Show Me The Kony

As if the backlash against his film and movement wasn't enough Kony 2012 director Jason Russell was apparently filmed doing naked exercises (or, as some have claimed, drunkenly, publicly masturbating):



New Whirl Odor?

I can't make out that it's him, personally. But shit - if a third of the fucking planet was talking about me, with most of them insulting me and trying to kill my project in the bud, I'd blow a gasket too. And if I were turning nuts, maybe I'd be doing something to - or with - my nuts as well. Maybe.

Moral of the story: don't try to make the world a better place. Ever.

Gallagher Hospitalized After Heart Attack

For the second time in a year, comedian Gallagher was hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. I'm glad CNN took time off of their useless Republican Primary coverage (not because it's the Republicans, but because they actually have nothing going on despite their jumbo-matrons and situation rooms and hounding of vote counters - but more on that at a later date) to talk about the guy Comedy Central ranked the 100th best comic of all-time.

They put Louis C.K. at 98 and David Cross at 85, though, with fucking Howie Mandel at 82, so what the fuck do they know?

Anyway, back to the watermelon smasher. Wait, there's nothing else to say, unless you want to mention that his most-famous skit, the ''Sledge-O-Matic'', is nothing more than a parody of a 60s appliance Veg-O-Matic (''it slices, it dices!'') that he's kept repeating ad nauseam, murdering millions of fruit for no valid reason throughout the decades.

Protesting

There's a general feeling of unrest in the streets of Montréal of late, in great part due to the faltering politics and political system, but exacerbated by the provincial government to raise the cost of university education, to bring it closer to the Canadian average, when the average income in our province is still way below what it should be. As a matter of fact, of the 15 biggest cities in Canada, 5 of the bottom 7 in terms of quality of life/disposable income per capita are from Québec.

To make matters worse, local law enforcement has gone way over the line in terms of brute force, displaying some of the worst police brutality this city has known in perhaps a decade; the cops are targeting the students harder than they did rioters in the past 3 riots worth mentioning (2008, 2009 and 2010).

On a larger scale, protesting as a way of expressing oneself is quickly becoming a no-no in North America in general, as authorities fear losing control. More and more, they order cops to repress protesters, jail them for no reason, anything to discourage them from taking action - and anything to make them look like criminals when the TV cameras come, to sway public opinion against them. And sometimes it even works.

Although that may change, now that one kid might lose his fucking eye as a result of receiving a noise grenade right in the face. Impatience now grows on both sides:



Just a reminder that demonstrating, in a democracy, is as vital a way of expressing displeasure as voting, only it isn't reserved for adults. It is a right that was granted to most people 50 to 100 years ago and has lead to civil advancements in women's rights, racial inequities, worker compensation, dignity and human rights. Why the Powers That Be are so afraid of it when it would shut us up to give us our candy once in a while still mesmerizes me, but not everyone was born with a high IQ or the ability to reflect on issues that concern the greater good.

Video Of The Week: Tool

One band that always has really nice videos is Tool. They're usually centered around stop-motion filming, claymation characters, and dark subtext. And health-related shit, like diseases, goo coming out of people, injuries, even blood at times.

The music is hard-prog, with heavy metal mentality and groove-heavy, funky undertones. If Bootsy Collins had made a record with King Crimson, this band would still be listening to it.

Singer Maynard James Keenan is the type of charismatic frontman who permeates his art. Whether he's in Tool, A Perfect Circle or Puscifer, his unique voice and delivery always add a sombre, macabre mood to the situation

Obsolete Words

Ever get bored with the words currently being used in the English language?

Ever get scared that our vocabulary will soon be reduced to merely one-syllable words, or worse - single consonants or vowels?

Maybe it's time to resurrect obsolete words, such as these ones, twenty of them.

I, for one, cannot fathom going another day without expressing my need to deliciate on some massive jumbo shrimp, but chances are I'll brannigan for St. Patrick's first.

Freudian Slip Of The Year

Mitt Romney can't spell. Or at the very least, can't concentrate on anything other than money. He even makes his children out to spell the word itself when they should be spelling his name.

This guy's really making it way too easy - it's like he wants to enter the history books as the guy who spent the most money to not get a nomination for the party who's going to lose an election.

How hard is it to sort the fucking kids by height? And we're to believe this guy was successful in business? That he's in touch with ''normal people'' somehow?

He just might be the ultimate proof that Charles Darwin was wrong...

No Kony 2012

I expected some backlash from the widespread sharing of the Kony 2012 video, and I expected it would be about Western paternalism and/or the White Messiah complex.

I didn't expect it to be almost as big and generalized as the actual campaign to share the film, though. And I didn't expect theories about the movement being about stealth-evangelizing Christianity.

Many formerly-African voices have come out against it, usually of the ''let us take care of our shit ourselves, we don't need your stinking help'' variety, but at least the kid in the video is still defending it.

The only critics I hate seeing are those who use the ''it's been going on for ages'' angle as an excuse to let it happen again, such as Nicholas Sengoba, a political researcher:

The issue has been around for ages. We have to ask ourselves why suddenly there is this uproar. I believe that these people have other motives that they are not putting out in the open.

I'm convinced - I'll send Kony my first 2 kids, because it's been going on forever, so why stop now?

Shit, the guy is accused of crimes against humanity. Let's catch him and put him on trial, no matter the means. The sooner the better. Many talk about humanitarian groups being already there on the ground, fine, fund them so they are able to do their job. There are already military forces looking for the guy? Fine, equip them better so they do find him.

Many have spoken against this as being ''the cause du jour'', deflecting our attention from other issues. And I fully agree. Sure. But can't we fucking see one thing through before moving onto another? This guy's been running and killing and raping and pillaging for years, decades even. Now that the world's attention is on him, is it going to take as long to find him as it did for, say, Osama Bin Laden? And is he going to end up dead rather than tried in court?

This needs to be done right. And it kinda needs to be done, period.

History Repeats Itself Again

That moment where you just wiped your ass, you fold the toilet paper for a second swipe, but it bursts, and you end up re-pasting yourself with hot, stinking peanut butter...

And the sense of déjà-vu it instills in your soul because it wasn't the first time it's happened...

I have no idea if that has anything to do with this, but in the off chance that it may... here is an article from the L.A. Times regarding the firing of GM Pierre Gauthier. From the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, in 2002, but the facts remain so strikingly similar to the current Montréal Canadiens administration, it's uncanny.

My favourite part:

Gauthier made absolutely no impact on Orange County hockey fans in his four-year tenure. He was not part of the community in any noticeable way. He was anonymous. He tended to make statements that weren't true, in the sense that soon after he'd said something wouldn't happen, it happened.

For instance, Gauthier said he wouldn't think about firing his coach. Then a month later, Craig Hartsburg was fired. He also said he'd never consider trading the team's two superstars, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne. Then, a month or so later, Selanne was traded and the die-hards of the dwindling Duck fan base became rightly nervous about Kariya's future in Anaheim.

This season alone, Gauthier fired two coaches (one assistant, one head) and traded superstar sniper Michael Cammalleri. To go with his 5 other shitty trades...

Kony 2012

It's a great idea: using today's tools - i.e. Facebook and social networking - to bring about social justice, use the fact that our authorities are listening to us for the moment (ok, maybe not in Canada...) to bring about change, to capture long-time purveyors of crimes against humanity.

They got their message to Washington and hope the American government cares about the issue long enough to not pull out until the job's done.

I wish them the best of luck.


KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

Rush Limbaugh's Current Faux-Pas

I didn't want to comment on Rush Limbaugh's comments on that law student, because everyone else was doing it, and the internets were aflame. Plus, I had blogged constantly for 4 years without writing a specific article about him yet. But I've been asked to, and I shall. First, his comments:



Thanks to a successful Twitter campaign, a bunch of advertizers are now quitting Limbaugh's show, hitting the loud-mouth where it hurts: the purse strings. Because despite his studio being paid for and production costs nearing zero, and with his constant arguments about each individual having to foot the bill for whatever they want (insurance, health care, welfare, food stamps, pensions, etc.), someone else is always paying Limbaugh's bills, be they current or future.

He's apologized but at the same time is usually the first one to say apologies don't mean anything, that the person thinking what they said probably still feel the same way. But now he sees the threat of being taken off the air and is acting like the pussy he's always been, as most bullies end up doing when they're confronted.

Also, he prefaced his radio apology by saying he'd been using his adversaries' smear tactics despite his better judgement/manners - as if! - seemingly forgetting he insults people for a living, on air, 5 days a week for 3 hours at a time.

For once, the smell of shit around Rush Limbaugh isn't the hate speech coming out of his foul mouth, it's the complete picture of the situation he's in.