Just in case you forgot . . .

. . . you forgot to laugh this week, I'm offering this clip of Stephen Colbert prescribing some . . interesting . . medication.   I couldn't stop giggling!  Enjoy !

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Cheating Death - Sperm Sale & Colonoscopies
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Metallica: Favorite song #2 "Dyer's Eve"

"Dear Mother, Dear Father"

Like "Unforgiven III", these are some of the best lyrics James has ever written.  If it's really about his childhood, it's some pretty angry, sour stuff.

I like the delivery, too -- it's as if the words are being spat out, not sung.  I've got a concert clip from a website outside of the U.S.  It's quite rare this song is performed live

It's feeling a lot like a couple of days from New Year's Eve 12 midnight - I cannot wait to watch Metallica's induction to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night!!

So, now can we start growing our own?

Terrific news on the war on cancer.  I know . . no one in the White House has actually declared war on this.  However, I have lost far too many family members to cancer with my sister-in-law having fought the latest battle in our family and kicked cancer hard in the keister!

It looks like the "active ingredient" in marijuana may be a potent weapon in the treatment of brain cancer.  I'm sure more studies need to be done and the effectiveness of the synthetic version versus that which occurs naturally in marijuana will need to be evaluated, too.

I'm just happy to celebrate any victory I can find when it comes to beating cancer!

Metallica: Favorite song #3 "Battery"

Here's a great cover version of this song by the band who has been the opening act for Metallica recently, Machine Head.

It is amazing how much a simple key change makes an aggressive song sound so much more menacing !   

I really like the music in this version.  The vocals (lyrics here). . not quite as impressed.

Let the thrashing, head banging or whatever motion you like commence!

Machine Head - Battery ( Metallica cover )
by Duketrasher

I wish this post was pure fiction!

Granted, it would straddle the line between horror and just plain sick trash fiction, but it's not fiction.  My post from yesterday is as close as I get to creative writing, and the "creative" parts were more to paint a more colorful picture and fill in a few blanks where minute details were lost to my long-term memory.

In Iraq, right now, amongst all the violence, rebuilding, troops, etc., are anywhere from one to 200 or more people in Iraqi prisons awaiting executions.  And, as best as anyone can figure, anywhere from one to who knows how many of those 200 or more are being executed for . .

 . . serial murders? . . . serial rape? . . . blowing something up?

Nope!  They're being executed for being gay.

Iraq isn't alone in having laws on the books that prescribe death for the crime of being gay.  According to the Human Rights Law Review write up posted at the Yogyakarta Principles' website, Iraq is just one of seven countries in the world where "consentual same sex practices" is punishable by death (the others are Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, U.A.E, Yemen and parts of Nigeria).

The report also chronicles incidents in other countries of gays/lesbians/transgendered people being killed being known activists. 

Having enveloped myself in most everything political for the last couple of years, it is all to easy to feel like you're drowning in the inability to affect change fast enough.  For now, echoing blog postings and news stories and adding my own humble opinion is about all I am able to do.

Good news in all of this?  There are endless opportunities to be present and lend support to any one or more of these issues.

So, read, write, be present, find your passion and take care of yourself.  My new boss did so today by treating to a cup o' frozen yogurt!