WE’RE IN A ROAD MOVIE TO BERLIN

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to corral my thoughts on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall WITHOUT dragging Barack Obama into it.

I’m failing.

See, I’ve been to the Wall. My first duty station as a US Army soldier was in West Germany in the mid-80s, which meant our platoon leaders occasionally organized tours to the West/East German border to see it for ourselves – to show us the towns that had been forcibly divided along the border and the grey bleakness of No Man’s Land.

Once, a few of us managed to take a trip to West Berlin (which, as I was a US soldier, involved insane amounts of paperwork). We went, we saw the Wall, and the effect was powerful. The graffiti and artwork, Checkpoint Charlie, the sight of an entire section of the city (and country) fenced off from the world.

Combine that with the general nihilism of the Cold War we all grew up with, and the prospect of nuclear devastation (as well as the fact that our unit was expected to be vaporized within the first ten seconds of WWIII), and it really put things in perspective – what we stood for, what they stood for, and what we all stood to lose.

Yes, it’s oversimplistic – symbols usually are. And the Berlin Wall was as symbolic as it got. Which is why I’m sad that they eventually tore it all down. I understand the reasons, but sometimes we need physical reminders of the past. I’ve met plenty of Germans since then (from both the East and the West) who feel the same.

So what does Obama have to do with any of this?

Not much – except this comes back to what I said awhile back about having no patience for the dingbats accusing him and his health policies of being the new Fascist Socialist Communist Dachau. Fuck these people. They have no fucking idea what fascism is or what it looks like.

But you knew that, eh?

So enough of that. Let’s sing about the Berlin Wall – with the Sex Pistols.

"YO! Sushi: The world's first flying waiter - the 'iTray'" (Watch on YouTube)

I wanna see some a-history,

This is dF

ROOSEVELT FRANKLIN VS THE MARTIANS

Sesame Street turned 40 on Monday. And I’d do something about the kerfluffle over Sesame Street indoctrinating children to vote Democrat, but what for? Conservatives have been pushing that line for years. But they say that about every form of media that’s not Fox News, talk radio, Conservapedia, Christian programming or a Chuck Norris movie.

Whatever.

And I could blather on about the influence Sesame Street had on me as a kid (remembering that I grew up with the original Sesame Street Hardcore that today’s kids can’t even watch without a parent or legal guardian present). But I like to think the results speak for themselves.

So I’ll just post a couple of nifty video clips. I could go for the obvious stuff – Stevie Wonder jamming, Bert and Ernie doing the Bananaphone sketch, Grover and a five-year old kid arguing in favor of gay marriage – but I’ll go with the following:

1. The Yip-Yip Martians meeting a telephone.

"OFF! - "Hypnotized" (OFFicial video)" (Watch on YouTube)

2. Roosevelt Franklin knows his alphabet.

Too cool for school,

This is dF

A FEW GOOD MEN

I’d say thanks for all the Veterans Day well-wishes, but I’m not sure they apply to me, since I never actually served in a combat zone. Is that a requirement? I’m not sure. But I did serve in a combat unit – I was trained to shoot down airplanes with a bloody big 20mm Gatling gun. On the other hand, like most people who joined the Army, I only joined for the fast cash and college money...

Well, in any case, I think we can safely say that it doesn’t count if yr an employee of Blackwater.




So, you know, yr welcome anyway.

Out of uniform,

This is dF

BRAINGASM!

Yr awesome science lede of the day:

Since we know that if you think about the clitoris, or think about the G-spot, or think about the cervix that the corresponding part of the brain map for those parts of the body, those become activated. So, one question is whether women who can think themselves to orgasm, do they think their genital activation that the brain representation of the genitalia into activity and does that spread to the other systems that are involved in orgasm, how do they do it? We want to understand how they do it normally and then the question is what if we ask women to think about the genitals more intensively? Or, will they be able to intensify the response in their genital sensory cortex, and will that spread to other parts of the brain, will that facilitate their orgasm?

Science: it is awesome.

Further study required,

This is dF