♦ ♦ ♦

Invasion of the hippies at Woodstock, 1969

A handful of local grouches proposed forcibly shaving the heads of longhairs and calling on the New York State governor to declare Woodstock a disaster area so that soldiers could be called in to deal with the hair heads. Others wanted to meet the buses arriving in Woodstock and force hippies to stay on board and depart.

♦ ♦ ♦

Freedom of speech allows anything, we’re told, but it’s more like money allows anything. With big bucks bankrolling it, there are huge and highly-profitable channels and networks and websites designed to spew lies — Fox News, InfoWars, Newsmax TV, One America News, Joe Rogan…

If the Ku Klux Klan or the Taliban had the funding to launch a channel, nothing would prevent it.

♦ ♦ ♦

William Shatner’s 1968 album, The Transformed Man, is often derided as absurd silliness. Well I say hey, wait just a gol durn minute. Have you actually heard it? Click it, I dare you. It’s pretty good, in my humble opinion, and I declare it to be art.

Here’s Shatner’s explanation of what he intended and, in my opinion, accomplished: “During appearances on several talk shows I had spoken the lyrics of several popular songs without causing any permanent damage. But on my first album I wanted to do more than that, I wanted to explore the unique relationship between classic literature and popular song lyrics. I wanted to emphasize the poetry of language, in both its written and musical forms, used to express the extraordinary range of human emotion. That was my concept for this album.

“What I decided to do was find a selection of beautiful writing and use that as a lead-in to a song that complemented it. Or at least served as a corollary. For example, I would use a selection from Cyrano de Bergerac ending, ‘I can climb to no great heights, but I will climb alone,’ to segue into Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ which had been interpreted to be Dylan’s allusion to his experiences with LSD — and I would perform it as a song sung by an addict bemoaning the fact that he is incapable of surviving without his drugs. In much the same way Hamlet’s classic speech, ‘To be, or not to be,’ led directly into ‘It Was a Very Good Year,’ made famous by Sinatra.

“It all made perfect sense to me. But apparently it was a bit obtuse for some other people. Okay, for many other people. All right, for most people.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Fifty years ago, Hunter Thompson wrote Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, coming at politics from an outsider’s perspective that saw through most of the bullshit.

♦ ♦ ♦

A newspaper is the first draft of history, someone once said, and history’s chapter one is the obituary. What do you suppose Trump’s obituary will say, one fine day when he’s finally run out of lies to tell?

In the painfully objective mainstream media, his obituary will be fair and balanced because that’s what they do. After listing his business and Republican-viewed accomplishments, the coverage will perfunctorily state that Trump was twice impeached, and was “controversial”, and “critics said…” bad things about him, but before and after those perfunctory paragraphs, the bulk of the article will be highlights of his business and television careers, and glowing praise from Republican colleagues.

The true story of what he’s done — fueling climate change and gutterizing politics and government, lying about everything, and on and on (no hyperbole here) destroying whatever was once good and decent in this world — will get little ink or attention in the news. Columnists and talking heads might say it, but the obituary is part of the ‘news’ section, so it will be objective and bland and miss the entire point of everything, no matter how obvious.

History books will mimic the fair and balanced obituaries, and fifty years after he’s gone, if there are still classrooms (doubtful) Trump will be taught as just another President — Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump, Hannity, Trump, etc.

♦ ♦ ♦

Just a bunch of absolutely groovy houses, hotels, and other buildings, and I want to go there.

♦ ♦ ♦

How the refrigerator became an agent of climate catastrophe

According to a report published in 2018 by the International Energy Agency, refrigeration in 2016 accounted for about six per cent of the world’s energy consumption, and space cooling accounted for about eight per cent. In the same report, the I.E.A. predicted that worldwide energy use by air-conditioners would triple by 2050, “requiring new electricity capacity the equivalent to the combined electricity capacity of the United States, the E.U. and Japan today.” Energy use by refrigerators is on a similar upward path.

♦ ♦ ♦

♦ ♦ ♦

Is this journalism or what? Republican Glenn Youngkin began his term as governor of Virginia on Saturday with executive actions that tackle education and the COVID-19 pandemic, including a ban on critical race theory in public schools and a lifting of school mask requirements.

Gotta love the fair-and-balanced coverage. Yes, the Gov did “tackle” education and the pandemic, same as a linebacker tackles the other team’s quarterback.

♦ ♦ ♦

The Undoing of Joss Whedon

Maybe you don’t know the name — Joss Whedon made Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, two TV shows I liked very much, and Firefly, maybe the best sci-fi show ever, and Dollhouse, a show both despicable and also simply bad. So he’s three-for-four with a big whiff. He also made some movies, including the first Avengers flick, wrote Toy Story, etc.

He publicly painted himself as a feminist while fucking actresses, cheating on his wife, and treating women and apparently all other humans quite shitty. He’s just like the worst boss you ever had.

The article is long and will be of little interest unless you’re a fan or former fan of the man or his work, but it’s thorough, and gives Whedon a fair chance to defend himself — which he botches badly. This should be the stake through his vampyric heart.

Firefly is still terrific, though.

♦ ♦ ♦

Is Donald Trump the Antichrist?

♦ ♦ ♦

One-word newscast:

• abortion
• cops
• no shit