see more crazy cat pics

FOR YOUR CORRESPONDENT, IT'S BEEN A RATHER BUSY MIDWEEK,  what with:

• doing some further sweeping of the motel's car park;
• restocking the pop vending machine;
• sending out some used TV sets to a recycling collection; and
• getting me some Archer Farms (as in Target) Blood Orange Italian Soda; hopefully, a review will be forthcoming in this space.

Translating, in effect, into a sense of tardiness in going to (virtual) bed with this essay. I trust you will understand.

=============

COME TO THINK OF IT, TODAY PROVIDED PERHAPS THE BEST (AND, FOR AWHILE, THE LAST) OPPORTUNITY TO GET SOME SWEEPING DONE of the motel car park, given some mild weather outside in contrast to some damp and dreary-looking conditions yesterday.

(The sweeping-up was started on Monday, which also saw rather decent conditions.)

I say today because overnight, rainy and dreich conditions are likely to make their presence felt here in the Minnwissippi--and will likely remain so into the weekend, along with cooler general conditions (high 50's for maxima Friday and Saturday, high 40's Saturday).

No wonder the farmers and planters out this way are desperate for some serious dry conditions for once so they can get the field work and planting out of the way for once, notwithstanding the high cost of diesel fuel, fertiliser and chemicals.

*************

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD ABOUT THE SPECULATION IN CERTAIN SECULAR-PROGRESSIVE CIRCLES SUGGESTING WHERE THE HYPERCONSERVATIVES are manipulating to the point of perverting Hillary's Presidential bid--as in getting Republicans to switch sides through "dog-whistle" tactics questioning Barack Obama's racial and moral fitness for the Presidential position by voting for Hillary in the primaries, and then setting the stage for a back-door electoral coup d'essai by The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, a/k/a John McCain.

Even if Hillary won the primaries in Pennsylvania last night, neither she nor Obama are any closer to the requisite number of delegates to secure the Democratic Party's nomination (though Obama still has the advantage in this regard, howbeit slight).

Too, history could be on McCain's side, unless he were to make that one fatal misstep as may be all the likelier: The Star Tribune in Minneapolis had a "factoid" (under heading of "Have you heard?") on its front page this morning which noted where, in nine of the last ten Presidential elections, the first candidate to secure the requisite number of delegates necessary for their party's formal nomination went on to win the November election.

Hence, vigilance all the more on The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang for that one fatal lapsus linguĉ that, under the right circumstances, could be the end of McCain's likely chances for victory, no matter what he does to try and save himself. Especially if YouTube picks up on it.

*************

SPOT THE FLAWED LOGIC IN THIS CONSERVATIVE ARTICLE OF FAITH:

The "why and wherefore" for keeping taxes on "the four hundred" all the lower is to stimulate them into creating jobs "out of the collective goodness of their hearts" for the Lower Classes, who wind up paying an even higher tax bill just to cover these tax cuts for the "elect***entitled as of right."

Only it turns out that the jobs are not created stateside, as conservative (il)logic would have it.

So what stands in the way of Congress correcting this imbalance, even with tax incentives offered employers to encourage their hiring welfare cases per workfare (among them Advanced Earned Income Credit over and above their regular pay in lieu of traditional welfare emouluments)? 

AS IF THE ONGOING PATTERN OF CHAUVINIST MISOGYNY FROM MSNBC'S CHRIS "HARDBALL" MATTHEWS WASN'T AWFUL ENOUGH, Media Matters for America--itself behind an appeal calling on MSNBC to deal with Mr. Matthews' on-air chauvinist misogyny "by whatever means necessary"--it appears as if the tone and tenor of recent remarks of his about "grumpy old men" hanging around diners smacks of Producerist propaganda.

Witness these video clips from recent monitoring by Media Matters as give credence to this possibility:

So: Could it be possible that Chris Matthews may be an unwitting shill for the Producerist element, as well as a male chauvinist of the crudest sort known since Bobby Riggs?

(BTW, make sure Mr. Matthews "gets the message" for once. Even if it drives him to Al Cohol's ensnaring embrace in the end.)

see more crazy cat pics

WITH THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS OF CULTURAL CONSERVATISM FOREVER SEEING PUBLIC TELEVISION AND RADIO AS "ELITIST" in its tone and programming, and "with reckless and utter disregard for what the people really want," you have to wonder if what the Kulturkrieg crowd really wants is nothing short of an idealised "people's culture."

(Whatever that is.)

In any case, an Open Letter directed to that ilk will be forthcoming in this blog. And the questions that it asks are rather important--and whose answers should be thought over carefully.

All the more reason to make The Exaggerator a part of your blogging experience. (Did I mention the online shopping and free webmail?) 

JUST TAKE A LOOK @ THE FOLLOWING VIDEO FROM BRAVE NEW FILMS, with the hat tip to Down With Tyranny, showing just how contagious the Fox Prolefeed Virus is afflicting the Mainstream Media when it comes to Indecision 2008:

Is it any wonder that the blogosphere is starting to look all the more sane in the face of how Fox Prolefeed is influencing the mainstream media with "big lie" journalism crossing, @ times, into "dog-whistle" pandering to latent prejudices?

(Which is enough to suggest that you might want to subscribe to this blog's RSS feed; there's plenty of ways you can do so, all of which are so explained.)

SPRING JUST SEEMS TO TAKE ITS OWN SWEET TIME MAKING HER PRESENCE FELT, LET ALONE ACKNOWLEDGED, HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI as makes the home of Your Correspondent.

As in: Where it got up to around 75 degrees under filtered sunshine yesterday, this morning we woke up to skies threatening rain and a temperature 25 degrees cooler. (There was some showery rain this morning, but that has since passed.)

Meanwhile, things should get fine (in theory) as the day wears on, with maxima of around 65 expected. And the current forecast for the weekend calls for the Minnwissippi seeing a slight chance of rain, but otherwise halfway decent with maxima trending around 55-60 degrees.

*************

IT'S NO WONDER JOHN McCAIN'S SOCIOECONOMIC AGENDA VIS-A-VIS HIS PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRATIONS is one of "staying the course" with the Club for Growth's flawed logic suggesting that low taxes=jobs=social stability.

Especially so among the "chronic and habitual" welfare "basket cases" seen to be "needing healthy empowerment towards developing a healthy respect for industry, self-reliance and personal responsibility" within free-market capitalistic models and paradigms.

Put another way:

see more crazy cat pics

Am I on to something here, readers?

*************

ZIMBABWE MUST BE IN REALLY DESPERATE CIRCUMSTANCES, AND THEN SOME, if reports of what amounts to a new "dirty war" against innocent civilians in reprisal for supporting the opposition in recent elections (results of which are still subject to "confirmation"--i.e., manipulation by the "inside of the inside" of ZANU-PF) are independently verifiable.

As the BBC notes:

Post-election violence has displaced 3,000 people, injured 500 and left 10 dead, according to MDC secretary general Tendai Biti.

Human rights groups say they have found camps where people are being tortured for having voted "the wrong way".

But Mr Chinamasa denied that anyone had died in political violence.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said that of the 10 people reported dead, only four names had been supplied and "of these three no basis whatsoever while the fourth is still under investigation and will be concluded soon", he was reported as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.

Zimbabwe's church leaders are also calling for intervention to prevent the violence reaching genocidal proportions.

"If nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere," leaders of the main denominations said in a joint statement.

"We appeal to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union and the United Nations to work towards arresting the deteriorating political and security situation in Zimbabwe," a statement said.

Further embarrassing Harare is news that the Chinese-flagged vessel An Yue Jiang, carring arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe, has been refused docking permission by several African nations; in response, the Chinese owners of the vessel may consider returning to its home port of Guangzhou without offloading the martially-loaded cargo.

Meanwhile, you can just imagine His Fraudulency's Great Within (and especially so its "inside of the inside") secretly studying news reports of post-electoral intimidation across Zimbabwe for inspiration on how to cook up civil disorder following Indecision 2008, especially among the Lower Classes and National Minorities--especially if the Great Within has some close droogs among illicit "citizen militia" and "patriot" organisations who can be counted upon as agents provocateur most reliable.

Who can be expected to deny any and all knowledge of everything if and when pushed with the Nuremburg Patsy--"I was only following orders."

*************

MANY OF YOU READERS, I SUPPOSE, WOULD SYMPATHISE WITH REMARKS BY BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT EVO MORALES about the wealthy interested only in buying fancy, fuel-inefficent cars rather than showing any empathy or concern for the hungry and suffering--especially so now more than ever, as more and more of the world's cereal grains are being diverted to biofuel production, not to mention more and more of the world's arable lands being diverted to biofuel-crops production.

Motherdear, for her part, would.

Never mind where viable alternatives to diverting cereal grains for biofuel exist, notably Jerusalem artichokes (which are actually close relatives of the sunflower) and switchgrass, both of which can be converted into a high-quality grain alcohol which can be incorporated into E85 as well as being a viable ersatz gasoline. Come to think of it, how many of the ethanol production centres currently configured to produce ethanol from cereal grains can be modified to produce ethanol from Jerusalem artichokes?

(Not to mention a variety of bitter hazelnut which can be planted to not only help control soil erosion following flood-generated landslips, but can also produce a viable form of biodiesel. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.)

*************

SUCH IS THE POWER AND INTRUSION OF THE SAMSUNG GROUP IN SOUTH KOREA'S SOCIOECONOMIC LIFE AND CULTURE that local television gave exhaustive coverage to the shock announcement that Samsung CEO Lee Kun Hee had decided to resign for the greater glory of the consumer electronics chaebol, as family-run Korean cartels are commonly referred to.

This in the wake of charges that Mr. Lee used his position to evade millions of dollars in taxes and breaching public trust and confidence; charges that he used his position to build up a "slush fund" to buy off judges and politicos were dismissed.

Imagine Halliburton having as much power and intrusion over American socioeconomic development, especially so heading into Indecision 2008....

*************

SO MUCH FOR BILL "NO-SPIN ZONE" O'REILLY'S DEMANDS FOR BOYCOTTING FRANCE AS A "PATRIOTIC" MOVE to shame them for non-support of the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism: The BBC is noting where the Chinese Government is seeking to use the Information Stuporbahn to whip up xenophobic sentiment against France in response to the recent protests during the Olympic Torch Relay's Paris leg over China's "cultural genocide" campaigns in Tibet:

Blogs, internet forums and text messages circulating in China have urged consumers to boycott French goods in response to the protests that accompanied the torch relay in Paris.

Popular anger at chaotic scenes which saw pro-Tibet protesters grab the flame from Paralympic fencer Jin Jing has been inflamed by detailed accounts posted on the internet by eyewitnesses.

The blog EastSouthWestNorth translated the most notable of these posts from popular Chinese internet forums and newspapers.

One bystander waiting by the Seine for the torch to pass found himself involved in the scuffle for the torch. He recounted his experience on popular Chinese-language forum Tianya.

"The brave girl lowered her head and used her back to shield the torch. The thug pulled her shoulder back and hit her... Tears rained out of my eyes. I was sad and angry. Here was an unarmed girl who was handicapped, and the thug had to hit her?"

The anger and the bewilderment at the actions of the protesters is palpable in one of the response posts: "Who is abusing human rights? Who is bringing violence to this world?"

Lists of products and brands to boycott, including Louis Vuitton and French retailer Carrefour, have been widely circulated.

Blogger Wang Jian Shuo says several of his friends have started to boycott French products and describes the impact of recent events on his own thinking: "If you need an example, I am the person in China who were turned from pro-France to anti-France within few days... I don't think France is a friendly country at all."

But then again, how do we know such comments were not cooked up under officially-issued "guidance" to ensure "conformity to the official line"?

THOSE REGARDING AMERICA AS HAVING BEEN PREDESTINED BY "DIVINE WILL" TO BE THE ONE TRUE CENTRE OF THE WORLD, THE UNIVERSE, AND THE 28 KNOWN GALAXIES may want to ponder the following item per the BBC:

Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth.

Mecca is the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.

The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice.

One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca's was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.

Mecca watch

A prominent cleric, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, said modern science had at last provided evidence that Mecca was the true centre of the Earth; proof, he said, of the greatness of the Muslim "qibla" - the Arabic word for the direction Muslims turn to when they pray.

The meeting also reviewed what has been described as a Mecca watch, the brainchild of a French Muslim.

The watch is said to rotate anti-clockwise and is supposed to help Muslims determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth.

The meeting in Qatar is part of a popular trend in some Muslim societies of seeking to find Koranic precedents for modern science.

It is called "Ijaz al-Koran", which roughly translates as the "miraculous nature of the holy text".

The underlying belief is that scientific truths were also revealed in the Muslim holy book, and it is the work of scholars to unearth and publicise the textual evidence.

But the movement is not without its critics, who say that the notion that modern science was revealed in the Koran confuses spiritual truth, which is constant, and empirical truth, which depends on the state of science at any given point in time.