Arthur Rimbaud

Daniel Mendelsohn:

There was, on the one hand, the dazzling, remarkably short-lived career: all of Rimbaud’s significant works were most likely composed between 1870, when he was not quite sixteen, and 1874, when he turned twenty. On the other hand, there was the abrupt abandonment of literature in favor of a vagabond life that eventually took him to Aden and then to East Africa, where he remained until just before his death, trading coffee, feathers, and, finally, guns, and making a tidy bundle in the process.
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He was a docile, prize-winning schoolboy who wrote “Shit on God” on walls in his home town; a teen-age rebel who mocked small-town conventionality, only to run back to his mother’s farm after each emotional crisis; a would-be anarchist who in one poem called for the downfall of “Emperors / Regiments, colonizers, peoples!” and yet spent his adult life as an energetic capitalist operating out of colonial Africa; a poet who liberated French lyric verse from the late nineteenth century’s starched themes and corseted forms—from, as Paul Valéry put it, “the language of common sense”—and yet who, in his most revolutionary work, admitted to a love of “maudlin pictures, . . . fairytales, children’s storybooks, old operas, inane refrains and artless rhythms.”

The rest is a detailed biography. I didn't know much about Rimbaud. In fact all I really knew about him was from the movie Total Eclipse, the story of his passionate love affair with the poet Verlaine. Rimbaud was 17 and Verlaine was 27. Together they wrote erotic poetry such as their Arsehole Sonnet:

Dark and wrinkled like a violet carnation,
Humbly crouched amid the moss, it breathes,
Still moist with love that descends the gentle slope
Of white buttocks to its embroidered edge.

The rest of that poem is here.

Samuel Morse

David McCullough:

It wasn't until after he failed as an artist that Morse revolutionized communications by inventing the telegraph.

Like most of McCullough's historical writing, the story of Morse is fascinating.

Henry Willson: the creator of "Rock Hudson"

From Hollywood's Most Eligible Bachelor:

A boy, then named Roy, had a predictable, un-starry Illinois childhood. He sang in the glee club (duh), but had no remarkable talent. He served as an auto mechanic in the Navy during World War II, and afterward moved to Hollywood.

At this point, Hudson looked very much as he would for the rest of his life, which is to say he looked like a Ken doll with a dye job. The same classic good looks, the same soft, inviting smile. But dude could not act FOR SHIT.

Nevertheless, Roy caught the eye of Henry Willson, who quickly renamed him “Rock Hudson.” Willson managed to finagle him a bit part in the war drama Fighter Squadron, but Hudson famously took 38 takes in order to properly deliver a single line. So Henry Willson went to work turning Rock from a dolt into a star.

Now, Willson was gay and well-known as such, making his name as a talent scout by cruising gay clubs and picking up the most handsome, square-jawed, Captain America-type specimens for uses both personal and professional. After World War II, Willson started his own talent agency, specializing in producing the type of male star that post-war audiences seemed to hunger for. Instead of the Continental men-about-town, these men were strapping, virile, and Midwestern-wholesome. In other words, servicemen. Or at least the stereotypical image of a serviceman, all milk-fed and ready to go do Man-Things.

Willson would take these Captain Americas, usually have sex with them, strip them of their names, and rebuild them from the ground up. He gave them preposterous yet catchy stage names that somehow combined the very normal with the very unique. There's Rock Hudson, of course, but there's also Troy Donaghue, Tab Hunter, Rory Calhoun, Guy Madison, Clint Walker, Clint Richie, Chad Everett, Guy Williams, Grant Williams, Van Williams, Cal Bolder, Rad Fulton, Rand Saxon, Race Gentry, Chance Gentry, Chance Nesbitt, and, best star name of all time, DACK RAMBO.

Obviously, repetition was not a problem. When a new “star creation” didn’t take, Willson simple gave the name to his next endeavor. He’d bestow the star with “masculine” hobbies — woodworking, horseback riding, football — and rewrite their personal narratives to best appeal to what audiences seemed to crave.

Since the majority (but not all) of Willson’s clients were gay, he also put them in training to “rewrite” any stereotypically effeminate gestures. Limp wrists were slapped; swaying hips were straightened. They learned how to light a cigarette “like a man,” with a swift single motion. In other words, they went to Straight Guy School, and, with the help of the fan magazines, audiences ate them up. Very few became huge stars the way that, say, Clark Gable was — their images were too hollow to sustain the weight of actual superstardom — but for all of their derivativeness, they filled the B-list and made girls swoon, the same way that so many male stars on ABC Family and Disney have that vaguely-Bieberish-yet-ambiguously-ethnic look.

But Hudson was the most famous product of the Henry Willson school of starmaking, and Willson eventually landed him a contract with Universal, which put him in a string of stinkers but worked to capitalize on his hunky image. Even with supporting roles in bad movies, the fan magazines still had him advising female readers on the best way to win a man’s heart.

The rest of the article is detailed and interesting. When I moved to San Francisco in 1978, it was common knowledge in the gay scene that Hudson used to spend "dirty weekends" there. By 1984 it had become obvious that Hudson was sick. He looked much older than his 58 years. In 1985 Hudson finally announced he had been diagnosed with AIDS.

Wodehouse was not a Nazi; just a naif

Harry Mount:

A distinguished gossip columnist once told me that the secret of a good diary column is to be serious about trivial things, and trivial about serious ones. If you meet Colonel Gaddafi at a party, ask him what his favourite chocolate bar is. If you bump into Lady Gaga, question her about the euro’s chances of survival.

P G Wodehouse knew that better than anyone. In The Code of the Woosters, Bertie Wooster says: “There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, 'Do trousers matter?’ ” The answer? “The mood will pass, sir.” In Carry on, Jeeves, he reverses the trick, becoming trivial about the serious: “I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare who says that it’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.”

It was that same magical gift for trivialisation that brought about Wodehouse’s downfall, when, in July 1941, he made six comic broadcasts about life in a German internment camp.

It was a foolish decision, particularly at a bad time in the war, with 40,000 people recently killed in the Blitz, and the Germans on the road to apparent victory. But was it treason? I don’t think so, even in the light of newly declassified MI5 papers.
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The content of the talks was essentially harmless. It was the relentlessly jolly tone that led to him being attacked in Parliament, British libraries refusing to stock his books, and William Connor, “Cassandra” in the Daily Mirror, condemning him as a Quisling and pawn of Goebbels.
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As Evelyn Waugh, a devout fan, pointed out, the world of Jeeves and Wooster never really existed, even in early 20th-century Mayfair. There had never been any real London club like the Drones, and spats were an archaism even then. In Wodehouse-land, no one ever gets ill, beyond the occasional hangover, and no one ages. His genius was for concocting comic fairytales that were a flight of fancy away from the horrors of real life. When he was forced up against those horrors, his comic gift deserted him, as did his judgment. But his essential decency remained intact.

In the foreword to A Wodehouse Bestiary, which I recently read, the reason for Wodehouse's capture by the Nazis is explained by the fact that he would not leave France without his beloved Peke, Wonder. Wonder had to be quarantined for rabies for 6 months before being allowed to re-enter the UK. Wonder did not speak French and Wodehouse did not want his Peke to spend 6 months in a French kennel alone eating snails and frog legs with garlic butter. He ignored warnings of the coming Nazi occupation and was caught and imprisoned.

Tim Cook and the gay union mafia thugs

Tim Cook, who has taken over as CEO from Steve Jobs and who ran the day-to-day operations of Apple, has got the gay union's shop-stewards tits in a tangle. It seems that Tim Cook does not toe the gay union's line and march the gaynazi goose-step.

Don’t ignore Tim Cook’s sexuality:

Tim Cook is now the most powerful gay man in the world. This is newsworthy, no? But you won’t find it reported in any legacy/mainstream outlet. And when the FT‘s Tim Bradshaw did no more than broach the subject in a single tweet, he instantly found himself fielding a barrage of responses criticizing him from so much as mentioning the subject. Similarly, when Gawker first reported Cook’s sexuality in January, MacDailyNews called their actions “petty, vindictive, and just plain sad.”

But surely this is something we can and should be celebrating, if only in the name of diversity — that a company which by some measures the largest and most important in the world is now being run by a gay man. Certainly when it comes to gay role models, Cook is great: he’s the boring systems-and-processes guy, not the flashy design guru, and as such he cuts sharply against stereotype. He’s like Barney Frank in that sense: a super-smart, powerful and non-effeminate man who shows that being gay is no obstacle to any career you might want.
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The institution of the closet is one of fear — one where people would rather be ignored than noticed, because they fear the negative repercussions of being known to be gay. It’s an institution which Cook, like any gay man born in 1960, knows at first hand.
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On top of that, Cook is not exactly open about his sexuality, and Apple has never said anything about it.

All I can say is ugh!

Cook Needs to Come Out:

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO now that Steve Jobs has announced his resignation, has been described as being both intensely private and a life-long bachelor, but it wasn't until this year that rumors started to spread that he was gay.
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Valleywag, a Gawker property that covers Silicon Valley, outed Cook with two anonymous sources, making a joke of the whole situation. "[O]ur tech executive source claims Cook is into Asian guys, a tidbit that prompted another tech observer, with whom we shared the item, to propose some strategic matchmaking that would pair Cook with Google hotshot Ben Ling," Ryan Tate wrote.

Four months later, Out magazine bumped down talk-show host Ellen Degeneres to place Cook at the top of its annual Power 50 index, a list that ranks the most influential gay and lesbian individuals at the time.
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Just one problem there. Cook is one of those at the high levels who is afraid to publicly confirm his homosexuality. And he won't be a role model for the LGBT community until he confirms the rumors and comes out of the glass closet he is assumed to be living in.

I don't know about you but I find this disgusting. It's a bit like the nigger thug drug dealer in the ghetto screaming that "rich bros should not forget their roots!" It's that whole collectivist Soviet/Maoist hive mentality. Shudder!

Will Apple’s New CEO Tim Cook Use Mac’s Worldwide Influence For Queer Good?

Cook has been Jobs’ right hand man for almost 13 years now as the overseer of worldwide sales, operations and the supply chain. Cook dramatically improved the company’s bottom line by reducing its inventory holdings, increasing sales during the economic downturn, and keeping the developments of the iPhone and iPad on schedule while Jobs left to treat his pancreatic cancer. He has a reputation for being calm, un-dramatic, and supremely knowledgable of the company’s operations. He has has a reputation for being demanding: He expects employees to know the company-wide implications of their choices or fly around the world in a moment’s notice.
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Cook lives in the glass closet as he has never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality (even though Apple executives have said that they would continue to back him if he did). However the executives also worry that his coming out could affect people’s perception of the Apple brand. Would an openly gay CEO sink the company’s stock? It seems unlikely, as the world’s focus has remained on Jobs’ product innovation and the CEO’s ability to steer the company in good health rather than on his private life. Apple is also somewhat of a gay brand, with its emphasis on cutting edge technology and design. Cook’s keeping his orientation out of the spotlight suggests that he will continue to do the same as CEO.

But Cook could wield his mighty influence behind the scenes to create some very positive changes for the entire queer community, Apple users or no. First, he could get Apple to create clear guidelines for its mixed treatment of gay content on the App Store. He could also offer incentives for media outlets and developers to create more LGBT friendly content, thus tapping into the rest of the queer computer user iceberg—imagine a trans Grindr-esque app that allows transfolk to find each other or a color-coded U.S. map based on the positive or negative LGBT news coming out of each state.

Second, he could use Apple’s immense standing and wealth to help the continued push for workplace equality.

Yep, that's the bottom line: toe the gay union thug/gangster/mafia line or else! It's shit like this that makes me ashamed to be known as "gay." I sometimes regret ever "coming out of the closet." What fucking communist freaks!

Cherokee Indian tribe expels all slave descendants

21st Century racism and apartheid:

The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners.

The Cherokee nation voted after the Civil War to admit the slave descendants to the tribe.

But on Monday, the tribe's Supreme Court ruled that a 2007 tribal decision to kick the so-called 'Freedmen' out of the tribe could be upheld.

The controversy stems from a footnote in the brutal history of U.S. treatment of Native Americans.

When many Indians were forced to move to what later became Oklahoma from the eastern U.S. in 1838, some who had owned plantations in the South brought along their slaves.

Some 4,000 Indians died during the forced march, which became known as the Trail of Tears.

The Cherokees owned black slaves? But I thought American aborigines were so peaceful and enlightened. Well, at least those back East. Out here in the West, they not only captured other tribes as slaves but also ate them. Another leftist "noble savage" myth bites the dust.

I hate the poor

I'm not anti-socialist just because I think it's bullshit. I also hate it because I just can't stand poor people. It's a gut thing not ideological.

Maybe it's because I'm not a Christian or maybe it's because I grew up in Africa where there is real poverty (not fake food-stamp poverty) and most of the poor were black. You knew that blacks had less civilization, education, talents and opportunities than white people and cut them some slack but poor white people in Africa (and there are quite a few even in my own family) are regarded as dishonest, irresponsible and selfish.

In my sixty plus years on earth, I've watched the gap of civilization, education, talents and opportunities between whites and blacks practically disappear in most developed countries and I now also detest poor black people.

As Jesus said: the poor will always be with us - and I haven't got the time of day for their laziness, irresponsibility and selfishness.

The sunflower

From The Strange History of the Sunflower:

It has been suggested that the sunflower was even domesticated before corn. It was during this time that the Cherokee and other Native Americans also began to farm sunflowers. They became an important part of the diet of these peoples as a good source of fat – which hunter gatherer societies needed to supplement the lean meat they would eat. Down south in Mexico the Aztecs were also cultivating the plant but also worshipped it. In their temples to the sun, the priestesses would wear headdresses made of sunflowers to give themselves the air of the divine. The past of the sunflower, then, already reveals some ‘secrets’. Yet no one would have guessed what the future of the sunflower held – and the travels it would endure.

The next debt bubble to burst - student loan defaults

Daily duh! If you can't get a job, you can't pay your student loans.

Student Loans Have Grown 511% Since 1999:

You think the housing bubble was enormous? Meet the education bubble.
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See that blue line for all other debt but student loans? This wasn't just any average period in history for household debt. This period included the inflation of a housing bubble so gigantic that it caused the financial sector to collapse and led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. But that other debt growth? It's dwarfed by student loan growth.

How does the housing bubble debt compare? If you add together mortgages and revolving home equity, then from the first quarter of 1999 to when housing-related debt peaked in the third quarter of 2008, the sum increased from $3.28 trillion to $9.98 trillion. Over this period, housing-related debt had increased threefold. Meanwhile, over the entire period shown on the chart, the balance of student loans grew by more than 6x. The growth of student loans has been twice as steep -- and it's showing no signs of slowing.*

Obviously the number of students didn't grow by 511%. So why are education loans growing so rapidly? One reason could be availability. The government's backing lets credit to students flow very freely. And as the article from yesterday noted, universities are raising tuition aggressively since students are willing to pay more through those loans.

This student loan growth sure looks unsustainable. But it's hard to see how this bubble's inevitable pop might look. Ultimately, it might look more like a balloon slowly deflating, if a large portion of college graduates decide to strategically default on their debt over time.

All this college debt could put the U.S. on a slower growth path in the years to come. As Americans grapple with high student loan payments for the first few decades of their adult lives, they'll have less money to spend and invest. All that money flowing into colleges and universities is being funneled away from other industries where it would have been spent in future years. Of course, this would be a rather unfortunate irony: higher education is supposed to enhance a nation's growth, but with such an enormous debt burden, graduates might not be able to spend and invest enough to allow that growth to occur.