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March 29, 2005

Drop the Premix

Ok fans of exaltron, stop emailing me and demanding that I pre-release a funked-out 10 minute mash-up of sections of "20,000 Volts", "Focus", and a whole crapload of trumpetronics, searing guitar, burbling synths, and bombastic beats. I have heeded your whiny admonishments and posted the exaltrondotcom demo here. This will have to keep you chirpy birds quiet until April when I should be releasing the CD, which currently maintains a pretentious "untitled" status. Don't worry I'll name 'er before she comes down the pike.

Oh and also, I may have a gig coming up in the next coupla weeks in the East Village. Yay!!!

Posted by exaltron at 08:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 21, 2005

The Elephant (Sized Mosquito) in the Room

Read the Cox and Forkum blog entry for the cartoon above

I don't know why I should have been remotely surprised to read an article about mosquito-borne diseases in the New York times that contained not one single reference to DDT. You would think that it might be germane -among weighing the ins and outs of pesticide treated mosquito nets and "lymphatic filariasis, a disease caused by eight-inch worms that ball up and nest in the lymph glands, clogging them until victims' legs swell to the thickness of an elephant's"- that once upon a time mosquito-borne diseases had been all but obliterated in many of the most mosquito-infested areas of the world. Robert Bidinotto writes....

...in an article entitled "Death by Environmentalism" that "In India, for example, malaria's horrific annual toll in lives plunged dramatically, from a million deaths per year to fewer than 50,000 total cases of malaria infection in 1961." Currently India averages over two million cases of malaria per year.

Before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, DDT had been responsible for saving millions of lives all over the world. Carson, without any evidence to support her claims, suggested that DDT would cause a massive increase in the incidence of cancer if its use were to be continued. While there is evidence that some wildlife had been affected by over-spraying, at the height of its use, DDT had caused no reported symptoms in inhabitants of sprayed houses or even in the spraymen themselves. Indeed, "Scientists have studied very few chemicals as extensively as DDT, either experimentally or in humanbeings. Opponents of DDT have made many claims about the toxicity of DDT to humans but most claims have not withstood careful investigation." (source: fightingmalaria.org)

But Carson didn't seem to have much use for evidence. Like many scaremongering junk-scientists, she painted a horrific if implausible picture of what continued DDT would produce:
"The only reason millions of lives are being lost to infectious disease is because of Carson's crusade against DDT in her 1962 doomsday book "Silent Spring." Carson predicted that pesticides -- namely DDT -- would cause "practically 100 percent" of the human population would be wiped out from a cancer epidemic after one more generation. This would come about because a race of super-insects, impervious to pesticides, would come about threatening U.S. farms. Desperate farmers then would triple the amount of pesticides they were using so they could stop the super-bugs from destroying their crops. As a result, DDT would eventually work its way up the food chain, killing off first the bugs, then the worms, then the birds (hence her title), the fish and finally mankind." (From Frontpagemag.com)

In fact, not only did (and does) Carson's pseudo-scientific smear mean a death sentence for millions in the third world don't have the luxury of her back-to-nature hyprocrisy, she created in Silent Spring a blueprint for an environmental movement marked by contempt for scientific rigor and technological advance and callous indifference to any human suffering caused by its naive philosophy. Consider the motivating principle behind Carson's thesis- basically it amounts to "I can come up with a semi-plausible, if improbable scenario whereby not banning DDT right now might lead to widespread death, therefore, until we can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my nightmare won't come true, we should just accept the status quo (ie, millions continuing to die each year)". This is the essence of the precautionary principle. It is a central tool in the environmentalist core's war against human advancement. Consider this article "Proving a Negative" by Bonner Cohen. Here's a great quote from the article:

"The so-called 'precautionary principle,'" notes Washington State University toxicologist Alan S. Felsot, "essentially holds that when any concerns or allegations, no matter how spurious, are raised about the safety of a product, precautionary measures should be put in place and all burden of proof to the contrary should fall on the proponent of the allegedly unsafe product or activity."

This kind of thinking has and will continue to stifle advancement in technology and medicine, and millions will continue to die as long as environmentalist paranoia is accepted as a substitute for science, and man is expected to somehow survive and thrive without altering the "natural order of things" in any significant way.

I leave you with this little gem from John Muir, one of the founding fathers of the environmental movement:

"I have precious little sympathy for the selfish propriety of civilized man, and if a war of races should occur between the wild beasts and Lord Man, I would be tempted to sympathize with the bears."

So much for clean air and water.

Posted by exaltron at 08:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 18, 2005

It goes a one, two..

three, four,
fountainhedz keep it integrated hardcore
Molly Hayes will amaze when she hits the dancefloor
three sets she gets and she still wants more

From a quasi-finished joint I'm working on called the Fun One. The theme of this is Objectivists-know-how-to-get-their-party-on, inspired by experiences at a couple New Year's Eve parties where I performed. It's also an excuse to give shout-outs to...

....respectees, and indulge some nostalgia for my college days of playing party funk with a band called Jonnycakes (look for the phrase "check out the bass player's afro"- which actually ended up on a live recording from a Jonnycakes party).

So yesterday I emailed the illustrious Ms. Hayes, an objectivist from back in tha day who used to work for Ayn Rand, and asked for her permission to include her in the song (I don't know what the legal ramifications are, but I didn't want to find out after I released the CD). Seems like she's pretty much widdit.

Unfortunately as much as I'd like to share this sound file with you, dear reader, my tightwad team of PR master-strategists has decreed thou shalt sell no rhymes before their time. So you'll have to wait for the official release. I do have a small dose of exaltron v 2.0 coming out soon though, this is a continuous mix of some improvised beats, trumpet, guitar, etc., merged with parts of 20,000 Volts (aka, the Underhanded Bandits song") and Focus.

So check back soon. Yo ass will be assimilated!

Posted by exaltron at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2005

And These Cannibals..

..get just what they deserve
One day it's gonna be your own neck gettin' served

This is part of a section that got cut from a piece that I've just finished -may find a home in another place, perhaps a fun little rant on the extreme left that's in the cue right now.

The line is in reference to a bizarre phenomenon in business where people who have gotten filthy rich thanks to the free-market decide they might get just a little richer if they can get the government to open up their markets for them, usually in the form of some sweet subsidy, tariff, or, if they're really hungry, a whole new...

....government entitlement. This is precisely the case with the Prescription Drug Benefit that was added last year to an already bloated Medicare (literally now costing 10 times what was projected at its inception). Back when this was passed, I wrote this letter to the New York Times:

Re: Congress Strikes a Tentative Deal on Drug Benefits (front page, Oct. 23)
With the passage of an outrageous new drug entitlement bill, it is only a matter of time before legislators will be calling for price controls on prescription drugs to stem the increase in spending that such programs invariably necessitate. This, along with price controls abroad and reimportation, represents an increasingly prevalent trend: the use of government to force drug producers into the role of serfs, with no right to make a profit, but every duty to provide lifesaving drugs for anyone who needs them. Those in the pharmaceutical industry should defend their moral right to trade freely with others on mutual terms and to mutual benefit, to profit from the immeasurable benefits of the treatments they provide. The thuggish policies gaining acceptance in government dealings with the drug industry are sure to drive out the best and brightest minds, and lead to stagnation where innovation has been the rule.

But most remarkable to me in this story is that most of the big drug companies- including the one I work for- actually support this madness. They really think it's practical to bring force into the equation if it brings them short-term profit. They actually believe that they will somehow be immune to the jauggernaut of governemnt pragmatism when it comes time to reign in the cost of these free-for-alls (free for all but those who have to pay for it). This is one of the reasons I am trying to get out of the drug industry, not so much because I feel guilty about contributing to this lunacy, but because I don't see a future in it- I see it as stagnating more and more as the industry gets cozier and cozier with the thugs in congress. As my friend Isaac likes to say, nature, she is just.

Posted by exaltron at 06:33 PM | Comments (1)

March 15, 2005

Voices of Iraq

I have to say this is one of the most amazing documentaries I have seen in years. The concept is brilliantly simple: 150 Iraqis (though it is not clear how they are selected) are given portable video cameras and asked to document their lives and pass the cameras around. Conspicuously absent are blowhard media pundits and whiny intellectuals who never miss an opportunity to speak on behalf of Iraqis.

The result is indescribably moving and enlightening. As I watch, I am overwhelmed with both sadness and elation as the constant barrage of images and descriptions of life under Sadaam as well as the portrayal of the intoxicating effects of freedom and dignity after so many years of miserable oppression. As one man jovially passing by the film crew exclaims, “It is better now than under Sadaam, even if we starve!". This sentiment is generally echoed by most of the subjects of the film, which seems to directly contradict the impression one gets from the mainstream media’s coverage of the Iraq war as well as the anti-American portrayal of the war among the intellectual establishment in the west. While it is obvious that a certain slant might be possible through the editing of over 450 hours of video that led to the final documentary, the film hardly comes off as heavy-handed. In one scene a woman is seen agonizing over the death of her brother and most of his family (they are accidentally shot for failing to stop at security check point) as the family’s orphaned daughter plays nearby, blissfully unaware of the tragedy. The woman behind the camera tries to console her by saying sorry. “They were ’sorry’ too” she wails.

All in all, this movie shows an Iraqi populus that is much more well informed, more aware of the complexities of war and democracy, and vastly more appreciative of even the possibility of freedom than the mainstream media gives them credit for. As one citizen intones when asked about a new Iraqi gov’t, “We cannot leave even the smallest opportunity for dictatorship to return". Many subjects are all too eager to point out that the “insurgents” trying to terrorize Iraqis into crawling back into their national dungeon are not righteous “freedom fighters” as Michael Moore has lauded them, but former Sadaam henchmen and terrorists sent from other Arab countries.

Perhaps the saddest thing is considering how in many ways the Iraqi dream of freedom may be dashed by the cynicism and moral relativism of those who claim that to “impose” on Iraq the American system of individual rights, separation of church and state, and free-market capitalism, would be tantamount to imperialism. In fact, the compromise of any of these guarantees in writing the Iraqi constitution will make freedom and stability precarious at best.

Voices of Iraq official documentary website

A NY Times review

and some pretty thoughtful user reviews at Netflix

Posted by exaltron at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)