Odds and Sods -- Duck Derby edition

DEAD AIR participated in the Reedy River Duck Derby this last weekend, to raise money for all kindsa good causes.





Your humble narrator took an unofficial blog break, as our beleaguered Occupy the Microphone crew gets things up and running at WMXP. I don't know if we will ever have the kind of podcast we had before (at WOLI), which was up on the net before we even got home from the radio studio. (sigh) I got spoiled.

I will keep you updated on our talk radio adventures, as usual.

~*~

In my meditation room (which is actually my kid's old bedroom! but "meditation room" sounds so much better!), I have some old movie posters, as I briefly mentioned in my old obit of Charlton Heston. One of the movie posters is Risky Business (in fact, it is the same poster in that link). Remember that one? It was before Tom Cruise became a Scientologist and was still cute, funny and charming.

Believe it or not, Risky Business REALLY happened in Toronto this past weekend, only without the call girls. The kids streamed in and trashed a whole mansion!

They are blaming social media, which is the only way 2000 kids (!) could have found the place so quickly and easily. From the Toronto Sun:

When you throw a “mansion party,” promote it heavily on social media and 2,000 of your closest friends show up, there’s a good chance it won’t end well.

That’s what happened Friday night when a throng of youth were packed like sardines into a partially-built house on upscale Stanley Carberry Dr. — near Goreway Dr. and Mayfield Rd.

Peel Regional Police quickly shut the house party down before anyone got hurt — but not before some $70,000 damage was done.

“I’m shocked,” Nancy Viveiros said Saturday, as she and her husband stopped by to see the aftermath of the house party their daughter briefly attended.

Gazing at the many broken windows, smashed doors and booze bottles strewn around the property and along the street, the Caledon woman explained her 18-year-old daughter and her friends wisely left the bash soon after arriving.

“My daughter walked in, looked around and told her friends don’t go upstairs because the railing was all falling apart,” Viveiros said.

Her daughter often asks her for a drive when she goes out, but on this night she got a ride with a friend to the party that “everyone at school was talking about.”

Had Viveiros provided transportation Friday night, there’s no way she’d have allowed her daughter to stay.

“She wouldn’t have got out of my car,” Viveiros said. “And I may have advised the police because you don’t want something happening to the kids.”

Police said they began receiving calls for noise complaints around 9:50 p.m., less than an hour after the bash began.

But they were already aware of the party thanks to Twitter.

“A couple of officers went to the address and determined relatively quickly that more units were needed to disperse the crowd safely,” Const. Thomas Ruttan said.

Officers from three divisions ultimately responded and co-ordinated the shutdown, directing vehicular and pedestrian traffic as the partygoers left.

Ruttan said numerous people were also arrested for intoxication and assaulting police.

“Social media is probably not the best place to advertise a party,” he said. “People need to realize how far reaching social media is and how quickly things like this can get out of control.”

The bash was so big that its hashtag #MansionParty began trending on Twitter.

“The homeowner’s son had permission to have a party, but not of this magnitude,” Sgt. Darcy North said.

Neighbours said the 5,000 square-foot home was under construction for a long time, but work suddenly stopped and the house has sat abandoned for several years.

Even without the beer bottles and broken windows, the unfinished house on the huge muddy lot is an eyesore on a street lined with pristine homes, one of which is currently selling for $1.45 million.

One area resident, who didn’t want to be named, said a young man came to his home prior to Friday night to notify him he was having a party “and the music might get a little loud.”

He said “kids” began arriving in droves around 9 p.m. and within half an hour it was obvious the party was out of control.

“It was crazy,” the neighbour said, adding he never did hear the music but the people lining the street were quite noisy.

He was relieved when cops arrived.

“I was ready to phone the police myself,” he said.

Video here. Wow.

~*~

I wanted to organize a demonstration against Senator Tim Scott, when he came to speak at Bob Jones University at the end of April... but nobody else wanted to. And then I got depressed over that. It was another reason for my blog break: I hardly knew what to say. We let Tim Scott come to town and we ... DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. Argh, I just can't stand it.

Nikki Haley fucked us good with Tim Scott. She knew exactly what she was doing.

See, white radicals DO NOT want to demonstrate against Scott and "look racist"--even if he is well to the right of Sean Hannity. Blacks do not want to demonstrate because he is black, the ONLY African-American in the Senate right now. THE ONLY ONE... and for that reason, I guess it does look bad to demonstrate against him, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

So is that tantamount to giving him a free pass to be another right wing swine, or are we going to treat him like Lindsay Graham, Jim DeMint and the others?

I find that I am suddenly (and uncomfortably) understanding the dilemma of the Republicans who want to protest Obama but do not want to be called racist. This is the FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT, and we always have to be aware of that. We must always be aware of the racist, colonialist history of the USA. But... but... but... WHAT ABOUT WHEN THEY SCREW UP? WHAT ABOUT THAT?

I have never backed down from my legendary Haleyating, and the fact that she is the first woman (and nonwhite) governor of SC, has never stopped me from trashing Governor Haley. But I know it does keep the national media from scrutinizing her as carefully and as completely as they should. (It drives her ex-boyfriend Will Folks crazy.)

What to do? Ideas?

Here is the video of Senator Scott at BJU, which I did not listen to. Nor will I. But you might be interested.

~*~

At Left: Miss South Carolina dances with children at the Duck Derby. (you can click to enlarge)


Speaking of Charlton Heston: SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! And do you know, some guy has honest-to-God named his nutritional drink SOYLENT? Seriously, its in the New Yorker, so it must be true.

Check out the story of SOYLENT and Bob Rhinehart, who is readable and interesting. And I actually agree with this:

Soylent has been heralded by the press as “the end of food,” which is a somewhat bleak prospect. It conjures up visions of a world devoid of pizza parlors and taco stands—our kitchens stocked with beige powder instead of banana bread, our spaghetti nights and ice-cream socials replaced by evenings sipping sludge. But, Rhinehart says, that’s not exactly his vision. “Most of people’s meals are forgotten,” he told me. He imagines that, in the future, “we’ll see a separation between our meals for utility and function, and our meals for experience and socialization.” Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas.

He can have mine. I think that is a great idea. It would be a solid blow against obesity and waste, and would make us enjoy the "real" food we DO eat, that much more.

~*~

I did not do my usual commemoration for Kent State yesterday, because I decided to give that a break for awhile.

I usually reblog the same thing every year, but it always seems to start fights on Facebook. I am from Ohio, as are many of my Facebook friends, and it seems the people of Ohio have NEVER stopped arguing over the subject, who did what first, was there a sniper? etc etc... in fact, you can see that the first time I ever posted it, the fascist-apologists came out of the woodwork in short order. That first post earned me a troll that latched on for months.

I want to honor the day, but I don't like the people that show up. I am taking a break from them this year. Forgive me dear Jeffrey, Allison, William and Sandra.

I always remember you on May 4th, and undoubtedly will for the rest of my life.

~*~

Our Beltane celebration was wonderful on Saturday night, right after the Duck Derby. I hope your Beltane went well.

~*~

FLICKR UPDATE.

Kent State Remembered

Kent State student John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio discovering the slain Jeffrey Miller.


Originally posted here on May 4, 2008. (I read it on the air yesterday on our radio show, Occupy the Microphone.)

43 years ago on April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announced that military operations would be expanding into the neutral, peaceful country of Cambodia, which had the bad fortune to share a border with Vietnam. Viet Cong insurgents were said to be hiding in the mountains of Cambodia. (In fact, the USA had already been conducting a secret bombing campaign, unbeknownst to the general public, engineered by Nixon and his butchers, named Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger.) These illegal, immoral, reprehensible acts were the acts of criminally insane men, who had just realized they were losing their filthy, insane, extremely expensive war.

The result of this announcement was demonstrations on many American college campuses over the next few days. Nixon had promised to end the war, and proved to be a liar. The anger of the youth who would fight this war was palpable. At Kent State University in Ohio, demonstrators burned down an ROTC building. It was never known if this was deliberate or just an act of vandalism that got out of hand. Ostensibly due to this event, Governor James Rhodes declared Martial Law on the campus of Kent State University and sent the National Guard onto the campus. He also held a press conference in which he made famous inflammatory statements: "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the night-riders and the vigilantes," Rhodes said. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."

On May 4th, a demonstration was scheduled for noon. There were about 2000 people gathered for the demonstration, and about 1000 troops on campus. For unknown reasons, the Guard decided to break up the demonstration, and ordered the crowd to disperse. They were met with rocks and flying debris. The Guard responded with tear gas, and it was on.

I have read multiple versions of what happened next. Several facts dominate these versions: the kids were returning the tear gas cannisters (which do POP loudly like guns when they go off) and the Guard seemed very confused and didn't know what to do. At one point, none seemed sure of which direction to advance, but advance they did. At 12:22 PM, after guardsmen had advanced to the top of the hill near Taylor Hall and the parking lot, they turned and fired. They commenced firing for 13 seconds and fired 67 M-1 semiautomatic bullets. They wounded nine students, and murdered four in cold blood. Only two of these four students, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were actually demonstrating against the war. The remaining two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, were merely changing classes.

No one knows who gave the order to fire, if anyone did.

The kids in the National Guard were the same ages as the kids on the campus. These kids were all facing the same reality--the males of both groups were trying to avoid going to war. One group could afford college and the other could not, but could somehow get into the Guard. There is no question there was significant class hostility directed at the college kids by the Guard; the males in the Guard were closer to actual combat in Vietnam, although William Schroeder attended Kent on a ROTC scholarship and may well have intended to become an Officer himself.

From this incident, we learned that even the pampered children of the middle class were expendable. We learned that totalitarianism can erupt quickly and suddenly, particularly in small, contained areas where there exists considerable class hostility, panic, and loaded weapons. We learned that the Governor of Ohio was a fascist and a murderer, as was the President and his henchmen, all of whom nodded approvingly at the murders at Kent.

The lines were drawn very clearly, especially for me. I woke that morning in Ohio, to see that my state was all over the national news, all over the newspapers. We had various Moments of Silence for the next week. Everyone seemed to know someone involved. My grandmother cried and explained to me that these students were exercising their civil rights, and had been shot for it. "You have to remember this," she told me.

In the subsequent lawsuits, the families received an average of approximately $63,000 per student.

~*~

Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

May 4th: This Day in History

Kent State student John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio discovering the slain Jeffrey Miller.


Originally posted here on May 4, 2008.

41 years ago on April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announced that military operations would be expanding into the neutral, peaceful country of Cambodia, which had the bad fortune to share a border with Vietnam. Viet Cong insurgents were said to be hiding in the mountains of Cambodia. (In fact, the USA had already been conducting a secret bombing campaign, unbeknownst to the general public, engineered by Nixon and his butchers, named Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger.) These illegal, immoral, reprehensible acts were the acts of criminally insane men, who had just realized they were losing their filthy, insane, extremely expensive war.

The result of this announcement was demonstrations on many American college campuses over the next few days. Nixon had promised to end the war, and proved to be a liar. The anger of the youth who would fight this war was palpable. At Kent State University in Ohio, demonstrators burned down an ROTC building. It was never known if this was deliberate or just an act of vandalism that got out of hand. Ostensibly due to this event, Governor James Rhodes declared Martial Law on the campus of Kent State University and sent the National Guard onto the campus. He also held a press conference in which he made famous inflammatory statements: "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the night-riders and the vigilantes," Rhodes said. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."

On May 4th, a demonstration was scheduled for noon. There were about 2000 people gathered for the demonstration, and about 1000 troops on campus. For unknown reasons, the Guard decided to break up the demonstration, and ordered the crowd to disperse. They were met with rocks and flying debris. The Guard responded with tear gas, and it was on.

I have read multiple versions of what happened next. Several facts dominate these versions: the kids were returning the tear gas cannisters (which do POP loudly like guns when they go off) and the Guard seemed very confused and didn't know what to do. At one point, none seemed sure of which direction to advance, but advance they did. At 12:22 PM, after guardsmen had advanced to the top of the hill near Taylor Hall and the parking lot, they turned and fired. They commenced firing for 13 seconds and fired 67 M-1 semiautomatic bullets. They wounded nine students, and murdered four in cold blood. Only two of these four students, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were actually demonstrating against the war. The remaining two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, were merely changing classes.

No one knows who gave the order to fire, if anyone did.

The kids in the National Guard were the same ages as the kids on the campus. These kids were all facing the same reality--the males of both groups were trying to avoid going to war. One group could afford college and the other could not, but could somehow get into the Guard. There is no question there was significant class hostility directed at the college kids by the Guard; the males in the Guard were closer to actual combat in Vietnam, although William Schroeder attended Kent on a ROTC scholarship and may well have intended to become an Officer himself.

From this incident, we learned that even the pampered children of the middle class were expendable. We learned that totalitarianism can erupt quickly and suddenly, particularly in small, contained areas where there exists considerable class hostility, panic, and loaded weapons. We learned that the Governor of Ohio was a fascist and a murderer, as was the President and his henchmen, all of whom nodded approvingly at the murders at Kent.

The lines were drawn very clearly, especially for me. I woke that morning in Ohio, to see that my state was all over the national news, all over the newspapers. We had various Moments of Silence for the next week. Everyone seemed to know someone involved. My grandmother cried and explained to me that these students were exercising their civil rights, and had been shot for it. "You have to remember this," she told me.

In the subsequent lawsuits, the families received an average of approximately $63,000 per student.

~*~

Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

May 4th: This day in history

Kent State student John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio discovering the slain Jeffrey Miller.


41 years ago on April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announced that military operations would be expanding into the neutral, peaceful country of Cambodia, which had the bad fortune to share a border with Vietnam. Viet Cong insurgents were said to be hiding in the mountains of Cambodia. (In fact, the USA had already been conducting a secret bombing campaign, unbeknownst to the general public, engineered by Nixon and his butchers, named Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger.) These illegal, immoral, reprehensible acts were the acts of criminally insane men, who had just realized they were losing their filthy, insane, extremely expensive war.

The result of this announcement was demonstrations on many American college campuses over the next few days. Nixon had promised to end the war, and proved to be a liar. The anger of the youth who would fight this war was palpable. At Kent State University in Ohio, demonstrators burned down an ROTC building. It was never known if this was deliberate or just an act of vandalism that got out of hand. Ostensibly due to this event, Governor James Rhodes declared Martial Law on the campus of Kent State University and sent the National Guard onto the campus. He also held a press conference in which he made famous inflammatory statements: "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the night-riders and the vigilantes," Rhodes said. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."

On May 4th, a demonstration was scheduled for noon. There were about 2000 people gathered for the demonstration, and about 1000 troops on campus. For unknown reasons, the Guard decided to break up the demonstration, and ordered the crowd to disperse. They were met with rocks and flying debris. The Guard responded with tear gas, and it was on.

I have read multiple versions of what happened next. Several facts dominate these versions: the kids were returning the tear gas cannisters (which do POP loudly like guns when they go off) and the Guard seemed very confused and didn't know what to do. At one point, none seemed sure of which direction to advance, but advance they did. At 12:22 PM, after guardsmen had advanced to the top of the hill near Taylor Hall and the parking lot, they turned and fired. They commenced firing for 13 seconds and fired 67 M-1 semiautomatic bullets. They wounded nine students, and murdered four in cold blood. Only two of these four students, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were actually demonstrating against the war. The remaining two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, were merely changing classes.

No one knows who gave the order to fire, if anyone did.

The kids in the National Guard were the same ages as the kids on the campus. These kids were all facing the same reality--the males of both groups were trying to avoid going to war. One group could afford college and the other could not, but could somehow get into the Guard. There is no question there was significant class hostility directed at the college kids by the Guard; the males in the Guard were closer to actual combat in Vietnam, although William Schroeder attended Kent on a ROTC scholarship and may well have intended to become an Officer himself.

From this incident, we learned that even the pampered children of the middle class were expendable. We learned that totalitarianism can erupt quickly and suddenly, particularly in small, contained areas where there exists considerable class hostility, panic, and loaded weapons. We learned that the Governor of Ohio was a fascist and a murderer, as was the President and his henchmen, all of whom nodded approvingly at the murders at Kent.

The lines were drawn very clearly, especially for me. I woke that morning in Ohio, to see that my state was all over the national news, all over the newspapers. We had various Moments of Silence for the next week. Everyone seemed to know someone involved. My grandmother cried and explained to me that these students were exercising their civil rights, and had been shot for it. "You have to remember this," she told me.

In the subsequent lawsuits, the families received an average of approximately $63,000 per student.

~*~

Originally posted here on May 4, 2008.

Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Kent State remembered

Kent State student John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio discovering the slain Jeffrey Miller.

39 years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on an unarmed group of antiwar demonstrators for 13 seconds, killing four students. My piece last year, is the definitive history. (And it brought out a pesky right wing troll, as well as my very first IP banning of this site.)

I don't have anything to add to what I wrote last year.

Also see: Mike and Kendra's May 4th website for documentation, photos, follow-ups, and everything else you ever wanted to know.

And rest in peace, dear ones: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder.

Dead Air Church: May 4, 1970

Kent State student John Filo's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Mary Ann Vecchio discovering the slain Jeffrey Miller.


38 years ago on April 30, 1970, Richard Nixon announced that military operations would be expanding into the neutral, peaceful country of Cambodia, which had the bad fortune to share a border with Vietnam. Viet Cong insurgents were said to be hiding in the mountains of Cambodia. (In fact, the USA had already been conducting a secret bombing campaign, unbeknownst to the general public, engineered by Nixon and his butchers, named Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger.) These illegal, immoral, reprehensible acts were the acts of criminally insane men, who had just realized they were losing their filthy, insane, extremely expensive war.

The result of this announcement was demonstrations on many American college campuses over the next few days. Nixon had promised to end the war, and proved to be a liar. The anger of the youth who would fight this war was palpable. At Kent State University in Ohio, demonstrators burned down an ROTC building. It was never known if this was deliberate or just an act of vandalism that got out of hand. Ostensibly due to this event, Governor James Rhodes declared Martial Law on the campus of Kent State University and sent the National Guard onto the campus. He also held a press conference in which he made famous inflammatory statements: "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the night-riders and the vigilantes," Rhodes said. "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."

On May 4th, a demonstration was scheduled for noon. There were about 2000 people gathered for the demonstration, and about 1000 troops on campus. For unknown reasons, the Guard decided to break up the demonstration, and ordered the crowd to disperse. They were met with rocks and flying debris. The Guard responded with tear gas, and it was on.

I have read multiple versions of what happened next. Several facts dominate these versions: the kids were returning the tear gas cannisters (which do POP loudly like guns when they go off) and the Guard seemed very confused and didn't know what to do. At one point, none seemed sure of which direction to advance, but advance they did. At 12:22 PM, after guardsmen had advanced to the top of the hill near Taylor Hall and the parking lot, they turned and fired. They commenced firing for 13 seconds and fired 67 M-1 semiautomatic bullets. They wounded nine students, and murdered four in cold blood. Only two of these four students, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller, were actually demonstrating against the war. The remaining two, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder, were merely changing classes.

No one knows who gave the order to fire, if anyone did.

The kids in the National Guard were the same ages as the kids on the campus. These kids were all facing the same reality--the males of both groups were trying to avoid going to war. One group could afford college and the other could not, but could somehow get into the Guard. There is no question there was significant class hostility directed at the college kids by the Guard; the males in the Guard were closer to actual combat in Vietnam, although William Schroeder attended Kent on a ROTC scholarship and may well have intended to become an Officer himself.

From this incident, we learned that even the pampered children of the middle class were expendable. We learned that totalitarianism can erupt quickly and suddenly, particularly in small, contained areas where there exists considerable class hostility, panic, and loaded weapons. We learned that the Governor of Ohio was a fascist and a murderer, as was the President and his henchmen, all of whom nodded approvingly at the murders at Kent.

The lines were drawn very clearly, especially for me. I woke that morning in Ohio, to see that my state was all over the national news, all over the newspapers. We had various Moments of Silence for the next week. Everyone seemed to know someone involved. My grandmother cried and explained to me that these students were exercising their civil rights, and had been shot for it. "You have to remember this," she told me.

In the subsequent lawsuits, the families received an average of approximately $63,000 per student.

~*~