2005 January | buzz twang

"Always look on the bright side of life."

January 30, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

Today is an important day, and as Michael Ignatieff writes in The Guardian : Whatever your view of the war, you should embrace today’s election. Just as depressing as the violence in Iraq is the indifference to it abroad. Americans and Europeans who have never lifted a finger to defend their own right to vote [...]

Stand up against the Gonzalez Nomination

January 26, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General [...]

The President Who Would Be Messiah

January 22, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

“Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling Exemplifying the fact that many on the right seem to worship Bush as G-d on Earth, comes the following headline from the Washington Times: Bush vows to end global tyranny. And, the intro: President Bush was sworn in for his second term yesterday [...]

Anti-Liberty, Anti-Liberal, With a Bullet

January 18, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

The existence of liberalism as a discussion topic constitutes, in many ways, an unacceptable bias towards liberalism in the eyes of the far right (and barrier between the far and not-so-far right is creeping ever leftward). Daily, we see complaints about the liberal bias of, well, everything, to the point where, as Bill Kristol put [...]

Why I am a Filmmaker

January 18, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

Ted Hope has written a wonderfully honest and pertinent article on the independent film scene, why it needs to remain vital, and the unifying force behind what it means to produce outside of the mainstream system. An excerpt: I have always felt the HIV scandal—the government’s complete indifference to everyone’s health and life—was a great [...]

toilet seat art

January 16, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

This is in the bathroom of a marketing firm in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Designed by a local artist and made of molded clear plastic embedded with good old fashioned barb wire, it costs about $300. Humor is essential in art. Made me laugh. Of course, I don’t have to sit on it every day either. [...]

"It is always windy on Salibury plain."

January 16, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

Stonehenge, the greatest henge of them all. If you look at the clouds, you’ll notice that they are swirling about above the stones. The higher altocummulus clouds were sailing by at immense speed. The lower whispy vertical formations, vapors that would trail the larger cummulus clouds, seemed to be attracted to the rock formation, as [...]

An original sky

January 16, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

Some people will tell you that the sky is pretty much the same all around the world. But, they’d be wrong. This is something I know, having grown up in Nebraska and spent time in the Badlands and the Sandhills. I’ve seen some amazing sky all over the world as well. The Scottish sky was [...]

Is America stingy? The final word

January 14, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

There was a lot of back and forth with the entire “America is stingy” meme. Wrote a bit on it here at Jakeneck when it was a hot topic. It was, of course, a phantom conjured up by the mighty righty machine. Amazing what it can do sometimes… As noted, the Washington Times first mistated [...]

The Right Wing Machine Revealed

January 14, 2005 by DJ Lanphier

I’ve written on this issue until my face is blue. And, a number of others have as well. You are all witnessess to a fascist movement in the United States. Continue to bare witness… Read this article by Laurie Spivak entitled The Conservative Marketing Machine. Then, stroll on over to See the Forest and read [...]