Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Hand Me That Chainsaw On Your Way Out, Dude

Killer Swears Girl Was In Two Pieces When He Left Her

CORVALLIS, OR—Apprehended drifter Gary Lee Haynesworth strongly denied any involvement in the dismemberment and skinning of 16-year-old…

Of course, we love Love LOVE The Onion here at the Hartong’s. And, sick-o that I am, I find this story rather amusing.

I just finished reading Jeff Lindsay’s book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter — about a serial killer who works days as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police. I see from the Powell’s web site that the book’s publisher has changed the cover of it so it now features a photo of the guy who plays Dexter in Showtime’s new series by the same name. I actually heard about the book from reading a promotional piece for the show. I didn’t see an episode of the television show until after I’d already finished the book, though.

I’ve only watched one episode of the television show. Well… part of one episode. I fell asleep towards the end of it. It appears they’re loosely basing these early episodes on the story in the book. The show was okay. It didn’t do all that much for me. The book, however, got me thinking about some strange things. One of the ideas that came to me was this: serial killers must be people without a whole lot of imagination. I mean… how much fun could it be to kill people? People just aren’t that interesting. Oh, sure, you can try to mix things up by varying the setting and the method and such, but…really, the thrill would wear off pretty quickly I’d think. It would become dull.

If a person really wants to be thrilled in a way that’s infinitely changeable, they should become a musician or some other kind of artist. (And, all you serial killers out there, don’t try to tell me there’s art in killing. Bullshit. Killing is an extremely limited medium for self-expression.)

No, if you want a truly satisfying way of expressing yourself, become a musician. It’s way better than being a serial killer.

Our Buddies, The Saud Family

David Ignatius – Lessons From the Saudis – washingtonpost.com
Perhaps more important, the Saudis have begun to crack the network of religious extremists that gave al-Qaeda a platform. The Saudi Interior Ministry, once a hidden source of support for the jihadists, now oversees what Obaid calls an “ideological reeducation program” supervised by religious scholars and university professors. More than 400 people have been released from this program, Obaid says.

Heh… when the Chinese were running “reeducation programs” (as indeed they may still be — I haven’t been paying much attention), most of us condemned them as oppressive and contrary to the principles of freedom of religion. Like so many things, I guess it all really just comes down to whose side you’re on. One man’s “brainwashing” is another man’s “reeducation”.

Don’t get me wrong, all things considered I’d guess the Saud family is probably one of the best things to happen to the Middle East — they’re a powerfully unifying force and are relatively moderate in their approach to most things. (Note: relatively moderate.) But let’s not pretend they’re all that swell, okay?

The Joseph L. Block

I happened to tune in to the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association webcam this morning just as the Joseph L. Block was coming in. I made a little movie. Cool thing, by the way — I just discovered that Graphic Converter (a very handy Mac application) will integrate with Quicktime Pro to make quicktime movies from jpgs. Slick. Anyway, so here’s the movie of the Joseph L. Block coming in to the harbor. The reason it’s sort of jerky is because the LSMMA webcam doesn’t update very often. This is a small enough file that it shouldn’t be a problem for most people to open. Just click on the picture below to open a new window with the video.

Videos Moved!

My friend Matt — somewhere in the United Kingdom — mentioned he’s having difficulties getting my site to load. I’m pretty sure it’s because of the great size of the several video files I’ve recently added to the front page. Clearly, this won’t do at all. So… I’ve created a new subsection of the blog called “Videos” — see? It’s right up there at the top, next to “Gallery”. Just click on that and you’ll be taken to an index page where you can choose which video you want to watch. In theory, the chosen video should open in its own window and play automatically. If that’s not what happens, I hope you’ll let me know. This ought to simplify things for people with slower internet connections or smaller (or very full) hard drives. Of course, I will alert you HERE whenever I post a new video. Wouldn’t want any of you missing a single exciting second of my live musings, now, would I?

The Janitors, The Horses, and The Houston Police

Houston Police Run Over Striking Janitors with Horses
Houston police trampled on striking janitors with horses last night. The janitors make on average $20 a day with no health insurance. The companies responsible? Chevron. And Hines Interest, the city’s largest hometown building owner.

These people make on average $5.35 an hour. With no health insurance. That is frakking ridiculous. It is wrong. And when these workers protested peacefully, the Houston police department rode into a crowd with horses to intimidate and injure the workers. It worked, as they arrested 44 workers and hurt 4 of them, including an 83 year old janitor.

I don’t care if you don’t like unions. This is insane. And if you are a politician reading this site, or a 2008 candidate, now’s your chance to stand up and issue a strong statement condemning these actions and demanding that Chevron and Hines Interest pay these people responsibly.

Here’s video.

Yes, indeed, there is video — and if you take the time to visit the linked web site and actually watch the video, you’ll see that the Houston police were hardly “trampling” people with their horses. What you’ll see is protesters kneeling or sitting on the sidewalk, their hands linked, passively resisting the efforts of police officers on the ground who were attempting to remove them. You’ll also see officers on horseback walking their horses very slowly towards the protesters in an attempt to nudge them away from the spot where they had their butts parked. The horses were used to intimidate the protesters — no doubt — but there’s no way in hell the video shows people being “trampled”. Pretty clearly, the only way anyone could have been hurt during this operation is if they didn’t move out of the fucking way when a horse was approaching them. (Slowly approaching them, in fact.) What kind of person doesn’t move when a big horse hoof is headed towards their arm or leg? An idiot — that’s what kind. Or someone who’s trying to make something out of nothing.

It’s certainly wrong that these janitors are making only $5.35 an hour. They work hard and they deserve to be paid a decent wage and to receive health insurance. Did they have a permit for their protest, though? — a permit to block the sidewalk (as they appear to be doing)? If not, the police were doing the right thing to remove them.

It really pisses me off when people whom I would otherwise look at as being on the right side of a confrontation make up crap like this whole “trampled by cops on horses” story to gain sympathy. From the way many of the liberal blogs are describing this thing, I expected the video be something like that scene towards the beginning of the movie Doctor Zhivago where the Tsarist troops confront the protesting Bolsheviks on the snowy streets of Moscow. Ha! Not even close. The truth is not served with lies or exaggeration. People should be ashamed of themselves for promoting this story. It appears to be pretty much complete bullshit.

Rules of the Road, Part 2

‘You’re an Idiot,’ And Other Festive Holiday Greetings – washingtonpost.com
The pilgrimage to Thanksgiving dinner is often a battle against rude, obnoxious drivers and the impulse to throttle them. But this holiday season, there’s no need to keep that anger to yourself. Entrepreneurs have come up with ways to let off steam.

Hey, “You’re an idiot!” would be pretty mild if it were me doing the venting. I’m much more likely to yell something along the line of, “You fucking asshole!!”

Yeah, well… no one ever said I was demure.

I don’t need the web site described in this Washington Post article — PlateWire. I’ve got a blog and it’s All Rebecca, All The Time here. (Hey, I didn’t call it “rebeccahartong.net” for nothing, you know.) Seeing as how I’m reminded of the total rudeness and stupidity with which many people drive, I think it’s time to add another rule to Rules of the Road series.

As The Weasels Turn

Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush – washingtonpost.com
Heading into the final chapter of his presidency, fresh from the sting of a midterm election defeat, Bush finds himself with fewer and fewer friends. Some of the strongest supporters of the war have grown disenchanted, former insiders are registering public dissent and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame him for losing Congress.

You know what’s really repellant about this? That most of those “former insiders” waited until after the Democrats took control of congress to start registering their dissent.

I’m not at all surprised to hear that many in the Bush government secretly opposed the way the Iraq war was being handled. They didn’t say anything, though. And why? Because advancing their political careers was more important to them than the lives of the thousands of people who have been killed over there.

Bastards.

God Is A Column of Vibrating Air

Musical Humour – Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra
The flute is the show-off of the wind section, the big shot: Jean-Pierre Rampal, James Galway–both millionaires. (How many millionaire bassoonists can you name real fast?) Well, that’s fine. Everybody knows it’s the hardest, blowing across a tiny hole with your head tilted all your life: it’s like soloing on a pop bottle. The problem with the flute is that it vibrates your brain, and you start wearing big white caftans and smocks and eat roots and berries. You become a pantheist and sit in meadows, and you believe that all is one and God is everything–God is a column of air vibrating–and you know that’s not right.

It’s not? Hm… I don’t know. I think that sounds just about right. But, then, I would. I am, after all, a flutist.

I don’t have a caftan — but I have to admit that lately I’ve been thinking it might be nice to own one. Not white, though. Maybe… sky blue. With birds on it. Yeah, that would be nice. I already eat roots and berries — well, when I’m at my normal diet at least. (Damn the “low residue” diet all to hell. I can’t even eat cooked onions on it. Raw onions are even more taboo. Life without onions is only barely worth living.)

But I’m blathering. You should read this amusing text for “A Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra” by our much-loved Garrison Keillor.

The Tree

They’ve got the big Christmas tree up already in downtown Duluth.

Conference Recorder

Ecamm Network: Conference Recorder – Record iChat AV Conferences – Save Audio and Video Memories
Finally, an easy way to record your iChat audio and video chats. Conference Recorder is an add-on for iChat AV which automatically transforms your conference sessions into QuickTime movies.

This is such a slick little piece of software at such a great price — a mere 15 bucks! — that I want to give these folks some free advertising here.

The newer MacBooks (incorrectly called an “iMac” on my last little movie) come with built in webcams. The cams are mainly set up for video-conferencing or for taking still pictures with the Mac’s pre-installed “Photo Booth” software. Ecamm Network increases the functionality of the webcam by allowing you to record your video conferences OR, in my case, to simply record yourself talking to your computer. (Something I do a lot — now you all get to share. Oh boy.) I like it a lot. Making these videos reminds me of those reality shows where people go into the closet or whatever to tell the camera what they’re really thinking about the situation. Not that I ever actually watch those shows. I don’t. Really. I don’t.

I’m envisioning all sorts of interesting “performance art” type things a person (maybe me!) might do with this technology. Strange things, maybe… like reciting poetry while wearing a mask or a hood. Holiday-themed things. (Maybe not.) Newscasts. Puppet shows!!! Yes!!! I finally have an excuse for buying one of those really cute puppets I’ve seen at the toy store. Hm…. Okay. Well, I’ll have to think that through a bit. Maybe puppets doing T.S. Eliot’s play The Cocktail Party.

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

While I’m working out the details of that, I’ll probably record some flute playing. You can look for that later today…probably.