Freshly Played #25: Boy Hits Car

Something to kick in the weekend, as I watch the sun fuck the ocean…

I’m sooo sorry Thor

It was a valiant fight, but with hail this size…

Alas my poor Honda came off second best. What chance did Japanese tin foil have against the bullets of an angry God.

I’m sooo sorry Thor. I promise never to worship Dawkins again 🙂

Because the people have abrogated their responsibility…

How can an organisation that refused to have a personality cult built around Nelson Mandela allow itself to become a mere tool in the hands of Zuma? How can its leaders cast aside the party’s historical mission – to transform the lives of millions of poor black people and build a united, non-racial, prosperous and democratic country – to simply become gophers for Zuma?

That is the question being posed by Justice Malala, a newspaper columnist and host of a television show The Justice Factor, in an online newspaper today.

If you’re not familiar with South African politics, read this:

President Jacob Zuma is not a fool. He makes gaffes every week and has no idea what constitutionality means. But he is no fool.

He might not read – as has been alleged – but that does not mean he does not know what levers have to be cranked to ensure that he never gets inside a court.

Since he became the president of the ANC in 2007, he has overseen the most concerted and successful assault on the country’s independent institutions.

The judiciary is today facing a major crisis of confidence because of cases involving him at the Constitutional Court.

The minute he won the ANC presidency in Polokwane, the Scorpions – which had been investigating him- were disbanded. It was quick, cruel and ruthless.

Over the past few months it has been the public protector’s turn. In that time, we have witnessed concerted and coordinated attacks from parliament, the executive and various wings of the ANC on the office led by possibly the most admired “public servant” in the nation today – Thuli Madonsela.

This past week we had the extraordinary sight of our security cluster – which has over the past few weeks made fools of themselves saying all kinds of nonsense about Madonsela – turning on the populace and declaring that publication of pictures of the taxpayer-funded Nkandla monstrosity were illegal and that the full might of the law would come down on those who dared to do so. All this for one man: Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma.

The man is not a fool. He has managed to get Africa’s oldest liberation movement to become a tool for his protection.

Whatever he does – whether it is his friends the Guptas landing their planes at military key points with impunity or a hideous compound being built for him for R208-million, the man has got the party rushing to do his bidding.

And so one has to ask: Which ANC is this?

How can an organisation that refused to have a personality cult built around Nelson Mandela allow itself to become a mere tool in the hands of Zuma? How can its leaders cast aside the party’s historical mission – to transform the lives of millions of poor black people and build a united, non-racial, prosperous and democratic country – to simply become gophers for Zuma?

Yet that is what the party’s 86-member national executive committee has become.

ANC MPs are now introducing legislation that is aimed solely at protecting this one man.

Across the land, provincial party leaders hobble state machinery merely to protect and keep this one compromised leader out of jail and in power.

It is an incredible sight.

Once proud leaders who served our nation in exile, in the United Democratic Front and in trade unions now scrape and bow before one man.

The ANC no longer has leaders. It has zombies who mindlessly follow this one leader and do his bidding.

It is quite extraordinary.

What has happened to the culture of debate and contestation that once permeated this movement?

What happened to the pride that made this once great organisation stand up and expel people who muddied its name?

How can this lot walk in the shoes of Albert Luthuli, AP Mda, Anton Lembede, Pixley kaIsaka Seme?

So, as we look at the extraordinary lengths that the current ANC “leadership” has gone to defend an embarrassment of a leader whose entire family seems to be infused by a shocking culture of entitlement – Zuma’s brother, Michael, last week admitted using his name to swing tenders to his benefactors – we have to ask: Where is the ANC?

The answer is heartbreaking: The ANC is compromised; it is lost.

It has lost its moral compass and its leadership of society.

The man at its head is a reflection of what the party is: ill-disciplined, compromised and unprincipled.

The desperation one sees among the ANC’s leaders is a reflection of this. When a man as widely admired as Cyril Ramaphosa has no other argument to convince a voter to still support the ANC than “the Boers will return”, then you know that this is a movement that is both intellectually and morally bankrupt. The emperor and his lieutenants have no clothes.

And so we will remember the reign of Zuma. We will remember it not for its achievements but for the cowardice, callowness and bankruptcy of the leadership that he brought with him. We will remember his lackeys for their bowing and scraping and their destruction of the continent’s greatest liberation movement. What an ignominious end for the party of Mandela.

The answer may be simpler than we think! The people who continue to support this outrage are those who continue to vote for him.

There’s only one way out of this mess. And you have the responsibility to use it well at the next elections.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Invisible Monsters is quite possibly the most bizarre book I’ve ever read, if you exclude certain religious texts. I plodded through the first two-thirds, and then breezed through the rest as things started coming together and finally making sense.

This was my first Palahniuk novel, having only ever experienced his work through the film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt. And I can’t say if I’ll attempt another any time soon, because writing trippy novels seems to be what he’s about.

Now comes the difficult part: saying more about the book without actually giving the whole game up (incidentally you could look it up in Wikipedia, but that would spoil the mind-fuck awaiting you).

The book is narrated by a model whose name you don’t get to find out until the very end, and starts at the end and ends at a sort of beginning. If that does not make any sense now, you’ll have to read the book to get what I mean. The narrative revolves around the dysfunctional relationships among a small group of people and jumps from the present to the past at disconcertingly frequent intervals. In fact, you’ll have to get used to the term “Jump to”, as it is used quite frequently to shift the scene from the present to the past and back to the present. So paying attention is pretty important.

The Invisible Monster is actually the narrator who’s just had half her face blown away by a gunshot wound. The plot essentially revolves around her travels through various parts of America bingeing on prescription drugs with her companions Brandy Alexander and Manus, who really aren’t who you think they are. Along the way, you’ll learn about her supposedly closest friend Evie, who also turns out to not be what you’re told either.

Right from the beginning I was expecting the plot to be about the search for the shooter, but this person is also a real surprise. I’m not giving away anything more, so you’ll just have to read the damn thing yourself.

Cool Quotes From the Book

The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.

 

All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.

 

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character…Would you slow down? Or speed up?

 

Your birth is a mistake you’ll spend your whole life trying to correct.

 

Sabbath/Zeppelin mashup

mashup (noun) – a mixture or fusion of disparate elements. In the case of music, a mashup is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another. [Google/Wikipedia]

I’ve never been overly fond of mash-ups, but when it works well, it can sound awesome. Like this for instance:

This mashup is hardly the fusion of disparate elements; more like the marriage of the love-children of rock/metal gods. Combining the genius of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant is well… genius.

War Pigs by Black Sabbath has always made it into someone’s Top 40 best Heavy Metal songs of all time. Guitar World actually rates it as the best Heavy Metal song, ever.

Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin also features prominently in the rankings of Best Hard Rock or Best Guitar Tracks. VH1 rated it the third best Hard Rock song of all time.

Now I’m off to look, but I doubt I’ll find anything as good as this…

Therefore God Exists

Don’t you love lists? I spent an hour or so going through this one which has literally hundreds of proofs of God’s existence. Some were quite familiar because I’ve seen them right here on this blog before, in the comments section.

Here are ten that I really like:

1. ARGUMENT FROM MIRACLES (I)
(1) My aunt had cancer.
(2) The doctors gave her all these horrible treatments.
(3) My aunt prayed to God and now she doesn’t have cancer.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

2. MORAL ARGUMENT (II)
(1) In my younger days I was a cursing, drinking, smoking, gambling, child-molesting, thieving, murdering, bed-wetting bastard.
(2) That all changed once I became religious.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

3. ARGUMENT FROM FEAR
(1) If there is no God then we’re all going to not exist after we die.
(2) I’m afraid of that.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

4. ARGUMENT FROM AMERICAN EVANGELISM
(1) Telling people that God exists makes me filthy rich.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

5. ARGUMENT FROM FALLIBILITY
(1) Human reasoning is inherently flawed.
(2) Therefore, there is no reasonable way to challenge a proposition.
(3) I propose that God exists.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

6. ARGUMENT FROM META-SMUGNESS
(1) Fuck you.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

7. ARGUMENT FROM LONELINESS
(1) Christians say that Jesus is their best friend.
(2) I’m lonely, and I want a best friend.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

8. PROOF BY ANECDOTE
(1) God can be seen by those who believe in Him.
(2) If the God is seen, then He must exist.
(3) I have seen God.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

9. ARGUMENT FROM SPEAKING IN TONGUES
(1) My friend here, once started spontaneously speaking some jibberish that sounded to me kind of like Russian.
(2) But neither he nor I know anything about Russian.
(3) The only explanation is God.
(4) Therefore, God exists.

10. BENDER’S ARGUMENT (I)
(1) One day, demons were tap-dancing on my roof.  I prayed and they went away.
(2) Therefore, demons are really good dancers.
(3) Also, God exists.

Okay that last one is pretty stupid not as clear-cut as the others, but you get the point. So if you have some time to kill, you’ll find a lot more here (657 to be exact), from what looks like a growing list.

Your ass is grass

The South African political landscape is littered with voting fodder on the one hand and politicians who contemptuously make hay on the other. All this grass makes one long for some good weed…

 

Freshly Played #24: Nothing Else Matters

Amazing!

Amazing!

Damn, can’t choose between the two. But it matters not; they’re both so brilliant. And would you believe it’s possible to head-bang to cellos?

And oh, this awesome video of Ukrainian sand artist Kseniya Simonova which features Apocalyptica, never gets old.

Shame, you voted like an ass and now you’re pissed…

There’s been a lot of crap going down politically in South Africa the last couple of weeks, but I’ve restrained myself from venting because I may just be partly responsible.

You see, I did not vote in the last general elections through sheer disgust for the politicians. I now know what an ass I’d been and I’m not making that mistake again when the polling stations opens for the general elections early next year.

The kleptocracy in charge have been taking the public for granted the last four years, as they did the previous five years, and the five years before that. Their total and utter disdain for the citizens of this country has reached alarming proportions, but the real shocker is the terrifying reality that we appear for all intents and purposes, to be embarrassingly impotent to do anything about it.

Oh sure, we’ve ranted online on social media, participated in a few protest marches, added our names to those useless petitions and polls. But what’s the point if the only people really listening are those most affected, not the perps. Preaching to the choir, what?

The awful truth is that the politicians in charge don’t give a shit. If anyone has not realised this by now, they’re immensely dense.

We only have a fleeting hold on power – on election day and then we relinquish it when the winners are comfortably settled into office. Power to the people then simply evaporates and becomes power to the politicians.

We are given this once chance to dump the bastards in office, but do we use it wisely? The last two election results reveal that we’re quite happy to be ruled by thieves, immoral, incompetent,  sycophantic, self-serving, pompous assholes, and yes, psycho’s too. And the crazy thing is that the very people who are short-changed the most, are the most likely to vote for the most undeserving of politicians.

So, you have a chance once again to change things; grasp it and choose wisely. That’s the only chance you’ll get for another five years as you grin and bear it.

Photo credit: Thompson Rivers

Kids DON’T say the darndest things

Remember that CBS television series hosted by Bill Cosby?

We all used to think that the responses were cute. Admit it! Well, they’re not. The responses were just simply untainted by ideological baggage that we pick up along the way as we grow older.

However, not all kids are so lucky as to be free of indoctrination at that tender young age. Adults (sometimes well-meaning, sometimes not) tend to influence their kids into accepting and believing some of the craziest bullshit imaginable.

I found this today, and can only hope that these kids stay on the right track, but if they don’t, I wish someone would show them this video clip.

As adults, it’s extremely difficult to NOT be untarnished by ideological filth, but fortunately the information age makes available many resources to get back on the right path. If you want to, off course…