Feeding The Fire

Much as I want to answer Nick's lengthy, detailed and thoughtful comments below (Lurkers: feel free to fill in your own responses while I dither) as well as answer johnh's broadsides, events move so fast and Klark Kent Life keeps me from focusing on it more directly.

So in the meantime, Fire the First: Of course almost everyone has heard about the Apple laptop battery problem, with the potential for fire. While very few have heard of the exact same problem from Dell, immediately preceding it. Not too surprising, really, since both companies outsource their battery production.

The difference being that Apple initiated a very public, very well advertised recall, while Dell tries to keep the problem under the radar.

In any case, Conan O'Brien hit a nice pop fly base hit on this: “Apple has issued a recall on several models of Mac laptops because the battery can overheat and catch fire. Experts say a Mac fire is just like a PC fire, except it's more hip and condescending.”

Nice one, Red. Don't call us when your PC is crashing due to spyware.


Fire The Second: Disney/ABC, in a move that is nothing if not blatantly partisan, has authored a dramatic rendering of the events prior to 9/11, dramatizing several occurrences in ways that the actual participants point out are completely falsified to suggest Clinton's culpability, and had the chutzpah to advertise it as an historical rendering of the facts in the 9/11 Report. Not being satisfied with that, ABC was going to run the special commercial free (in an election cycle) and had teamed up with Scholastic to provide “study Guides” to high school students to reinforce the partisan slant. In a further display of one sidedness, ABC provided preview copies to rightwing media sources such as Rush Limbaugh and Hugh Hewitt, while denying them to Air America, leftwing bloggos, or even President Clinton!

And the New York Times repeated the lies, with a direct implication that Clinton was responsible.

Okay, can we stop caterwauling about the 'Liberal Media' NOW?

But in a display of pushback that apparently surprised Disney and ABC, liberal bloggers like Atrios, Kos, and Firedoglake picked up the ball and pointed out the obvious falsities, resulting in MSNBC and others running the story; eventually, the heavyweights have started to chime in, with strongly worded responses coming from Congressional Dems (where the hell did they find a spine?!), widows of the 9/11 victims, and President Clinton (through his attorneys!)

Scholastic has backed out of the deal, and ABC is starting to mutter about revisions. At a minmum, they should NOT be portraying this a historical drama, or even a docudrama. It's more in line with 'Snakes On A PLane'. Except it's apparently B-O-R-I-N-G.

It's interesting to point out here that Disney was unwilling to even RELEASE Fahrenheit 911 because of its political content, which was based on those whattayacallems, FACTS.

Fire The Third.... Another movie. Recent release be Robert Greenwald, Iraq For Sale, again using those liberal-leaning facts (as well as testimony from people actually involved), showing that the term war profiteers needs to be pulled from the mothballs. Digby has seen the film:

How obscene, exactly, is the compensation of these CEOs? We're talking around $40 million each for the most part. Paid for with your tax dollars, of course. And what do the troops get? They get lousy food and stand in line for hours for the privilege. They get an incompetent laundry service that charges you and me a C note per each soldier's wash. They get translators that barely speak the languages or understand how to translate. They get torturers and psychopaths - drooling sadists accountable to no one who have been doing their level best to destroy any small vestiges of goodwill towards the US and its soldiers that might still exist beyond our borders. And the troops get rubbed in the face every day with the simple fact that they've been played for real suckers. That's because the “private contractors” - the euphemism of choice for mercenaries these days - make about 6 times what the average soldier makes, often for doing the same job.

If the movie is even half true, there are several evil, greedy motherfuckers out there who need to do some hard, hard time. KBR, Blackwater, Halliburton. Future names of infamy. Support the troops my hairy white ass. Where is Harry Truman when you need him?

Fire The Fourth: 40 years ago today, the first episode of Star Trek was broadcast. Back when there were three channels, and most people still watched black and white TV, and dinosaurs roamed the earth. From StarTrek,com:

Yes, it had a crew that said discrimination was a thing of past; it had a future that said we were not all annihilated by nuclear holocaust; it had an economy that was driven by progress and achievement, not simple wealth accumulation; it had science as a guiding force, not mysticism or superstition; it had technology as a means to explore, not just make life easier; and, perhaps most importantly, it had a peaceful mission at its core, not one of conquest. The show screamed peace in a time of war. All of these reasons helped contribute to the show's success, but so did the iconic characters, the top-notch writing, the new technology and the great — for then — special effects.

40 years later, we are second only to Turkey in the entire developed world for the number of citizens who DON'T believe in evolution, and America's college enrollment and completion has fallen behind. We're so sorry, Mr. Roddenberry. Apparently America won't be part of The Final Frontier after all. Anyways, Roddenberry's fire is still burning, decades after his death; well done sir. Happy Birthday Star Trek.


So anyways, on to the FRT, Fires Of Freedom Edition:

1. A Wrong Turn And Raindrops from the album “Where'd You Learn To Kiss That Way? (Disc 2)” by Field mice The late. lamented Field Mice. Search 'em out, cowpokes.

2. Xerox Line from the album “World Tour 1” by Free Hot Lunch Not my favorite Wa-Ha song, but whatthehey, IT'S FRIGGIN' FREE HOT MUTHERFUCKIN LUNCH!! WA-HA!!

3. Battery from the album “S & M (Disc 2)” by Metallica It's hard. It's dark. And it's got an orchestra. Bite me, I like it.

4. Screw from the album “The Head On The Door” by The Cure

5. Cruel Lips from the album “Your Country” by Graham Parker Still cranking 'em out, and he tours with the Figgs to keep the fires stoked.

6. Trinity Invitation from the album “Trinity Seas Seize Sees” by Sigmund Snopek III One for Silent Mike. Took Sigmund 30 years to make this album, but it was worth it.

7. Gimme The Car from the album “Viva Wisconsin” by Violent Femmes. Followed by the other Milwaukee superstars. OF COURSE Sigmund and the Femmes have worked together; the East Side music scene was nothing if not incestuous.

8. Melt The Guns from the album “English Settlement” by XTC Regardless of Nick's serious pants, I don't see the drawback to aiming for an ideal result.

9. As I Am from the album “Train of Thought” by Dream Theater

10. Cage & Aquarium from the album “Lincoln” by They Might Be Giants


Bonus Fires:

11. Sodium Laureth Sulfate from the album “Interbabe Concern” by The Loud Family
12. Sanctuary from the album “Soft Bomb” by The Chills
13. Let Me Out from the album “Get The Knack” by The Knack Yes, THAT Knack. I was 17 when it came out, I won't apologize for the hormones. Plus, I always like good power pop.
14. Supernaturally from the album “Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Nick Cave is a scary good goth rocker, who apparently is also quite handy with a screenplay. If you don't think an album can be scary, listen to the brilliant Murder Ballads. Rock away Nick.
15. Waiting Room Only from the album “Genesis Files (Disc 2)” by Steve Hackett


Keep your fires burning.