Some folks don't get it...

I donno. It seems as if you can (or at least should be able to) get away with stuff that's satire. If the same thing is done with malice, it has less value. Of course, as a free speech absolutist (I agree with Abbie Hoffman who said it's our job to shout THEATER! in a crowded fire.), I don't think any speech should be censored or banned. Even Fox News.

On the other hand, some speech is more valuable than other. And good satire is often a great teaching tool. Seems like the teachers get it, the administrators do not.

(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Insurance Information Collect Disclosure

So, I get this notice from Oxford about how they use my personal information. Do they safeguard it? Do they only give it out if required by law?

Well, actually, they do whatever they want with it. Sell it to whoever will pay... as long as it's legal, they'll do it.

I love advertising!

I bet some companies are pretty embarrassed by their old ads. Like BP's environmental stuff. Here's one a friend sent me:

Yeah!

Fuck free speech!

I think this was sent to me by my jailbird pal Kyle. ACLU take note. Click on it for a better view if you can't read it.

Why Jesus? Why indeed?

Those of you who know me, know I'm not an atheist. The world is just too fucked up for there not to be some evil malevolence behind it all.  I believe God is a 9 foot tall woman in a black leather bikini... with a whip.

Still, I have a certain admiration for the atheist groups and their war on religious stupidity.

I found this today, from the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION.

If you have trouble seeing it, click on the image, or go to http://70.87.81.162/~seidbd/Graphics/whyJesus.jpg for a better view.

Battle of the Graffix

I found this on a makeshift plywood door, leading to a basement on Mercer Street. I present it here, without much comment.

Does NOT WORK make you sick?

Talk about a sick society!! Now people get sick when they DON'T work. Please! Maybe they should call it the BLACK-BURY. There's a Japanese word: Kuroshi. It means death by overwork. How 'bout LIFE by overwork. Ouch!

AGAIN PROVED! Booze is a health food!

(click on the picture to see a full view)

Everything in moderation? Yeah right. Even the HEAVY drinkers outlast the teetotalers!

Not only have I been saying this for years... I've been living it! I'm not sure what a "first-degree relative" is, but I probably have one. Doesn't affect me.

THIS is the kind of stuff they should be teaching in school!

Crime at the Crime Lab

What a surprise? Crime labs give DAs the results they want, instead of the REAL results. I mean who pays the bills? Right?

New York eating... where to go... what to eat...

For a larger view, click here.

It's always so hard to decide what to eat in this city. It's a good thing we have short guides like this to make things easier. These suggestions are from the famous BARON AMBROSIA.

Student Mindset Grad class of 2014

Beloit College, one of my alma matres, publishes a STUDENT MINDSET list every year. This year the local free paper picked it up and illustrated it. For us old farts, it's scary!  Click on the image if you have trouble reading it. It should expand to a suitable bi-focal-readable size.

It's so easy to make badguys....

So, nice lefties everywhere hate skinheads (usually a one-breath with NAZI... NAZISKINHEAD). So it's easy to believe a poor Brazilian immigrant saying she was attacked by three of them. I mean where do your sympathies lie? How 'bout with the truth?

(click on the image if you can't read the whole thing)

The same thing happens all the time. Not only with skinheads,but with MEN. How many false charges of rape and "sexual harrassment" have been kneejerked... just based on gender. In New York, if a woman complains about abuse, there MUST be an arrest!! Guilty until proven innocent!

Like (grand) father like son? Powell vs Randel

Adam Clayton Powell Junior was a famous NYC congressman. One of the first black men to serve in Congress, he was a strange combination of bravery, progressiveness, and corruption. He was so powerful, his Avenue in NY is almost as big as Martin Luther King's.

Now, his grandson is challenging Charlie Rangel  for his congressional seat. Charlie is one of my favorite politicians. Now, as he nears 80, he's facing some who-cares? congressional allegations. (Property in Bermuda? Come on!) Rangel's life should be a celebration. One of his greatest acts was to introduce legislation to bring back the draft. In effect he's saying: Alright Mr. & Mrs. Richguys, you want to send folks to die for your oil? Let's send YOUR kids! Yeah!

That's not the main point for me though. The main point is how WHITE Adam the 4th looks!! When I first saw the campaign literature, I thought he was some Good Ole Boy! I think he's gonna have to blacken up if he wants to win THIS primary.

Now what's your excuse????

THIS IS FROM Car & Travel Magazine, August 2010:

So what does that mean? It means that the big excuse to raise the drinking age to 21 (fewer people killed by drunk drivers), IS A FRAUD!!! Some people are going to be in lousy shape after they drink. Age doesn't matter. Those people will drink and drive.

When alcohol is illegal, only dangerous alcoholics have alcohol. Get it?

Anything liquid, fragile, perishable or smokeable in that package?

So I got this message from Pitney Bowes. It's a direct attack on the Indians who sell cigarettes through exercising their rights as independent from state governments. So how do they get 'em?

On March 31, 2010, the PACT (Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking) Act was signed into law by Congress. This means that, effective June 29, 2010, cigarettes, including roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco are “nonmailable” matter and cannot be shipped using the U.S. Postal Service® or by common carriers such as UPS and FedEx, unless your company has a standing injunction against this law or the shipment falls within certain exceptions.

Some exceptions to this law include:
Shipment of cigars is not prohibited under this Act
Shipment entirely within Alaska or Hawaii

Shipments transmitted between verified and authorized tobacco industry businesses for business purposes, or between such businesses and federal or state agencies for regulatory purposes
Infrequent, lightweight shipments mailed by age-verified adult individuals
Shipments of cigarettes sent by verified and authorized manufacturers to verified adult smokers age 21 and over for consumer testing purposes, and shipments sent by federal agencies for public health purposes.

All shipments of cigarettes that qualify for one of these exceptions must include a unique mark for its particular exception on the address side of the package. Additional requirements may apply.
Additional information about the PACT Act has been summarized in the Postal Bulletin. If you believe that your shipments could be affected by this ruling, we urge you to contact your U.S. Postal Service representative who can better help you to understand how this law applies to your business.

Jeezus! It's enough to make you START smoking. 

Big Name Foundations spread the wealth... or do they?

"The government is inefficient," scream the Free Enterpriseists. "Let private enterprise do it."

And then they tell me that Bill Gates is actually a good guy because he gives money away through his foundation. (After stealing it in the first place with a ruthless business model... now happily falling apart.)

Well, let's see how OTHER Foundations are doing. (This is from FORBES, of all places.)

(click here for larger view)

Why I Hate America... pt. I forget

So in the corporate world, whistleblowers on corporate corruption are cheered. But in the military... they're arrested.

More than that. Conservatives say that the US-tortured prisoners in Guantanamo have no rights because "they target civilians." Turns out that the US army does the same thing! What a surprise!

With justice and freedom for all... yeah right. Here's to Arizona!

So, they call for LEGAL immigration. Makes it fair to everyone, right? Yeah, right.


This is from FORBES magazine of all places.

(click on the graph to enlarge it)

The REAL Drug Cartel

I'm glad someone else did the research. It only proves what you've probably known for a long time. There is ANOTHER drug war. This one waged by the pharmaceutical companies... against US.

Seattle is the Chicago of the new Cyber-mafia

Website magazine has reprinted what Norton says is "America's Riskiest Online Cities." Of course, Seattle is number one. That's where Starbucks has its headquarters. Now, how much information do they collect while those geeks sit there blithely Apple-ing their bank accounts while sipping their lattes.

Was it Voltaire?

I think it was he who said, "You can tell the degree of a country's civilization by looking at its prisons." Or something like that anyway.

The US has the greatest percentage of its population in jail of any country in the world. (That includes Iran and other so-called dictatorships.) Many (most?) prisons are for-profit enterprises whose job it is to squeeze the most out of the inmates while returning the least to them.

Often, if you want to complain about inhuman conditions, you have to PAY to file a grievance. Such would be impossible in a civilized country.

Yeah, let freedom ring!

Free Tap Water... $1.90 for the Cup

Here's a copy of a letter I sent to Popeye's management. Let 'em know what you think about $1.90 for a an empty cup.

---

As you probably know, Popeye's has the best fast-food chicken in the country. That's why I was so happy to see a Popeye's on (327) Canal Street in Manhattan, right across from the post office. After picking up my mail, I went to Popeye's and ordered the new Chicken Bowl. Good price. Good taste. Good service too... until I asked for a cup of water.


The store wanted to charge $1.90 for the empty cup. Worse than that, the original Chicken bowl had offered soda for an extra 79¢. Popeye's wanted me to pay more than a dollar for an empty cup with nothing in it. Of course, I turned down the offer and ate my meal rather angrily. Needless to say, I won't be returning to that restaurant... and it's a pity. The food is so good!


Is this a regular policy? In all Popeye's? If so, I will reluctantly go back to the Colonel. If not, perhaps someone might speak to the manager of that branch and tell him he has lost at least one customer because of the cup charge.

Thank you, Mykel Board

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Jewish Surreality

Who needs fiction? Who needs to make stuff up? Reality always gets there first, and weirder!

Unintentionally correct dept.

I found this among my apartment plegm (stuff that just shows up in my apartment... no idea where it comes from). Seems like the guys at Coors came up with the truth by not doing their homework.

Not that I'm a Conspiracy guy but...

Forbes, that great shill for capitalist America, has dubbed CLEVELAND the "most miserable city in America." Could that have anything to do with the fact that the most interesting presidential candidate... and most anti-Capitalist, Dennis Kucinich, is from there? (A former mayor, I think.)

Naw that can't be it.

You can read Mykel's columns at his column blog.

 

Brain Dead & a Chicken Lover

This pair of newspaper small stories appeared one after the other. Considering the usual meaning of "chicken lover" and this particular meaning, I find even an extra measure of good humor included.

Oh yeah, how exactly can you "dupe" someone who's brain dead?

Don't forget to check my latest column postings.

No Helmet???

Dostoevsky said, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons”

Check this out... smuggled out of a Washington State prison. Check out: If client is to remain on restraint board for longer than 2 hours... Ouch!

(click here for a more detailed look)

But wait! There's more... check this out too...  And this is for someone who's supposed to be suicidal, and therefore emotionally fragile. How much worse for the "stable" ones?

J. Edgar Hoover's Tips For Teens 1957

I found this among my papers.... It's so cool being a pack rat:

(Click on the article to see a full-size picture.) 

Cleanse this, baby

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

I think this handbill is from Trinidad. It is so bizarre, I just had to share it. 

It advertises WATER (ionized, to be sure) that when you stick your feet into it... turns black. (That happens to me with ALL water, anyway.) This blackness is the toxins leaving your body. More than that, the company offers a special "Womb Cleansing," presumably using the same water. It is unclear what color the water turns in the process.

Where is this miracle company located? "Behind the Hotstop on Maraval Street." Ouch!

Beer of the Month

My pal John got be a bottle of this for my birthday. 8% Alcohol!!

It Had to Happen

It had to happen.  I've been telling my students that in American Culture things aren't considered HEALTHY unless they're pills. I showed them pictures of natto pills and green  tea pills. Of course, the only logical absurdity would be VEGETABLE pills. And here they are: 

Hemingway Couldn't Live Here!

They say they are dog people and cat people. I like dogs. I don't mind cats, but usually they do not like me. (Except for my sister's cat who likes EVERYBODY!) Most people who have a dog, have A dog. Cats are different.

AIDS transmission. I've been saying it...

I found an early article that explains the reason why suddenly HETS were seen as being in danger of AIDS. I've been saying that ONLY unprotected anal sex, IV drug use, and pregnancy (mother to child) spreads AIDS. This must be where I got it from.

The Great Korean Fan Death

Now here's something that MythBusters better investigate!

An old postcard

Someone sent this to me from England, a long time ago. It was made in Ireland.

The Junkie Hex

I think this was from the Realist Magazine. It was from a time of NYC junkie break ins. Everyone had a super lock to keep 'em out. This was a more traditional method... used against witches in earlier times.