Ride On, Crazy Diamond

Roger was there, and he was sitting at the desk, and I came in and I saw this guy sitting behind him--huge, bald, fat guy. I thought, "He looks a bit...strange..." Anyway, so I sat down with Roger at the desk and we worked for about ten minutes, and this guy kept on getting up and brushing his teeth and then sitting--doing really weird things, but keeping quiet. And I said to Roger, "Who is he?" and Roger said "I don't know." and I said "Well, I assumed he was a friend of yours," and he said "No, I don't know who he is." Anyway, it took me a long time, and then suddenly I realized it was Syd, after maybe 45 minutes. He came in as we were doing the vocals for Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which was basically about Syd. He just, for some incredible reason he picked the very day that we were doing a song which was about him. And we hadn't seen him, I don't think, for two years before. That's what's so incredibly...weird about this guy. And a bit disturbing, as well, I mean, particularly when you see a guy, that you don't, you couldn't recognize him. And then, for him to pick the very day we want to start putting vocals on, which is a song about him. Very strange.
—Richard Wright

Rest In Peace, Syd.
6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006

Three Monkeys Say: Aristotle was right - “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”

When the Media had a Heart

Amazing footage. What really strikes me here is the pure emotion coming from Herbert Morrison, a radio broadcaster from Chicago. You can really feel the pain in his voice while he watches the whole sky light up.

Three Monkeys Say: Oh, the Humanity!!

Flintstones Oxy!!

Pain pills for the children!

God I hope they're chew-ables!!

From TheDaily.com: PAINKILLERS FOR KIDS:
OxyContin maker wants FDA backing to label addictive drug for 6-year-olds

That's right, folks. OxyContin for 6 year olds. Why pay for the pony rides on field days when you can just slip a little synthetic White Horse into their lunch pails?

In a bid to extend their soon-to-expire exclusive patent on the wildly popular and over-abused pain killer, Purdue Pharma is dropping the big bucks on clinical trials in an effort to get the FDA to approve use of their drug on children. The clinical trials are focused on a group of children from ages 6 to 16, and is currently recruiting participants.

For the sake of science, conducting clinical trials like this are necessary. The fact is, children often metabolize different drugs very differently than adults do, and without scientific experimentation detailing the various results, physicians are operating without all the pertinent facts when considering to prescribe such a high level pain killer to pediatric patients.

Purdue comments will lead you to believe that the company's goal is to widen the breadth of scientific understanding of their drug, and that they have no desire doctors to prescribe their drug to children. But with last year's profits from the drug pushing up over 2.5 billion dollars, and only .3% of all OxyContin prescribed going to patients under the age of 19, it would seem to me Purdue is looking to corner the last holdout of the market.

OK, now, while I am sure there are pediatric conditions that do in fact require a pain killer as strong as OxyContin, though I have never personally encountered one, I feel it is a little inappropriate to open the doors this widely to acceptance of the use of this drug on children. Would it not be better to handle cases as they came on an individual basis, rather than open up the flood gates with a blanket statement saying this drug is OK for the children? Perhaps start with a substance that is less severe and addicting before just jumping the gun and shoving OCs down their throats because, well, the clinical trials say it worked in the past?

But hell, I don't have a degree in Pharmacy. I'm sure we should just trust these people. They obviously know what is best, right?

Eh, fuck it. What's the worst that could happen, right? Who knows, maybe this influx of opiates for the children will fix the horrible face of music these days.



Three Monkeys Say: I don't want to say it was DEFINITELY the drugs...but it makes ya think!

We can't be consumed by our petty differences any longer!!

This dude fucking rules.



Three Monkeys Say: TODAY! WE CELEBRATE!! OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Herman Cain Does It Again

God, I am so happy I started this back up. For if I hadn't, odds are I never would have stumbled upon this taste of hilarity. So thank you, my loyal readers, for keeping me at the keyboard. I don't know what I would do without you!

From The Raw Story: Herman Cain TV channel to feature patriotic dinosaurs and cartoon Reagan

“Whether you are looking for commentary, comedy, or culture, CainTV delivers it all", boasts the Facebook page for Herman Cain's new internet TV station. And if the world of mass media has taught me nothing else, I know for damn sure that any idea that can be expressed through alliteration must be true.

Normally, this is where I would dig in my heels for a long winded rant about how Herman Cain is destroying America, yadda yadda yadda. I really don't even need to touch this one. Cain does it so much better than I ever could.

Enjoy.



Three Monkeys Say: Let's give a lamb a gun! Sounds pretty not stupid to me!

Tonight at 11:00...

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!



From LATimes.com: Drone makers urge U.S. to let them sell more overseas

To be filed under - "Famous Last Words"

To the facts. Military defense megalith Northrop Grumman, along with the rest of the American based defense companies, are pushing for Congress to take a second look at a string of regulations limiting the sales of American made unmanned drone aircraft to other countries. At the moment, exports of such craft are limited by a coalition that was agreed upon during the Cold War, which limits the sale of drone crafts that are capable of flight and cargo load limits over a certain barrier. The idea back then was to limit how easily nations would be able to obtain ballistic missiles in a time when the technology was cutting edge. But now countries like Israel and China, who never signed on to the original agreement all those years ago, are getting to the point that they have quality drone craft for sale to the highest bidder, and American manufacturers are worried about getting cut out of the race.

I'm not gonna lie, folks. The article here actually did a pretty good job of getting me to think that opening up the drones market was a hot plan. I mean, if Israel and China are already on the ball, and if the article is right in projecting a decrease in the Pentagon's budget, then it sort of would make sense to open the doors to new markets. After all, a strong economic recovery is absolutely dependent upon an increase to our national exports, and it seems these days the only thing we're really good at producing is reality TV shows and killing machines. No one would doubt the quality of their purchase when they see the tag on their new billion dollar murder machine is stamped proudly with a Made in America insignia. Delivering Service with a Smile.

But then, thankfully, I shook my head and realized the fatal flaw of this argument. To me, and you're free to disagree here, there is something inherently misguided in the pursuit of stabilizing the sustainability of the military industrial complex. The second you begin to apply the mentality of an organization being too big to fail, which has served us so well with the banking interests in this country, to a murder for hire corporation like Northrop Grumman and its legions of lab coat clad miscreants designing red button after terrible red button, you may as well fully discard any hope of ever being able to legitimately discuss the prospect of world peace. Sure, it may sound like a hippie thing to say, but isn't that really the end goal here? A stop to all the unnecessary violence?

Now, I realize this isn't a dream that can be obtained tomorrow, next week, or even ten years from now, but I believe that allowing this insidious idea to take root in our national identity as a cornerstone to the market of destruction, it will take generations before we can undo the damage. I certainly don't pretend to have an answer for where all of that extra export money could be covered outside selling war machines to other countries, but hell, this is America. I'm sure we can think of something.



Three Monkeys Say: Two men standing on an open green/Twenty paces, no one in between

Sunday Nonsense!

Afternoon, boys and girls!

I'll keep today's post short. I know on Sundays I usually like to share some music and get out of your hair, but I just felt that this article was a little to good to pass up.

From PRNewsWire.com: Two-Thirds of Americans Think Barack Obama Is Better Suited to Handle an Alien Invasion Than Mitt Romney

Talk about all the news that fits, huh?

As part of a lead up to a new show about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, National Geographic has released the results of a survey focused on public opinion regarding a number of items related to the possibility of the existence of aliens. Some of these factoids are rather telling about the American community, like upwards of 80% of those surveyed believing not only in the existence of extraterrestrials, but also believing that the world governments are involved in a clandestine operation to keep knowledge from the public. Not really news, but good to know. Or the fact that despite the popularity of such films like The Avengers and the Twilight series, most people find the possibility of the existence of aliens more more probably than the existence of vampires, super heroes, or zombies. Which shouldn't really surprise you when you sit and think about it.

But the real winner here, is apparently nearly two thirds of American's believe that President Obama would be better suited to handle the first encounter between humans and an alien race than his political opponent, Mitt Romney. Talk about an angle worth capitalizing on. Print up the posters! Start filming the commercials! If the aliens come, Obama is our only hope!

I must say though, if I had to make a choice between Romney and Obama regarding who I would rather have lead the opening talks between our species and an other worldly intelligence, I would have to pick Obama as well. Mainly because I believe any culture capable of interplanetary travel would have socially evolved past the economic policies of capitalism in favor of a more sustainable economic system, and thus would be confused and angered by anything that came out of Romney's mouth.

Of course, the survey doesn't really discuss why 80% of people think the government is involved in keeping secrets about the existence of aliens, and then still believe that Obama would be the man to pick for opening relations with the visitors from beyond. I mean, if the government is already hiding their existence, wouldn't it be fair to guess that they are already engaged in clandestine meetings with alien leaders, and have been for some time?



Three Monkeys Say: Jack Nicholson is our only true hope!