"Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love.
There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.”
- Christopher Hitchens, (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011)
Day of the Dead.
Running a Mole special today.
Eric used to serve it here when we worked together, and he was the one who taught me how to make it.
He died two months ago. He is greatly missed.
"...Beyond that state of mildly intoxicated perfection lies drunken madness: third pints, kebabs, and destruction."
"Remember: When shooting protesters, always aim for the heart, never the head."
-The Nightly News, Jonathan Hickman.
“We believe that now we’re at the right stage…to initiate discussions with nutritional companies and other food companies who might be interested in this kind of a product,” said Samir Singh, Pharming’s Chief Business Officer. “There has been some interest from these companies already; we should be in a strong position to commercialize the product later this year or next year...“We believe that the benefit with our product is that it is a human protein, as opposed to a protein that is of animal origin,” said Singh, explaining why Pharming is going through the trouble of recombining DNA. “So, because it’s a human protein, it will interact with the human receptors in the gastrointestinal tract.”
"Analysis of 7,000-year-old bones dug up at Herxheim in south-west Germany suggest the region was a centre for cannibalism at a time when the first European farming society may have been collapsing.
Marks on bones show that bodies were skinned and had their flesh removed using techniques almost identical to those for butchering animals and one researcher suggested that some of the victims could have been spit-roasted.
Many of the bones appear to have been deliberately smashed to allow the living to suck out the marrow of the dead. Others bear the “chew marks” of teeth and while they are too indistinct to be certain scavenging animals were not to blame, the “distinctive distribution speaks strongly in favour” of having been made by hungry humans.
Cut marks on the bones are often so clear that archaeologists have been able to distinguish between which cuts were intended to skin and scalp the bodies and which were made to get at the meat."
Ancient human burial site shows evidence of mass cannibalism: 'Slaves were skinned and butchered like animals'
"They have long been famed for their love of lavish banquets and rich recipes. But what is less well known is that the British royals also had a taste for human flesh.
A new book on medicinal cannibalism has revealed that possibly as recently as the end of the 18th century British royalty swallowed parts of the human body.
The author adds that this was not a practice reserved for monarchs but was widespread among the well-to-do in Europe.
Both Queen Mary II and her uncle King Charles II both took distilled human skull on their deathbeds in 1698 and 1685 respectively, according to Dr Sugg. Even as they denounced the barbaric cannibals of the New World, they applied, drank, or wore powdered Egyptian mummy, human fat, flesh, bone, blood, brains and skin."
"Obviously no modern restaurant could get away with serving human meat on a regular basis. A couple of years ago a restaurant in Brussels was closed down after horrified health inspectors found body-parts belonging to several women in the freezer. Police were forced to admit that such things happen more often than is widely suspected...
While there certainly are restaurants that serve human flesh to trusted (or unsuspecting) customers, those with a taste for it are more likely to find what they crave by being accepted into a circle of grands gourmets. These are groups of elite gourmets and epicureans, some of whom are so rich and influential that they are almost above the law. Basically these are people who can afford to buy any forbidden experience imaginable, and are also cautious and clever enough to get away with it."
"Police arrested Andreas Pandy, a native of Hungary who now is a naturalized Belgian, after a search of his three houses in Brussels uncovered several bones -- including a human femur -- and two refrigerators packed with large chunks of meat of unknown origin. Police say they also found an urn containing ashes, and blood on a stairway.
The Pandy case is reminiscent of an accidental find in August 1996, when the bodies of three women were found in the freezers of a popular Lebanese restaurant in Brussels. One of the bodies was cut in half.
They are also part of a wider spate of violent crimes in Belgium.
A series of pedophile-related murders revealed over the past year in Belgium has disturbed many and provoked outrage, especially the mention of missing children and the discovery of bones and body parts.
A series of 28 daylight murders at supermarkets, known as the "Brabant Killings," in the south of the country in the 1980s has never been solved. Nor has the 1991 gunning down of socialist party patriarch Andre Cools.
And in southern Belgium, police are still looking for a serial killer who has cut up at least five victims before dumping their body parts along roads or rivers."
"And Macho Man did journey into heaven to smite the evil Jesus and stop the impending doom of the rapture which did pass, yay for he is great, yay for he is Randy Savage.
-R.I.P"
"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."
-Mark Twain, Chronicle of Young Satan
"All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity." -Mark Twain, AutobiographyEvery few years, usually as a warm up to an election season, we watch the now familiar public spectacle of some shiny self-righteous congressman, liberal or conservative, getting caught buying whores, and committing adultery on a sick or dying long time wife or partner, even while crying out for justice and accountability.
Tactical Bacon. Be prepared.
An army of ancients could rise from the ground-Army of Ancients
and tear every nation apart.
And I'd still be sitting there counting my cards,
wondering when will it start?
The oceans and forests could collide into one
and muddy this world in a spark.
And I'd still be sitting there twiddling my thumbs,
wondering when will it start?
The man could come back on his fiery throne
to measure the feathers and hearts.
And I'd still be whistling dixie alone,
wondering when will it start?
I don't wanna wake up.
I don't wanna move.
I'll skip the sermon and stick to the booze.
I'm sorry...
Read that one through couple of times: A nuclear reactor, a nuclear waste site, a literal river of chicken shit, and factory that makes chicken food with arsenic in it, all of which have made people, lots of people, very sick. But a court ruled that it was all just natural causes and nobody's fault. Certainly not the fault of failing state regulation of safety standards or a corrupted and incompetent corporation.Atomic Energy: Just like the fifties, but, you know, everywhere and way fucking scarier.
Update: Behold, The BA-zooka; summer sausage rocket launcher...
The fat mans cheery grin is belayed by the hunger in his eyes. The bright colors of his jacket and tribal insignia shine in the reflected light of a thousand blazing suns as they flutter in the cosmic winds he rides. He steers his monstrous winged steed across the star-splashed void of outer space, and in the beasts bloody talons are clutched their precious prey, the creature freshly slaughtered and borne now to its final doom, as fated as the debauched revelry and ritual towards which the smiling Nazgul butcher rides with such glee.
"Science is struggling to explain these things. These are examples of the surprises that nature can still bring...More research is needed,"say The experts, who also, of course, claim the instances are totally unrelated, though they have no idea what did cause either sudden die off, and they assure us it's nothing to worry about for even a moment. At the same time they also maintain that "this is a classic example of freak events coinciding..."
