the shrewdness of apes

this photo greeted me while reading up on today's violence in Iraq revolving around two undercover British soldiers who were stopped at a checkpoint and ended up shooting two Iraqi policemen. furious crowds in Basra attacked Britih soldiers resulting in the above picture. after the undercover soldiers were jailed, British forces stormed the jail with tanks to free the two men, alleged freeing up to 150 other prisoners in the process in what was called a ""barbaric, savage and irresponsible" act by Mohammed al-Waili, the governor of the province. British officials to this point refuse to even acknowledge how the soldiers were freed, though it doesn't seem like they'll be able to stonewall much longer. what the hell is going on over there?

on the non-violent corruption side of things, early indications are that the Iraq Defence Ministry has been robbed of over $1 billion - nearly 100% of the ministry's budget. this money was supposed to be providing the means for Iraqis to begin defending themselves, but instead was spent on 28 year-old helicopters from Poland that the manufacturers said should be scrapped after 25 years; knockoff guns worth about 1/20th what was paid for them; armored cars that could not stop bullets; and a Pentagon-style deal where 4 cent bullets went for 16 cents apiece. to quote from the article "The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit says in a report to the Iraqi government that US-appointed Iraqi officials in the defence ministry allegedly presided over these dubious transactions." any chance that Halliburton is somehow involved in this down deep?

somehow, it gets even worse with reports that upwards of $500 million has also gone missing from the electricity, transport, interior and other ministries and that the grand total stolen may end up topping $2 billion.

news on the domestic front of Hurricane Katrina recovery is also littered with the abonimable policies of the Bush Administration. fortunately, Jim from Maine has the lowdown on that garbage (in brief: cronyism, no-bid contracts, elimination of quality work standards for rebuilding while reducing wages paid to construction workers, removal of preferences for small and minority-owned businesses). definitely worth a read if your rage quota remains unfilled for the day.

Posted by Jamie at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

any fans of dance and/or Claire Danes and/or scoring points with a significant other would be well served by checking out the upcoming 2-week performance of "Christina Olson: American Model" at PS 122 in the East Village. this piece is a full-length solo for Danes choreographed by Tamar Rogoff and inspired by a famous Andrew Wyeth painting that resides in the MoMA. members of the intelligentsia should also note that the performance features music by Rachel's and video by Harvey Wang.

for those of you wondering how this is even on my radar, Ms. Rogoff is a friend/co-worker (the force behind the Solar-Powered Dance Series), fantastically nice and a first rate choreographer. the wife and i saw her "Daughter of a Pacifist Soldier" a few years back and were quite impressed. word on the street is that the NYTimes will be doing a piece about the piece in Monday's Arts section.

***UPDATE*** Here's the Times piece.

"Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth

Posted by Jamie at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

some people fight for equality while many others indirectly make a case for the need for improved public education.

progress
earlier this week, the Massachusetts Legislature voted overwhelmingly (157-39) to reject a constitutional ban on gay marriage in that state. this means that such a measure will not appear on ballots in 2006, and that equality under the law will continue indefinitely. some part of that rejection came from opponents of gay marriage who want a more restrictive amendment, though that will have to wait until 2008 at the earliest. and given how little furor there's been in the past year as over 6,000 couples have been married, i think it unlikely that a a more restrictive measure could possible pass, especialy given quotes like this one:

"Gay marriage has begun, and life has not changed for the citizens of the commonwealth, with the exception of those who can now marry," said state Sen. Brian Lees, a Republican who had been a co-sponsor of the amendment. "This amendment which was an appropriate measure or compromise a year ago, is no longer, I feel, a compromise today."

meanwhile, Connecticut has passed a civil union law set to take effect next month, Rhode Island and CT may recognize gay marriages performed in Massachusetts, California has passed a same-sex marriage bill (about to be vetoed by the Governor), and Maryland has become the latest place where legal challenges hope to take down laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

setback
sitting at #2 on the most recent bestseller list is Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About", which has spent 13 weeks in the Top 150. this may seem like just another ripple the self-help pool filled with snake oil, but is actually much more insidious: Trudeau is a twice-convicted felon for check kiting and credit card fraud who has been banned from appearing in infomercials, has been prosecuted by 18 Attorneys General and the U.S. Postal Service. he's also a veteran of numerous multi-level marketing companies that are basically nothing but pyramid schemes. meanwhile, while Trudeau claims to be fighting a medical establishment that it for some reason sitting on the cure for cancer, his $30 book seemingly contains very little except plugs for his webiste, which costs another $10 a month to utilize. the New York State Consumer Protecton Board has denounced the book as a fraud. this part cracked me up:

“Throughout the book, Trudeau tries to fool readers into thinking he knows the cure for specific diseases when all Trudeau really offers are different theories on what causes an illness or a disease.”

“It’s like the old joke where a patient complains to a doctor that it hurt to lift his arm and the doctor says, ‘Then don’t lift your arm,’” said Chairperson Santiago. “Trudeau even has the nerve to tell that joke in his book – not once, but three times.”

you almost have to admire his audacity before remembering what a total douche he is. the author claims to have sold over 4 million copies, which like everything else he says is dubious. but at 13 weeks on bestseller lists, there's a significant number of these things out there contributing to the massive black hole of ignorance that is threatening to turn this country into a place from which no light can escape while Trudeau goes to sleep on his pile of money surrounded by many beautiful ladies. the people buying this book must be the same folks falling for the Nigerian e-mail scam. how do they keep earning money to then throw away?

Cockeyed.com has a long but rewarding series of e-mails regarding multi-level marketing as part of their ongoing quest to expose these schemes for what they are and the havoc they cause for many people.

Posted by Jamie at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

some quick things as we re-start the assembly line here (i swear if one more person loses a finger, the insurance costs are going to ruin me):

* i've been terribly remiss in not mentioning that the wife has entered the world of online catharsis. true to family form, the updates are sporadic. at least the personal dirt on me has been kept to a minimum so far.

* speaking of the wife, she claims to have schmoozed her way to tickets to the first taping of The Colbert Report, Comedy Central's new follow-up to The Daily Show coming this fall. sweet.

* my calendar has now been marked for Sunday, October 2nd and the Fifth Annual International Pickle Day on Manhattan's Lower East Side. i've managed to miss this the past few years, but i look forward to taking in about 5000% of my USDA daily allowance of sodium on everything from pickled watermelon to kimchi. with any luck, i'll be able to snare some info to improve my own pickle making techniques (details to come in a future D.I.Y. entry).

* is anyone else enjoying the poo throwing between stalwart sports blog CSTB and Gawker-backed upstart Deadspin? granted it's been pretty one-sided so far, but Deadspin could really up the ante by asking into the friends circle of CSTB's MySpace profile. for the record, my take on Deadspin so far is that it suffers from the same blandness that can make Gothamist so tedious. which is too bad, because i have enjoyed much of Will Leitch's writing in the past.

Posted by Jamie at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)