"Everybody was experimenting and taking it all the way. It opened up a negative force of energy that was almost demonic." Frank Mazolla, editor of the film Performance
"There were a lot of weird people around. There was one guy who had a parrot called Captain Blood, and he was always scrawling real cryptic things on the inside walls of my house - Neil Young's too." Joni Mitchell, describing the Laurel Canyon scene at the tail end of the 1960s
Several newly launched initiatives in the U.S. and other countries aim to allow governments to mine our personal data at border crossings. Legislation in the U.S. and Australia would give governments great freedom to search - and in some cases seize - our personal electronic devices.
Russian writer and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, pictured in 1993.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the dissident Russian writer and Nobel laureate whose portrayals of Josef Stalins labour camps and political oppression helped undermine the Soviet grip on power, has died, his son said. He was 89.
GOIANIA - A Brazilian man accused of killing and dismembering a British teenager and stuffing her torso in a suitcase bragged to his brother in a text message that she was "in the bag," state police said Saturday.
Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho Santos, whom police and his lawyer said has confessed to killing 17-year-old Cara Marie Burke, sent the message to his brother Bruce Lee, who lives with their mother in London, said a police investigator who declined to be identified in line with departmental rules.
The message, written in English and accompanied by a smiling face symbol, read: "the bitch is in the bag," the investigator said. It was found in Santos' cell phone, which he used to photograph Burke's severed head after he allegedly placed it on top of her torso along with a bloody butcher knife, the investigator added.
Shortly after his arrest last Thursday, the 20-year-old Santos tried to bribe police to let him go, offering officers 70,000 reals (about US$45,000) which he said he would get from his mother, inspector Jorge Moreira da Silva told reporters.
The attempted bribery was recorded by police and broadcast Friday night on national television.
"The biggest reward we could receive is to see a psychopath like yourself behind bars," a police officer is heard saying on the audio recording.
There is a well-known Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. Judging from the rapid unfoldment of "interesting" world events, it is clear that we ain't seen nothing yet and whatever providence has in store for us, it surely is going to become curiouser and curiouser.
So what went on this month, other than more bloodshed, cynical manipulation and overt war propaganda?
Barbara Ross and Bill Hutchinson NY Daily News Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:07 UTC
Calling the sex-torture of a Columbia student an "extraordinary evil," an angry judge Thursday sent the sadistic rapist to jail for 422 years - and said he deserved more.
Around 9:30 on Friday night, a bicyclist pedaling down Seventh Avenue veered to the left, trying to avoid hitting a police officer who was in the middle of the street.
But the officer, Patrick Pogan, took a few quick steps toward the biker, Christopher Long, braced himself and drove his upper body into Mr. Long.
Officer Pogan, an all-star football player in high school, hit Mr. Long as if he were a halfback running along the sidelines, and sent him flying.
As of Tuesday evening, a videotape of the encounter had been viewed about 400,000 times on YouTube. "I can't explain why it happened," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Tuesday. "I have no understanding as to why that would happen."
Comment: Hmm, a clue for Commissioner Kelly... Might it have something to do with psychopathic/authoritarian types attracted to the Police uniform as a way of exerting control over others? Who view anyone outside of their narrow world view of compliance and domination with hatred and disdain? Perhaps, maybe?
My apologies to readers for the long delay in getting this post up. These past several weeks have not been easy ones for your fearless host. Things started going south near the end of June, when our beloved family cat was taken ill and died upon arrival at the local vet's office. To many readers, this may seem a rather insignificant loss, but I have to say, in all honesty, that Thomas just may have been the coolest cat to ever prowl the streets of Los Angeles. His presence in our home is surely missed.
Telling the truth is like performing a strip tease. It is because of this that many people are offended. Nudity offends people who believe that their body, the visible and the more esoteric portions, is something to hide. Another reason that some people find the truth to be offensive is because they make personal profit from lies. It stands to reason that many people believe that the truth is ugly, or inconvenient. Why go to such lengths to conceal it otherwise? It can also be said that the truth is hidden because it stands in contradiction to the thing that conceals it.
Comment: Continue to part X