The Roth Journals

Originally Posted by Blaze

For The Love of Russia
A personal word

Yesterday, I spent the day finding out why Serbia would hold such support for Gadafi. To say the least it is complicated.

However, I noted key points.

While looking for a good quote on fighting corruption other than one of mine, I found:
"one does not fight corruption by fighting corruption,"

It appears first to be quoted in an article by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld in September 1999 in reference the Russian money laundering scandal of that same period. Later the quote was attributed to Daniel Kaufmann. More than likely though it was just standardized internal motto from the World Bank.

The quote is noteworthy and worth so many words because while looking at Serbia, why they would remain supportive of Gadafi; I noted some patterns. Mainly, after the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, I noted:

“Following the Kosovo War, due to the many weapons in the hands of civilians, law enforcement inefficiencies, and widespread devastation, both revenge killings and ethnic violence surged tremendously. The number of reported murders rose 80% from 136 in 2000 to 245 in 2001. The number of reported arsons rose 140% from 218 to 523 over the same period. UNMIK pointed out that the rise in reported incidents might simply correspond to an increased confidence in the police force (i.e., more reports) rather than more actual crime. According to the UNODC, by 2008, murder rates in Kosovo had dropped by 75% in five years.”

In addition, due to the corruption already established, the area has remained a hot bed of horrific crimes of profit by organized criminals.

“Kosovo is extremely vulnerable to organized crime and thus to money laundering. In 2000, international agencies estimated that Kosovo was supplying up to 40% of the heroin sold in Europe and North America. Due to the 1997 unrest in Albania and the Kosovo

...

Originally Posted by Blaze

Whacking the wicked

1. Time for the pill.
2. My balls are blue.
3. My TWAT is red
4. Water rushing on (the CLIT)
5. Feel me, Touch me.
6. The day the devil descended (instrumental)
7. the slaughter
8. Lift up her veil
9. Listen to the sound
10. We hold Jesus's hand
11. Muhammad watched
12. The Jew's Cut
13. Exploitations.
Hidden tract:
Thunder Child

Originally Posted by Blaze

The Maps:













Describe the Revolutionary Forces:

1. Leader/s:

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

2. Organization:

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

3. Armaments (Physical and perceived):

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

Describe the Gaddafi Regime:

1. Leader/s:

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

2. Organization:

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

3. Armaments (Physical and perceived):

A. Strengths -

B. Weaknesses -

Discuss

Originally Posted by Blaze

Mike Ragogna: Steve, you and Berklee are trying to set a record in Guinness by attempting to teach as many guitarists online as possible within a single lesson. How're you going to pull that off?

Steve Vai: Well, believe it or not, I don't do drugs. (laughs) I don't know how it came about, it's more or less for the promotion of the online class that's being taught at Berklee. When I graduated from high school, I went to the Berklee College of Music, I really enjoyed it. Through the years, I've been in contact with them on various things. They kicked off these online music lessons for virtually anything, you can go to Berklee and take these classes on all sorts of things about music. They are really great because you can be anywhere in the world--you sign in, the classes hold twenty people and have an instructor. It's very interactive...they wanted to develop these classes that were more specific to the techniques of artists. So, they approached me and I liked the idea because I always like teaching, I'm also a big proponent of music education.



I went to Boston and recorded an entire day of videos based on my experiences and the things I think are important. The way I approach teaching is more esoterically. So, they chopped all up and created these classes, it's over one semester, you can sign up and there is an instructor and they watch a video of me and they discuss it and they talk about the things I talk about. Once a semester, I go online and participate in the class and do a Q&A. They launched this in September and it did wildly well. In order to promote the class, the marketing geniuses came up with this idea, "Hey let's get Steve to create the biggest online live guitar lesson in history."

My first question was, "Did anybody ever do this before and is there actually a record?" You can make a record for anything,

...

Originally Posted by chan_bkny

Congrats to Trent Reznor on the Oscar win.