Charlie Sheen's one-and-no-half-man tour show ought to be called LOSING!!

An image of Charlie Sheen is projected in the background as he performs at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Saturday, April 2, 2011. Promising "the real story," the 45-year-old former "Two and a Half Men" star hit the road for a month-long, 20-city variety show tour, with the first stop Saturday's sold-out show in Detroit. Photo: Carlos Osorio / AP

3 April UPDATE: "Charlie Sheen to Chicago: Don't be like Detroit". 
Julian to Charlie Sheen: Don't be such a self-absorbed, arrogant, obnoxious, misogynistic, procuring prick in every city you are in."

The source for what follows is *here*. The bottom line is this: don't waste your money hearing Charlie Sheen rant. People have walked out of his first "show" demanding their money back. He's exploiting his fans. It seems the only thing he knows how to do is exploit people, usually women. And I don't buy this thing about him being mentally ill. Every fucking time some man behaves REALLY badly, the press has to identify his problem as mental illness, not as being a virulent and unrepentant misogynist and male supremacist. Which is exactly what Charlie Sheen is. Mental illness doesn't cause people to do what Charlie is doing. Masculinist arrogance and privilege, and male supremacist entitlements do. His self-absorption isn't "mental illness" either. That too is a consequence of being raised to think women should wait on you hand and foot and everything in between. I pray that no one goes to his shows and that he doesn't get any contracts to appear on television ever again, or in films. I wish the same for Mel Gibson, who also isn't "mentally ill". Being a W.I.M.P. and a P.R.I.C.K. are not mental health conditions; they are political conditions, predicated on exercising social, structural, economic, and interpersonal power systematically over and against others.

DETROIT (AP) — Charlie Sheen and his "goddesses" took the stage to thunderous applause Saturday night for the first leg of his "Torpedo of Truth" tour. The 70-minute show hadn't even ended when the first reviews were in, and they were brutal.

The former "Two and a Half Men" star showed that comedic success on the screen doesn't necessarily translate to the stage, and the capacity crowd at the 5,100-seat Fox Theatre rebelled before he left the stage, chanting "refund!" and walking out in droves.

Linda Fugate, 47, of Detroit, walked outside and up the block yelling, "I want my money back!"

She said she paid $150 for two seats.

"I was hoping for something. I didn't think it would be this bad."

Fans who gathered outside the theater before the doors opened Saturday — some who had to fly in for the show — said they were hoping to see the increasingly eccentric actor deliver some of the colorful rants that have made him an Internet star since his ugly falling out with CBS and the producers of "Two and a Half Men."

They got the ranting. It just wasn't funny.

"It was just a bunch of ranting," said Rodney Gagnon, 34, of Ontario.

Promising to give fans "the real story," the 45-year-old Sheen kicked off a month-long, 20-city tour Saturday night, with the second show scheduled for Sunday in Chicago.

The show started well for Sheen, as the crowd stood and cheered as he and the women he calls his "goddesses" took the stage. The women, one a former porn star and the other an actress, carried signs with the words "War" and "Lock," references to one of the catchphrases Sheen recently coined.

"I don't see a single empty seat," he said.

After one audience member booed, Sheen sanguinely replied, "I've already got your money, dude."

He tried on a bowling shirt like one his TV character Charlie Harper would wear, then took it off and had his goddesses burn it. He then donned a Detroit Tigers No. 99 jersey, a reference to his role in the film "Major League."

He told everyone he wanted them to enjoy "a night of winning." Winning, in fact, was one of many of Sheen's catchphrases to be displayed in a video montage. Others: "Violent hatred" and "Adonis DNA."

Sheen had said rapper Snoop Dogg would perform at the show, but he didn't. Instead, the show ended with a video for a new Snoop Dogg song before the lights went on.

Toronto-area resident Ronnie Prentice was among several fans outside the theater who said they were hoping to see Sheen rant.

"It's kind of like a NASCAR race. You're just tuning in because you're just waiting for the accident to happen," said Ronnie Prentice, 37.

Adam Hawke said he bought a ticket for the same reason.

"He might be doing something really crazy," said Hawke, 47, who works in the construction business and lives in Michigan. "He's a wreck. That's half the draw."

Geoff Rezek, 69, flew in from New York to see what he believed was going to be "history in the making."

"I wouldn't miss the first show. Who knows if there's going to be a second show?" said Rezek, a computer consultant from Connecticut, who said he also bought a ticket for Sheen's show next week in his home state.

Sheen has made headlines in recent years as much for his drug use, failed marriages, custody disputes and run-ins with the police as for his acting. His father, actor Martin Sheen, has compared his son's fight against addiction to that of a cancer patient's fight for survival.

In August, Sheen pleaded guilty in Aspen, Colorado, to misdemeanor third-degree assault after a Christmas Day altercation with his third wife, Brooke Mueller. The couple recently finalized their divorce.

The wayward star's behavior, which included lashing out at the show's producer, Chuck Lorre, finally became too much for Warner Bros. Television, which booted him from "Two and a Half Men" on March 7.

Sheen fired back with a $100 million lawsuit and all-out media assault in which he informed the world about his standing as a "rock star from Mars" and a "warlock" with "Adonis DNA" who lives with two "goddesses" — both of whom he said would be at the Detroit show.

His unique banter and catchphrases — think "winning" — have spread over the Internet and onto T-shirts, more than a few of which are expected to be sold on the tour, which wraps up May 3 in Seattle after stops in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New York, San Francisco and others. Sheen has said the Detroit show, where tickets cost $45 to $80, sold out.

"I am bringing 'My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not an Option' show out to you in the battlefield," Sheen said in a video announcing the tour. "If you're winning, I'll see you there. Trolls need not apply. ... Buy your ticket. Take the ride. And the ride will take you."

___

Associated Press writer Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/article/Crowd-boos-Sheen-during-his-1st-leg-of-stage-tour-1319609.php#ixzz1IQTpdQrf

Nuclear Madness: There's a Cure! Listen to Feminist and Indigenous Women Around the World, for a SUSTAINABLE CHANGE!

image is from here

If radioactive plutonium in the sea water off the shore of Japan isn't enough to convince you that Nuclear Power Plants are not "plants" but are designed to produce waste materials that poison plants and all Life, then I don't know what the hell you're eating. And the waste products that kill everything are part of what nuclear power "plants" do that they are SUPPOSED to do. We're not even talking here about "when things go very wrong".

What follows is from afriquejet.com, here.

Nigeria: Group demands global nuclear phase out

Lagos, Nigeria - About 50 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award and members of the World Future Council have demanded a global nuclear phase out, according to a press release jointly issued by the members and made available to PANA here Tuesday. “Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a panacea for climate change challenges. There is no solution of problems by creating more problems,” they stated in the declaration signed by experts, activists, politicians, clergy, entrepreneurs and scientists from 26 countries.

Among the signatories are Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai from Kenya, environmental activist Vandana Shiva and Ashok Khosla, Co-President of the Club of Rome, both from India, Maude Barlow, UN Consultant from Canada, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, human rights activist from Nigeria, Alexander Likhotal from Russia, President of the Green Cross International, Francisco Whitaker Ferreira from Brazil, Co-Founder of the World Social Forum and Erwin Kräutler, Austrian and bishop in Brazil.

“To get a grip on climate change and on nuclear threats is not a technological challenge. It is a psychological and political challenge,” said Jakob von Uekull, Founder of the Right Livelihood Award and the World Future Council.

“With this declaration we want to demonstrate how strong the worldwide support for a global nuclear phase out is. We believe that a crisis can always be a chance for change,” von Uekull said.

Pana 30/03/2011

Here's a Question: Why Not Listen to and Follow the Orders of the Women of RAWA?

image is from here

Visiting a local Kabul primary school, I asked the teacher there what she thought of Australia's contribution of building schools. Expecting enthusiastic support, I was surprised at her response. "Pff," she scoffed. "We don't need schools. We need teachers. What good is a school when there are no teachers to teach the children? Why wouldn't your government ask us what we really need instead of building empty schools?"


Time and time again I was asked, "Why is your military here? They pay local warlords for protection for their convoys, and they in turn pay the Taliban. Why are you supporting the people you're trying to fight?" It so defies logic that they turn to other explanations; indefinite occupation, control of resources. I struggle to think of other plausible reasons for our presence. "Help us do it by ourselves," my teacher friend pleaded. "It is something we should do by ourselves." (this is an excerpt from what follows in the article below)

If you don't get by now that the U.S. government is a terroristic organisation designed to rule the world by any and all means necessary, or, at least, to try and militarily occupy as much of it as possible, while also killing civilians and non-human Life, then I honestly have to ask if you're paying attention at all to what the U.S. government is doing. The banking industry, the megacorporations that won't and don't pay taxes, and the leadership that is about as corrupt as it gets, will all be presented to you as, somehow, "good" for U.S. Americans, meaning, honestly, rich white het men. Because the laws here don't protect anyone else from rich white het men's abuses, including against rich white women.To Simon Moyle: please instruct all who listen to you to listen to the revolutionary WOMEN of RAWA and in Afghanistan generally. Thank you. And thank you for speaking out against a murderous, corrupt, insane, and barbaric war initiated by the Rich White Man and fought only for HIS interests and no one else's.

The source for what follows is *here*.

Face to face with Afghanistan and a war we cannot win

Simon Moyle

The customs officer pulled me aside as I exited the airport gates. "Sir, was there a reason for your going to Afghanistan on a tourist visa in the ... uh ... current climate?"

I smiled. I know it's not everyone's holiday destination, but I had my reasons.

Afghanistan has from the very beginning been sold to us as "the good war". Yet precious little information about the situation on the ground is allowed to filter through to the Australian people. With a Defence Department which routes everything through its PR department, I decided to travel to Afghanistan to see for myself.


What I saw and heard there belies most of what we are told by our government.


No one - it seems - in Afghanistan supports the Karzai government, with the exception of government officials and the military. Karzai is seen as entirely corrupt and out of touch with everyday people, and his warlord Parliament are only interested in their own wealth. People just get on with their lives, resigned to this veneer of democracy being impenetrable for the ordinary Afghan, with no expectation that these criminals will represent their interests. The only thing stopping the government from being entirely irrelevant is the amount of aid money which flows straight into their pockets, a source of anger for ordinary Afghans.


As a result, even aid has become suspect in Afghanistan - so much of it is militarised, tainted by partisan interests or stripped bare by corruption that only the bravest, most foolish and most desperate are willing to receive it.


Meanwhile, according to a World Health Organisation worker at my hotel, there is nothing stopping the open sewers in the streets of Kabul from running into the water supply. There is no sanitation, and he is shocked a massive outbreak of cholera has not occurred. Additionally, the poor air quality in Kabul kills 3000 people a year through respiratory disease.


Unemployment is at 40%, and people still have to survive on an average wage of $200 per year. Meanwhile, security contractors earn up to $350 per hour. Afghans see this disparity and understandably conclude we are not there to help them.


Poverty and insecurity are in such dire proportions that the day before I departed for Afghanistan, the International Committee for the Red Cross - normally conservative in their statements - declared life for ordinary Afghans to be "untenable".


Women, too, are no more liberated. Outside of Kabul every woman I saw wore a burqua; even inside Kabul most women still wear one. The best work being done in this respect is by organisations like the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), and courageous individual women who risk their lives; a job made harder by the perception that such groups are Western influenced.


Visiting a local Kabul primary school, I asked the teacher there what she thought of Australia's contribution of building schools. Expecting enthusiastic support, I was surprised at her response. "Pff," she scoffed. "We don't need schools. We need teachers. What good is a school when there are no teachers to teach the children? Why wouldn't your government ask us what we really need instead of building empty schools?"


Time and time again I was asked, "Why is your military here? They pay local warlords for protection for their convoys, and they in turn pay the Taliban. Why are you supporting the people you're trying to fight?" It so defies logic that they turn to other explanations; indefinite occupation, control of resources. I struggle to think of other plausible reasons for our presence. "Help us do it by ourselves," my teacher friend pleaded. "It is something we should do by ourselves."


Poverty and unemployment fuel the anger here, especially when they see billions spent on aid which does not reach the people, and on a military occupation which is not making them safer. This year is set to be the most violent yet. There is no love for the Taliban, but the foreign militaries are seen as worsening the problem by fuelling the armed resistance and supporting corruption.


The Australian government and Defence Forces might be able to keep us in the dark, but ordinary Afghans are not so easily fooled. We are losing this war. We are militarily supporting a corrupt, criminal regime. We are not making progress; the insurgency is growing every day and Afghans feel increasingly less secure. Even our aid and good intentions are not reaching the people who need them most. As my Afghan friends said, "Peace is a prerequisite for progress."


Hope exists in the strong and resilient Afghan people and the fragile Afghan civil society organisations, groups unfortunately made more fragile by the insecurity of the foreign military presence.


"Why not listen?" my new Afghan friends asked me. Not to the corrupt Karzai government, nor to the military elite, but to the ordinary farmers, taxi drivers, and unemployed of Afghanistan. I'd like to ask the same of my own government.

Simon Moyle is a Melbourne Baptist Minister, husband and father of three.

Feminist Event: Why Nature Needs Rights: A Conversation with Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Cormac Cullinan, and Pablo Solon: April 21, 2011, CUNY Graduate Center, NYC

photograph of Dr. Vandana Shiva is from here

Indigenous feminist and non-Indigenous feminist activists have been demanding the Earth be treated with respect for centuries. But men won't listen. And when white men speak out about the need to protect the Earth from the White Man's many atrocities against Life, sometimes men listen, sometimes not. I encourage you to listen to Vandana Shiva and to read her work on the subjects of ecofeminism, earth justice, and social and environmental policies and practices that are humane to all Life.

Published on New York Activist Calendar (http://nycal.mayfirst.org)

Why Nature Needs Rights: A Conversation with Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Cormac Cullinan and Pablo Solon

Created 03/30/2011 - 10:58pm

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 10:58pm

 

Date: 

Thursday, April 21, 2011 - 6:30pm

 

Location: 

CUNY GRADUATE CENTER 365 5th Avenue at 34th Street 

Contact: 

212-242-4201, brechtforum@brechtforum.org ; directions http://bit.ly/bierxE ; map http://bit.ly/bzOKJp

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE CUNY GRADUATE CENTER 365 5th Avenue at 34th Street

Co-Sponsored by: The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at CUNY Graduate Center, the Brecht Forum, Global Exchange, Council of Canadians, and the Mission of Bolivia to the UN

Why Nature Needs Rights:
A Conversation with Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Cormac Cullinan and Pablo Solon
Moderated by David Harvey
David Harvey and the co-authors of the new book, The Rights of Nature, will discuss how to transform our relationship with the environment to address climate change and related problems like natural disasters. The rights-based approach to nature they advocate is beginning to discussed at the UN. Available for purchase":" the edited volume, The Rights of Nature, and a new edition of Cormac Cullinan’s book, Wild Law. 

• Vandana Shiva is an Indian philosopher, environmentalist, and feminist • Maude Barlow is a water activist and Chair of The Council of Canadians • Cormac Cullinan is an environmental lawyer based in South Africa • Pablo Solon is the Ambassador of Bolivia to the UN • David Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at CUNY Graduate Center

Must RSVP: $6/$10/$15

Link: 

http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=11909