Controlling the "Great Beast"

The following is the second in a series of transcriptions taken from a talk given by Noam Chomsky entitled "The Imperial Presidency". The entire talk is available for purchase from the G7 Welcoming Committee website.


Well, without forgetting the very significant progress towards more civilized societies that has taken place in the past few years, and crucially the reasons for it, namely popular engagement and struggle, let’s focus nevertheless focus on the present, and on the topic that was suggested for this evening, the notions of imperial sovereignty that are now being crafted. It’s not surprising that as the population becomes more civilized, power systems become more extreme in their efforts to control “the great beast”, as the founding fathers of US society called the people--the hated, and feared people.

The conceptions of popular sovereignty that are being crafted by the radical, statist reactionaries of the Bush administration are in fact so extreme that they’ve drawn unprecedented criticism in the most sober and respected establishment circles, which is pretty helpful to people like me, as instead of quoting far-out types, you can quote the most respectable mainstream journals, and they’re saying stronger things than you might’ve said yourself.

The administrations ideas of presidential sovereignty were transmitted to the president by the newly appointed attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, at that time he was the president’s council, and he’s depicted now as a moderate in the press. His views on this are discussed by the very respected constitutional law professor Sanford Levinson, in the current issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, you can’t get more respectable than that.

Levinson writes that the conception being crafted by the justice department, transmitted by Gonzales, is based on the principle that, “there exists no norm that is applicable to chaos”, and that quote, as Levinson comments, is from Carl Schmitt, who was the leading German philosopher of law during the Nazi period.

The administration, advised by Gonzalez, quoting Levinson, “has articulated a view of presidential authority that is all too close to the power that Schmitt was willing to accord his own Fuhrer,” and one rarely hears words like that from the heart of the establishment. The same issue of that super-respectable journal has an article by two leading strategic analysts on what is called the “transformation of the military”, it’s another component of the new doctrines of imperial sovereignty that are being crafted. That’s the rapid expansion of offensive weaponry, including the militarization of space, in this case joined apparently by Canada, and other measures that are designed to place the entire world at risk of instant annihilation, and these have elicited the anticipated reactions by potential targets, Russia and China, who are developing their own offensive weapons.

These two analysts conclude that the US programs may lead to, in their words, “ultimate doom”, and they express their hope that a coalition of peace-loving nations will coalesce as a counter to US militarism and aggressiveness, a coalition led by China.

We’ve come to a pretty pass when such sentiments are voiced in sober and respectable circles, which aren’t given to hyperbole, and when their faith in US democracy is so slight that they look to China to save us from marching towards “ultimate doom”. And it’s up to the “Second Superpower” to decide whether that contempt for the “Great Beast” is warranted.

Tasting that derrière

Oh my God. This interview with a cannibal is so quotable I could just quote the whole thing right here, but I guess that's what hyperlinks are for. To, uh, whet your appetite:

It’s widely believed that human meat doesn’t taste good, but they only spread that rumor because it’s a taboo that can’t be crossed. If people found out the truth, I’m sure that men would all start eating women. So they don’t talk about it because it will create pandemonium, but I tell you, human meat is extremely tasty.

...

So yes, I do still harbor these desires, and I specifically want to eat a Japanese woman this time. I think either sukiyaki or shabu shabu [lightly boiled thin slices] is the best way to go in order to really savor the natural flavor of the meat. Can you please call for people who would willingly be eaten by me in your magazine? There’s one condition, though: They have to be young, beautiful women.

I drink your milkshake...

This warning, snapped by Stuart Schaum in South Africa on the way up to the Mozambican border, will give would-be maize thieves something to chew over.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—Of cabbages—and kings—And why the sea is boiling hot—And whether pigs have wings."

Someone once told me that if you take drugs Jesus will throw acid in your face.

Our Glorious History, Part II

<grisom> Umu! Any idea how the Ancient Egyptians named the ten days of their week?

<umunmutamku> Holy shit, Griz, did you ever just crack open a can of blood-hungry hell worms.

Yeah. Egyptian dates are fucked up the bronze ass hole, though, Griz.

<grisom> My understanding was that the Egyptians invented the French Republican Calendar, to wit: that their year was 12 months of 30 days each, plus a five-day "little month" at the end, and that they had a ten-day week; furthermore that the start of the year was based on something Sirius was doing in the sky, which went slowly out of sync with what the Sun was doing.

<umunmutamku> Okay. The year divides into 12 months (3bd) and 3 seasons: 3ḫt "inundation," prt "winter," šmw "summer." Each season had four months of thirty days, and there were five "epagomenal" days to round it all out.

Dates begin with the "regnal year" sign ḥ3t-sp and a numeral. Next up: the month position in the season cycle, e.g. 3bd 2 3ḫt "second month of inundation." The last value is the date position in the month, sw, followed by a numeral.

The first month of the season is not usually written 3bd 1 XXX but rather tpy XXX "first of XXX." Similarly, the last day of the month is written ʕrqy without sw, meaning something like "end."

The date is always followed by the royal titulary, since the date is dependent on the current regime. The bare minimum is something like: "under the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (name in cartouche)—may he be given life!" (ḫr ḥm n(y) nsw-bity (name) ʕnḫw) The full titulary is excruciatingly long, consisting of five different names and a whole series of formulas.

So in conclusion: we must reckon only with Ancient Egyptian seasons, not month or day names (those are lost),

<grisom> I don't see why you say the month names are lost, though, since the Coptic Christians still call their months by names like "Thoth" and "Hathor". Is there any reason *not* to think that they're using the original Egyptian names?

<umunmutamku> *stares, blinks*

Jesus, you're right. No, they very obviously are.

<grisom> Success!

<umunmutamku> ...and must incorporate the royal titulary somehow.

<grisom> Oh, I'm not aiming to emulate the Ancient Egyptian year-numbering system, I just wanted better day-names than the French "oneday, twoday, threeday". But if those are lost to the sands then SCREW ANCIENT EGYPT.

<umunmutamku> Heh. But how about it? We could pick some symbolic ruler. :)

<grisom> Well, the main impetus for this calendar was to have the year-counting system centred around the end of the world on Dec 21, 2012. So as long as you can keep that property...

A Choice...

Umu: I have poisoned one of these glasses.
Tez: Then I choose the left--because I would rather die for the left, than live for the right.

We Got A Review!

Sometimes ethereal, sometimes aggressive, the sound of the Dangereus will take you into places you never expected, and some of which you never wanted to be...

Four men—one basement—a multitude of instruments—no structure. What emerges is miraculous, unexpected, and inexplicable. The only way to know what this band is about is to listen and let yourself enter body, soul, and mind into the experience.

— VSK, noted reviewer extraordinaire

Braziiiiiiil

Citizen's Arrest

LAGOS (Reuters) - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

I ♥ Bailouts

Scott Beesley of the University of Alberta sez:

I believe Mr. Paulson’s suggested bailout is nothing more than blackmail on a truly grand scale. The claim is that the U.S. will have a banking panic, followed by something approaching the Great Depression, if the proposed scheme is not passed, and quickly. There is no moral justification for spending perhaps $1 trillion in taxpayer’s money, which will either be borrowed or printed, to save the behinds of a group of overwhelmingly high-income investors who will be burned otherwise by losses on mortgage-backed bonds. Similarly, with respect to the loans that are held by banks themselves, taxpayers should not have to bail out bank shareholders or debt holders because the banks lent money like idiots.

A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows

Blake's "A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows", an illustration to J. G. Stedman's Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796).

History and the "Second Superpower"

The following is the first in a series of transcriptions taken from a talk given by Noam Chomsky entitled "The Imperial Presidency". The entire talk is available for purchase from the G7 Welcoming Committee website.

Noam: ...That’s going to be a hard act to follow, but thanks. I guess I have to begin by saying that the phrase that you’ve attributed to me was actually plagiarized, “manufacturing consent” actually comes from Walter Lippmann, who is the dean of American journalism in the 20th century. He thought it was a good idea, he was coming out in favor of it.

It goes without saying that anything that goes on in the United States has an enormous impact on the rest of the world, the last election for example, and conversely, that’s important to remember, what happens in the rest of the world, can not fail to have an important, and in fact, often crucial impact in the United States, and that happens in several ways. For one thing, it sets constraints on what even the most powerful state can do, but in a more significant way what happens elsewhere, like here [Canada], influences the domestic component of what the New York Times ruefully described as “the second superpower”, namely world public opinion, after the enormous protests right before the Iraq invasion. It was the first time in hundreds of years of the history of Europe and its north American offshoots that a war was massively protested before it was officially launched, that’s a historic event, and it tells us a lot about where we’ve come, and should be encouraging, not depressing. Take, say, by comparison the, what’s called the Vietnam-war, actually the war against South Vietnam, that was launched by JFK in 1962. It was brutal, and barbaric from the outset, began with the bombing of unprotected civilian targets, chemical warfare to destroy food crops so as to starve out the civilian support for the indigenous resistance, programs to drive millions of people to virtual concentration camps, or urban slums, to eliminate the popular base for the resistance. By the time protests reached the substantial scale, 1967, the highly respected, and quite hawkish Vietnam specialist and military historian Bernard Fall wondered, quoting him, “whether Vietnam as a cultural and historic entity would escape extinction, as the countryside literally dies under the blows of the largest military machine ever unleashed on an area this size,” particularly South Vietnam, which was always the main target of the US assault. When protests finally did develop, many years too late, it was mostly directed against the peripheral crimes, the extension of the war to the north, and the rest of Indochina. These were terrible crimes, but lesser ones, and it’s quite important to remember how much the world has changed since then, through deeply committed popular struggle. It was far too late in developing, but it was ultimately effective.

The most interesting part of the Pentagon papers which is rarely mentioned for good reasons, is the last section; the Pentagon papers ends the middle of 1968, and as many of you will remember, January ’68 was the Tet offensive, which convinced corporate elite in the United States that the war just wasn’t worth it, and the US had won many of it’s objectives. It had destroyed any serious hope of independent successful development in Vietnam, which was its main purpose, as in many other cases, and it was just becoming too costly for the United States. Too costly because of the rising anti-war movement, which was compelling the president to fight what was called a “guns and butter” war, couldn’t declare a national mobilization, which probably would have been good for the economy, the way it was during the second world war, but kind of had to buy the population off, because there was just too much disruption, and it was just becoming too costly. That was the Tet offensive. The Pentagon papers, the sort of internal record of Pentagon history that Dan Ellsberg released, it ends a couple of months after that, and it turns out that right after the Tet offensive the president wanted to send 200,000 more troops to South Vietnam and the Joint Chiefs of Staff objected, they didn’t want to do it, and they refused. And the reason, they said, is they would need those troops for civil disorder control in the US, because of the rising protests among women, young people, minorities, in fact the large part of the population. So it was just too dangerous to send more troops to Indochina.

That continued, and grew, over the next 10 years, and elite groups thought they had it under control. When Reagan came into office, he tried to duplicate what JFK had done in South Vietnam 20 years earlier, in fact—Reagan probably didn’t know what was going—but his advisors just point by point duplicated it, this was 1981, and the target then was central America, under what was called, incidentally, a “war against terror”, which was declared in 1981, not in 2001. They had to back off because there was just too much spontaneous protest, from church groups, from—by then all over the mainstream of the country, not just young people, and so on. So they backed off, and they turned to what was called “clandestine war”, and “clandestine war” is a technical term which means “a war that everybody knows about, except the population of the United States.” They don’t know it for a good reason, about which some people have something to answer for, so the Reagan administration fought this clandestine war with a huge international terror network, so the cover “war on terror”. That was terrible enough, a couple hundred thousand people were killed, four countries devastated, but it wasn’t B-52s, which are much worse, and it wasn’t mass-murder operations, which happened to be peaking in 1969, at the time when John Kerry was deep in the Mekong delta in the south, which by then had been largely devastated. The popular reaction to even the clandestine war, as it was called, even broke new ground in history, another historically unprecedented development, and that was the origin of the solidarity movements, for Central America, which were coming right out of the mainstream. Tens of thousands of people from the US actually went to help the victims. That had never happened in the history of European imperialism, or its North American offshoots, and by now they’re all over the world, and again that’s something entirely new in western history, and another testimony to the success of these movements, which are many. And the state managers are well aware of it, when a new president comes in, first thing he does is an intelligence assessment, the intelligence community, as it’s called, gives an assessment of the world situation. And George Bush I, he did it too. So in 1989 there was an assessment of the world situation, and a piece of it leaked, and we don’t usually hear about these things for, like, 4 years, if ever. But a little part of it leaked, and was published, and hushed up, and it’s an interesting part and obviously somebody in the Pentagon, or CIA, or somewhere didn’t like it, and leaked it to the press. It was a discussion of the kinds of wars that the US would be fighting. Wars against, what it called, “much weaker enemies”, those are the only kinds of wars you fight if you have any sense. Wars against much weaker enemies, it said, in the case of such wars, the United States would have to win them “rapidly and decisively”, because there simply is no political support for anything more than that, it’s not like the sixties when you could go on for years and years with no protest and destroy a country before it significantly develops. Well, that’s significant, and the world is a pretty awful place and you can look at it and get pretty depressed, but it’s far better than it was yesterday and that’s not only with regard to the unwillingness to tolerate aggression, but also in innumerable other ways, many of which we now just take for granted, which is good, we should take it for granted, but we should remember that not many years ago, it wasn’t like that. Well these are very important lessons, and they should always be foremost in our mind.

If I had a little more time, I intended to say a little bit about Canada’s role in the Indochina wars, which is pretty interesting, but I’ll skip that, and just say that I’m being polite. But you should know about it, if you don’t already—it’s pretty ugly.

Our Glorious History, Part I

<grisom> I propose that we institute a new calendar where the year ends on the Winter Solstice. That way, the end of the world and the end of the year will coincide nicely. It is also appropriate, I think, that the year should begin on the day when things get LESS sucky.

<tezcatlipoca> second, but mostly because I'm a big fan of as much change as possible. which is also why I'm not "conservative".

<grisom> Also propose numbering years from the date of the end of the world. So, like, today would be the first day of the year 3... uh... B.E. (Before the Eschaton) or something.

<grisom> It seems natural that our calendar should otherwise be identical to the Coptic/French Republican system. But how should the months be named?

<tezcatlipoca> ooh ooh ooh! I love the republican system (but I don't know why)

<tezcatlipoca> as long as we can keep Thermidor, and Brumaire, I'm fine with all the other, uh, months (?) being more coptically themed...

Concerning Aesthetics

<tezcatlipoca> I don't think Qadutu has enough flashing colours. How can we effect change in this area?

<grisom> I VETO FLASHING COLOURS

<tezcatlipoca> QUHY VETO FLASHING COLOURS?

<grisom> FOR CAUS THAY ARE SAE DREADFU HACKIT

<tezcatlipoca> I don't even understand your argument, but I agree with it!

<grisom> Success!

naught but

"But they weren’t there yet. And this warm June evening, standing near the barbeque, enjoying the cool, refreshing taste of an ice-cold Stella, watching the steak sizzle, Caralee slowly sauntered up to meet him, totally effortless, and sight-stoppingly in excess of style, and feigned purpose, and authority. He’ll never remember, never forget those oh so short-short tennis shorts, all 70’s Adidas green, with a white racing stripe, designed to inspire you to notice the whole length of her legs, her perfectly smooth, ivory-soft legs, the trick was how to adore them without drawing attention to oneself. "

Ἀποκαλύπτω

<tezcatlipoca> I mean, this is great 'n all Grizzly, but don't you think we should include the passage in the original Arabic as well?

All you damnable كفار ever do is whine. Fine:

انما مثل الحياة الدنيا كماء أنزلناه من السماء فاختلط به نبات الأرض مما يأكل الناس والأنعام حتى إذا أخذت الأرض زخرفها وازينت وظن أهلها أنهم قادرون عليها أتاها أمرنا ليلا أو نهارا فخعلناها حصيدا كأن لم تغن بالأمس كذلك نفصل الآيات لقوم يتفكرون ٢٤

nat

Apocalypto

10:24: This present life is like the rich garment with which the earth adorns itself when watered by rain We send down from the sky. Crops, sustaining man and beast, grow luxuriantly: but, as the earth's tenants begin to think themselves its masters, down comes Our scourge upon it, by night or by day, laying it waste, as though it did not blossom but yesterday. Thus do We make plain Our revelations to thoughtful men.

New MP3s

Friends, the whole of Dangereus Sell Out, Movement 1: PUMPKIN DEATH CLUB is now available for download on our last.fm site.

Avid followers of the Dangereus will note that this represents only a third of the full album: the remaining two movements, COMPTON DEATH SQUAD and PLASTIC DEATH HOOK, are not yet available to the public.

Point-Counterpoint

<umunmutamku> Here's something I object to:

Interspersed in one of the innumerable ritual texts we find a narrative (KUB XII 63 Vs. 21–34) that includes a dialogue between self-styled 'men of ḫurkil' (ḫurkilas pesnes) and the "house" of the storm god, whose bidding they are ready to perform. ...

In legal terms the wages of ḫurkil was normally death, subject to the king's discretion and sometimes local option in border areas. If we put together the legal meaning of "capital sex crime" and the etymological sense of "strangulation," the ḫurkilas pesnes seem to have been some kind of sex-related miscreants fit to be strung up but given a judicial chance to redeem themselves, to show their mettle by strangling animals as a form of substitute atonement. They were the opposite of macho men, thus effeminates, and most probably passive homosexuals. Although the Law Code is silent on the topic, it is possible that this old tale resonates with echoes of ancient customary law with respect to catamites.

Here again Old Germanic data support the conclusion. Those societies harbored murderous contempt for submissive partners in pederasty. Tacitus describes how cowardly, unwarlike, and bodily heinous persons were plunged into the mud of marshes and covered with hurdles as a form of suffocation. The hundreds of throttled Iron Age corpses found preserved in Danish and German peatbogs offer grisly confirmation. The key term for this kind of man in Old Norse was argr from IE *órǵhos 'fuckee', vs. *orǵós 'fucker', with the same accent opposition as in *Hwórǵhos vs. *Hworǵhós, 'strangled one' vs. 'strangler'; argr and vargr are in fact attested rhyme pairs in Old Icelandic, choice terms of aggravated obloquy. But the real clincher to the Hittite tale is in the story that Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5) tells of the Germanic tribe of the Taifali:

"They are a shameful lot, so mired in depraved practices that among them young boys are coupled with the men in a bond of unspeakable cohabitation. . . . Yet if someone, upon growing up, alone catches a boar or kills a huge bear, he is freed from the stain of unchastity."

Catching a wolf and lion in Anatolia, a boar and bear in Germania, potentially vindicating ḫurkilas pesnes from penal retribution in one instance, rehabilitating a catamite colluvione incesti in the other—these are hardly trivial accordances. They are strong evidence of a common cultural, in this instance Indo-European, heritage."

<grisom> Only being half-whimsical here: I think a real case could be made that far from being an extraordinary act that frees a man from punishment, the catching or killing of a dangerous wild animal is a totally *ordinary* part of a two-step initiation: first you get fucked in the ass, then you kill a wolf, then you're a proven man. Consider the tale of the wolf in 300 as you read on.

In particular:

"They are a shameful lot, so mired in depraved practices that among them young boys are coupled with the men in a bond of unspeakable cohabitation. . . . Yet if someone, upon growing up, alone catches a boar or kills a huge bear, he is freed from the stain of unchastity."

I'd love to know what that ellipsis is hiding, but from this quote it sure sounds like being "coupled with the men in a bond of unspeakable cohabitation" was the usual way of growing up among the boys of the Taifali. Which would mean that it was also the usual way of things that at a certain age a young man would have to either kill a wild animal or be killed himself.

This type of pass-the-test-or-die initiation is actually pretty common. Joseph Campbell claims that some Australian aborigines, for instance, have a male initiation ritual which involves the older men of the tribe ritually slicing up the young boys' penises. Any boy who lets out a cry of pain during these proceedings is killed on the spot, eaten by the men, and never spoken of again.

Concerning The Album

<grisom> Incidentally: so, I notice that we still only have one track for this album.

<grisom> Since the mixed tracks seem to be lost for the foreseeable future, I was considering taking the raw audio (from the CD I still have) and cutting it up into tracks myself. Problem is, I know Tezcat has already divided the sessions in a particular way, and I feel funny about redefining the track boundaries, y'know?

<tezcatlipoca> you shouldn't feel funny redefining the track boundaries, do what you will!

<tezcatlipoca> I'd even recommend that you stray as far from the previous product as possible, there is no canonical Dangereus, we are the personification of apocrypha!

The Dangereus Sell-Out

rough mock-up, all photos stolen from facebook-bitches, bitchezzzz

The USS Grissom (NCC-638) was an Oberth-class science vessel (classified as a scout) in service during the late 23rd century. The ship was commanded by Captain J.T. Esteban. In 2285, the Grissom was assigned to perform a clandestine survey of the Genesis Planet, with Genesis scientist David Marcus and Lieutenant Saavik aboard as consultants. Shortly after discovering Spock's regenerated body on the planet, the Grissom was destroyed by a rogue Klingon Bird-of-Prey, with all hands lost, except for Marcus and Saavik, who had transported down to the planet. Marcus was later killed by a Klingon.

More dick; more honey

Of course Dustin sucks cock, friend -- that's the reason he's in the band! Why, if he didn't suck cock, what the hell use would he be? Can't sing, can't play an instrument ... CAN suck a mean cock! Thank god for it! Sometimes it's exactly what you need after a long day on the road, your cock sucked. Sometimes that's what you need more than a good meal or a good night's rest or some Emergen-C, is your cock sucked by Dustin, that guy in our band.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

'In Persia, as elsewhere, mystic writers, especially Jalal al-Din al-Rūmī (1207–73), produced a rhetoric of sexual union between two males as a metaphor, or as training for, or as a foretaste of, or as (in itself) ecstatic union with God. While as early as the middle of the eighth century, with the rise of the ʕAbbāsid caliphate, as Marc Daniel pointed out, "Moslem mystics adopted the vocabulary of boy-love poetry in order to signify the love of God, . . . they never succeeded in integrating it into their conception of the relationship between man and God." Perhaps there was more integration than has been seen by outsiders, because the focus of Orientalist research has been on written texts rather than on the homoerotic relationship between spiritual masters and their disciples. As Trix observed, "Previous Islamic studies have preserved the poetry of murshids and certain biographical details but have tended to take for granted the process of teaching." Naim explained, "A Sufi seeker [talib] should first direct all his love toward his mentor (murshid), who is always a male; only later, through the help of the mentor, can he reach his true love, God, who is again always referred to in the masculine."' (Murray p. 132)

Salt On Everything

If we characterize they as Romans, El as a young Brutus, who then would be the Caesar? To remove the blood stained blade, glimmering in the light of the senate-house, to kill the future of Rome, but not for the vacuous corrupt senate, no, but to retain the sham of democracy. Brutus, you will pay the ultimate price, condemned for your subservience to history, you stared it in the eye, and you plunged the blade in, again, and again, until the life left his body. So who then, El, is your Caesar? Where will your blade land, Eleleth?

The Death of Romanticism

(uncanny)Romance in the modern world has become almost sickeningly self-aware of the atrocities that one party willfully commits against another. Like a billion tiny droplets of oil raining into the north pacific ocean, woefully under-prepared for the power human beings have over each other, in only symbolic and superficial ways, yes, but still, these are enough to maintain a completely arbitrary and corrupt, and increasingly crumbling mental prison. Those who suffer do so, in so many cases, willingly, unable to open themselves up to the emotional warfare that’s being played out on a day to day basis in our astonishingly counter-productive post-ideological capitalist society. Forced to, every day, play the role of the actor, and to occlude the individual in favor of some incomprehensible system of social interactions, the social contract with which our ancestors sold us all into slavery. How long are we going to remain in intellectual servitude to those ideas and those obligations that have no bearing upon our present reality? Relationships became like living theatre, with all the actors playing out their relationship roles, because nobody nobody sent knows anything about anything anymore, and instead of admitting that we are of equal unimportance as every other historical actor, every other historical actor, then we can establish a working relationship with honesty among our castes, where we acknowledge each other as human beings, all working to the same goal: communion with the other, and ourselves. Some characterize this relationship as a return to the oblivion from whence we all came, other characterize it as God, some as Nirvana. There was no verifiable evidence to support a single interpretation, and what’s more is that to focus increasingly upon a rigidly dogmatic course of thought runs counter to the fundamental precepts of epistemological anarchism which underlie the very foundations of modern thought. But in order to live in the world which begat them, they would be forced to devote varying degrees of their time acting out these corrupt roles, left to reflect upon it later, to wallow, and suffer, and live with our own limitations, and contradictions; admission is the first step towards recovery.

A Math Question from Tezcat

Religion = A
Opiate of the Masses (OotM) = B
Family = X

X=? viz. A=B

Ldab ldob

"Some aggressive young monks, as much as 10 percent of the population in the larger monasteries, become Ldab ldob. These seeming anti-monks take monastic vows, live in a monastery, and wear monkish dress, albeit in some distinctive ways; they are also recognizable because they do not shave their heads completely (retaining a lock of hair behind each ear that is wrapped around the ear), visibly carry weapons, and wear eye shadow to appear more ferocious. Harrer added that they wear red armbands, stick a huge (often knife-sharp) key in their belts, blacken their faces with soot, walk with a "provocative" gait, and "are quick to strike." [...]

"According to Goldstein('s informants) homosexuality "carries an extremely derogative stigma and is almost unknown" in the lay population of Tibet. Ldab ldob, however, have a general reputation for sexual relationships with boys."

Sir Walter Raleigh

There Goes My Gun

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Exterior Grooves

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Symphony #5 in C Minor: Allegro

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Come Together

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Free At Last

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Bobo on the Corner

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
A Classic Arts Showcase

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Phanta

WHAT IS 2+2?
Everyday Life

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Wash the Day

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Hate Music

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Castle on a Cloud

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
A Taste of Honey

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Hardcore Hustle

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Funky Voltron

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Viscious World

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Guacamole Act of 1917

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Ikalane Walegh

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
City

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Now I’m Here

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Theme from “Jurassic Park”

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
United Airlines theme 2001

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Strung Out Again

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
If You’re A Wizard, Then Why Do You Wear Glasses?

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Crystal Beaches Never Turned Me On

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
This Is The Life

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Welcome To The Machine

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
A Distant Sadness

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Damn, Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Don’t Lose The Faith

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
There Goes My Gun

Mentally Mad

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
Strange Fruit

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
High Fives

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
I'll House You

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Submarine 3

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Beauty Lies in the Eye

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
My Man's Gone Now

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
More Than U Know

WHAT IS 2+2?
Nomanisisland

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Ding! Dong!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Hate

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Pomps & Pride

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Anger

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Changeling

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Why I Love You

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Tenin

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Time Tough

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
City Morning Song

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Breathe and Stop

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Needle in a Haystack

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Egowar

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
African Hustle

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Truth Fact & Correct

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
King of the Road

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Doomage

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
I Can't Believe You Actually Died

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
We Were Patriots

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
The Mystery of Doom

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Ab Qètri Berhan

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Beautiful

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Mentally Mad

Bucket Full Of Teeth - IV

Bucket Full of Teeth plays very loud, very angry, very fast songs. They are one of the bands that emerge from the break-up of Orchid, a brilliant band, or a band that became brilliant anyway. I was thinking of coining the phrase blitz-core (a portmanteau of blitzkreig and hardcore, essentially "lightning-core") but this isn't about Orchid--I'll save that for another day.

I assume the album is titled "IV" because it was their first full length after three vinyl-only EPs. I was never able to get into this album, yet I always hoped that one day, I would be able to get into it.

This is one of the most alienating albums I own. Certainly not for the faint of heart, nor for anyone who is unaquainted with punishing music. Even I, a humble cultivar of extremity in music, was turned off to it at first.

To be sure, Bucket Full of Teeth more closely resembles their immediate ancestors than does good son Panthers, while still un-intentionally emphasizing that Orchid was truly more than the sum of its parts. Bucket Full of Teeth is Orchid, but without the romantic intellectualism. Sadly, this is one of the most endearing characteristics of Orchid, and what keeps one continually reaching back to their swan-song Gatefold (though it was self-titled, I choose to refer to it thusly). Bucket Full of Teeth is Orchid with it's head cut off. This makes as much sense as anything, since Bucket Full of Teeth consists of the guitar-arm of Orchid, while bass, drums and vocals went to Panthers. To use an analogy that draws upon Futuarama, if the Nixon administration was the last gasp of lefist ideology to control the Whitehouse, Panthers is like the preserved head of Nixon, while Bucket Full of Teeth is the headless body of Spiro Agnew. That is not to say though that IV is a bad album, but it is difficult. Thankfully Bucket Full of Teeth is not merely content to be a loud fast rules hardcore band. Like Orchid before them, there's the implied commitment to pushing the boundaries of what music can say and do. Their mission is decidedly much less overtly academic than was Orchid, likely owing to the departure of Jayson Greene on vocals, and this is one of the greatest hurdles to overcome if one is progressing from Orchid to Bucket Full of Teeth. For all of his pretentious romanticism (like the post-hardcore Morrisey) Greens vocals were always the highlight of an Orchid album, and despite the fact that the vocals feature significantly less prominently on IV, when you can make them out they sound like gutteral, inarticulate growls, and add nothing to the proceedings. The problem with music that borders on the violent is that it attracts a record number of retarded meatheads with no amount of sensitivity and emotional depth.

To conclude, and with brevity, IV is an album that takes a lot of listens, and it can be very rewarding, but I'm not trying to "evaluate" it in some sort of moralizing goodvsbad type way, merely to discuss the album. I don't feel like the album merits the amount of time I've put into writing this, what I'm sure some of you will quote, "critique", but it does warrant the effort of reading through this, as well as a few listens, if you're goal is to actually listen to it, as opposed to just hearing it. Fuck it, I'm going home.

GAYthiopia

FUCK ALL BIGOTS--MILITANT QUEER NATIONALISM