Sorry, Patrons de la salle de porc, this link refused to play nicely, but it’s an interesting take on something that seems to burst into my consciousness nearly every day.

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07d07d3/why-time-seems-to-speed-up-as-we-get-older

Emmjay

Annual Recycle by Emmjay – first published in 2008 on the ABC Drum

Well, it’s September 1 and I for one am feeling the usual right to spring. Pedants, who insist that Spring starts on the equinox, somewhere around the 21st will have to forgive me.

It’s a fantastic day here in the Emerald City.

Wikipedia, in its unending generosity offers us two rites of Spring -the mid 80’s Washington punk band “Rites of Spring” and perhaps the more familiar – Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, or le Sacre du Printemps. The Russian escapes me, except that one is led to believe that notwithstanding the translation, the reference is more towards a pagan rite than a consecration.

It’s a pity that in our Australian cities, we so often make nothing special for the start of Spring. I think this is a great shame. It’s a missed opportunity to celebrate the possibility of renewal – perhaps if not always the actuality.

Other nations and cultures run riot in Spring. I have a Japanese friend who puts away all the winter accoutrements including visual art and even crockery and she changes a major part of her world with the change of season – bringing out the Spring linen and changing the menu, swapping many of the pictures on her walls. The new wardrobe. Life in the garden. Something more than a simple clean-up.

Stravinsky’s ballet score really gets into the swing of the new season with a dancing chorus of young girls – perhaps a little wasted on we of the Southern hemisphere since our Easter (Hester, oestrus, eggs, fertility, etc, etc, etc) falls in, well, fall. Moreover, with the possible exception of our pagan friends, references to ‘young girls’ these days are likely to provoke more anti-paedo outrage, than assist us to re-iterate a celebration of the earth.

And what of the Washington punk band ? Well, they recorded one eponymous LP on their own label, Discord Records. Need I say more?

Returning to the day, let’s hope this Spring brings with it sunshine as well as rain. Give a prayer for our farmers whose lives and livelihood are so challenged by the Australian climate. And look forward to the joys of Summer.

Or would that be… Don Henley and the “Boys of Summer”?

Praise also be to the inventors of anti-histamines 🙂

From our UK correspondent Adrian Mcrobb.

With highs of 33° expected AGAIN today, it’s time to ask “could the government have done more?” Downing Street knew about this heatwave weeks ago and have done nothing. Shipments of 400,000 pairs of Speedos and 500,000 bikinis, sun cream and Cornettos have reportedly been sent back as unsafe after media claims the shipment was quarantined a month ago and Boris did nothing.

Karen from Chavington said, “We just don’t know if it’s safe to go outside and sunbathe because we can’t function or think for ourselves. Boris hasn’t told us either way and all my obese kids need ice cream and sweets, the Hubby can’t get out to rob anyone so we’re out of lager and weed, I blame the government entirely”

Meanwhile, anti- heat protesters dressed in thick jumpers chanting “cold lives matter” have marched on London, Big Ben has been removed and a giant Mint Feast put in its place by protesters.

The BBC reported earlier, ‘clearly the sun has come out and Downing street have done nothing to prevent it.’

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Story by Emmjay

Patrons of the Pig’s Arms, I’d like to think that it takes a lot to shock and disturb me, but the videos shot by “Soft White Underbelly” are probably the most disturbing I’ve ever witnessed since the birth of the Internet.

I read “Empire of Pain” the story of the Sackler family – the the owners of Purdue Pharma – so-called inventors of Oxycodone / Oxycontin. They subverted the US Food and Drug Administration and got them to approve Oxycodone for pain control by dodging up some fictitious trials that found not surprisingly that Oxycodone was (unlike all the other opioids) not addictive.

Of course it IS addictive and a giant global shitstorm and international opioid addiction epidemic has ensued. Especially in countries like the US – who allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription-only drugs to the general public. This epidemic has brought with it untold misery, death, destruction and some massive lawsuits. But clever corporate structures have kept the Sacklers out of gaol. Some of the corrupt governmental officials were not so clever.

Oxycodone or Oxycontin was/is a prescription drug – and it was marketed heavily and aggressively to doctors – AND on TV and other media. It has made its presence felt in Australia too.

In the US, Oxycontin is cheaper and far more available than heroin and is marginally less dangerous than Fentany. It has been a massive hit amongst people for whom America is still not great. People for whom even basic health care is not even a distant dream. Trump voters – so dumb that they voted against their own best interests.

Oxycodone or Oxycontin acquired the moniker of “Hillbilly Heroin” , reflecting the foundation market.

And in following up on the Epidemic of Pain, I chanced upon some some truly horrendous videos on YouTube – interviews of people at the sharp end of the failed American dream – prostitutes, addicts of every stripe, failed criminals, barking mad people – literally barking- and people living in Appalachia – Southern and Mid East Coast American dying coal mining states – the Duelling Banjos backwaters where the gene pool is too shallow to sustain life as we know it.

I have to say that I could not believe what I was seeing. It is horrendous. And the calm, nonchalant interviewer makes the documentaries otherworldly and chilling. These are the people who are manipulated into voting for Trump. Wanting desperately for America to be great again – the greatness that they and generations of ancestors have never known.

So for the brave – here are the Whittakers.

Sorry, you need to watch it on Youtube.