Friday, July 30, 2010

Born to be Wildly Stupid....

when I was Jung....
the Hell's Angels...they broke the law, dealt drugs and killed people..what a team! What is it about Harleys..people ride one and all of a sudden they are badass?? If a short guy gets on a Harley, all of a sudden he's a tall guy? They get a club together, get tatoos and ride in big groups and wear leather...and I'm supposed to be impressed? well, I'm not...in fact, I think it's pretty pathetic if the only extension of your personality is a motorcycle...especially if you tweak the muffler to create more noise..you see, the only reason these folks do all this is to grab attention....they seek attention..look at me, notice me..the bigger the group and the louder they are, the more attention they get to feed their starved egos...now, if you took away the bikes and the clubs settings, do you know what these monsters would do? they would sit down and cry like little babies! "where's my mommy??" they would cry..well, your mommy didn't love you and that's why you seek out the community of Harley riders..to find another mommy..bunch of crybabies!!
so that's my analysis which is supported by Jung's depth psychology and archetypes and so on...
so Sonny Barger from the Hell's Angels is on a book tour and on their website he says he will have a signing at the Harley shop in Carp...a lot of Hell Angels guys opened bike shops as a front for their illicit activities, from blowing up rival members clubhouses, to dealing drugs, to prostitution and confirming that they are sociopaths.... but kids, whatever you do, don't grow up to be like him!! He's not a rebel, or a leader, he's just an old guy who caused alot of mayhem and talks through his throat!
Barger remains in the Hells Angels as a member of the Cave Creek Chapter. Touring internationally to promote his books, he also acts as an unofficial ambassador of the biking club. The aging Barger, the once rakish icon of the "one percenters"--that 1% portion of cyclers that American Motorcycle Association described as giving the rest a bad rap--speaks with a raspy voice reminiscent of the possessed child in the Exorcist. Thanks to a 30 year, three-Camel-pack-a-day habit, Barger needed throat cancer surgery in the early 1980's. He breathes through a plastic valve in his neck, and covers the vent to speak. His exhaled breath then passes through a reconstructed larynx.
so is the Santa Barbara Harley shop in Carp affiliated with the Hell's Angels..my guess would be yes'm although when Barger said he would be at their shop to sign books, they hurried to say they were not affiliated with him in any way: The Sonny Barger book signing event is not being held at and is no way endorsed by Santa Barbara Harley-Davidson. The flyer posted on the Santa Barbara Hells Angels web site is incorrect and we have been advised that it will be updated shortly. Please visit hell and watch for updated event information.
probably just a PR move..but covertly, they have a bunch of Hell's Angels punks going in and out of their shop..how could they not??
3 packs of Camels a day.....wow!! what a cool dude!!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

uptown girls...

the strange high society world of nonprofit conservation corporations...

It won’t be long, just wait and see I’ll have a big car, fine clothes
And then I’ll be Uptown, in penthouse number three
"Why must conservation leaders make more than 99 percent of U.S. taxpayers? Once they get used to such lavish pay, doesn’t it follow that fundraising — to keep those salaries coming — would trump their core mission?"
from New York Social Diarynewyawk
by Lesley Hauge

Allison Stern is delightful – and kind of bossy: ‘Have you looked at the CIA Factbook on the web? You should write that down …’(she leans over to see that I do) … ‘because that’s a good website if you need to know anything about geography.’ And: ‘If you go to the Galapagos, take hiking boots – get Merrells. They’re really lightweight …’ (I have the feeling she’ll know if I don’t get Merrells) And: ‘I think I have the only husband in the world who would bring me an ant farm.’ (Holds aloft the package.) ‘How old are your kids? You should get one. He got it right around the corner at the Sharper Image, 73rd and Madison – so as you leave, pick one up.’

So that’s me sorted – now for the Wildlife Conservation Society for whom she is a passionate advocate, trustee and board member and committee member deluxe (she sits on no fewer than four of the standing committees). ‘I have a very big mouth,’ she declares. It’s also a rather beautiful mouth, for she is classically lovely, a slender, blonde ex-model married for over 20 years to the ant-farm giving Leonard Stern, chairman and CEO of the Hartz group, whose great wealth, now in real estate, appropriately enough, once stemmed from selling pet products. Presumably he gets his marching orders from time to time but she devotes a good portion of her week to the WCS, which maybe takes the heat off somewhat. In fairness, the bossiness is really a form of enthusiasm, let us call it structured enthusiasm, and it is immensely appealing – appeal is something she really knows how to deploy.

Although PR is not her formal role, it seems that one of the most valuable things she brings to the organization is an instinctive understanding of the way the media works. She constantly, almost unconsciously, ties thoughts into how they could best be disseminated into popular culture. Whilst discussing books we like, she comes up with the astute assertion that Queen Latifah should option all the Alexander McCall-Smith books featuring the Botswana lady detective, Madame Ramotswe. (So that’s Queen Latifah sorted too.)

Bringing this acute media instinct to the WCS, she says: ‘Over the past 10 or 15 years, we were very publicity shy – if it wasn’t in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or Nature magazine, then it wasn’t for us. But in my opinion, I think a story about someone attacked by a forest elephant is a People magazine story … my goal is to see this organization step boldly into the 21st century.’ It is a formidable organization. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, it has consistently had a clear mandate: promoting the study of zoology, educating the public and advancing the conservation of wildlife and wild lands.It runs the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks (they don’t seem to like the word ‘zoo’ that much, at least not on the website) – although the flagship of the whole enterprise, the Bronx Zoo, remains as such. Some of the best and most prominent scientists in the area of conservation are funded by the WCS and currently there are WCS projects underway in 53 nations across the globe. In New York more than 300,000 school children in organized groups, visit the five main zoos over the course of a year. Scattered throughout its website are evocative quotes about human beings ‘yearning to connect to wildlife’ and how this work is ‘essential to the integrity of life on Earth.’ And there is no doubt how deeply Mrs Stern feels about animals. ‘They fascinate me. If I know someone and they’re just not an animal person or have no compassion for animals, I can’t be friends with them.’
She showed her commitment to the organization by becoming a zoo guide at Central Park Zoo for two years before joining the board. Looking at me meaningfully over her coffee cup, she adds somewhat drily, ‘There were no women on the board at that time.’ But she clearly loved paying the dues expected of her. Amongst many of the rewards of that job was witnessing, one day, one of the polar bears catch and devour a hapless pigeon that had landed in its enclosure. ‘Just seconds’ she swipes gleefully at the air polar-bear style. ‘And then it was gone.’

 She’s not only in it to cuddle the pandas. Of sentimentalists such as Timothy Treadwell of Grizzly Man fame, she yelps ‘That guy was a jerk! He was no more a scientist than my cat is! Grizzly bears are wild animals. THEY WILL EAT YOU!’ And of the other world where they will eat you, the one that is stretched out along Park Avenue, she says she has emphatically not taken up this particular cause for the social cachet. ‘I really do believe that the social cachet comes more with the arts organizations,’ she says. And then with the same strength of purpose (let us call it that now), she adds ‘I really don’t care what people think, I truly don’t. I love this organization. This is my thing.’

corporate conservation non-profit group CEOs rake in the cashfrom Charity Navigator comments: As an employee of Wildlife Conservation Society right now in June of 2009, I feel the need to inform you that Steve Sanderson is presently compensated at $900,001 per year, including a housing allowance for his Manhattan penthouse, 100% payment of children's college tuition, travel allowance... the list goes on. Even sadder is the number of low- wage earning union employees laid off last month-- 48 individuals-- zoo keepers, maintenance and horticulture employees, etc... the "little people" who make the zoo and aquarium work. Sanderson was asked at a zoo wide "town hall" meeting to take a pay cut and he flat out refused, even though people making less than $50K per annum offered to take a pay cut to save jobs. WCS management refused to sit down with DC-37 Union Reps to find other ways to save money, besides layoffs and shipping animals out... that's right, refused. For those of us who work in the Brooklyn Aquarium and the Bronx Zoo, it's been a very painful and difficult time. Some animal care departments were cut down by as much as 25% of staff, and then told that if productivity lessened under the cuts, exhibit buildings would be closed and beloved animals would be shipped out. Bear in mind also that there's an extensive network of other top management individuals pulling in six figure incomes... Sanderson is the top of the pyramid, but there are literally dozens of other "top tier" managers, if not more, that increase the % of $$ going to adminstrative salaries quite a bit. There's no question that WCS does some wonderful things for wildlife conservation in the field, but there simply has to be a limit on salaries here at home... and there isn't. As far as dk's comment re:competitive salaries for CEO's of charities... take a look at salaries of equivelant positions in ZOOS, not just any charity... you'll find that Sanderson is getting at least 500K MORE than anyone in San Diego, Brookfield, Zoo Atlanta, or any of the other large Conservation Parks. Sorry, it just doesn't add up!

Alliance For Climate Protection raised $88,303,373 and paid CEO Cathy Zoi $330,280
Wildlife Conservation Society ..CEO Steve Sanderson...$900,000
Environmental Defense Fund raised $125,425,925 and paid CEO Frederick D. Krupp $474,596National Wildlife Federation raised $94,573,828 and paid CEO Larry J. Schweiger $345,004Natural Resources Defense Council raised $107,999,911 and paid CEO Frances Beincke $432,959The Nature Conservancy raised $856,246,824 and split $592,298 between CEO’s serving part of year, Stephanie K. Meeks $386,348 and Mark R. Tereck $205,950.Pew Center On Global Climate Change raised $1,338,294 and paid CEO Eileen Clausen $335,099.World Resources Institute raised $21,224,697 and paid CEO Jonathan Lash $385,388.World Wildlife Fund raised $151,560,547 and paid CEO Carter Roberts $509,699.

 
ok, Allison Stern is now on my radar as the poster girl for nonprofit airheads....like totally!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Lady O...

While you sit and seek a crescent moon
Is layin' at your feet,
With hope that's made of sand,
You don't think you can
But you have held it all in your hand
Lady-O.
there's this woman who keeps babbling on about this and that, and not making sense (kinda like me). She's at the forefront of conservative politics because her daddy is famous, she's a daddy pleaser...and try as I might, try as I can, try as I must, I can't look away..I can't dismiss her..I pretend not to notice when some news organization quotes her, but they always include a picture of her, and that's where I get stuck..the blonde hair, the deep blue eyes, the cute nose, the soft lips. I can't look away, I tell ya..I can't!!
The woman in question is Liz Cheney..Dick's daughter..she's getting alot of press because of that fact and she has said some mighty kooky stuff about Obama and libs and now she wants kinky dude Micheal Steele to resign because he said the Afghan war can't be won...well, of course he's right, but folks get touchy when we speak the truth about our war engagements..it's the rah rah rah mentality instead of the rasta rasta rasta mentality..Bob Marley's was a man of peace, so we should listen to him, mon..but conservatives aren't into reggae, I guess..
but Liz, Liz...I can't figure her out..well, maybe I can...she's just trying to do a ballet for her dad, to win his approval..some gals do this all their life because daddy always holds back a little..this causes the daughter to try even harder..and Dick keeps clutching his chest and going to the hospital to get attention and sympathy from everyone..Liz falls for it everytime!! Dick's got a weird needy heart!
but believe me, I've seen some damaged daughters out there..collateral from the family, the sick American family...the cure would be for Liz to step away from her dad and do something on her own, develop her own style away from the Dick's daughter image..instead of parroting what her pop says and thinks, Liz needs to develop her own personality and that's where I come in...I can help her, I want to help her...I need to help her...
I've been tryin' hard to keep from needin' you
But from the start,
My heart just rolled and flowed
I've seen where it goes
And still somehow my love for you grows, Lady-O.