The Red Hand of Injustice. It was stencilled onto a wall at Alcatraz during the little remembered occupation of the Island by Native Americans in 1969. Learn about it here: Alcatraz is not an Island.

It also brings to mind a childhood “game” that was played in Scotland when I was a child. It went something like this

Child 1: Do you want to join The Red Hand Gang?

Child 2: Is that a good gang?

Child 1: It’s the best gang.

Child 2: How do I join?

Child 1: It’s easy.

Child 2: Okay then.

(Child 1 and any other assorted children then proceed to slap Child 2 until he is covered in red hand marks.)

I write child but, as memory serves me, it was a gang that was exclusively male in it’s membership. Scotland. Great days.

Source: SoundCloud / Mélo

The Early Price of being a Couch Potato.

In December of 1953 the first color television became available to the American consumer. It’s cost then was a hefty $1,175. 

I was curious as to what that would be today, calculating for inflation.

So I opened up an inflation calculator -

and got this answer: $9,899.00

Then I went searching for an image of the kind of television you would have been able to purchase for that amount.

Here it is:

It's nice, but...

I mean it’s lovely and all… but really? Nearly $10,000? 

God Bless Amerika. Maybe if they were that expensive now there would be more going outside. Maybe.

Lessons from the past #23

(I stole this thought from another blog that I barely use)

As I happened to be reading Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, this Sunday morning, I came across a passage that resonated as regards the current and approaching Circus. Here I share it with you now:

For a long while before the appointed time is at hand the election becomes the most important and the all-engrossing topic of discussion. The ardor of faction is redoubled; and all the artificial passions which the imagination can create in the bosom of a happy and peaceful land are agitated and brought to light. The President, on the other hand, is absorbed by the cares of self-defence. He no longer governs for the interest of the State, but for that of his re-election; he does homage to the majority, and instead of checking its passions, as his duty commands him to do, he frequently courts its worst caprices. As the election draws near, the activity of intrigue and the agitation of the populace increase; the citizens are divided into hostile camps, each of which assumes the name of its favorite candidate; the whole nation glows with feverish excitement; the election is the daily theme of the public papers, the subject of private conversation, the end of every thought and every action , the sole interest of the present. As soon as the choice is determined, this ardor is dispelled; and as a calmer season returns, the current of the State, which had nearly broken its banks, sinks to its usual level: but who can refrain from astonishment at the causes of the storm.

Thus do we continue to return to the thing that we try to escape from.