Category Archive: history
Sep 21
America in Color
“These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in …
Jul 29
Emma Says . . .
“Last, but not least, the man who probably better than anyone else understands the psychology of the Attentäter is M. Hamon, the author of the brilliant work Une Psychologie du Militaire Professionnel, who has arrived at these suggestive conclusions: “The positive method confirmed by the rational method enables us to establish an ideal type of …
Jan 21
Haiti: A Haunted Land
Nature has done our dirty work. We are now free to invade Haiti. (Again.) Within a few years we’ll have turned the whole place into Cuba circa 1955. Complete with puppet dictator and resort hotels. If oil just so-happens to be there, then all the better. We will, after all, need to be repaid. Not …
Aug 12
Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud
Einstein had an idea from the confusion of his knowledge, Then there were a thousand more turning to advantage. They realised that their god was dead, So they reclaimed power through the bomb instead. Another’s code, another’s brain, They’ll shower us all in deadly rain, –Where Next, Columbus? Crass August 6th was the 64th anniversary …
Nov 22
Hitler is Hilarious
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feLqz1udhtY&rel=1] Hitler is hilarious. But I have a dry and dark sense of humor. I even believe that this style of humor indicates a clean state of mind. An off-color joke takes two things for granted. The first is that the thing being joked about is self-evidentially repugnant and therefore ridiculous as only the grotesque …
Feb 11
Cicero, Augustus and Dirty Plates
I’ve been listening to a series of 24, half hour lectures on famous Romans by J. Rufus Fears. His name makes him sound like a punk rocker but he’s a professor. He also has some unfortunate neocon tendencies and that particular manner of barely suppressed blood-lust that you only ever find in an academic who …
May 18
Maybe Your Grandmother Was A Chimp
This probably shouldn’t surprise anyone but, well frankly, it’s a little disconcerting. It turns out that humans and chimps didn’t manage a clean break-up on the evolutionary tree. They sort of, well, they let things linger for a bit longer than they should have. Both species apparently got a bit lonely and turned to each …
Mar 09
A Dandy
Tonight as I watched the giantess, Tyra Banks, preside over the premiere episode of America’s Next Top Model, my mind turned to the people who fashion forgot. Top on my list was the infamous dandy, Beau Brummel. Although time has erased his name from all but a few minds, his legacy continues to this day. …
Feb 23
Gladiators Were Pussies?!
Sometimes I can really understand why people hate science. It has a nasty habit of disabusing us of our illusions and sometimes we really want those illusions. Much like that person who asks you what you really do after you tell them that you’re an intergalactic pirate, science is a killjoy. And then it acts …
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
