Monk and 'Trane fans rejoice

"The Library of Congress (LOC) announced last Wednesday the discovery of never-released tapes featuring Thelonious Monk (pictured) and John Coltrane performing at Carnegie Hall. The tapes, discovered among other material to be digitized as part of the Library’s continuing audio preservation program, are from a 1957 performance recorded by the Voice of America (VOA) for broadcast overseas, but which was never heard in the United States. The concert tapes also include performances that same evening by Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and the Zoot Sims Quartet with Chet Baker."
Unreleased Monk and Coltrane Tapes Found

Leave it to the government to lose these tapes for so long! Let's hope this stuff gets released soon.

Fascism, State Capitalism and Outsourcing

That is the name of the latest essay at Strike the Root by the man who goes by the name of weebies. It's a worthwhile read for sure, despite the fact that weebies mentions the economic arguments of Paul Craig Roberts in a positive light. According to weebies, Roberts doesn't delve into the differences between free markets and state capitalism, and I would add that Roberts's unfortunate hostility to free markets may have something to do with that. His thinking at times comes off as rather nationalist, and his solutions are often statist in nature, as has been pointed out by the Salty Pig here and here.

This article should also be an eye-opener for the libertarians out there who feel the need to worship Wal-Mart for some reason. Why praise a corporation that is so dependant on state intervention that it would be totally doomed in a free market?

Uncle Mobster and his gang

I was reminded earlier today of a Harry Browne quote involving government breaking your legs and then handing you a crutch. The exact quote is:

"The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk".

I decided to break that idea down a bit and apply it to some of the contemporary factions that populate the political landscape. The first thing I did was to replace "government" with Uncle Sam since government is not a person, and I have no idea what a government looks like. Since I think of someone wielding a baseball bat or similar blunt object when the idea of someone's leg being broken comes to mind, then it's fitting to personify government, and here in the USSA the logical choice for that would be good ol' Uncle Sam. So, here's what I came up with:

Democrats, Progressives and their ilk: This group matches Browne's quote the best. They are accomplices of Uncle Sam the leg breaker who make sure that everyone gets a crutch upon having their legs broken. Never mind trying to heal the leg or prevent future attacks upon it.

Republicans and other hard core state capitalists: Accomplices of Uncle Sam the leg breaker who want to force you to invest some of your money so that you can maybe afford to buy your own crutches upon having your legs broken by Uncle Sam. Never mind trying to heal the leg or prevent future attacks upon it.

State capitalists who falsely claim to be free marketeers: Accomplices of Uncle Sam the leg breaker who want to remove crutches from those with broken legs. They claim to want to help heal the leg and prevent future attacks upon it, but such rhetoric rings hollow when these people remain accomplices of Uncle Sam the leg breaker.

Those who care about free markets and individual liberty, and thus loathe Uncle Sam the leg breaker, wish to remove him from the picture entirely so that legs can heal and the need for crutches goes away for good. If you care to add to or dispute any of this, please let your thoughts be known.

Among the three groups listed above that are in collusion with Uncle Sam, the latter two seem to be especially hostile to those people who steadfastly adhere to the principled promotion of free markets and individual liberty, which of course involves condemning all of Uncle Sam's leg breaking excursions, both here and abroad. It's amusing to notice these statists who love the leash around their necks defend their masters by barking various slanderous sophisms at those who resent their masters and wish to break free entirely from their leashes. Do they really love their masters that much, or do they just have a serious flea problem or something? Maybe there's another angle to it that I'm just not picking up on.

Whether it be puppy dogs, apesnakes, or whomever, it seems that certain critters just seem inclined to bow to authority, even if they like to fancy themselves as being otherwise. Thankfully, there are other critters, such as cats, snakes, and pigs who are more individualistic in nature and don't feel the need to rely on court intellectuals to shape their thoughts and impulses.

I guess there may be some readers who are wondering what an apesnake is. Beats me. My guess is that it may be an unusual breed of snake that has some ape genes mixed in.

On that note, I think I'll close off this post with a quote. It is targeted at the various accomplices of Uncle Sam the leg breaker and is dedicated to all the Charlton Heston and Troy McClure fans out there.

"Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty apes!"

Blog surfing

I'm too busy at the moment to think of cool or interesting things to write, but I do have to time to surf the blogosphere a bit every day. Here are a few posts that I felt like acknowledging.

James Leroy Wilson recently jotted down some ideas about parties and ideas, more specifically about how terms like liberal and conservative have little relevance to the American political landscape. An excerpt:

The history of American parties and politics seems rather to be of ever-shifting alliances of four ideas: progressivism, populism, individualism, and mercantilism (Wall Street interests). Parties that win the allegiance of two or three of these groups tend to win elections.

The Salty Pig has taken up the torch to criticize members of the left who rightly criticize institutions such as NAFTA and the WTO, but falsely equate them with laissez-faire free trade. An excerpt:

you know that whiny fag character edward robinson played in the ten commandments? that's what this boozer sounds like. NAFTA and WTO are not laissez-faire. it's the same straw man routine that was pulled in the california energy "deregulation" debacle.

but put that aside a moment and simply look at his assumptions, which basically fall into the same category of fallacy as most economic state-licking BS: that which is seen, and that which is not seen.

Over at the Porcupine Blog, Larry Gambone discusses the role of plants in human evolution. From reading the following excerpt, it seems as if he plans on writing more about this subject in the future, which I look forward to.

A society with closer social bonds and a better communication system (language) would have an edge on societies that lacked these. (*) I suggest that mutual aid was further advanced thru bonding and language, and thus was partially a result of the ingestion of these plants. Mutual aid, in turn, furthers bonding and also cultural and technological development.

A thought that I would like to return to at another time has to do with the hostility of authoritarian systems toward psychedelic plants. Authoritarianism destroys mutual aid and the social, replacing these with bullying, exploiting hierarchies of power. In essence the authoritarian system is a form of de-evolution, stripping us of what made us human to begin with. Thus it is natural the authoritarian (the sub-human) would wish to prevent the use of plants which stimulate the imagination and the social.

Kevin Carson has recently pointed out that Gambone has published a pamplet titled "The Primal Wound" which also deals with the degrading role authoritarianism plays in the human condition. You can read it online here, or you can order a hard copy from Red Lion Press. I'm ordering a hard copy myself since I also wish to check out some of the other Red Lion pamplets.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right: Free market edition

I not too long ago expressed shock about finding myself in agreement with a Kennedy about something. Well, the joke is on us. It turns out that Kennedy isn't exactly the pro-free market guy I thought he may have been. Even though he talks about free markets in a positive way, which is a good thing, Kevin Carson has pointed out in his most recent post that Kennedy's understanding and support of free markets is pretty, well, nonsensical. The following Kennedy quote should be enough to show how nonsensical:

"And the free market has to be protected through government regulation."

Well, at least he recognizes that a) corporations don't want free markets and b) big government and big business are in collusion to help big business avoid things like free competition and internalized costs.

I'm well aware of the many right-wingers who, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, misrepresent free market ideology and thus give it a bad rap amongst the left. Shit, I came across a blog a few days ago where the guy considered The Economist magazine to be a free market libertarian rag. Since I was in a good mood up until that point, I merely laughed it off rather than puking all over the keyboard. Aren't those guys pro-NAFTA? Give me a break! As commonplace as such faux free marketeers are on the right, I must say that RFK Jr. is the first faux free marketeer of the left I've ever encountered.

Lazlo's paperfolding art

My good friend who goes by the name of Lazlo has a new blog up and running focusing on his paperfolding eye candy. The one shown in the picture here (click to enlarge) is one of his originals. The site so far just displays some of his finer work, although his goal is to generate some discussion on origami and other forms of paper art in the future, and perhaps post some diagramming for his projects.

For anyone interesting in dabbling with such a thing, his blog is part of an origami art ring that should have sites listed that provide resources for beginners as well as other galleries. The links to the origami art ring are located on the bottom of his page.

Oriblog

Some rare good news

The bastards at the FDA (Food and Drug Autocrats) have had one of their bans struck down today. Their 2004 ban of ephedra has been struck down after challenged by a Utah company that rightfully claimed that the substance "has been safely consumed" for hundreds of years, according to this ESPN.com story.

Of the myriad attacks on one's liberty by the government supposedly for our own good, the regulation and/or prohibition of certain substances by the FDA or DEA (Denying Everyone's Autonomy)ranks high on my list of most offensive actions.

For some insight on ephedra that you may not catch in the ban-happy statist media, check out Karen De Coster's blog post about ephedra from a couple of months ago. Even if I were a statist who was OK with such regulatory measures, I would not have supported the ephedra ban.

Two buck schmucks

Finding one may be hard since they haven't been printed in eons, but there is indeed such a thing as a two dollar bill. Behold...

For those who are old enough to have seen such relics, and I'm assuming that anyone reading this blog falls into such a category, I suppose that I have some explainin' to do regarding this post's opening sentence. According to this here story, a man was recently arrested, cuffed, and jailed for attempting to use some Jeffersons. Particularly amusing, or pathetic depending on how you perceive all of this, is the man's recollection of what the cashier said when presented with the bills:

"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.'

Not that I'm a fan of federal reserve notes or anything, but wow! Not only are there people out there who are I guess young enough to have never heard of or seen $2 bills, but to get the local thugs involved and have the man arrested for trying to use them really makes me shake my head.

Of all the FRNs out there, the $2 bill is without question my favorite. The Prez. on the front happens to be Thomas Jefferson, one of the finest minds to have contributed to the American Revolution and to notions of liberty in this country. Why in the world is Jefferson on the now defunct $2 bill, while centralizing warmongers like Lincoln and sleazy mercantilists like Hamilton grace (or should I say defile) more popular and widely circulated bills? I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that Jeffersonian ideals are non-existant in Washington these days while the legacies of the other two schmucks mentioned live on, but I don't want to get too kooky on y'all.

Arrested for using $2 bills? Man, that in itself is kooky! When you think of all the alternative means of exchange that people could use that would make the government piss their collective (and collectivist) pants, it's quite bizarre to see such action taken on someone who was simply trying to pass off legitimate, albeit rare, FRNs. It seems especially odd for me, considering the fact that I regulary pass off Canadian change to unsuspecting and apathetic cashiers!

(link via Strike the Root)

Fuck the RIAA

I have frowned upon the RIAA ever since they initially declared war on music lovers, but I never actually joined the growing boycott against RIAA affiliated companies. As of yesterday, things have changed.

I am constantly downloading live recordings of artists that I love and artists that I'm curious about, with the intention of discovering new music to enjoy and new artists to support by means of purchasing albums and concert tickets. The internet site that I frequented the most to download shows was Easytree. Clicking on that link will bring you to a message from the site administrators stating that the site has been shut down due to being threatened with a lawsuit.

This is not Napster, or Kazaa, or some other outlet where people can share copywrited material that is being sold in stores. In fact, Easytree banned the sharing of material from artists who explicitly stated that they did not approve of such a thing. Easytree was a place to download recordings of live shows, recordings that serve as archival artifacts of the myriad forms of musical art being made and shared by musicians, many of whom may not be affiliated with major labels and encourage such distribution of recordings that serves as a sort of grassroots promotion. I would be completely oblivious to many of my favorite musical artists today if it were not for such avenues to share live music. I have actually purchased many albums by such artists, allowing these people to recieve financial support from me that would not exist if it were not for the ability to freely download their tunes.

There are still other options out there for finding and downloading live music, although about 3/4s of what I downloaded was accessed through Easytree. This bothers me so much that I would feel like a grade A jackass if I didn't join the boycott against the evil RIAA and the labels represented by them. So, as of today, I will refrain from purchasing albums from RIAA affilated labels. It actually won't put too much of dent into my musical appetite since a majority of the artists I listen to are affiliated with independent labels. The Bad Plus may have released a new live album via Sony this month, but I won't be biting (or should I say buying). I'll instead listen to the other live recordings I have of them, including a recording of their Ann Arbor show from last fall that I attended and later wrote about.

The following links are for sites that provide info and commentary on the RIAA situation:
Boycott-RIAA.com
Downhill Battle
RIAA Radar

Satellite maps

I'm sure that some of you at least have discovered the new feature available at Google maps (I know that Jay Jardine has). They have now satellite images available that allow you to zoom in whatever locale you choose.

The downside is that I haven't figured out how to save the images to my hard drive yet. This is not a problem over at another site I discovered recently that also has satellite images: Microsoft's Terraserver USA. Not only can I save these images, but I can zoom in even closer with the urban areas shots than I can with the Google images.

The pic to the left is the neighborhood that I live in (my abode is in the pic, but I ain't telling ya where). If you wish to view the enlarged version of it by clicking on it, you'll notice a large building near the bottom that looks like a school building. It used to be a high school, but now provides housing for senior citizens. Thinking of that building reminded me of a Joseph Sobran column I read last month about Bastiat where he recalls an experience he had at a gas station across from his old high school. Unless he went to a private school, that building in the picture would have to be the high school he went to since he grew up in the town I currently live in. There is indeed a gas station across the street, but it is chopped off.

If you click right... here, you will see a pic of where I grew up. It's nice to know that if someone ever wanted to drop bombs on the homes of "undesirables", such satellite image technology isn't always accurate locating the exact address that you type in. I can tell that it's not always accurate since the red push pin image on the picture that is supposed to specify the address I typed in is not on the correct property. In other words, if someone wanted to drop a bomb on my parents' house and used this image database, they'd end up killing some of my parents' neighbors instead!

Anywhoo, this is some fun shit here that can be rather addicting if you have a plethora of addresses to check out.

Neanderthals

Lemuel of This Blog will be Deleted by Tomorrow has made note of an interesting article from the New Scientist about how Neanderthals may have perished due to the fact that they, unlike humans, did not engage in free trade of resources.

The subject of free trade is one that is scorned by state socialists who falsely equate it with corporatist plunder. They are thus opposed to free trade, which must explain why Lemuel came up with this funny remark at the end:

This could start a new trend of calling and labelling all protectionists and socialists as "Neanderthals". That should puzzle their "progressive minds". If there were a clearly identifiable target even a Google-bomb would be possible. Pity.

Communist Chic part deux: Evil Ways

I've blogged before about the ignorant fashion statement that focuses on Che Guavara and other communist icons, hence the need to label this post "part deux". First it was a record label that I highly admire entering the world of communist fashion, now it's one of my all-time favorite musicians. LRC has just published an article by Humberto Fontova about Carlos Santana's unfortunate attire at the Oscars. Here's the initial portion of Fontova's message to Carlos:

Tune in to this, Carlos: in the mid 1960's Fidel and your charming t-shirt icon set up concentration camps in Cuba for, among many others, "anti-social elements" and "delinquents." Besides Bohemian (Haight-Ashbury, Greenwich Village types) and homosexuals, these camps were crammed with "roqueros," who qualified in Che and Fidel's eyes as useless "delinquents."

A "roquero" was a hapless youth who tried to listen to Yankee-Imperialist rock music in Cuba.

That's right: listening to the type of music that Carlos has made a living creating could have been a one-way ticket to hell. The evil ways of people like Che resulted in many souls being sacrificed in pursuit of the state socialist ideal.

Despite my love for Carlos and the wonderful music he's produced over the years, I'd have a tough time shelling out any dough to buy any concert tickets or albums of his in the future. Fortunately, that won't be too hard to live up to since he hasn't really released anything worth listening to since around the time I was born, back when he looked like does in the pic I've provided. What makes all this even weirder is that as his music continues to decline, becoming less artistic and more of a corporate capitalist commodity, he now feels the desire to embrace communist chic.

This loathsome fashion trend needs to reach the same fate as communism in Russia did. Se a Cabo!

April Foolery

Fictional stories meant to fool readers are commonplace every April 1st, and I sure hope that the following story is one such fiction. The story, found here claims that one of my musical heroes, saxophonics wizard Skerik, is teaming up with another sax player for a soon to be released album. The name of this project is called "Gosh, I Miss the 90s", and the other saxophonist is none other than Slick Willie himself, Bill Clinton. The horror! Say it ain't so!

As badly as this decade has turned out in terms of eroding liberty and bloodshed, I can't say that I miss the 90s. I can't say that I long for the days of Ruby Ridge, the Waco massacre, the strengthening of the drug war, the bombing of Kosovo, and the other atrocities carried out by Slick Dubya (as opposed to the Prick Dubya in the White House now). It sure is troubling to see rulers continue to commit war on people domestically and abroad, and that feeling intensifies when certain people are actually compelled to embrace the days of the previous ruler, which may spill over into such people voting for people who resemble said previous rulers in future elections. Let's not praise a man who previously held office just because he may have been responsible for fewer savage and uncalled for deaths and because you may have at least been employed when he was in charge. Don't ever forget that elephants and jackasses are ultimately on the same team and their objective is to appear benevolent while constantly raping us. Clinton, in many respects, made Bush's agenda possible, and Bush will ultimately help shape the sadistic agenda of his successor, regardless of party affiliation.

Like I said before, elephants and jackasses are ultimately on the same team. A better way to look at it is to envision a coin. The heads side of the coin represents the elephants while the tails side aptly represents the jackasses. Simply being on the flip side of a coin that also represents someone you may despise (Bush) does no good when the coin itself is the ultimate medium of exchange of those who wish to steal your money, lock you and your friends up, and send your children to die in some foreign land. The coin should be tossed into a volcano or bounced into a toilet that's about to be flushed.

Hopefully this story is nothing but an April Fool's joke. All I need now is for Jambase to admit their foolery and remove the story from their webpage. Still waiting...

For some music news that is no April Fool's joke, I'll switch gears and refer to the classic heavy metal outfit known as Anthrax. They are apparently reuniting, and their comeback tour is going to have some educational value to it as well. An excerpt from the article:

At the conclusion of the ANTHRAX Global Press Conference and Luncheon, ANTHRAX will make an important statement regarding the U.S. Government and the Anthrax Vaccine.

ANTHRAX has teamed up with Slave to the Metal™ Foundation (www.slavetothemetal.org) to bring public awareness to the dangers of the Anthrax Vaccine. The newly legislated “BioShield Act” (July, 2004) allows the Department of Health and Human Services to inject American Citizens with Anthrax Vaccines and other untested and unapproved substances without informed consent, using our military as first line guinea pigs. Experts will be at the conference to discuss this with attendees.

It's nice to know that such upstanding long haired, loud and raucous young members of the community are going to speak out against the clean cut punks in suits who are up to no good!