A rant by Chris Hedges on the result of one of our socially obligate boundary conditions

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bp_and_the_little_eichmanns_20100517/

Happy Towel Day

“Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day

Some music

I am impressed by two musical artist that are new to me. One is hardly known, the other is a megastar currently that i finally got around to listening to.

The hardly known one (at least in the U.S.) is Florence & The Machine (aka Florence Welch & her collaborators). She strikes me as kind of like Kate Bush meets Sinead O' Conner meets Grace Slick, (with just a dash of Chrissy Hyde).
I CD out; Lungs.
Three videos:
Dog Days Are Over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU
Two versions of Kiss with a Fist
"Official"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmxVCM39j4
An acoustic/bar version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENvihwd2bLs&feature=fvst

About two months ago i was prompted by an interview piece on TV to go on YouTube to see Lady Gaga. If you are an oldster like I, you probably heard some of "political" music back in the 1960's through the Punk and then Springsteen and the new "Americana" artists of the present.
Well, in a genre not known for political insight,  (Post-rap/post-hiphop/Commercial electro-dance) you find Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better known as Lady GaGa.
Her "personna" is kind of like Martha Stewart (re business/branding accume) David Bowie meets Madonna, meets Michael Jackson (when at his peak). And then, have that personna attack modern consumer/fame/cult of the celebrity culture. The attack is so complete, that many may not see it as an attack. Talk about laughing all the way to the bank...  Think of a 24 year old musical version of a mean Andy Warhol.
I also think she may be the first pop artist, that the best way to experience them, is via the heavily produced, controlled "music video".
First example is the video of Telephone. She says it is about the social & electronic communication pressures on the youth now, expressed in an overall look at American culture. All three are from the CD, Fame Monster.
This ain't your dad's Woody Guthrie...and yes, that is the truck from Kill Bill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ95z6ywcBY
Two previous salvos:
Bad Romance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I
Paparazzi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKrzdaDQMw&feature=fvsr

New Arizona Immigration Law

Interesting.
"Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can't Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling The Star Spangled Banner."    Harrison Evans Salisbury
Full text:
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
The comparison to the Nuremberg Laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws by its opponents is hyperbole. But it is in their "spirit".
Nativism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)
Producerism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Producerism
It will be interesting to see if the producerist view turns into our own version of  fascism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism or not.
Oh yah, online copy of Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here (1935)
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html  Not to be confused with the Frank Zappa song of the same name.
 "...Who could imagine
That they would freak out in the suburbs!
(No no no no no no no no no no)
Man you guys are really safe
(Everything's cool)
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
I remember (tu-tu)
I remember (tu-tu)
They had a swimming pool
And they thought it couldn't happen here
(duh duh duh)..."

Well put...

Incurious Bastards, by Andrew Cohenhttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/04/incurious-bastards/38745/