tells us that we can never look to these men of God for the truth, for to expect the truth would be too anomalous from people whose whole life is spent living a lie. But perhaps if there were to have be any element of truth in Scott Lively's reply to the question, why Uganda he might have said: Because its so ripe for the picking, or alternatively, I just love shooting fish in a barrel.
I had wanted to bring you an embedded version of the film, by uploading the download I have to Youtube. but for reasons I won't bore you with, the clip has given me all kinds of problems.
The documentary itself, Missionaries of Hate, is quite a rare bit of film online, however I managed to track down a stream in three parts that can be viewed here. Alas, and for a change from some of my recommendations, where I carry the disclaimer ''UK only I'm afraid'' this is the complete opposite, and for copyright reasons is unavailable in the UK.
Perhaps someone outside the UK would click the link and please let me know if it can be viewed at all. It is available however for download at the link below. One link on the blog and another in the comments section, and both links good.
Another clip that gave me problems, was the four minutes of film from Orwell's 1984, depicting the Two Minutes Hate, did you get that? But for entirely different reasons than mentioned previously. Those problems in the form of, and pray forgive my slipping into a bit of West Cork vernacular, because sometimes nothing else seems to fit the bill as describing the two people that uploaded the clip to Youtube, as miserated. Choosing as they both did to disable the embedded feature, it's not as though they made the thing is it? Even an appeal by me for one individual to enable the embedded falling on stony ground. As I say, miserated.
No harm, where there's a will there's solicitor as they say, I captured the thing and then re-upped it to Youtube, embedded enabled, and it can be viewed below.
Why I felt the Two Minutes so important to the post, is that viewed in conjunction with certain parts of Missionaries of Hate, it becomes a bit of a job to differentiate between the two. The only difference being, one is fiction, and the other ain't.
I shall include a few pictures of the main players at the bottom of the page. I do this in order to get the best out of the post, explained here, (Japanese Embassies Around The World) but an online gallery of Uganda's Righteous Rogues, can be found here.
Unedited
_
1st update: This is becoming an ever increasingly topical subject. I shall try and find a few links on the morrow.
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2nd update: Here you go, Rachel Maddow has it all in eight minutes, the murder of gay activist, David Kato, inspired no doubt by, Scott Lively, Richard Cohen and ''The Family.''
The word ''Family'' in any US organisation, being a euphemism for a Jesus loving LGBT hate group.
Correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Uganda, where many question whether the growing influence of American religious groups has led to a movement to make homosexuality a crime punishable by death.
As an anti-gay movement spreads across the continent, gay Africans and their families face an increasingly uncertain future of isolation, imprisonment or even execution.
The film makes it much easier to understand why the general Ugandan public is so eager to send their peers to jail. If the most prominent spiritual leader in your community made it his life purpose to convince you that there were people coming to eat your poop and recruit your children, you would be against them too. They are only hearing one side of the story and it is the origin of their information that is truly infuriating.
Although Ugandan leaders are deeply offended by the notion, the facts definitively show that American evangelists have played a central role in defining the nation’s hard line against sexual minorities. The documentary focuses on American evangelist Dr. Scott Lively, who is widely credited with installing the dominant notion that homosexuals are after your children.
When asked if he condemns the legislation, Lively says that he condemns the death penalty aspects of the bill, but that overall the bill is a “lesser of two evils” compared to the prospect of having American gay activists do to Uganda what they have done to America.
