When Government, Religion, and Capitalism Converge

On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said. [...]

Upon learning of his son’s death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said. Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn’t amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. –NY Times

“Well, okay.  Here’s your dead son.  We hacked out the bullet — might get a little messy; we’re kind of shorthanded here.  Feel free to mourn your asses off, but keep it off the streets and out of the mosques, and dump the dead body away from the city.  Have a nice day.  Allahu Akbar.”

Sounds like their model for providing care to veterans and their families was based on ours.

“He Pushed Too Hard”

Sky Saxon, the mop-haired bass player and front man for the psychedelic protopunk band the Seeds, whose 1965 song “Pushin’ Too Hard” put a Los Angeles garage-band spin on the bad-boy rocker image personified by the Rolling Stones, died Thursday in Austin, Tex. He was thought to be 71. — NY Times

Not quite Jack-o power when it comes to coverage.  I remember these guys.  They had exactly one song (which everybody remembered), but they packaged and re-packaged the sound to fill whole albums.  Same concept perfected by AC/DC.   I love the “He was thought to be 71” line.  Read the obit for the explanation.

Just Wild About Harry

Too late for Valentines or Mothers Day, but certainly a gift of love.  Which, depending on your supply of batteries, keeps on giving.

“Special effects.”   More like special ed.  Or special olympics.   Played for hours, eh?  Olympic something, anyway.