Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Mission Accomplished
Nice dress, think the shoes would´ve done more for me though. I´m glad it went well, congratulations to you and Michele and everybody who gets to use the Standing Dani.
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 11/16 at 07:28 AMlooking good!
is there an audio for the singing?!
Posted by michael on from scotland 11/16 at 07:40 AMjust got emailed this and thought i should share it…
Posted by michael on from scotland 11/16 at 07:56 AMExcellent! I love it...now that looked like a fun night.
$5,000? That’s great! Congratulations.
But I’m not sure you will ever live this down, Mick. I see many a joke in your “future.”
Posted by JOS on from mi orgullo, Puerto Rico 11/16 at 08:00 AMUS Military admits to using phosphorus bombs in Iraq, but that it was magic phosphorus and didn’t hit any civilians, only insurgents:
Problem is, as soon as you use it on a human being it is considered a chemical weapon:
“Like other unlisted substances, it may be deployed for “Military purposes… not dependent on the use of the toxic properties of chemicals as a method of warfare”.
But it becomes a chemical weapon as soon as it is used directly against people. A chemical weapon can be “any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm"."
The story linked above also points to the fact that the Military admitted to using the stuff in battle in a magizine a while back.
Mick, I agree, this is no basket to throw all the eggs into...it is simply one more thing to get out there and share with people who still think they need to support the troops/policy/killing.
Posted by JOS on from mi orgullo, Puerto Rico 11/16 at 08:32 AM“Saddam was being questioned over the brutal suppression of the Shiite uprising after Iraq’s defeat in the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait.
He admitted helicopters were used to machine-gun civilians in the central shine city of Karbala, saying that the armed opposition was targeted.”
It is well known that Bush and Schwarzkopf allowed Saddam to use his helicopters to squash this rebellion after Gulf War I leading to the slaughter described in Saddams trial.
The link also goes into how two court clerks jumped Saddam when he showed no remorse for his actions and began to beat him.
Posted by JOS on from mi orgullo, Puerto Rico 11/16 at 09:34 AMPink. Black lace. Sequins.
Pink.
Black lace.
Excuse me, I need to lie down.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/16 at 10:44 AMBig Country! Boyo! NaNo going okay? Where standest thou in thy mentational mullings?
MZ, when you publish Critical Mass I think you should use the can-can victory pose as your author photo. No, really. Sales will leap! Even bound! You’re not haring along as once you were, so busy-ness of life must be giving you some fits in terms of time to NaNovel more than I thought.
You’re gonna make it, though, I know...the last two weeks are a lot less formidable. After all, from here on it’s just telling the tale since the initial thinking is done and characters are all established. Right? RIGHT?? (I’m sweatin’ a little here....)
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/16 at 11:14 AMHello Mudge!
My NaNo is on hold temporarily (which is a very bad thing with less than two weeks to go)...due to circumstances beyond my control. But I have the notes ready and as soon as I can I WILL catch up.
Posted by JOS on from mi orgullo, Puerto Rico 11/16 at 12:18 PMHello friends.
Mudge, you are 100% correct. Busy-ness reigns at the moment and I’m not at all positive that the novel will be done by Nov. 30. If not, I will still finish it. Why not? As for it being published, excuse me while I convulse in self-pitying laughter. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly brimming with enthusiasm for my writing career (sic) lately. Chasing down publishers for an experimental novel sounds masochistic at the moment.
JOS: Thanks for the links and good luck getting back to the writing.
Michael: No audio yet.
Owen: Thanks. You know, the “Standing Dani” is sort of an electric wheelchair in which the person (child or adult) is strapped into a standing position and uses a joystick to get around. This not only does wonders in a physical sense, but can you imagine how a kid feels to suddenly be upright and responsible for her or his own locomotion? Many children are cognitively “normal” but their physical disability can hold them back in a variety of ways. Getting a Dani into Michele’s school will change lives. We may never witness the impact it has but developing confidence and self-esteem at pre-school age is, needless to say, extremely valuable.
I’m filled with pride that Michele (in the middle of studying for her comprhensive exams) chose to celebrate her 40th in this way.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/16 at 12:41 PMGreat photos, Mickey. Pretty in pink...that is your color. You are the envy of all of the girls and guys around the water cooler. When might we see you in heels?
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/16 at 01:25 PMHi Mickey and Rosemarie and JOS and Mudge and Michael and Owen -
It was a wonderful - and gutsy - thing for both of you to do, Mickey. Congratulations to you both.Posted by joe on from Oregon 11/16 at 01:42 PMPS -
Have you guyz been reading about the uproar following an interview with Chomsky, by some lady at Britain’s “Guardian?” She twisted everything all around, of course, and used it to accuse him of supporting Serbian genocide in the Bosnian Civil War. I thought that Michael Parenti completely demolished the genocide argument in his book “To Kill a Nation,” but apparently the US and England are still trying to defend their aerial demolition of Serbia.
Anyway, the factoid I find most interesting in this debate, surrounds a famous photograph, taken before the bombings began, which helped support our attacks on the Serbs. The picture shows a tall, very skinny guy, clinging to a fence, looking out at the “free world,” while he supposedly starves to death in some Serbian death camp.
We’ve all probably seen this photo.
Well, as it turns out, this guy was among a bunch of refugees wandering about in some open area, one day. He paused to - look into - a fenced in
garden somewhere, and some mainstream “newspeople” climbed - into - the garden and took the picture of this guy, free and outside - clinging to the fence. Of course, it looked exactly like he was slowly starving to death in one of the new Serbian gulags… and such was the copy that accompanied the picture.No matter how cynical and paranoid I become, I’m just never quite cynical and paranoid enough…
“england” - honest!
Posted by joe on from Oregon 11/16 at 02:37 PMYou know, Joe, I’m a little suprised at the uproar surrounding the Chomsky/Guardian story simply because behavior like this from the corporate media is so common and predictable. But anyway...below is an excerpt from my first book, re: “the proof”:
No greater symbol of Serbian fascism existed than that of a photograph of “an emaciated man, Fikret Alic, in a group of Muslims under the blazing sun, bare-chested, behind a barbed-wire fence” in the Trnopolje refugee and transit camp, which ran in publications across the globe. In England, for example, the Daily Mail ran the photo under a banner of “The Proof,” while the Daily Mirror opted for “Belsen ’92.” In a flash, world opinion turned against the Serbs and comparisons to the Nazis were in vogue.
However, the photo was not what it seemed, says journalist Thomas Deichman. “The fact is that Alic and the other men in the famous picture were not encircled by a barbed-wire fence,” he writes in the Fall 1998 Covert Action Quarterly. “There was no barbed-wire fence surrounding the Trnopolje refugee and transit camp. The barbed-wire was only around a small compound next to the camp, which had been erected before the war to protect agricultural products and machinery from thieves, and which the journalists had entered.” As a result, the famous picture was actually taken from inside the compound as the photographer snapped at people standing outside the fence.
Following the well-worn script of WWII reconstruction, the U.S. sent military instructors to aid the Croatian Army “to woo its offices away from old, Communist habits and instill the values of a democratic army.” The idea, Ed Soyster, a retired lieutnant general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency explained in the August 1, 1995 New York Times, was to run courses in “the role of the army in a democratic society.” The devastating results of this strategy were manifested in a decade of war in the Balkans.
As is usually the case with war propaganda, the truth came out too late to help the victims of the lie. The U.S., Germany, and other Western powers were locked in a battle for influence and control in this resource-rich region and the Serbs, while they were certainly not innocent bystanders, were clearly not the only aggressors. This characterization of Serbs as war criminals helped make the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia possible.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/16 at 02:54 PMP.S. Joe, thanks for your warm wishes in comment 12.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/16 at 02:55 PMThat’s the guy, Mickey!
The photographer exhibited remarkable creativity and insight, eh? I would have looked upon the scene and would have ‘scene’ nothing…
How does the “Dark Side” reel in all these people? Or, does it just force them to take Hipocracy 101, 102, and various advanced propaganda courses?Thanks, Mickey.
And - you’re welcome.Posted by joe on from Oregon 11/16 at 03:17 PMThanks for posting all those beautiful pics, Mickey! And what a good-looking birthday girl we have here .. Quite a treat!
And hi, all of you MZ’ers! Have a good day/afternoon.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/16 at 03:26 PMThanks for sharing, michael! I hope all is well in Scotland ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/16 at 03:27 PMAnd thanks for the links, JOS - have already emailed the Monbiot piece to several people.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/16 at 03:30 PMIf anyone anywhere ever doubts the truth of the greed-based reasons for treating Africa, Asia, and the Other Americas the way we do, look at the Blakans. Oil oil oil in Ploesti, Romania, and mineral resources everywhere...so what happens? Stable governments cannot be tolerated, they must be destabilized and demonize the people they represent as unable to rule themselves!
They have what we want, so we have to make sure theycan’t complain as we grab it.
Interesting.
Also interesting is the thing that’s nagged at me for months...the similarity of the First and Second Crusades in rhetoric to the Gulf Wars we’ve waged on Iraq.
Start here, if so inclined, and move through the various Crusades. It’s chilling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade#The_Council_of_ClermontI was too lazy to use TinyURL because *there isn’t a link right here on the forum.* >coughcough<
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/16 at 05:01 PMJoe, Chomsky’s middle name might as well be “Kerfuffle” because, like everyone else who thinks independently, he’s going to cause one whenever he opens his mouth. RIght or wrong, human knowledge never advances without Chomsky-like folks acting as irritants to the system.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/16 at 05:07 PMBelow is part of the transcript of the Nov 8 White House Press conference. Helen Thomas pursued the question about torture and the CIA request for an exemption. This is my favorite press conference. The whole transcript is available on the White House site..........................
“Q Are you denying we asked for an exemption?MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, we will continue to work with the Congress on the issue that you brought up. The way you characterize it, that we’re asking for exemption from torture, is just flat-out false, because there are laws that are on the books that prohibit the use of torture. And we adhere to those laws.
Q We did ask for an exemption; is that right? I mean, be simple—this is a very simple question.
MR. McCLELLAN: I just answered your question. The President answered it last week...”
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/16 at 05:48 PMhttp://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=&ItemID=6275 (I’m quite happy to click on tinyurls but have no clue how they work)
Interesting “numbers”. 78 days of bombing. 14 serb tanks destroyed. 372 state-owned factories destroyed.
Posted by Mew on from England 11/16 at 05:58 PMYou’re certainly right about the Balkans, Mudge.
I’m sure that as soon as the Soviets moved out, the CIA, our American Psycho-Virus, was busting out everywhere… and soon there was death and horror and wretchedness everywhere… Yeah, it’s what we do, and we do it all over the world - with our money, in the name of Freedom and Democracy.You’re right about the similarities to the Crusades, as well, my friend. And it looks like Chaney Inc. isn’t going to let those low poll numbers, or general public opinion slow them down too much. Some ex CIA guy, who sometimes writes at CounterPunch, says it’s clearer than ever that we’re planning to go to war with all of Islam.
Posted by joe on from Chomskyvill 11/16 at 06:00 PMHi Rosemarie & Mew -
Yeah, they obey the law, and we’re spreading Democracy and Justice everywhere. It’s not amazing, is it, that they can obviously ask for permission to torture people, no matter what the law might be, and then say: “No we didn’t!”
All of the “photos” are taken from inside the fence, so to speak.Mew - thanks for the link, and the numbers. Michael Parenti’s book title says it all, I think: “To Kill A Nation.”
Posted by joe on from Chomskyville 11/16 at 06:06 PMFrom Seven Deadly Spins:
During the 78-day bombing campaign over Yugoslavia in 1999, Defense Secretary William Cohen declared: “We severely crippled the (Serbian) military forces in Kosovo by destroying more than 50 percent of the artillery and one-third of the armored vehicles.” One year later, a U.S. Air Force report revealed a different story:
Original Claim: 120 tanks destroyed; Actual Number: 14
Original Claim: 220 armored personnel carriers destroyed; Actual Number: 20
Original Claim: 450 artillery pieces destroyed; Actual Number: 20
Original Claim: 744 confirmed strikes by NATO pilots; Actual Number: 58The report also found that Serbian military fooled U.S. technology with simple tactics like constructing fake artillery pieces out of black logs and old truck wheels. One vital bridge avoided destruction from above when, 300 yards upriver, a phony bridge was erected out of polyethylene sheeting. NATO pilots bombed the fake bridge several times. Confronted with this evidence, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon went into spin mode: “We obviously hit enough tanks and other targets to win.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/16 at 06:12 PMEvening all...did you know that the US Gov’t has detained over 83,000 people in its “War on Terror?”
Posted by JOS on from Calle Colón 11/16 at 06:16 PMHi Everyone...JOS, of the 83,000 prisoners, many were children.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 11/16 at 06:20 PMA seriously fact-filled page, Mickey Z. Thanks.
The Serbs seem tough and smart. As usual, there was never any real context given to the civil wars in the area - except to play up the Christian v. Muslim elements. If I remember correctly, there WAS a lot of ethnic cleansing going on in Yugoslavia during WWII. The Albanians / Muslims(?) joined with the Nazis against the Serbs, and the result was mighty grim. And, of course, that stuff dated back to WWI, and so on and so on…
Fortunately, we were able to intervene on the side of peace and justice, and finally set things right.Hi JOS & Rosemarie -
I imagine that, as they work with their new detention systems, they’ll be learning how to deal with larger, more troublesome populations, such as the populations of Syria and Iran, and the domestic population of the US. Frighteningly, it seems as though everything they do, is but a step toward something even more terrible.Posted by joe on from Chomskyville 11/16 at 07:20 PMThe Balkans are a snakepit a lot farther back than WWI, Joe. Antonina, the Albanian/Sicilian first-generation imigrant mama of a friend of mine, traced her ancestry back to a Turkish ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Christians in Albania during the 1470s. The Albanian Orthodox Christians were hounded across Italy, and driven into the mountains of Sicily where, it seems, no one’s ever much wanted to go who didn’t have to. Their village’s dialect was, until Antonina left in 1916, almost pure medieval liturgical Albanian.
I’ve always loved getting to know older people because their lives were, for the most part, so interestingly different from my own. I used to listen to Antonina’s stories with real interest, and if there’s a faster way to cadge a home-cooked meal I don’t know what it is.
Side note: does any Expendable out there care to enlighten me on how it’s possible for a sentient person to be bored in this world?
Rosamonde...errrr, Rosemarie, your darned question about what happens next has spawned an entire new novel in my mind. >sigh< Now we’re up to seven. And I’m afreaid to make notes in the computer because of the Great Crash of 9/24.
AHEMAHEM
I am officially 433 words over the required count for day sixteen. >pats own back, winces at dislocated shoulder<
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 11/17 at 03:40 AMAdd a pat from me, Mr. Mudge.
Thanks for the Antonina and Albania tale.Most of the world seems bored, eh Mudge?
Perhaps they’re asleep, dreaming they’re bored…Posted by joe on from Oregon 11/17 at 04:35 AMAnd thanks from me as well, Mr Mudge, for your Antonina and Albania tale.
Our neighbours on one side are both Serbs (she is actually from Vukovar which played a certain role in the civil wars of the early 1990’s) which brought back memories of the demonisation of Serbs in nearly all of the MSM when they ‘covered’ the civil war.Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 11/17 at 05:11 PM
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