Tuesday, November 23, 2004
And Beautiful Easter Eggs
From my perch at the end of the bar, your fearless Anokoblogger has been receiving good news. First, I have learned that the crickets and grubs will be especially fat and juicy for this year's Thanksgiving feast. And second, I have heard of our friends in the Ukraine - a land known for its love of spiny nocturnal insectivores - taking to the streets to shake off the yoke of their corrupt rulers.
There are many Ukranian immigrants living in the Anokoblogger's corner of the universe. There is a beautiful Ukranian Orthodox cathedral but a few blocks from my local pub, sporting shiny golden onion domed towers that can be seen from far and wide. They are always of good cheer, ready to share a glass of aquavit in winter and holding wonderful festivals out in Patterson Park in the summer. At springtime, the neighborhood is full of intricately decorated Easter eggs, surely the finest in all of Christendom.
And now the news comes of an autumn festival of freedom, with hundreds of thousands filling the streets of Kiev around the clock, vowing not to leave until the current government gives up power. True democracy is always displayed by the festival, the carnival, the refusal of work and the insistance of autonomy. The peaceful revolutions of the recent decades in the East are an inspiration to the world that when the people lead, the leaders must follow.
These revolutions stand in stark contrast with the arrogant regime change practiced by the Yankees in Iraq. Democracy can never be imposed from above, let alone from without. The world can see the difference between an invasion and a revolution. Millions will condemn the former, while celebrating the latter.
There are many Ukranian immigrants living in the Anokoblogger's corner of the universe. There is a beautiful Ukranian Orthodox cathedral but a few blocks from my local pub, sporting shiny golden onion domed towers that can be seen from far and wide. They are always of good cheer, ready to share a glass of aquavit in winter and holding wonderful festivals out in Patterson Park in the summer. At springtime, the neighborhood is full of intricately decorated Easter eggs, surely the finest in all of Christendom.
And now the news comes of an autumn festival of freedom, with hundreds of thousands filling the streets of Kiev around the clock, vowing not to leave until the current government gives up power. True democracy is always displayed by the festival, the carnival, the refusal of work and the insistance of autonomy. The peaceful revolutions of the recent decades in the East are an inspiration to the world that when the people lead, the leaders must follow.
These revolutions stand in stark contrast with the arrogant regime change practiced by the Yankees in Iraq. Democracy can never be imposed from above, let alone from without. The world can see the difference between an invasion and a revolution. Millions will condemn the former, while celebrating the latter.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Cocktails for Drowning Sorrows
From our vantage point at the end of the bar, we can't help but notice that the pub is undergoing a change of season. Now that we have all of that election nastiness behind us, people are turning their attention to more convivial pursuits. Yes, gentle reader, the time for holidays and merry making is almost upon us.
In this spirit your fearless Anokoblogger has an offering of special libations to enliven any soiree. Each one has been designed by the Anokoblogger himself, and tested by the usual assortment of nefarious characters at hand.
First, on the occasion of the opening of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library we have:
Monica Lewinsky
1 1/2 oz White Rum
1/2 oz Blue Curacao
Cream
In a cocktail shaker, mix rum and curacao well with ice. Pour a small amount of cream into a cocktail glass. Slowly strain the rum and curacao into the glass, so that the cream "stains" the bottom, but doesn't mix. Garnish with a cherry.
But those were the good old days. Sorrows these days are tougher to drown, so now we have a couple of high caliber cocktails designed to blow those cares to kingdom come.
Suicide Bomber
3 oz Orange Vodka
splash lime juice
Serve over ice, in a rocks glass.
Rocket Propelled Grenade (or RPG)
3 oz Rum
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
Mix rum and pineapple juice with ice and pour into highball glass. Add grenadine and serve garnished with orange slice.
But the biggest bummer of all this holiday season is four more years of that smirking, murderous Pretender in Thief, W. So we present the strongest for last, use only with caution.
George W.
1 1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz "43" liquor
1/8 oz cocaine
Mix first two ingredients well with ice in cocktail shaker. Strain through the panties of a cheerleader into a cocktail glass decorated with a tiny paper "missile defense" umbrella. Garnish with cocaine.
Those are but a few of the cocktails we will need to survive the coming season of cheer. Don't hesitate to share your favorite recipes with the Anokoblogger and his staff of willing anokolackeys. We'll test them all for a spiny and nocturnal year-end review of the tastiest and most medicinal slayers-of-sorrows that we can find.
In this spirit your fearless Anokoblogger has an offering of special libations to enliven any soiree. Each one has been designed by the Anokoblogger himself, and tested by the usual assortment of nefarious characters at hand.
First, on the occasion of the opening of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library we have:
Monica Lewinsky
1 1/2 oz White Rum
1/2 oz Blue Curacao
Cream
In a cocktail shaker, mix rum and curacao well with ice. Pour a small amount of cream into a cocktail glass. Slowly strain the rum and curacao into the glass, so that the cream "stains" the bottom, but doesn't mix. Garnish with a cherry.
But those were the good old days. Sorrows these days are tougher to drown, so now we have a couple of high caliber cocktails designed to blow those cares to kingdom come.
Suicide Bomber
3 oz Orange Vodka
splash lime juice
Serve over ice, in a rocks glass.
Rocket Propelled Grenade (or RPG)
3 oz Rum
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
Mix rum and pineapple juice with ice and pour into highball glass. Add grenadine and serve garnished with orange slice.
But the biggest bummer of all this holiday season is four more years of that smirking, murderous Pretender in Thief, W. So we present the strongest for last, use only with caution.
George W.
1 1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz "43" liquor
1/8 oz cocaine
Mix first two ingredients well with ice in cocktail shaker. Strain through the panties of a cheerleader into a cocktail glass decorated with a tiny paper "missile defense" umbrella. Garnish with cocaine.
Those are but a few of the cocktails we will need to survive the coming season of cheer. Don't hesitate to share your favorite recipes with the Anokoblogger and his staff of willing anokolackeys. We'll test them all for a spiny and nocturnal year-end review of the tastiest and most medicinal slayers-of-sorrows that we can find.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Fly
A flying pigeon breathes 450 times per minute, while a running person breathes only 30 times per minute.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Puritans and Neocons
Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of W's election is the degree to which the credit for his victory is going to the Christian right wing. These are people, millions of them, who will vote for an administration that will rob them and their children blind - as long as we keep the gays from getting married. People for whom death is too good for jailbirds, Arabs and even our own soldiers - as long as we don't donate a handful of cells to scientific research. People who can't admit to evolution, people with a seriously delusional view of the world.
In today's Guardian (UK), George Monbiot has some fascinating observations about the Bush administration's underpinning ideology. He takes us all the way back to the 1630's and English Puritans to explore the roots of their worldview. His observations concerning the economic ramifications of the Reformation say a lot about the modern United States and our obsession with Christian religion in our political life.
Monbiot writes:
"Puritanism was primarily the religion of the new commercial classes. It attracted traders, money lenders, bankers and industrialists. Calvin had given them what the old order could not: a theological justification of commerce. Capitalism, in his teachings, was not unchristian, but could be used for the glorification of God. From his doctrine of individual purification, the late Puritans forged a new theology. "
He draws a keen conclusion that should be a warning for those on the left who believe that capturing the "morals" vote is the key to achieving elected office:
"So why has this ideology resurfaced in 2004? Because it has to. The enrichment of the elite and impoverishment of the lower classes requires a justifying ideology if it is to be sustained. In the US this ideology has to be a religious one. Bush's government is forced back to the doctrines of Puritanism as an historical necessity"
The ideology of Christian Puritanism is ideally suited to the American mindset, and it cannot be coopted. It must be destroyed if we are to save our society and the Earth it threatens.
In today's Guardian (UK), George Monbiot has some fascinating observations about the Bush administration's underpinning ideology. He takes us all the way back to the 1630's and English Puritans to explore the roots of their worldview. His observations concerning the economic ramifications of the Reformation say a lot about the modern United States and our obsession with Christian religion in our political life.
Monbiot writes:
"Puritanism was primarily the religion of the new commercial classes. It attracted traders, money lenders, bankers and industrialists. Calvin had given them what the old order could not: a theological justification of commerce. Capitalism, in his teachings, was not unchristian, but could be used for the glorification of God. From his doctrine of individual purification, the late Puritans forged a new theology. "
He draws a keen conclusion that should be a warning for those on the left who believe that capturing the "morals" vote is the key to achieving elected office:
"So why has this ideology resurfaced in 2004? Because it has to. The enrichment of the elite and impoverishment of the lower classes requires a justifying ideology if it is to be sustained. In the US this ideology has to be a religious one. Bush's government is forced back to the doctrines of Puritanism as an historical necessity"
The ideology of Christian Puritanism is ideally suited to the American mindset, and it cannot be coopted. It must be destroyed if we are to save our society and the Earth it threatens.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Four More Beers!
Having researched the possibilities of emigrating to various foreign countries and renouncing citizenship in the Newnited Snakes of Murrica, and having determined them to be slim (no one wants to let in no Murricans) it is a bitter truth that the political leader of our glorious homeland is the lying, stinking, smirking, Pretender in Chief referred to simply as W., his full name too profane to pronounce in polite company.
Whilst our eyesight may be poor, our spiney hides bristle with optimism, and we know this is the best of all possible worlds. It is good, and just as well, that W. and his cabal of neoconsevative ideologues will spend the next four years having to clean up the mess they have made in the last four. Even though we have no sympathy for the long faced Bassett Hound the technocratic wing of the Repocratic Party put up against the dim witted yet vicious figurehead of the theocrats and their strange bedfellows the Machiavellian disciples of Leo Strauss, it still would have been a pity for one Skull & Bones man to be left with the discarded follies of another.
So good luck W., good luck Murrica, good luck World. You and your boys have gotten your precious elections, by hook or by crook. The whole of Xtian Murrica has the crusade they've always wanted, to arm the unborn, kill the gay heathen terrorists and consign the rest to a lifetime of slavery at Free Market Freedom Camps. We will continue to remain for more queers and for more beers and in fact for four more beers for four more queers!
Whilst our eyesight may be poor, our spiney hides bristle with optimism, and we know this is the best of all possible worlds. It is good, and just as well, that W. and his cabal of neoconsevative ideologues will spend the next four years having to clean up the mess they have made in the last four. Even though we have no sympathy for the long faced Bassett Hound the technocratic wing of the Repocratic Party put up against the dim witted yet vicious figurehead of the theocrats and their strange bedfellows the Machiavellian disciples of Leo Strauss, it still would have been a pity for one Skull & Bones man to be left with the discarded follies of another.
So good luck W., good luck Murrica, good luck World. You and your boys have gotten your precious elections, by hook or by crook. The whole of Xtian Murrica has the crusade they've always wanted, to arm the unborn, kill the gay heathen terrorists and consign the rest to a lifetime of slavery at Free Market Freedom Camps. We will continue to remain for more queers and for more beers and in fact for four more beers for four more queers!
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Fate
Monday, November 01, 2004
Kerry Wins?
Today the Votemaster reports that, according to the most up to date polling data, John Kerry will defeat George W. Bush in tomorrow's election for President of the United States. Don't know who the Votemaster is? Then you have been missing out on the most informative reporting on and analysis of opinion polls available during this, the most polled election in history.
Also today, the Votemaster revealed his true identity. As fascinating as his reporting and analysis over the last year has been, the story of who he is and why he did it is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in American politics, weblogs and the World Wide Web. If you are reading this blog, you owe it to yourself to visit his page and check out his story. The votemaster is the kind of selfless individual that makes the Web a worthwhile endeavor for the advancement of human knowledge, whether those damn polls mean anything or not.
Also today, the Votemaster revealed his true identity. As fascinating as his reporting and analysis over the last year has been, the story of who he is and why he did it is a must read for anyone even vaguely interested in American politics, weblogs and the World Wide Web. If you are reading this blog, you owe it to yourself to visit his page and check out his story. The votemaster is the kind of selfless individual that makes the Web a worthwhile endeavor for the advancement of human knowledge, whether those damn polls mean anything or not.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
