January 2007 Archives

Apparently released last November but somehow just coming to my attention, this record is just wonderful. Recorded and lovingly produced by Mr. Young to his exacting standards, this title is from what is being called the Neil Young Archives with the promise of more to come.

From the on-line store:

This first release is from 1970 and features a Crazy Horse line-up with Danny Whitten, Jack Nitzsche, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. The show includes an extended "Down By The River" and a 16-minute "Cowgirl In The Sand" (which has previously appeared only on a '90s import). Other songs include Whitten's "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," as well as "Winterlong," "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and "Wonderin'."

The CD/DVD version includes the whole set in High-Resolution audio with photo montages (no video).

The sound is crisp, the energy level high and the mix, especially the vocals with Danny Whitten's great harmony, is very engaging. Not to mention the great guitar work which, when Neil and Whitten get it on, rocks out. Since Whitten died (of a heroin overdose about two years after this recording) the Crazy Horse line up, while now having Frank Sampedro on rythym, who is still great, lacks the challenge that Whitten's guitar work provided.

Highly recommended, five stars, two thumbs up, and all that.

Browsing the web today I came across this story Bush voices support for abortion rights opponents:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush marked the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision Monday, telling thousands of abortion foes he shares their goal of seeing "the day when every child is welcomed in life and protected into law."

Nothing special, just another day. Just another example of his manipulation and hypocracy. As he always does, he didn't show up for the event, but phoned it in, so he could avoid being photographed there. I felt, as I usual, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, when I looked at Bush's smirking visage during yet another encounter with the on-going experience of being exposed to this man and his stupendously negative and horifying effect on this country and the world.

It occured to me, as it frequently does, that the anger that I feel, about him and his associates, that whatever apparently impotent actions I may take against them is natural and instinctive but in the long run not very healthy. But what can one do?

Then I recalled and looked up some passages in Orwell's 1984 about the Two Minutes Hate:

The next moment a hideous, grinding screech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one's neck. The Hate had started.

…

The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

Now, the metaphor is not perfect, but the experience I and many others have gone through over the past six years is like the conditioning that those poor souls in 1984, fictional though they may be, had to endure.

And so, it occured to me that what might be healthy would be for me and others in my boat to institue a practice that we could call the "Two Minutes Revulsion" and take a brief time out to project our anger towards Bush & Co., get it out of our system and then move on for the rest of the day.

Worth a try anyway …

From Iraq war cost to hit $8.4 billion a month - Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — The steadily rising cost of the Iraq war will reach about $8.4 billion a month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said Thursday, as the price of replacing lost, destroyed and aging equipment mounts. The Pentagon has been estimating last year's costs for the increasingly unpopular war at about $8 billion a month. It rose from a monthly "burn rate" of about $4.4 billion during the first year of fighting in fiscal 2003.

Here's my calculation of how $8.4 billion breaks down:

Besides the horror as to what this money is being spent on, remember that much of this money is going into the national debt, to be paid for somewhere down the line … certainly long after Bush and his crew are gone.

From Jesus' General, this great insight:

Funny in a way, but so true.

This reminds me of a post I did in September 2005 showing the correlation between states that voted for Bush vs. Kerry and slave vs. free states in Civil War America.

Interesting, no ?

From Faux News, found on Digby:

From CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

The letters were sent a few days after Christmas to more than 5,100 Army officers who had recently left the service. Included were letters to about 75 officers killed in action and about 200 wounded in action.

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers' families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The Army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

"But an earlier list was used inadvertently for the December mailings," the Army statement said, adding that the Army is apologizing to those officers and families affected and "regrets any confusion."