Voices for the Voiceless, Part 1

Think “advertising” and more than likely it will be negative: people being manipulated into buying things they don’t need or want; TV programs being interrupted; environmental pollution. 

Not all advertising is like that.

The following ads are intended to speak on behalf of animals that are unable to speak for themselves . . .

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BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) is a non-profit, non-partisan, and non-confessional federal grassroots non-government organisation with more than 480,000 members and supporters. Founded in 1975, it is dedicated to conservation and environmental protection.

A new campaign for Bund uses the slogan “Every 60 seconds a species dies out. Each minute counts. Each donation helps.”

The following images go with that message:

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The “Animals are not Clowns” advertising is a combined campaign from two Portuguese animal rights organisations. The ads are part of a campaign against the use of animals in circuses and it uses the following message on the posters:

“Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls for the crack of the whip against the animal’s stinging wounds. A big round of applause for the flaming hoops, the injuries and the electric shocks. Come and see the famed number of cages and tightly binding chains allowing no escape from endless training sessions. Laugh, applaud and join in with the repetitive choreographed routines typical of depressed animals under great stress. All the fun of the circus travelling from city to city exhibiting animals as human caricatures. Clowning around that’s no fun at all.Animal circuses, don’t be part of the show.”

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Like the Bund conservation ads, the World Wildlife Fund’s campaign for conservation “Horrifying v More Horrifying” focuses on disappearing species:

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The Society for the Protection of Animals campaigns against the use of animals in testing cosmetics:

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Zurich Zoo’s new elephant enclosure was opened in June 2014 at a cost of $64m, all paid for by private donors. The animals are able to move around more freely in conditions closer to those found in the wild, there is less contact between keepers and the elephants, with humans staying out of the enclosure.

Advertising seeking funding featured cramped conditions:

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The Save The Rhino Trust Namibia has been actively engaged in the conservation of the Black Rhino and the rare Desert Elephant since its founding in 1982. Its mission is to assist the Ministry for Environment and Tourism and surrounding communities to promote the protection and sustainable management of the black rhino, elephant, other fauna and their environment in North-western Namibia to ensure that the biodiversity of this unique, arid terrain is conserved. 

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According to the WWF, every year 60 million animals are slaughtered for their skin, a oint driving home by their sewing patterns campaign:

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An ad shows a little girl who looks like a tiger cub about to be shot by a poacher. It is part of a hard hitting WWF campaign that asks us to consider how we would feel, what we would do, if the little girl about to killed was ours.

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The Wit and Wisdom of LBJ

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was the 36th President of the United States, between 1963 and 1969, becoming Pres upon the assassination of President Kennedy. A rough hewn but sincere Texan, he was noted for his plain speaking and no-nonsense approach to the Presidency. At the same time as he continued Kennedy’s attack on discrimination , he escalated the American presence in Viet Nam, perceiving a need to stand against the expansion of communism. Despite domestic hostility to the war and the portrayal of LBJ as a warmonger (characterised by the chant at anti-war rallies “Hey Hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?”), privately the deaths of young men caused him much personal grief. When he left the Presidency he had aged much more than the 6 years in that office. As part of his Great Society program, he was responsible for laws that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Mediaid, environmental protection, aid to education, aid to the arts, urban and rural development. His War on Poverty helped millions of Americans rise above the poverty line during his presidency. He was succeeded by Richard Nixon and died four years after leaving office.

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Some LBJ quotes:

I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle.”

News Conference (28 July 1965)

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“Gerry Ford is so dumb he can't walk and fart at the same time.... He's a nice fellow, but he spent too much time playing football without a helmet.”

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"Boys, I may not know much, but I know chicken shit from chicken salad.”

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“[Richard Nixon]'s like a Spanish horse, who runs faster than anyone for the first nine lengths, and then turns around and runs backwards. You'll see; he'll do something wrong in the end. He always does.”

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“It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

On FBI director J Edgar Hoover, who had dirt files on large numbers of politicians and celebrities, as quoted in the New York Times, 31 October 1971

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“I took the oath. I became president. But for millions of Americans I was still illegitimate - a pretender to the throne, an illegal usurper. And then there were the bigots and the dividers and the Eastern intellectuals who were waiting to knock me down before I could even begin to stand up. The whole thing was almost unbearable.”

On assuming the Presidency, November 22, 1963

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“I will not let you take me backward in time to Vietnam. Fifty thousand American boys are dead. Nothing we can say will change that fact. Your idea that I could have chosen otherwise rests upon complete ignorance. For if I had chosen otherwise, I would have been responsible for starting World War III.”

To his biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin

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“I don’t want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket.

Quoted in David Halberstam ‘The Best and the Brightest’ (1972). Discussing a potential assistant.

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“If I left the woman I really loved - 'The Great Society' - in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs. All my hopes to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. But if I let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as an appeaser.”

On the Vietman War

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“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”

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“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: 'now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.' You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe you have been completely fair... This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.”

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Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.

Private comment, as quoted in Name-Dropping (1999) by John Kenneth Galbraith

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“Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good ...We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long...”

Comment to the Greek ambassador to Washington, Alexander Matsas, over the Cyprus issue in June 1964. Quoted in I Should Have Died (1977) by Philip Deane

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“The purpose of the law is simple. It does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others. It does not give special treatment to any citizen. It does say the only limit to a man's hope for happiness, and for the future of his children, shall be his own ability. It does say that there are those who are equal before God shall now also be equal in the polling booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, and other places that provide service to the public.”

Civil Rights Bill signing speech, 1964

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“I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless, and sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming—always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting, and trying again—but always trying and always gaining.”

Inaugural address, 1965

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“In each generation, with toil and tears, we have had to earn our heritage again. If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, thatfreedom asks more than it gives, and that the judgment of God is harshest on those who are most favored. If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because of what we believe. For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves.”

Inaugural address, 1965

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Some LBJ pics:

Lyndon Johnson showed off his surgical scar after a double operation to remove his gallbladder and a kidney stone. “I got two operations for the price of one,” said Johnson.

Lyndon B Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One with Jackie still in her blood-stained outfit beside him. 

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Critical view:

Those wishing to read about LBJ's nasty side should click on:

http://www.mackwhite.com/lbj.html 

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Funny Friday

Following on from the Beer Facts and Trivia post last weekend, today we have some beer humour . . .

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A man walks into a bar has a few beers and asks how much his tab is. The bartender replies that it is twenty dollars plus tip.

The guy says, "I'll bet you my tab double or nothing that I can bite my eye."

The bartender accepts the bet, and the guy pulls out his glass eye and bites it. He has a few more drinks and asks for his bill again.

The bartender reports that his bill now is thirty dollars plus tip. He bets the bartender he can bite his other eye.

The bartender accepts knowing the man can't possibly have two glass eyes. The guy then proceeds by taking out his false teeth and biting his other eye.

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From Canada, March 1985

Does anyone else also think that he looks like . . 

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Aussie Love Poem

Anonymous

Of course I love ya darlin'

You're a bloody top notch bird,

And when I say you're gorgeous

I mean every single word.

So ya bum is on the big side,

I don't mind a bit of flab,

It means that when I'm ready

There's somethin' there to grab.

So your belly isn't flat no more,

I tell ya, I don't care

So long as when I cuddle ya

I can get me arms 'round there.

No sheila who is your age

Has nice round perky breasts,

They just gave into gravity

But I know ya did ya best.

I'm tellin' ya the truth now,

I never tell ya lies,

I think it's very sexy

That you've got dimples on ya thighs

I swear on me nanna's grave now,

The moment that we met

I thought you was as good

As I was ever gonna get.

No matter wot ya look like

I'll always love ya dear,

Now shut up while the footys on

And get me another beer.

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At about 3.00am I was drunk as a skunk. I came home just in time to hear the cuckoo clock cuckoo three times. Quickly coming up with a plan, I cuckooed nine more times, hoping my wife would think it was midnight. I was very proud of myself.The next day, my wife asked what time I got home, and I replied, "Midnight, just like I said."

She said that was good, and for some reason she said we needed a new cuckoo clock. When I asked why, she answered, "Last night when it cuckooed midnight, it cuckooed three times, said 'Crap!,' cuckooed four more times, farted, cuckooed three times, cleared its throat, cuckooed two more times and then started giggling."

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This asshole looked at my beer belly last night and sarcastically said, "Is that Corona or Bud?" 

I said "There's a tap underneath; taste it and find out." 

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Corn Corner:

A length of rope went into a bar, sat on a stool, and ordered a beer. The Bartender said, "We don"t serve ropes here." Dismayed and disappointed, the rope went out and then got an idea. He stopped a man and asked, "Will you please tie a knot in me and separate my strands at both ends?" The man obliged and, with this done, the rope went back into the bar and again ordered a beer. The Bartender looked him over and said, "Say, aren’t you the same rope who was in here before?!" "No," was the reply, "I’m a frayed knot."

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Rice and Rugs

(Once you start writing a post, you don't always know what direction it will take you).

I recently posted a photograph of an aerial view of Chinese rice paddies. The image looked like an abstract art painting and was quite beautiful. Googling further aerial views of Chinese rice paddies produced a wealth of such images, all beautiful and each different from the other. The images were from various locations, including Indonesia.

Here is a selection . . . 

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The above pic is not of a rice paddy but of a rug designed by Liz Euwes, the design being inspired by photographs of rice paddies.

She has designed other rugs inspired by aerial views of landscapes:

Rug inspired by the tulip fields of Holland

The tulip fields of Holland

Strathmore rug inspired by the Scottish countryside

Some more views of the above rug

Scottish landscapes

Euwes second collection of rugs inspired by aerial landscapes included:

Kansas, “Created by a complex and ordered irrigation system, the vast cereal crops of Kansas evoke a child’s wooden puzzle of circles and squares over America’s midwest.”

Algarinejo, “Olive grove plantations decorate the countryside of Southern Spain with a fantasy of polka dots and modern geometry.”

Ontario, “During the long Canadian winters, snow drifts over the plains, reducing the landscape to an assemblage where only the tallest structures peer out from Ontario’s Holland Marsh.”

Burundi, “Wedges of sugar cane crops arch around rolling hilltops to create a peculiar maze in Burundi, Central Africa.”

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