Back on message…

A medical examiner has ruled that a white police officer’s “chokehold” caused the death of a black New Yorker.
Spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said Eric Garner’s death last month, which caused an outcry, had been ruled a homicide…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28616356

The cop concerned is suspended, as are a few medics; might cool the tempers of both the police and New Yorkers for a short while.

Because, obviously, you are not a goat?

Or a kid…

All very weird, true, but how about we keep it to the sort of ‘popular’ music you might actually hear once in a while on the radio? I say this because I heard on the radio today Blinded By The Light, a Bruce Springsteen song successfully covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1976 – and a more weird chart-toppin’ song lyric you couldn’t hope to hear…

Madman drummers bummers,
Indians in the summer
with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps
as the adolescent pumps
his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder,
feelin’ kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round

With this very unpleasin’,
sneezin’ and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground

I know that a merry-go-round and a calliope can be one and the same (unless you are into Greek mythology and know that she was an erotic poetry muse) but there does seem to be rather a lot of nonsensical rhyming, and just what is the adolescent pumping into his hat?

I now expect to find most of U2s back catalogue proclaimed as weird…;o)

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War Junkie, by Jon Steele

Soon after starting work as an ITN cameraman, Jon Steele began to feel strangely at home in the kind of places ordinary people get evacuated from. In Moscow, he filmed in the midst of chaos as armed rebels and militia fought hand-to-hand battles on the streets. In Rwanda, he filmed the horrific aftermath to the most brutal massacre of modern times. In Zaire, he filmed endless fields full of young children deranged by hunger and ravaged by cholera. And finally in Bosnia, Jon realized that he had seen and filmed more than he could cope with, and finally spiralled into a deep emotional meltdown.

Today, War Junkie is recognized as a cult classic of war reportage.

http://www.jonsteele-author.com/war-junkie.html

The Rwanda section, where he was in country with reporter James Mates, is really raw: the genocide was later filmed as Rwanda Hotel where the Canadian UN General Roméo Dallaire, who is frequently featured in this book, was badly misrepresented by Nick Nolte. The UN totally screwed up, wanting to wash their hands of the situation and forget what was happening, but their guys on the ground did their best to prevent the killings and Dallaire – like Steele – suffered from PTSD due to his time in Rwanda.
A fantastic autobiog. that I really, strongly, recommend.

Sorry, did you want a review?

And somewhere along the line the other Arabic nations will have to show their hands.

Snaff, don’t you need those magic beans?, I thought we were in the 21st Century.

We are (or, at least, I am, though I do wonder about some of you at times) but for the whole of C20th Hampshire and the IoW were not the same county – hence why I mentioned John needing to get out a bit more last century, so that he could discover that things like Hants & IoW separating administratively had occurred, and put it in the past tense.

So you want these beans or not? Might help you with this years forum pantomime…;o)

A few more because they’re funny!

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Every so often a real estate agent will blur the boundaries between inept photography and conceptual art, and create something to baffle house-hunters and art historians for decades.

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A rare example of what architectural historians refer to as a “fertility window”.

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Heaven knows what he was doing that required so much toilet paper, but clearly the estate agent’s arrival caused him to panic and hide under the sink.

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Ah, the parties we used to have. Do you remember the one when we murdered everybody?

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Hoover? That’s an idea. Although you may need to find the floor first.

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The reason more bedrooms aren’t made up to look like Cold War solitary confinement cells is simple – The effort and skill required to remove the wallpaper, plaster, carpet and underlay while retaining the furniture is beyond all but the most skillful real estate agents. How pleasing that some are still willing to go that extra mile.

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Given that it’s a trademark characteristic of the undead, I think we should be concerned about any real estate agent who doesn’t have a reflection.

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This property comes with a wonderful outside space, which would be ideal for housing a wild animal or as an exercise yard for a hostage.

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The agent here isn’t just selling a flat, they’re selling a lifestyle. In this case a lifestyle that involves drinking gin before you’ve even got out of bed.

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This hallway may be familiar to those of you who have had a near death experience and have found yourselves being beckoned toward the light.