February 27, 2005
Cops that torture. Great.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n215/a02.html?5830
P.S. If that seems harsh: I think torture is deplorable. But torturing a terrorist is 100 times “less bad” than torturing a non-violent offender.
And torturing a non-violent offender using the state-sanctioned role of police officer is 100 times worse than that, because it is a mockery of what freedom stands for.
February 26, 2005
Hunter S. Thompson, the creator of "gonzo" journalism and one of the most influential modern-day journalists in America, was found dead Sunday of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound; he was 67. Thompson's son, Juan, discovered the body at Thompson's home outside Aspen, CO, where the author lived with his wife, Anita, who was not home at the time. A self-styled rebel who lived hard and fast (it could be said he created the model for hard and fast living), Thompson helped pioneer the concept of New Journalism, in which a writer inserted himself into a story and relayed his experiences in the first person. Thompson's most notable
achievement in this medium was 1972's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which detailed his drug-influenced escapades in the desert city; Johnny Depp later starred as Thompson's alter ego, Raoul Duke, in Terry Gilliam's 1998 film adaptation. Writing for Rolling Stone magazine, Thompson became a notorious counterculture figure in the early 70s, lambasting the Nixon administration and other politicians; he was also the model for Garry Trudeau's "Uncle Duke" character in the comic strip Doonesbury. Though he continued writing and living a hard-core lifestyle that would have been the undoing of men half his age, Thompson was always most well-known for Fear and Loathing as well as the film Where the Buffalo Roam, where the writer was portrayed by a young Bill Murray. Thompson is survived by his wife and son; no statement has been released as to whether the author left a suicide note.
–Prepared by IMDb staff
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0860219/bio
200601 update: Many people have spoken to me about the supposition that Hunter S. Thompson did not, in fact, kill himself. Nobody knows for sure what happened, but lifetime journalists don't typically kill themselves before finishing a book they were working on. It makes no sense. Ask his wife. The man had a zeal for life and was too addicted to doing drugs to want to die, and stop doing drugs, forever.
I have spoken with a friend of mine who has met the man and talked with him several times in his home town in Oregon, and says there's just no fucking way he killed himself.
He was working on a piece of journalism that was supposed to be a shattering takedown of the establishment. Or so I am told.
Conclusions? I think it's more likely that a post-911 government would murder a subversive, than a great writer and journalist, married, committing suicide.
I'm going to file this under September 11th because really, if he was about to uncover a conspiracy that resulted in him getting murdered: September 11th is the most likely one. And also under censorship because, if this is true, murder is the ultimate censorship.
Of course no one will ever know, so I guess we should all believe what the corporate-owned mainstream media tells us, huh?
February 19, 2005
“Put seeds in the ground….
Wait for the flowers to grow….
You suck at growing.”
-By Clint, Carolyn, and Evan
This was the by-product of a brainstorming session.
Sad. :)
February 19, 2005
February 19, 2005
Good article. Very thought provoking. Shows the good and bad about Wal-Mart. I personally think, given this article, they are a bit evil. Not necessarily malevalent (which implies intent), but evil nonetheless.
I do believe the needs of the many often outweigh the needs of the few (Thanks Spock), but is helping 1000 people get cheaper pickles worth a (loser) family losing its only income?
What really scares me is how it seems to be a force that operates on its own.
It’s like a giant monster that consumes everything, even the soul of its own employees as they are forced to work harder to maintain an ever-increasing, leaner company that will never, ever be good enough (because there’s always room to be even more efficient). Wal-Mart can’t get no satisfaction.
South Park really illustrated this “monsterism” well. You can get the episode here. It’s a very funny episode and also illustrates how it is our own human nature that causes us to do things that aren’t in our best interest.
Thanks for the links Compn.
February 18, 2005
How about that Vioxx scandal? Official estimates that as many as 100,000-150,000 people unnecessary had heart attacks due to the risks that were never disclosed to the public. And of course, business interests pressure scientists to give results that are in the interest of the business, as a news item this week mentioned.
How could the situation possibly be worse? I didn’t think it was possible to make such a situation worse — selling people poison that kills them, marketed as medicine. But now Bush has made it harder for class-action lawsuits against companies by passing a bill limiting such power.
Of cousre Bush cowtows to big business. Expect many more needless deaths due to the corps hunger for power and profit.
It’s funny that there are people saying “those many people didn’t die”. You don’t know. The whole point is that nobody knows, because the science was faked!
P.S. I’ve been prescribed Vioxx in the past and have a pre-existing heart condition.
Claire's blog 