"I'm happy to be alive, I'm happy to be who I am."

Michael Jackson

I've had the news on TV in the other room all morning - listening to the endless, self-important, drivel forthcoming from anyone who has ever made a record or appeared on TV. Now and then someone inserts something intelligent but they are the few exceptions that prove the rule that most people (including yours truly, no doubt) have nothing intelligent to say about anything .

As for Michael Jackson himself, my feelings are simple:

1. Not all the money and fame in the world could be enough to compensate for being as troubled, lonely, and generally messed up as this man appeared to be.
2. He was a pop music genius. Wacky, embarrassingly over the top at times, and rivaling even Elvis as a self-caricature, to be sure, (and, for those too young to know it, he did steal most his moves from James Brown,) but the man made "Black and White" for goodness sake. Wow!

Back to TV - one after another celebrity is introduced for comment with the ubiquitous "superstar" label attached. That word, along with "legendary", I'd be happy enough to see disappear from the vernacular. If we must use it, let's apply it properly. In my view, only four modern world artists may properly be called "superstar" (and, as of a few hours ago, all in the past tense):

1. Frank Sinatra
2. Elvis Presley
3. The Beatles
4. Michael Jackson

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.
Buddha 

"It's a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride in order to do so. "

Georges Bernanos

Before I moved to Korea back in the mid 90's I spent nearly 3 years hanging about in Korean karaoke bars, restaurants and clubs in Toronto. That made bowing a familiar sight in my daily life. Subsequently while in Korea it was of course even more ubiquitous. It was something that gave me pause. Many westerners, I noted, willingly bowed without qualm or hesitation. It was not quite so easy for me, though I could not at first verbalize what made me uneasy. After some consideration I did manage to come up with the following:

It seems to me there are 3 forms of physical greeting.

1. Hugging.
Not much needs to be said about this. It is simply the physical expression of affinity between intimates. I am all for hugging. The more, the better.

2. Handshakes.
Shaking hands is interesting. Its essence is simple. It is done with the right hand - the weapon hand. It is simply an extension of an EMPTY weapon hand to say "See? No weapon. I am not here to threaten you, but to greet you."

3. Bowing.
What does a bow express? Easy. Subservience. A bow says "You are my superior. I offer you my exposed neck so that you may cut off my head, if that is what you wish." It is the human equivalent of the vanquished wolf tossing back its head to expose its throat to the victor. It is begging for mercy.No wonder that many westerners, especially Americans, feel queasy at the thought of bowing.

There is one area other than the social, business, or political in which we find bowing everywhere, of course. Religion. It was this that got me to thinking about bowing today. I read the following in "Complete Idiot's Guide to Zen Living":

"Some people find it degrading, not in the spirit of Zen, or even idolatry to bow to figures of the Buddha or other Buddhist figures. Actually such suppication is meant to remind the practitioner that the self isn't important. It is like a litmus test for the ego. If your ego gets inflamed about bowing, it probably needs taming. Many Zen Buddhists go without bowing, however, and it certainly isn't a requirement."

This came as some relief. I simply loathe icons and the thought of bowing to one turns my stomach. Endless genuflection, along with ascribing supernatural events or powers to the Buddha, has always made me turn away from a practice (NOT a religion) that otherwise has always held enormous appeal. (I sometimes think that some Buddhist monks are perhaps the only truly sane human beings on earth.)

So, what's the upshot of all this? How did I come to deal with bowing in Korea during my 8 year sabbatical? Actually it became quite simple. I decided that I would quite readily bow - to anyone who bowed first or was likely to bow back. This simplified life enormously.

Of course, should Queen Elizabeth decide to come a calling I will be faced with a dilemma once again. Actually, not really.  

 "The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
  George Washington

It is the simple fact that now in the United States, despite Obama's promise during the election campaign that he would repeal the Patriot Act and thereby end the practice, it is possible to be legally/illegally "disappeared" - swept up off the street at the whim of one or another public servant, injected into a system where habeas corpus, the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Convention, and international law hold no sway and you might never be heard from or of again. I say "legally/illegally" because the practice is sanctioned by laws but those laws are as far from being constitutional as a budgerigar is from being a condor. No matter, it seems. The American public is happy enough to sit quietly as their once great nation daily resembles the Third Reich more with each passing day - despite the coronation of the messiah and his "change you can believe in".

Now if this were not enough to keep any relatively sane foreigner from not entering Mordor, they've added yet more disincentive. Beginning next month, all foreigners leaving the country will be fingerprinted. Also in June, the Department of Homeland Security (wouldn't "Gestapo" have been shorter, more familiar and less of a mouthful?) will begin a trial wherein Canadians and Americans traveling between the two countries will be issued with identity cards with embedded RF. I suppose we should be thankful they have not decided to demand that they be implanted.

911 justifies this?

My god! What on earth has happened to Americans?

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
~Albert Einstein

For veterans Day a regular Lew Rockwell (www.lewrockwell.com) contributor published a list of his favorite anti-war films. I disagreed with most of it because, as I have said before, I thnk that whatever you put on screen, no matter how grim, you promote. When a film such as "Platoon" is released, enlistment figures do not fall; they rise.

There was one entry that caught my attention though: The Americanization of Emily - a 1964 Arthur Hiller film starring James Garner (one of my faves) and Julie Andrews. I recall seeing and liking the film many years ago but it seems I forgot one truly amazing scene. It is an anti-war diatribe unlike any other that I have seen in a film before or since. On viewing it again I am honestly shocked that bald sanity such as this ever made its way into a Hollywood feature.

Have a look HERE

 "Evil requires the sanction of the victim."
  Ayn Rand

I have not posted anything here in quite some time. The reason is not a lack of things to write about, but just the opposite; the world is going nuts and who could possibly comment on all the things worthy of notice? It's overwhelming.

I just saw something on the news that moved me to reach for the keyboard though. In a story about Bernie Madoff - Mr. Ponzi writ large - we got another of those "poor victim" snippets - a couple who had invested their life savings with the culprit and lost it all. Whatever considerations I might personally have about this couple and the possibility that their own greed led to their own disaster, their story demonstrates something that is clear to me - something that, as usual, puts me squarely on the non-popular, heretical side of things.

There is no doubt that 99% of the population, when hearing of fraud schemes like this and others, and seeing victims like these and others, see it all as a call for greater regulation of the stock market. I, on the other hand, see it as more evidence that regulation will always fail. Why? These victims are not just victims of Bad Bernie; they are victims of two other contributing factors:

1. Their own laziness in not using due diligence before parting with their hard earned cash, and,
2. Government fraud.

Government fraud? Yes. The government (by force) assumes the role of protector - defending us, presumably from our own stupidity, we being such poor hapless, mindless waifs in the eyes of the power-elite. It takes a monopoly position in governance of trade in all things including stocks by way of laws creating regulatory agencies - in this case, the SEC. So, as with everything else, the public assumes it is safe because Big Brother government has everything under control. And, as with everything else government touches, it fails. Do government police forces actually apprehend and bring to justice all criminals? Do government infrastructure agencies deliver great roads and ports etc.? Do government wars on abstract nouns ever end in victory? Does government get anything right?

These are simple questions with, to me, obvious answers:

If there were no government regulation of the trading of stocks and other securities, would this couple be in the position they are now?
Of course not!

If there were no government regulation of the trading of stocks and other securities, would this couple have perhaps used their brains a bit before handing their wampum over to a stranger?
Of course they would have!

Caveat emptor works.
E Pluribus Unum victimizes.

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."
George W. Bush

I watched Bush's final press conference last night. Pretty sad. I think if I were to sum up this guy it would be as follows:

He's a kid. A somewhat slow, affable, not badly intentioned, but irresponsible rich kid who got in over his head. A dilettante. (Rather like me except that I am somewhat smarter than him and he is infinitely richer than me.)  Everything he has done has had that "son of a rich guy" feel to it. Everything has been like a toy for him to play with and if he broke it, no big deal. His failed oil company, The Texas Rangers, the Texas Governor's office, then the Presidency.

If you think about his first campaign and his first few months in office he did not seem like a bad guy. In fact he spent more time on vacation than working, which is not a bad thing in my view, and he was pretty laissez-faire (or ignorant) about what went on in other countries. Then came 911 and I think it was like "Oh, wow. Now I can play with the big boys" time. It was as if the thought of taking the job seriously had never actually crossed his mind before. He actually thought he could be a serious president because the opportunity for war was handed to him. Of course he was out of his depth and had to rely on what the neocon cabal fed him. And since then I suspect he has been aware that virtually every move he has made has been the wrong one but is just not bright enough to know exactly why or what to do about any of it. I don't think he is a fundamentally evil man, just a fundamentally frivolous and not too bright boy.

As for Obamarama, there are a million things that could be examined about "The One" but I'd sum up my view, or suspicions actually, about him simply. If it had been on his watch would he have signed the Patriot Act and the accompanying Draconian bills into law or would he have said "I am not going to sign laws that violate the Constitution"? I think there is zero doubt about the answer. And the difference here is: Bush is a dimwit and just doesn't get it. Obama is brilliant - and therefore evil. In other words, Obama will prove to be  just another US President except that he is semi-black.

C'est tout. End of mini-rant. 

"We cannot make good news out of bad practice."
Edward R. Murrow

Amidst all the major news stories of the past week (the US government trying to figure out how to give rich people more money while making the poor taxpayers whose grandchildren will be paying the interest believe it is somehow for THEIR benefit, and the pathetic inexorable genocide in Trans Jordan) two "minor" items caught my attention.

The first was that Britain has banned sales of 100 watt incandescent light bulbs and will, over the next few years, ban all incandescent bulbs. The reason is obvious; those hideous fluorescent alternatives that cast a light making everyone look like Nosferatu or Casper the Ghost are "energy-efficient". That is, it's a great opportunity for the government cynics to appear as if they actually give a damn and are doing something about the environment. Yuck. Of course many members of the public are not thrilled and bought up every incandescent bulb they could get their hands on. I imagine bulb manufacturers are pretty pleased though. I mean it's perfect, isn't it? Now the public cannot buy what it wants but must, by law, purchase an alternative it doesn't want but that the manufacturers can charge 10 times as much for.

The first point reminds me of a similar stupidity in the US; banning toilets with large capacity holding tanks. This, we are supposed to believe, will save precious water. Huh! The results were twofold. Firstly, booming traffic in smuggled Canadian toilets (is there a Commoda Nostra in the making?), and secondly, people simply flush two or three times, thereby using more water. Politicians and bureaucrats!

The second item is actually more disturbing personally. It should be clear from earlier posts that intellectually I am anything but big on patriotism and national pride, subscribing more to Oscar Wilde's view that "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.", but my genetic tribal imperatives do from time to time compel me to feel a degree of either pride or shame in Canada's actions. This week it is unmitigated shame. Canada, long a refuge for those from south of the border who just don't care for the thought of going abroad, be it Indo China or the Middle East, to murder people, has started to reverse its position and taken to sending people back to the Empire to face jail terms or whatever punishment the Praetorian Guard might have in store. Shame shame shame. Be they draft dodgers or volunteer army deserters who have seen the light and decided killing foreign babies is not fun, I do not care. You do not punish  someone for doing the right thing.

Washington: Jump!
Ottawa: How high?

"Better to burn out than to rust."
 Neil Young

This past weekend, it being rainy, cold and unplanned, I indulged myself by watching two of my many favorite films. The first was the 90's hit,"Shakespeare In Love". What a pure delight! Tom Stoppard is one of those writers who makes me think I should confine my writing to emails, grocery lists and the occasional letter to the editor. He is brilliant, witty and just plain smart. The masterpiece script aside, the movie was wonderfully directed, acted and filmed. (Doubtless my love of the film is in part due to the fact that I could watch Gwyneth Paltrow 'til the cows come home. Besides possessing a unique beauty she is, IMHO, perhaps the best actress of her day.) This film is tied with "As Good as it Gets" as my all time favorite romantic comedy.

"Shakespeare in Love" naturally led me to my second DVD - something from my youth: Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet". I imagine this play is regarded by most Shakespeare experts as one of The Bard's lighter, less significant, works but I have always loved it. Mind you, I am a hopeless romantic on the level of a sighing middle-school girl, so perhaps it is to be expected. The play has been filmed many times but this particular version is particularly enchanting, in large part because of the actual youth of the lead characters. It also introduced the movie world to Michael York, a hugely under-appreciated and under-exposed actor, and is worthwhile for just that. Granted, Zeffireli did take some liberties - actually eliminating a scene or two - but I personally think his choices were wise.

I have seen the film many times but this time, as it ended with the Chorus' famous line "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo" the most peculiar thought entered my mind. Usually I'm on the verge of tears. This time though I thought:

"Wow. These guys were so lucky! Madly, hopelessly, to the core of their beings, in love for a few days and then dead! Dead, before they can come to discover that the cute little way the other curls an eyebrow or eats his/her spaghetti has, with time and familiarity, become something that makes them want to smash the other's face in. Dead before they wake up in the morning, look to the side and think 'Shit. Still here!' Dead before they are consulting friends and the yellow pages for the name of the most cutthroat divorce lawyer in town."

Oh happy dagger, indeed. A perfect love story.

____________________________________________________________

There is something I find amusing, in a sick way, about this latter film. In the play as written, Juliet is 13 and Romeo 14. In this case the actors themselves were both underage - perhaps 14 and 15; I don't recall exactly. Finally, both actors appear nude - Leonard Whitting's bare ass in plain view and Olivia Hussey's boobs. I could be wrong, and feel free to correct me if I am, but, by my interpretation, all three of the above points violate Canadian and American child pornography law, and the producer, director, cameramen and others associated with filming Romeo and Juliet were criminals and should have been in jail.

As Mr. Dickens once said… (At least sometimes)The law is an ass.

"All I can do is be me, whoever that is."
 Bob Dylan

Recently I was waxing enthusiastic to a friend about an artist/tune I had heard (Sia / Soon We'll Be) and she asked what kind of music it was. I found myself fumbling: "Not rock… not exactly pop… not jazz…". I simply couldn't come up with an accurate label.

It made me recall an incident in the late 80's. My significant other at the time was writing a paper on the subject of Reggae for her Ethnomusicology course. I arranged for us to have dinner with a music business acquaintance in Toronto who was an expert. It was a fruitful meeting that not only helped my gf produce a paper that her professor subsequently used as a teaching aid, but opened my eyes to many things about the social/political origins of one of my fave musical genres.

During the post-meal chit chat the subject of awards came up and Daniel suggested it was becoming a difficult subject, citing as an example the fact that the previous year Sade won an award as "Best Jazz Vocalist". (Was there ever a woman as utterly cool as Ms Adu? Not in my mind.) The point was obvious: if Sade is a Jazz artist, what were Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme? Labeling had reached a difficult point.

When I was a teenager, popular music was simple: There was rock and there was R&B. You liked one or the other. The kind of music you  listened to was part of who you were - a big part of identity you were developing. There were vague sub-genres, of course. Did you like more edgy, blues influenced rock or lighter, melodic pop. Were you a Stones guy or a Beatles guy? And in the UK there was that peculiar war between rock'n'roll (rockabilly - old school - Elvis, Gene Vincent, et al) and rock leading to the infamous Mods/Rockers weekend punch-ups in Brighton. (To learn about that amusing social blip check out the under-rated, overlooked classic film backed by The Who: Quadrophenia.)

Naturally, as recording technology developed, communications media grew and more talent entered the pool rock and R&B evolved giving rise to Disco, Fusion and everything since. Early on though, it was reasonably clear-cut: Rock or R&B.

I often tell people I am glad I am not really young. The pressures, the influences, the choices are just so much greater than those that my generation or Gen X had to confront. I often think we older folk just don't get how hard it is for kids. Aside from drugs, sex, politics etc. I wonder that all teenagers are not barking mad when they now have to choose which of the following define them (courtesy of Wikepedia) - and this is just from one genre - electronic:

    * Ambient
          o Ambient house
          o Ambient industrial
          o Ambient techno
          o Black ambient
          o Dark ambient
          o Drone music
          o Lowercase
          o Psybient
          o Space music

    * Breakbeat
          o Baltimore Club
          o Big beat
          o Broken beat
          o Chemical breaks
          o Florida breaks
          o Nu skool breaks
          o Progressive breaks

    * Disco
          o Cosmic disco
          o Eurodance
          o Euro disco
          o Hi-NRG
          o Italo dance
          o Italo disco
          o Nu-disco
          o Spacesynth

    * Downtempo
          o Acid jazz
          o Balearic Beat
          o Chill out
          o Ethnic electronica
          o Glitch
          o Illbient
          o Minimal Electronica
          o New Age music
          o Nu jazz
          o Trip hop

    * Electronic music
          o Berlin School
          o Electroacoustic

    * Electro
          o Electro-hop
          o Electro backbeat
          o Freestyle music
          o Techno bass

    * Electronica
          o Electropop
          o Folktronica
          o Glitch
          o IDM
          o Nu Jazz
          o Trip hop
   
    * (UK) Garage (UKG)
          o 2-step
          o 4×4
          o Bassline
          o Breakstep
          o Dubstep
          o Funky
          o Grime
          o Speed garage

    * Hardcore/Hard dance
          o Bouncy techno
          o Breakbeat Hardcore
          o Breakcore
          o Darkcore
          o Digital hardcore
          o Doomcore
          o Freeform hardcore
          o Gabber
          o Happy hardcore
          o Hardstyle
          o Jumpstyle
          o Makina
          o Noisecore
          o Speedcore
          o Terrorcore
          o UK Hardcore
          o J-Core

    * House
          o Acid house
          o Bubblegum dance
          o Chicago house
          o Dark house
          o Deep house
          o Disco house
          o Electro house
          o Fidget house
          o French house
          o Freestyle house
          o NY Garage
          o Ghetto house
          o Grind house
          o Hi-NRG
          o UK Hard house
          o Hip house
          o Italo house
          o Jumpstyle
          o Kwaito
          o Latin house
          o Merenhouse
          o Minimal house/Microhouse
          o Progressive house
          o Scouse house
          o Skacid
          o Tribal house
          o Tech house

      * Industrial
          o Ambient industrial
          o Cybergrind
          o Dark ambient
          o Dark electro
          o Death industrial
          o Electronic body music
          o Electro-industrial
          o Futurepop
          o Industrial DnB
          o Industrial metal
          o Industrial rock
          o Industrial techno
          o Japanoise
          o Martial industrial
          o Neofolk
          o Noise
          o Power noise

    * Jungle music/Drum and bass
          o Clownstep
          o Darkstep
          o Drumfunk
          o Futurestep
          o Hardstep
          o Intelligent drum and bass
          o Jump-Up
          o Liquid funk
          o Neurofunk
          o Raggacore
          o Sambass
          o Techstep
          o Trancestep

    * Rock/Punk influenced electronic music
          o Alternative dance
          o Cyber metal
          o Dance-punk
          o Dark Wave
          o Digital hardcore
          o Electroclash
          o Electro rock
          o Electropunk
          o Ethereal Wave
          o Industrial rock
          o Industrial metal
          o New Rave
          o New Romantic
          o New Wave
          o Synthpop
          o Synthpunk

      * Techno
          o Acid techno
          o Detroit techno
          o Freetekno
          o Ghettotech
          o Jtek
          o Minimal
          o New beat
          o Nortec
          o Techno rave
          o Schranz
          o Wonky techno
          o Technopera

    * Trance
          o Acid trance
          o Ambient trance
          o Classic trance
          o Dream trance
          o Euro-trance
          o Hard trance
          o Hardstyle
          o Nu-NRG
          o Progressive trance
          o Tech trance
          o Uplifting trance
          o Vocal trance

    * Psychedelic trance/Goa trance
          o Dark psy
          o Full on
          o Nitzhonot
                + Uplifting
          o Psyprog
          o Psybient
          o Psybreaks
          o South African psytrance
          o Suomisaundi

    * Nu rave
          o Hardcore breaks
          o Rave breaks
          o Jungle techno

    * Chiptune
          o 8-bit
          o Bitpop
          o Demoscene music
          o Chiptune
          o Nintendocore
          o Picopop
          o Game Boy music
          o Gamewave

    * Oldschool jungle
          o Ragga-jungle
          o Intelligent jungle
          o Darkside jungle

Lables! Yikes!

"A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it."
Rabindranath Tagore

Everbody knows computers can now beat the greatest Chess Masters in the world. Computers can calculate a zillion times faster than people. Eventually computers will be "smarter" than people. Everybody knows that. Everybody but me, I guess.

Many years ago, while employed by a major Canadian bank and attending a week-long workshop, I heard an amusing story about nascent computer technology. It seems the CIA had developed a translation program and wished to test it. Not being entirely dim (despite so much evidence that they are), the CIA smart guys knew that simply having the program translate something from one language to another would be an inadequate test of its ability and usefulness. So they tested by inputting in one language, having the computer first translate into another then taking that translation and re-translating it back into English. The other language was Russian, logically. One test phrase used was "Out of site; out of mind." In she goes…tick tick tick… and out comes: "Blind and crazy."

Now that was almost 40 years ago. Obviously things have changed. Computers and
programs had moved light years ahead and such silly errors could never happen. Well, maybe.

In an earlier post I mentioned that this blog had been blocked in China and the only
conceivable reason I could come up with is that the word "democracy" pops up here and there on the site. I also pointed out how crazy this is because where the word
appears, it is in an entirely negative context. But, clearly, the Chinese censorship
software must be "out of sight; out of mind".

Recently I have encountered a similar foolish failing. Google, among others, spends
gazillions perfecting algorithms allowing them to match advertising content with
either webpage content or other user-related information that might indicate an
interest or preference. They are the kings of the hill in this and have made more
money than Midas doing it.

So, some months ago I joined an Asian "dating" site (not really that - more like a social networking site). On my profile page I prominently put wording to the effect that I am 100% straight and did not desire to receive any messages from shemales, ladyboys, or whatever other euphemism of the day a particular homosexual might use. It was not a nasty notice; just a notice. So - maybe you can guess - now almost every page I load on that site includes a large, colorful ad for 'thailadyboy' or some such thing.

Computers are not "smart" any more than a lawnmower or automobile is "smart". They are mechanical devices that, within the limits of their human programing, perform arithmetical calculations, compare and contrast, and issue commands to other equally dumb mechanical devices. They do not imagine, conceive, or create from nothingness.

No doubt many would argue that they do now, or at least will in the future. I doubt it.
Why? I suppose a religious person would say it is because a computer has no soul. Me, I'd say it is because a computer has no "soul".