Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Once It Hits My Hard Drive, IT'S MINE!

Sounds a little cryptic, so I should explain that. Way back in the day when I was learning my way around the system folders in Win 95 and found the temp Internet folder, I realized that that was how it worked. I became increasingly tech savvy after that point. Content delivered via flash and video feeds often bypass a temp storage folder. That is why some content is called streamed. Ordinary images are not streamed. They stick to hard drives like barnacles do to the bottom of a boat. You might not see them, but they are there.

And those are the underlying facts for one of the main reasons I believe #weinergate is a ratfuck. Weiner is tech savvy. The idea of him uploading a sexually suggestive photo to some remote server, um, make that an array of redundant servers, doesn't pass the giggle test. Another reason I believe the hack allegation is I know people who have had their facebook accounts hacked. One, is very much a computer expert. No matter how savvy one is, one cannot totally prevent shit from happening on line.

There's an interesting timeline and breakdown of the facts known and the identity of the likely ratfucker, here. It's not proof conclusive yet, but it's really looking bad for those people who were ready to pounce on the congresscritter. Now I have to confess, today I read some interesting gossipy anti Weiner shit on line. So I will give this little bit to the lynch mob. It's not 100% insane to buy into the "he's a pervert trying to cover his tracks," narrative. But it's half crazy, particularly with this set of facts.

And I know I should stop talking about a certain law professor, but jeeze louise. If it weren't for the fact that I need to get myself a screenplay writer or TV writer job first, I'd recommend her to the next producer I meet, as she is spinning some spaced out scenarios.

Love (not really -- I'm being sarcastic) this one. She's got this idea that Twitter and these other companies could sue him for defamation for saying he got hacked.

Really? No. I mean yes, as my old joke goes, I will sue anyone for you if you give me $10,000.00, be they alive, dead, or unborn. That is to say, you can file any nonsense paperwork at the court house. Doesn't mean there's a case there. And I suppose that all companies potentially involved in this incident have been hacked. Shit. I already mentioned here how I know people who's facebook accounts were hacked. So I repeat.


Really?

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Trying Out New Nicnames for Mrs. Palin.

Skeletor.

She-Skeletor.


How about Skulls?


According to one theory, it's wrong to talk about her looks. Remember, though, this is the woman who wore heels while and when riding on a Harley Hog. And even if taking that class in Fundamentals of Costume Design was a dreary experience, and the professor ripped me to shreds on my presentations, that was not on account of lack of skills. That was on account of not feeling it. Still, though. I learned that craft. So when I say the following I am saying it as a formerly professional general theatre artist.

I wonder how long it took them to find that helmet that just so perfectly allowed for the fringe of bangs up front, and maximum hair flow, in the back? If they found it fast they were lucky, but I am damn sure choice was made based on how it looked.

So there.

Still, I don't get the fan boys. On her best day she rates a B-. I know. I grade hard. I've lived in the NY City area for most of my nearly 50 years, and I am used to cutting across the Garment District and seeing actual fashion models all the time. The low rent snowbilly does not rate. And she has had so much work done that I don't really see a face there. I see either the work, or the skull, or some creepy vision of both.

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Monday, May 30, 2011

#Weinergate, and Ann Althouse's Mad Descent Into an Oxycontin-fueled Delusion. Not That I am Accusing Her of Taking Drugs.

I just accuse her of acting, meaning moreso, thinking, like someone so addle-brained.

So she pimps the story. First. As if anyone with an IQ above 33 should pimp a story from that racist liar Brietbart. Ya. He is the poster child for the demotivational poster where the caption is, "I Won't Come On Your Face This Time. Even If I Broke My Promise Last Time. Swear."

But merely posting the story the first time as if there was any reason to trust Mister Liar, Liar, will shit on your couch and deny it when caught in the act -- on fire, or any thing on his sites, is bad enough. She, mind me, doubles down on the first vapor fit by amending the earlier post with some comments from her minions. Look Here.

Such comments were of the witless -- Weiner didn't do this, didn't do that. There's no investigation, bla bla, yadda yadda, sort. As if on a normal day the person in question has upper level access to the inner workings of the Justice Dept. in general, the FBI in specific, or any other Fed Law Enforcement department or agency. Never fucking mind it's Memorial Day weekend. Ya. The most fucking important thing for the FBI to deal with on Memorial Day weekend is allegations that some congresscritter's Twitter acct was hacked. Ya. That alert ranks just below the report that a discharge of a white powdery substance was spotted in aisle 9 of the Chevy Chase MD SuperFresh supermarket in the flour section, seemingly flowing from a busted open bag of flour. And it was just above the report of a noxious, foul smell in the VA Hospital on Loch Raven Blvd, Baltimore MD, emanating seemingly from a busted colostomy bag.


“We’ve retained counsel to explore the proper next steps and to advise us on what civil or criminal actions should be taken,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said in an email. “This was a prank. We are loath to treat it as more, but we are relying on professional advice.”

Weiner maintains that he thinks the issue is a distraction started and driven by conservatives. “At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject. I don’t,” Weiner said in an email to TheDC. “This was a prank, and a silly one. I’m focused on my work.”

Although he is not completely ignoring the shit, he is putting it on a low priority. He (or his peeps) have talked to a lawyer. Now on to the Memorial Day wieners for Weiner.

I could take a harder pass at Althouse, but Res Ipsa Loquitor. (I know I am using the word outside of the technical legal context. It's sort of a pun or bit of fun latinate word play there. Just saying for the slow witted observers.)


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GOP Ratfucking in the 21st Century.

The Anthony Weiner (is it or ain't it a) scandal. Personally, I am willing to accept as true the statement from the alleged intended recipient of the photo (who oddly never got it, actually.) Seems like someone was up to no good here, and, as I believe this to be the truth, my heart goes out to the poor young lady in question. Smells Like a Ratfucking to me.

That Rep. Weiner would draw the attention of the scuzziest dirty tricksters of the GOP, seems a no-brainer. And this manufactured Twitter sex scandal just smells like a 21st century ratfuck.

Granted, we have that piece of shit James O'Keefe not only running his own tax exempt ratfuck shop, his shop allegedly is training others how to do that bullshit, manufactured video camera ratfucking. Why not take that to the Internet? Imagine what Tricky Dick's Original Gangsta Cali Ratfuckers would have done with today's technology? You don't have to imagine. Not if you have been reading this this far.

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Sarah Palin, Rolling Tacky

Here's all you need to know about Mrs. Palin's tacky display at the "Rolling Thunder," event.

She jumped the line. Instead of just pulling up behind the people who had been there for hours, she and her Palin Family party just jumped to the head of the line.

Check it, here.

Other than that, she (according to some other report I saw, maybe on Fox) asked some real biker chick, how they deal with wearing leather. And she wore heels.

I say as a joke I gave up on bar babes, and biker chix, years ago. But I never hung with biker babes that much (although there was the local bar run by bikers I used to go to.) Anyway, I know this much. A real biker chick would never sweat getting sweaty in her leathers. Nor would she wear heels, even if she was riding behind. So short of it is, it was yet another patently false, fake event and performance amateurishly delivered by the Snow billy Queen.

The moron fanboys loved it. (Don't take me for being gender specific there. Her female fans often act as bad as the males, and the males often act like some immature, middle aged geeks ogling some former supporting actress from one of the Star Trek series, at one of those Comiccons. Yeesh!)

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Follow Up Re Fine Arts vs Theatre People on alleged . . . Free Speech, Communication Theory/Reality.

In a related vein, I am this late night, early morning about to continue the taped/filmed version of the brilliant recent version of what we Theatricals superstitiously refer to as,"The Scottish Play." The superstition is generally never say the name of that Shakespeare play set in Scotland, while inside a theatre. The Specific superstition is never ever say the name either backstage or in the dressing room of a theatre before a performance. And I don't believe in superstitions generally, but as I almost got beaned in the head by a metal gel frame that slid off a lighting instrument when I was doing summer stock when a member of the cast broke that prohibition, I am a hard ass. I really try to NEVER say the name of the play or the title character.

I saw, in original broadcast, the last act and a half. A couple months ago when it became available on Netflix on line view, I got to the middle of act II at least. So I need to watch the middle of it. It is such brilliant theatre I want to beat myself with a leather strap (almost) for not getting my ass to BAM to see the production live. That would be Brooklyn Academy of Music, and I never get my ass out there for the good stuff, nor book fast enough, the tix. Snooze/loose. All that.

In my defense. It sold out so quickly, that was not an option. Really. But anyway. I am going there. Now.

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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Cult of Free Speech Stupidity. Ann Althouse Pouts, and Pulls a Grade School Extortion Trick.

I know, back to her again. Last time I posted about her, I deleted it the next day, mainly because I was way too rambling, and that makes for bad blogging/argument. And I was unnecessarily harsh. But I am taking another pass here, as I noticed on her blog today she's still feuding with the peeps at Lawyersgunsandmoney, for deleting her husband's history there, when they deleted his posting account.

She referenced some post on some other blog referencing some post there on LGAM, but refused to post the direct link because of that, but added, and I quote:

"I'm not going to interact with people who have deliberately and finally cut of my channels of interaction with them. Restore everything and apologize and I will."

One person's believed stand on principle is another person's immature snit. I'd say. So would lots of others, I'd imagine. However, even if one does not want to drive traffic to people they, for what ever reason not want to drive traffic to, shit people. What good is that sort of stance? Better to do what I do (I argue,) and that is to at least play the role of the bigger, more mature person and just be nice. For example, I usually don't post links to her site, not that the tiny traffic I get here will ever change her stats. I just usually think it's not worth doing. I explain why I reference her, and get on with the argument. And this blog is more about me than anyone else. But hey. Here the gratuitous link:

Link Here.

However, that really ain't going to help anyone understand what I am talking about.

Ms. Althouse has some truly weird (to my mind) thoughts about free speech, as something that has meaning past the law. I mockingly call it a cult or a gospel. On a recent bloggingheads appearance she called it a culture of free speech. Some such. Likely, my post a few weeks back about Stanley Fish's ideas was likely greatly influenced by that appearance. Anyway, here are my general biases. I hate the Internet, but on the other hand I really hate the Internet. And I am prone to say things like, "Life's too short to take the Internet that seriously." So I don't get the Internet feud shit, as such, nor do I get the obsession over the post history being lost for now or forever. I mean really? Talk about crying over a dropped penny lollipop.

Now let me get to the real point (sorry for the long set up.) Ms. Althouse has her Bachelor's in Fine Arts. Mine is in Theatre. Now (and she's not the only art grad turned lawyer who I have found to have confusion over these matters) it seems to me that people from that discipline are (often) lacking a reality-based understanding of the nature of communication, based on the fact they see their art, or call it communication, as fixed and permanent. Over at the theatre we don't buy into that bullshit kind of thinking. Our art is temporary. It's fleeting. During each successive performance, a different performance is given. Even if all the performances were archived, important nuance, and sometimes broader differences are totally lost in translation. And the video itself is a different communication. (For example, the Met Opera has been doing some brilliant HD transmissions of performances. But I can tell you with authority, it's not the same as being there. Being there is a physical experience, where your body reacts to the live acoustic orchestra, and the live singers. Ya can't really dupe that, even with Dolby surround sound. It is not the same.)

So that is what I learned in my studies. Communication is not permanent. Even the so called fixed art forms fade, and are lost over time. For practical and technological reasons (I was more of a tech than actor) I know that part very well.

There is another point lost on people from that side of the campus. They are likely not to get the following fact of the planet, if not universe:

You have no right to an audience.


Granted, a sculptor or painter has an opening, and throws a party and lets people in for free. Then they hope to sell pieces. At the theatre we would like to say, and sometimes will say shit like, we sell dreams, we sell fantasy. But truth is, we sell tickets to the show. We know we have no right to an audience. We have to convince them to cough up the money, to get them in the seats.

So take those two ideas, that the real nature of communication is impermanence, and that no one has a right to the audience. Accept that as true or not, but accept that that is my understanding of such things. Therefore know why I find being upset over lost Internet postings to be so much childishness. Please notice that I did pull away from specifically picking on Ms. Althouse. But she has repeatedly triggered these thoughts in me. She's a public example of this sort of free speech stupidity, or call it culture of free speech if you prefer. It's not really reality based. We can have a nice chat about the miles and miles of Hollywood film stock that have not only been lost in warehouse fires, but deliberately junked, and in some cases, still basically rotting away somewhere. Never mind, think about the many brilliant and lost performances from the Golden Age of TV. Or we can cry over the lost Library of Alexandria. But get real kids. It's not as if we have preserved the original performance of King Lear, Never mind, Oedipus Rex. Shit. We don't even have the reviews!

Ok. I spent more time and keystrokes than I intended. Done.

(Note. I have had postings wiped. I have had multi page websites wiped. I got over it. No big deal. It's only the Internet, for crying out loud.)

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That Wing Nut Judge Who Ruled Unconst. the Prohibition on Direct Corporate Campaign Donations?

Well ya, he's a wing nut. And maybe nuts. I checked. He's a Reagan appointee, at least 77 years old, and on Senior Status. Usually Senior Status judges don't get the controversial cases. And likely no one in the Chief Judge's office expected this shit to go down this way.

So question is, did he go off the rails because his mind is slipping, or did he think something like fuckit. I'll just do what I want, here?

We will see. I haven't checked to see who is the current Chief Judge for the Eastern District of VA, but I have to wonder, if they are not wing nutty themselves, will they continue to let old man Cacheris hang around the court house and help out? Ok. I checked, and the CJ is another Reagan appointee, but I am not going to guess he's a full on wing nut. Anyway . . .

The official rule, as I understand it, is that Senior Judges have no right to hear cases. That is totally under the discretion of the Chief Judge. And that leads to the unofficial rule. Senior Judges should not make trouble.

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Palin's Taking a Bus Tour. Should Anyone Care?

Before I go any further, I must confess that I mentioned this yesterday on my FB page. I'm kinda thinking it might be more likely than I ever thought before, but I am still sorta hedging my bet whether or not she's running for POTUS. At the least, news of this tour gave me a chance to knock her and her ability to fuck things up, particularly when she goes of script. (Now I am assuming she will have a script for her stops. Question is will she stick with them or not?)

But I read today (noticed the art. on Mediaite last night, though) some interesting opinions from Lawrence O'Donnell. His take on the situation was to lay shame on the media, particularly the NY Times, for falling for that shit. Again. Remember Trump? (I swore off using that flim-flam-racist-man's name, but he is out of the race now, mostly.) Not really a digression, but linked idea, I read some other article accusing that loony sheriff Joe Arapio of being more concerned with PR than proper management of his department. So I guess my point here, is maybe the question of the day should not be whether she's in the race, but instead, how should society deal with ego centric, collossal attention whores?

(Yes I know in the post slut-incident world, we need to be mindful, but the term attention whore or ho is universally understood to be gender neutral.)

But ya. That's my thought of the day, based on this latest installment of the Mrs. Palin saga.

Should we turn our eyes away until she does something actually truly newsworthy? That would be best for us, I recon. But we do like the shiny thing more than the dull thing. See how it sparkles!

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Difference Between Libs and Cons. It's as Clear as Night and Day.

Not to say it will always work out this way but here is the contrast and comparison.

Remember my post about that racist piece of garbage Eric Bolling, at Fox Business Channel? He who should have been forcibly removed from the set and building for his blatantly racist crack against P. Obama? Well that did not happen. That walking pile of human shit still has his gig, and hasn't apologized for well his blatantly racist shit.

Now his antagonist Ed Schultz had a bad couple days himself. Seems like old Ed went a bit too far on his radio show (not his TV show) and called Laura Ingraham a slut. I can understand the why of it. Ed does get going with a full head of steam and he wanted to insult her and he did. But he went a step too far there, I would say. And thinking about it, after I heard about the incident, I thought, shit Ed, you at least owe her an apology. At least. And he did that. Bless him for knowing right from wrong, after the fact, and owning that shit. And he is under suspension for the time being from his MSNBC show. Ok. That's fair too.

But what of racist piece of shit Eric Bolling? Not only is he still on air, unapologetic, but he led a dog pile against Ed last night. That was ironically after Ed had proven himself to be the better man. Fucking conservative, GOPers really suck. Anyway, the last report about this story is
Here.

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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Mary Katharine Ham. Not a Complete and Total Liar. But I'm Calling Bullshit.






This con writer/blogger has a column (sorta. That's a qualitative shot by me,) at The Daily Caller. Her weird story of the moment is about how she's some sort of rebel for drinking a glass of raw milk.

Excuse me?

Fair warning. I went to U. Vermont. Given it's full name, it's also the state ag. college (So city slicker that I am, I'm an Aggie! Cool!) So back in the day, I used to get my UVM Raw Milk, right there on campus. Not only that, but at the Agriculture Department-run Dairy Bar, you could order a milkshake and have them drop a raw egg in it.



So I'm not buying Ms. Ham's,"Tastes like freedom," bullshit. Granted, I was sorta putting my life in my college's hands. Like everything else that happened on campus, I trusted the school to do right by me. And shit. If there is anything the U. Vermont should know about, it's dairy.

Anyway . . . Ms. Ham way overstates the regulation of raw milk. Yes, it is regulated. However it's less of a government restricting purchasing choice, sort of thing, than government trying to keep dangerous food off the shelves, thing. Is that such a bad thing, given recent and deadly food crises including salmonella outbreaks? Again, I was buying UVM raw milk. The cows were a mere couple miles away at the University Farm. And the University's professors and staff were as good experts as there were in the world. I likely had less risk in drinking UVM Raw Milk than the commercial stuff I find here in NJ. I don't know where that stuff is being trucked in from. And that's the idea behind regulating things in the ordinary stream of commerce. For the most part, Americans have no idea who is in charge of the production and safety of the food they buy and eat. Regulations are there, because of that.

I know some people are ideologically driven to hate government restrictions. To a great extent I think that's a legacy of ignorant, outlaw, twisted anti-social thinking. I'd call it redneck thinking. Others might call it libertarianism. In any case, that sort of twisted liberty thinking can be very thoughtless at times. Shit. Even before I read that article, sometimes I'd be there in the supermarket and I think, shit. We are very trusting, ain't we? As we have no idea how things are where this food was produced, or during the transport stages, either. We just fork over money and cook and eat the stuff not knowing a damn thing about it, where it came from (often,) and how it got to our town.

But for Mary Katharine Ham, drinking a glass of Raw Milk tastes like freedom. Some people are just too fucking stupid. Oh. Here's the "column."

Oh. And if I wasn't clear, there are many places all across America where you can get your mitts on some Raw Milk. Not likely at your local supermarket, though. That's because as unpasteurized milk, it really doesn't travel well. So if you really want some, you better get your ass out to farm country. You really don't want to be drinking that stuff unless you are sure it's fresh from Bessie, and handled under the most safety conscious protocols. And you are not going to get that, 10 miles away from the cow, never mind 100.






Edited to add:




UVM may no longer have it's own herd. I read online that they were up for sale, about a year ago. Sad, but according to the article the herd was an expensive asset to keep up.

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Sort of a Follow Up to PintGate. And My Predictions on How Low (RACIST) They Are Willing to Go.






Yesterday I mentioned Laura Ingraham's twisted shot at P. Obama regarding his trip to a pub while in Ireland. Now Fox News' up and coming lunatic, Eric Bolling, has not only doubled down on that non story, but went racist with the attack, as well. "Cracking 40's." Ya. Douche went there.



Now the story I am linking here on Mediaite focuses on Ed Shultz's comments about Bolling. Yes. I agree with Ed. He's auditioning for Nutjob of Fox News. But I disagree with the commenter (editor) who put that post together at Mediaite. No, it's not 'smartly' avoided calling him, Bolling, a racist. But I have a bias, and that bias is to go ahead and call it as I see it. And if one is close enough to being a racist by employing such odious racist language, in order to appeal to racist thoughts and beliefs in others, then one is as good (meaning bad) as a racist. Remember -- we grade by Horseshoe rules. Close is close enough.



Not that I am taking on Ed for his editorial choices. He has a real gig, and he might me trying to set himself up with a nice good long rivalry a la Olbermann and O'Reilly. So he can go at his own speed. But me? I call shit like Bolling a racist, with out spending too much time splitting hairs about it. And like I predicted over and over since 2008. The racists are coming out of the walls like cockroaches. Let's not pretend they are not vermin, as that is what they are.

Last words. In a News Division run by minimally moral creatures, the douche should have been forcibly removed from the set and taken directly out of the building, officially fired and banned for all time from the property, right then and there. But we are not talking about minimally moral management, there. That is Roger Ailes' shop. And he's a nasty, sick fucker.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Non Story of the Week. PintGate.

Laura Ingraham has her chastity belt in a twist, over P.Obama stopping down at the pub, to have a pint during his stop in Ireland, while there was a tornado going on back in the USA.

Is it that they have totally given up the idea of finding substantive issues to talk about, or are they that far gone? Or both? Never mind the whole timing thing. I mean he was in Ireland. Big time difference. And then there's the whole matter of when the vid got out and all that. And even if Obama can put the kill order on terroristas, he doesn't have magical powers to stop tornadoes, yet. And he already announced plans to visit Joplin. Not to merely do a George Bush fly by, and wait until a hue and cry of insensitively and (follow me, Laura,) genuine "tone deafness" reaches such a level of critical mass in the nation that he has to book a return flight, have them land the plane, and get out. Na. We are way ahead of that shit. We are on it! Republican monsters in Congress are bitching and moaning about the $$ already.

Hey lady. Do something meaningful. Go bust those heartless bastids' nuts instead.

Pardon me. I'm barely trying today. I had one of 'those' trips to the dentist today. The kind that leave one feeling exhausted.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

A Follow Up on Citizen Ailes . . .

Ok. So I finally finished the long article in New York Magazine.

I really did not learn much of anything new, save that Ailes was harsher on Beck than I had guessed. He actually once called out Beck for being too religious on his show. Not so much a surprise, but I never heard that particular nugget before. Beyond that, it's now clearer to me that the phenomenon, the cancer, the threat to the Republic that is Fox News can be well curtailed, if not crippled, if we can just push Ailes out.

He's been running the joint like some Medieval Duke, given such license from the king to run a certain far flung territory, that even the king is wary of messing with the Duke's prerogatives. Oh. That reminds me. The one other 'Hmm' nugget is that at one point before the '08 election, Unka Rupert had considered running an endorsement of Obama in the NY Post. Ailes pulled a blackmail move on Unka Rupert, and said if he ran the endorsement, Ailes would quit. And that stopped the endorsement. That's serves as the basis for my out of control duke analogy.

But getting back to Operation, "Cut the Cancer Out," Ailes has run that shop so tightly that with him out of way, who knows what will become of the operation? Currently he has no heir apparent. And Unka Rupert is old. His presumed legal heirs are not likely to give a rat's ass about playing nice. The machinations and plots of that family are already as thick as the plot of a old style Prime Time soap opera, if not a real opera. When Unka Rupert goes, expect a Battle Royale, no matter what the will says. And NewsCorp, generally, and Fox News, specifically, will be up for consumption like a wildebeest hide is to a pack of jackals. And Ailes himself is long in the tooth. He could, in theory, be pushed out before he wants to go his own way. We shall have to see how this drama plays out.

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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Sunday Quickies, Starting With the One About Citizen Ailes.

Although the sexy payoff in the article is alleged to be about how Rodger might be smart enough to know Mrs. Palin is stupid, it's the Citizen Ailes part that bothers me. Well, not that it is anything really new - newsy, but the reality that the head of of a Major Cable News Division is on the one hand, counseling potential seekers for the one party's nomination for the Presidential Election, is bad enough. Deliberately running a 'stable' of them is worse. I guess the real meaning of "Fair and Balanced" is when the head of the GOP-loving TV News Network not only plays power broker and kingmaker, but hopes to be able to manipulate the government and nation by manipulating the person in the oval office. Fucking republicans.

Moving on, this seems appealing to me. In the, "Train Wreck About to Happen," sense. The idea of a Cain/West ticket intrigues me as it's one thing for the 'Good Negro' to win a straw poll. It would be another thing indeed to have two far right wing nut "Good Negroes," on the GOP ticket. This is not a Pre Supporting Barak Obama Colin Powell/Dr; Rice ticket. This is a two "Good" but basically mystery Negroes ticket. And personally I want to see how many GOPers will stay home on election day, with an all negro GOP ticket. As a curiosity factor. I would love to see the result of that sociological and psychological test. Not that I have a vested interest in quantifying the level of proof of how deeply racist the GOP rank and file are. No. Wait. I have made many statements about my guesses to that, over the years. So I do have a horse in that race.

Moving on, Daniels is out, on account of not being in. For respectable, sane-seeming humans, we have Pawlenty and Romney. Which barring any major flame out by him means I am putting Pawlenty as a little more the favorite. That's because I think the Mormon thing is still a negative for Romney. More so than being the grandfather of what those wing nuts call "Obamacare."

Problem I have with the idea of a Pawlenty ascendancy is not really a negative for him as far as his chances go. It's more of a "These guys are so fucking un hip," point. They call him TPaw. In a weird attempt to make this bland human being seem cool. Now in a world where someone has no idea who TPaw is, if one was told they are being taken to meet TPaw, they might conjure an image of some Major League Slugger, or someone who looks like that. But instead of that, they end up seeing/meeting someone who looks like a middle aged, mid level manager for a regional accounting firm. Oh well. He looks better on cam than Newt.

Oh. And I want Newt to stay in the primary race as long as possible. If only for Jon Stewart's and David Letterman's and the rest of the comedy writers' and performers' sakes.

That's enough for now. Oh. And since we all survived the Poxy Clipse and the Poxy Clipse parties, it's time to get to planning the Post Cancelled Poxy Clipse parties. Otherwise known as, "We're Still Here, Damnit," parties.

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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Why I Passionately Hate Lying Scumbag GOPers, Like Ryan, and Boehner, and the Rest of them Evil Fucks

Friday, May 20, 2011

Given the Choice to Admit Real Mistake, or Double Down on the Stupid, they Usually Double Down on the Stupid.

That is my best guess why the GOP "leadership" is sticking with the idea of basically killing off Medicare when at least 2/3rds of Americans are saying keep your stinking hands off my Medicare.

I mean, I get it, why those douchebags hate Medicare. It's Federal. It's Big Government. It's more effective and useful for the patient than free market vouchers would ever be. And it helps real peoples' real lives. That shit can't be suffered if your a crony capitalist tool. But they are so out of touch with the majority of Americans that they have to be doubling down on the stupid, here.

God knows, I would love to see the GOP collapse under the weight of its own arrogant stupidity. Could it really be just a motion away?

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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Well It's Not As If Mrs. Palin Has Given Me New Cause to Call Her a Racist, Exactly, But . . .

It's pretty close. According to the report, she took David Gregory to task for calling out Newt on Newt's racist dog whistle. According to her "logic" one white person calling out another one for employing despicable racist dog whistle rhetoric, is itself racially tinged and/or racism. What the ever loving fuck!

Mrs. Palin Lets The Race Baiting Cat Out of the Bag.

But as I suggest in the custom headline there, the cat is out of the bag. I have been predicting that the GOP, this election season, will sink to all time new lows of shittyness. And if this is the tactic for now, to race bait, and then, like the grammar school playground rubber/glue thing call 'racist' those who call them out on that shit, they have already (in this one example) reached a new, execrable, and record low.

But for some time now I have been saying there is a sorta almost organized effort out there, in the rednecky part of the right wing, to do their best to weaken the word and the idea of racism. Weakening the meaning of the word, the idea of what is racism helps them get away with all kinds of ugly racist shit. And Mrs. Palin is clearly part of that plan. Oddly enough, that runs counter to the other thing they do. That is when it's one of them caught in an obvious racist slip up, they will strain all credibility to narrow the standard meaning of the word to try to move the offending act/words outside of the definition. Basically, they will do and say anything to avoid taking responsibility, or even just catch up to the rest of us with the understanding of what is and is not socially acceptable for civilized adults in the 21st century.

And the election is more than a year away, kiddies. They are not even warmed up yet.

And yes. I am going there. I am going to talk about her looks. While I consider just about anything other than that modified Mullet she is famous for, the poofy on top thing, an improvement, I am puzzled with the new do. It's sort half "That Girl" and half Middle Age Republican Matron Helmet Head. I think she was going for the latter. I think it would be such fun if she tried out a proper Margaret Thatcher "Bouffant Terrible." (Thanks to Rhys Hughes for that description.)

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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I'm Bored With Politics, 'Cause the Rapture is Happening on Saturday.

One of the two ideas in that sentence is basically true. I'm sorta bored with politics for the instant moment. So let's talk rapture.

Firstly, I commend those opportunistic souls who have already launched schemes to make some money off this silly shit. It's too late for me, but anyone who wants to sign over material assets, cash, securities, bonds and any other thing of value with free and clear title to me, drop me a message. Oh. And that reminds me that I should check to see if a holographic will sent via the Internet is valid in most US courts. It's been years and years since I took Estate Planning.

Beyond that? It's not so much that I want to, that I take great pleasure in mocking those of faith, but like I told my niece on facebook yesterday. By my count, this is likely my third, end of the world. The first that I recall at least was 1974. I marked the occasion by having my first cigarette. I was 12 at the time. That was the big risk pre-disaster move for me. Now? Imagine me shrugging my shoulders. Maybe I'll run around the house with scissors.

I'll stop there, but to say I read most of the Left Behind series. Silly-assed shit. Oh. One thing more? Glenn Beck's rally in Jerusalem? If the believers are right and that city is holy to God, that's the day people might want to stay indoors and pray. Then again, God is supposed to be able to strike with precision. Or maybe instead of wrath, God can give Beck a brain, and a conscience. Make that a very guilty one!

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ya Know Why People Love Stereotypes? That Whole Not Having To Think Part.

Likely not the only offender, but hey, I hit her page earlier today. Ann Althouse decided to skip the actual thinking part and ran a post stereotyping European Men for the tacky crime (as I call it) "Messing with the help." The two stories of the moment that she referred to as the premises (of a sort) for this warped conclusion are the stories about the IMF banker sex crime arrest, and reports that Schwarzenegger fathered a child with one of "The Help." Now Althouse led off with the conclusion, what is it with these European men . . .

At first I thought, hmm. I might have to agree to that. But god help me, I had my second or third sip of coffee, and the caffeine caused my cranky, often sluggish, particularly when under caffeinated mind to kick in. The cogs and wheels started turning, and cognition and memory embraced like the old married couple they are, and they produced the most easily effective counter answer to that erroneous conclusion:

Bill Clinton!

Yes, before that datum got sent to where it needed to go I did entertain a thought about the scene from the movie Fanny and Alexander, where the whole family is at table. The one male character says out loud how he has his wife, and his mistress; life is good! (I'm not going to google for the exact quote. Deal with it.) But not too long after, my main complaint (not only but work with me here) against Bill Clinton came to me.

Now usually I don't give a shit about any one's infidelity. But for schadenfreude, when it's someone famous I don't like. Nor did I give a rat's ass about lying about it under oath. I had previous to the impeachment done the research on perjury under Fed. Law. Under ordinary circumstances, a US Atty would never bring that sort of small potatoes shit before a grand jury, indicitability of ham sandwiches considered, or not. I did harshly in my own way judge Clinton of the crime of being tacky by messing with the help while POTUS. Messing with the help at any time is tacky. But I don't give a shit about private people. When my POTUS does it, that's a foul against if not the nation or office, but against The Party.

Anyway, back to stereotyping. Back when I was still wasting time arguing with some right wing bigots on a particular message board, one of them (on at least two occasions) drew the line in the sand, they planted the flag on the hill that, "Stereotyping saves time." Now it's a mark of bad judgment, lazy thinking to merely employ stereotyping and not at least self correct. But to defend the practice? That's the mark of poor character. Granted, these prior conversations were in the deeper, more perilous realm where ethnic shit blurs into race, and it's really a matter of attacking what I would call racist or at least generally bigoted thinking. But again, how damaged or otherwise sick must a mind be to defend willful self perpetuating ignorance and being wrong-ness? Quick answer: that's the way far too many republicans/right wingers are wired.

Granted, and if you have actually read the words I have typed here and understood the plain meaning of them under standard High School level meaning and comprehension (again something the failure to do seems to be the way lots of right wingers operate, and instead choose alternative meanings, definitions, syntax, all that,) you should know I do not pretend to have the perfectly uncluttered, unsullied mind. But to paraphrase what I argued to these bigots on that message board, and likely have said here before. Not being a racist, not being a bigot is not a status. Rather, it's a process. One must fight the pull of bad and or wrong thoughts. One must face these bad, wrong thoughts every day, and when they pop up one must say, nope, that shit is not right. I should do better. And then one must try to do better. And it's a process that never ends.

Challenging one's own stupid-assed, ignorant stereotype judgments is part of that. Granted, European is not even technically an ethnicity, but it's close enough. And under the UN working definition for racial discrimination, ethnic based discrimination is within the definition of racial discrimination. Religious based discrimination can run afoul of that definition as well.

But there is one area we are still free to be judgmental. That would be politics. After all. Politics is strictly by definition an us vs them thing. That's why the phrase political bigot has never had much traction in the vernacular. It's sort of redundant, even to a 4th grader.

Anyway, funny but I would likely have never mentioned either sex headline story, if the stereotype leading to bigotry leading to potentially racist type thinking issue did not jump up.

There it is.

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Monday, May 16, 2011

Not Feeling It.

I mean, ya. Sure. If I tried really hard I could get all upset about Ron Paul's tone deaf racism, but ya know? We did this dance before with the son. Now we know where son got his buttfuck insane, racist-friendly, if not loving ideas from. So it's hard to be at all surprised, or otherwise pretend, we didn't know this before. But here goes.

Dr. Rep. Paul. Listen up. If one recognizes a "property right" in being able to discriminate by race, and then one goes even further and defends the "property right" in being able to discriminate by race, and one doesn't approve of laws that impede this "property right" in being able to discriminate by race? Then one is defending racism. Whether or not your heart is in the racism part is so close to irrelevant, that it really doesn't matter. You are supporting racism. That's not classic racism, in the sense one is not engaging directly in the racist act itself. But one is so culpable in the offense, that ya know? (Guess you don't, so let me tell you the truth) what you are doing is so close to racism, that we will just consider you a racist. We will continue to consider you a racist unless and until you change your mind and say that racism is so personally against your beliefs that you think government should fight it.

You are not allowed to pretend to be neutral. Either you are against that shit, or you are not. And if you are not, you are supporting it.


* * *

And a few quickies. Huckabee likes his big fat Fox paychecks, so he's not going to run. But I am sure he will say stupid stuff, still. Expect more racist-loving dog whistles.

Newt is in the race. He invented a new racist dog whistle, "Food Stamp President." Then denied the racist dog whistle. Then he doubled down and pulled out the tried and true one about "Detroit." How many different ways can this old Georgia bigot imply that P. Obama is taking the nation "Ghetto," with out actually saying it that bluntly? We will see, as I am sure he has only just begun, with that rancid shit.

Let the shit storm begin. It should get to be particularly rancid when Herman Cain starts stealing Newt's lines or line of business. And Bachmann? Oh my gawd. I should not want to see her go down that road. But I got to say, we know it's coming. Can't stop it. It's a runaway train of racist crazy talk coming round the bend.

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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Last (I am guessing) Nontroversey of the Week: Sarah Silverman's Masshole Gate.

With that clear an intro, I should get right to it. Apparently someone with more mischief in their heart than smarts in their brain let my favorite comedy Bad Girl into the Fox Sports broadcast booth for a recent Yankees vs Red Sox game. And she called Red Sox fans "Massholes."

Now if forced to name a team at gunpoint or face immediate death, I'd calll myself a Yankee fan. Whatever. But the thing for me (and I checked) is that Ms. Silverman is originally from the Granite State. New Hampshire. And the favorite way for Granite Staters to refer to their neighbors just to the south of their state line, is to call them "Massholes."

So that's it. Nothing to see here. Move along. (But I have to wonder if I ever met her before she was famous? At least I could have walked past her on Main Street in Concord, or down at the Mall back before she got her first real gigs? Who knows!)

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Saturday, May 14, 2011

This Guy Agrees With Me About the Phoniness of "Free Speech" as an Ideology. So He Must be Brilliant, and Correct.

(Every now and then I make acknowledgement of the fact that I am not immune from a little confirmation bias. I am a human after all. Point is, this guy and I are actually correct on the matter.)

Ok. The two pronged setup. On the one hand, I am one of those "free speech" (beyond the 1st Amendment) is bullshit, people. I think that free speech ideologues are among the silliest people in the world. Then again, as a somewhat genuine artist, in the sense I have done performing arts, and writing art, and all kinds of visual art, I get it, that life is as much if not more so a course in editing, as it is creating. We edit. We discriminate. We pass judgment. We advocate and reject. We acquire and we dispose. We are human. It's what we do, even if we are not writing a song, or trying to write a poem.

Now for the other prong, this post on this subject (one of my favorite subjects) is accidentally brought to you by some trog over at the althouse blog. I will try to say the least about that place and those people, but I read some comment there where one of the right wing morons mockingly referred to Professor Stanley Fish's book, There's no such thing as free speech ...and it's a good thing, too. And I took that as encouragement to google the professor, and found a really interesting interview, he did a while back.

Although he comes at it from a different point of departure, we basically agree on the idea, free speech is not free to start, and everyone has their limits. Everyone will eventually get to their personal gag moment, the rejection moment, and say, enough. Stop with that nasty shit. But that's not all there is to be said about it. Granted he has a well researched and thought out series of positions here on the matter. But what stuck out more was what he said about the overlap between critical race studies and free speech advocacy. Specifically he was pointing out the conflict in holding both "values." Lucky for me I reject free speech ideology and have done so for years. I reserve and treasure my right to say to people I find way too offensive, to,"Shut the fuck up with that shit." And that's the higher value. For me. Anyway, here's the professor's less trashy way of saying it:

Those who utter racist speech (as we call it) would not accept that designation. The people that we think of as racist do not wake up in the morning and say to themselves "Today I'm going to go out and spew racist speech". What they say (and it's exactly what we say) is, "Today I am going to go out and tell the truth." Once you realise that racists don't think of themselves as racists but as tellers of the truth, then you realise that hate speech or racist speech as we designate it is not an anomaly, is not a cognitive mistake, is not a correctable error, is not something that can be diagnosed and therefore cured, but is in fact the rationality and truth telling of a vision we happen to despise.

The correct response to a vision or a morality that you despise is not to try and cure it or to make its adherents sit down and read John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, that's not going to do the job. The only way to fight hate speech or racist speech is to recognize it as the speech of your enemy and what you do in response to the speech of your enemy is not prescribe a medication for it but attempt to stamp it out. So long as Critical Race Theory and others fall into the liberal universalist assumption of regarding hate speech as some kind of anomaly which could be recognized as such by everyone, they're going to lose the game. They will win the game only if they really try to win it, rather than falling in with Justice Brandeis' pronouncement that "Sunshine is the best disinfectant".

This bromide flies in the face of all recorded history which tells us that forms of speech, once they get into circulation, do not wither away in the light of day; rather they attract the attention of some hearers, and begin to circulate in a more effective way. I know that this is heresy in the liberal discourse to which we all are, in some sense, committed. But it seems to me that I must agree with the American politician and journalist, Pat Buchanan, who once said, "If you can pollute the physical environment, you can pollute the cultural and mental environment".


Professor Fish, on how to deal with racist speech. Stamp it out!

I say the rest of the interview is worth reading as well. I just love these last graphs, because yes. It does confirm my bias. And it's correct!

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Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Non Story About Mrs. Palin's Unhip Rap Creds Grows . . .

It has already spawned a new "Troofer" movement on the net, on Twitter, to be more specific:


Results for #sugarhillgangtruther
Tip: use operators for advanced search.

Tweets Tweets with links People »
luke_johnson luke_johnson
Sarah Palin "says" she knows all the lyrics to rappers delight, but where is the Video evidence? #sugarhillgangtruther http://huff.to/j10MoM
3 hours ago


From here.

Now I found that link from an article that featured the real core of the argument:

As incredulous Tweeters demanded to know: where is the video evidence? Check out the original statement from On the Record here. It's also worth pointing out that, at over 14 minutes, "Rapper's Delight" is a very long song with a lot of lyrics to know.

Go here for that.

Now before I found those crumbs, I actually read the Wiki about this song. Go here for that. Not that I was really a part of that scene, but it was sort of a refresher course in that part of my life. I don't think I personally ever met Sylvia Robinson, but I think I knew some peeps who did. My uncle was a weekend DJ here in Joisey and ran with some people who would have known her. My other uncle was a lifer at CBS and knew lots of music bizzers, and I would not doubt he met her at some party. And I think I knew someone who did some session work with the Sugar Hill label. Directly, or through my brother, who was a professional musician, back then. But my friends who were gigging musicians in the NYC area mostly played in the local Salsa Bands. But still, show biz is a small world. Ya know a guy who knows a guy. Stuff like that. And let's not even go too far down the rabbit hole of my year working at the CBS hq, 85-86. I remember seeing LL Cool Jay laying his Mack Daddy rap on the receptionist for Epic Records, and as well, seeing Rick Rubin skulking around the joint. So I was at least on the edges of it.

Personally, my real connection to real rap and hip hop is that I, time to time, back in the late 70's early 80's, would go to house parties up in Da Bronx, specifically Gun Hill Road. I might have had no real hand in the making of rap and Hip Hop, but I was in the room watching it be born. That's more than most people can claim. Now there was some edgy shit happening in the clubs and on the street, but the genre really was house party stuff. I know. I was there to see it.

Honestly, at that time (let's call it 1980 -- senior year of high school) I was turning away from disco, but still loving my jazz, and still a fan of AOR rock. And I loved my R&B and Funk (EWF was not the black Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones were the white EWF!) But seriously. I was a weekend punker/rocker, in the sense that when we had house parties, my local party crew would play everything from Springsteen to J. Giles, to Kool and the Gang, to The Cars, to Donna Summer, to Tom Petty, to Michael Jackson, and Joe Jackson, to Elvis Costello, to Salsoul Orchestra, to the Ramones. And The Police. I really was getting into the Police something fierce then. I was still a drummer and I would practice play to side one of Zenyatta Mondatta. Still have that album. It's a road mark if my life, actually.

Oh. And the other act that is one of my anchors for 1980? The Pretenders. The "A" side of The Pretenders (One) is as perfect an album side as there ever was.

Winter of 1980-81 was when MTV came on line. Now that was a cultural turning point.

But what's that line from that song, She Still Preoccupied, With 1985?

Something about the days when they still played music on MTV? Aww. Shit. I feel old now.

Thank You Lord, for Making Me NOT Be a Republican.

An ex friend who who turned on me like a rabbit with rabies, once said to me words to the effect that one of the reasons I was a liberal was I did not want to be seen with the uncool kids.

Ya think?

Anyway this nontroversey, or should we call it a FauxNewsTraversey, concerning virtually unknown rapper Common is bringing out the totally unhip conservatives. Case in point, Mrs. Palin, in yet another of her moronic diatribes continues the wing nut meme about how this unknown, and actually quite tame rapper is some kinda gangsta rapper. That's just so close to being a flat out lie, that she and anyone repeating that line of bullshit should be considered and called a flat out liar. But beyond the morality, or lack of it, issue, is the unhipness factor.

Now I am quoting from the Huffpo article and I will do it as exactly as I can. Here's what the square lady said.


"I'm not anti-rap. In fact, like Bret Baier, I know the lyrics to 'Rapper's Delight,' too. But I am saying just common decency in the White House -- wouldn't we like to see a reflection of all that is wonderful and great, a shining city on a hill that the White House is supposed to be, with events inside of that house that reflect the patriotism and the decency and the influence of America."

She Might Not Be On Crack, But She Be Wack!

Firstly, Bret Baier as a barometer of hip? Whatssamatter? Was Howdy Doody all booked up? Next, the creepy-weird Ronald Reagany reference. (And wasn't the Reagan metaphor the whole nation, not the White House?) Honey, when you claim to be all for "free speech" but then tell people what they should be (or should not be) booking as their acts, you are being the worst kind of censor there is: a hypocrite. I've attacked Ann Althouse for that hypocritical shit. And I agree with her, maybe as much as one out of a hundred times. I'll not hold back on calling Mrs. Palin a hypocrite for such a patently obvious instance of pure hypocrisy. It's like when the person starts off saying,"With all due respect . . . ," and then they let loose with a stream, a litany, a shopping list of disrespectful statements. (Before I get back to the main topic, I will repeat in sum, what I said to Ann Althouse's husband when he took issue to my taking issue with his wife's hypocrisy on "free speech." I'm all for criticizing shit one doesn't like. But don't run around telling people they should or should not communicate in a certain way while claiming to be a defender of free speech; that's hypocrisy. Embrace your inner critic, and throw the free speech idiot-identity under the bus!)

Enough of that, though. What really drives my mentioning this batshit crazy stuff is the reference to "Rapper Delight." Wassamatter Mrs. Palin? Was Blondie's Rapture too disco-ish? Was Ice, Ice Baby, just too whitewashed even for you?

Sheee-it. I graduated high school in the Greater NYC area back in 1980. I remember dancing my young ass to Kurtis Blow and The Sugarhill Gang back in the original day. And to call that rap is technically not incorrect, but that is to rap what the earliest Ragtime is to Jazz. It's more the precursor than the real thing. In this day and age, mentioning Rapper's Delight as your street cred for being a rap fan is as square as saying you love Fats Waller, to prove to the the Acid Jazz kids that you are hip.

And that is where I am going here. And remember long time readers, and for you short timers, I'm the guy more likely to go to see an opera than a Hip Hop show, but shit, I know how square Mrs. Palin outed her self as, then. But with her we have the quintessentially unhip and clueless conservative. Culturally and musically she's as paleolithic as the Stone Age. Remember. This is the snow billy who made her real tastes show when caught on cam singing along to Gretchen Wilson performing Redneck Woman.

Now is the world of culture and music so stratified that one can't be a fan of real Hip Hop and redneck anthems? Perhaps not as a hard and fast rule, but Mrs. Palin proves how long a trip that is.

Now Mrs. Palin. Listen up. Despite the fact I got a top score on some Internet old school rap knowledge test, I am far from being really in the know for Hip Hop. My current usable data base sorta peters out in the mid to late 1990's. but I know "50 Cent," is still hot. Russel Simmons is still actively a force in the Biz. Despite having his fingers in every kind of business imaginable, I would not count Puff Daddy out. But Jay-Z is a living legend. And the old school (not ancient but merely old school) gangstas who have survived are now movie and TV stars. And I don't mean niche market. Ice-T's been on Law and Order for over 10 years, now, and Ice Cube's a one man Hollywood Franchise. And let us not forget Snoop Dog. Who in America doesn't know Snoop Dog?

And you, Mrs. Palin, when thinking about what song gives you street cred as a rap fan, go back to the pre MTV days and dig out Rapper's Delight?

You would have done better to mention Amy Poehler's (award winning) Palin Rap. I mean REALLY! You were there in the studio, on the stage for the national debut of that joint. And it was only written like three years or so ago. Not more than thirty. And it has way more edge than Rapper's Delight, even if still a clean rap. Shit. Even the unaired hard one was still clean enough for TV, never mind the one that aired.

But ya. I am not a liberal because I am scared of being seen with the un cool kids. I'm a cool kid to start. That's a small part of why I am a liberal.

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Endorsing a Great Piece About Race and How White Privilege Can be Damaging to Whites.

Although that description above is not the main thrust of the piece, Chauncey DeVega delivers a thoughtful analysis of the national (if not international) pathology of white privilege. And let's just face the core fact here. That is what is at root cause of most of America's race problems. That is to say that the white on non white racism in America is the majority of the whole of race related problems in America. For the the most part (I am not saying exclusively, but I am saying most part) that's all that needs be addressed. Despite the sort of Bogeyman race baiting pimped by Fox News and the rest of the wing nut redneck racist hordes.

On a related matter, here is the link, and one of the key themes explored in the piece is how

Whiteness is always afraid of losing.


There is so much good, deep thinking in this post it's hard to pull a chunk out with out wanting to add more and more. So I will stop there and just urge anyone and everyone to give it a look.
(His site drives more traffic to mine than vice versa. If you haven't looked over there yet, this is the one to go read.)

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Speaking of the Overlap Between Science Fiction and American Politics . . .

(Spoilers, for the current season of Doctor Who.)

Last week's episode featured one of those tried and true sci-fi twists, the overlapping of space and time, where people from different worlds interact in the strange space. And it's not original to say so, I am sure, but that is how I see American Politics. It's like the moderates and most of the left (before you get to the genuine neo-marxists and anarchists) are the normal world, and the right wing nuts are the invading other-worldsters. I know they would argue it's the other way around, but still. Most of the dictionaries, and scholars, and professors, and experts live in my reality. It's the wing nuts who are nuts.

Case in point.: Karl Rove being taken seriously as a pundit. That's sort of like that other fictional cliche,"It Takes a Thief." Not to mention any of the other wing nut political hacks in Fox News' stable. And the hosts? Minor non story of the week (and I guess this is on account of the failure of the condemn P. Obama for killing Bin Laden, efffort) is that wing nuts are all upset because some virtually unknown rapper/poet has been invited to the WH. What the fuck? Anyway, that notorious college dropout, and likely employer of undocumented workers (when he ran construction gangs in Cali,) Hannity is all over that shit.

More unreality. Just watched a clip of ex congresscritter Tom Tancredo being grilled by Martin Bashir. Bad Bashir. Grilling poor political arsonist Tancredo with the actual inflammatory words and ideas he has previously spewed. I mean really. Ya can't expect someone like Tancredo to stand by the logical conclusion of saying shit like,"P. Obama is a bigger danger than Osama Bin Laden?"

For the record I was being sarcastic. And personally I have said many times that the extremist wing nuts are more of a danger than terrorists. And I would not back away from it, but I would repeat what I have said often. That there is nothing so wrong with most of those people that can't be fixed by changing their minds to that of rational people. But until then? I'm more afraid of them than some foreign terroristas. After all, odds are that the threat that is closest to you is more likely to harm you.

But Tancredo's explanation was counter attack and insult. He could have calmly and rationally explained that, no he would never mean to insinuate a violent remedy. But he went all batshit on Bashir. Last time I saw a wing nut go that batshit they were outed as a racist, and were scrambling for a diversionary counter attack. (And as an aside, this proves to me that just like the outing of these violent imagery loving racists as racists is a weak point, so is their love of violent imagery and language. Hit them where it hurts, I say -- if metaphorically only.)

But ya see. That shows what I mean by overlapping worlds. The world I live in does not normalize that kind of crazy. But in the wing nut world, going batshit when outed as a racist (or too tolerant of that sort of shit) or as a lover of violent rhetoric (or too tolerant of that shit,) is taken for normal. That's not normal. That's fucked up craziness, actually.

I'll end there. I'll confess that if I put more mind to it, I could construct and expand on a more thoughtful theory and or argument. That's not going to happen today.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

So I Read This Perverse, Ass-Kissing Article About Mrs. Palin, on "The Atlantic," and





well I have to guess pathology, attracts pathology.

Summing up the over wordy article,

if Mrs. Palin were not so much of a pathological, immature, narcissistic incompotent, she might have ended up not so scary a pathological, immature, narcissistic incompotent with only one real credit to her portfolio.


I take great liberties there. The writer gushes about her, to my mind, paltry successes. He cites two, the gas and oil tax, and the pipeline to nowhere. I reduce that to one, just the tax, as even if it was a good bit of tactics to get the deal on the pipeline through the legislature, it's a pyrrhic victory. The pipeline does not exist. It may never exist. So how can that be much of a success?

Likewise, he really glosses over the psychopathic pathologies that have driven Mrs. Palin. No. Well yes, if you want to get down to the nitty gritty that aggressive leaders have been for the most part sociopaths, throughout all of human history. Yes. But one should be careful in the 21st century in pointing out the difference between single-minded selfishness and self-interest, from anything worthy of respect from sane, decent, adult people.

Lastly (as I tire of the subject already) his juxtaposition of Mrs. Palin being potentially the agent of change over P. Obama is laughingly moronic. Mrs. Palin was running for VP. She might have willingly accepted the position of attack dog against P. Obama, but she was not the candidate running against him. That would have been the person at the top of the GOP ticket, Sen. McCain.

Now I am not going to go all "Woe of Woes, calamity of calamities," here. But this is borderline "Fox Nation" style partisan, bullshit, hack writing. This is not journalism, despite the pathetically weak attempt to balance it out. It's more of a love song. Well, the kind of love song one would write about a bi polar girlfriend who's off her meds, but you still love her despite the crazy shit.

Fuckit. I'll link the thing.

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Quickies . . . And a Rant Against Right Wing Redneck Racists. In Other Words, The Ususal.

It's local election day. Despite the proper wording of the ancient joke, I only voted early, not often.

Wing Nuts continue to attempt to cheapen or demean the President's High Water Mark in putting the whack on Bin Laden. Granted, even Al Qada says he's dead and we (the USA) did it, so that should shut up the Deathers. But let's be honest. There are no limits of decency for the evil lying wing nuts. Perhaps even more perverse than trying to find fault in killing our nation's sworn enemy, is how the pro torture forces are trying to rehab that nugget of elephant snot. I repeat. There are no limits of decency for the evil lying wing nuts.

What else is going down? There's petty matters involving the bad hair man, but I am still trying not to directly talk about him. But for a tangent, and actually one of my biggest pet peeves in life, we are seeing yet another eruption in the perverse racist redneck republican attempts to either redefine what racism is, or otherwise deny its more subtle (and highly prevalent particularly among right wingers) current state and nature.

I was thinking about this earlier today, as last night I watched something on another blog about how Mr. Breitbart was whining that he once was "SET UP" to look like a racist on an episode of "Real Time With Bill Maher." Set up? What a batshit stupid thing to say. You might as well say someone set you up to be tall, or short, or stupid, or a ranting religious zealot. But the crux of the biscuit is no one controls the stupid shit that flies out of that racist's mouth other than him. And to be more specific, it's his racist brain that makes his otherwise neutral lips spew that shit.

Anyway, the blog post in question is here on Crooks and Liars. It features some bizarre plug session for his book, run on CSPAN, and the interview is conducted by some weird black republican. The blog post also has the archived clip of Breitbart on "Real Time," that he refers to. Now funny, but those wing nuts are so anti education that even the allegedly educated ones ape being home spun rednecks who get confused by big words. And he takes a shot at Prof. Dyson, which only makes Breibart look ignorant. But anyway, Breitbart denies that he or Rush Limbaugh are racists, and denies the simple fact that folk can't get away with 1960's style racism anymore, and code words have taken over from out and out racist language.

Now I saw that vid last night, but this morning I was thinking, ya know? These fucking rednecks are still getting away with 1960's style racist shit. Think about what happened to that human cartoon character, Dog the Bounty Hunter. He got caught using the word nigger about a black woman and got a pass from the other rednecks. Likewise, Dr. Laura went on a nigger nigger rampage, and yes. Right wing rednecks defended her too. But yes, for the most part folk can't get away with that shit anymore. It's code and dog whistles. And the only people who deny that shit either know in the hearts and minds they are themselves racists. Or they really don't have too much of a problem with that shit. Fucking racist GOPers.

If I ever meet that particular piece of garbage, Breitbart, I will want to just call him out as a racist. Then, play him like a fiddle. Anyway . . . .

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Monday, May 09, 2011

Even More Than Usual Stream of Consciousness Edition.

That means, basically, I don't have much of a hook here, I am thinking. But I'll fling something at those damned GOPers. Firstly, some thoughts about a pissing match between Herman Cain and Rick Santorum, following the wannabe GOP Candidate B List debate, Santorum (himself not exactly having a stellar election record) make a crack that Cain is multiple looser, never been winner in the political game. Now I think that is a perfectly reasonable fact based shot. Cain's reply was to cite the Reagan 11th Commandment about not criticizing other conservatives.

No wonder Cain's never won shit. This is a primary. All ya'll can't spend all your time running against the Dem. incumbent. You have to run against each other first. Ya moron!

And the leads to the less organized thoughts. I have read various musings and drippings and predictions regarding the GOP Primary season. It's hard to predict what is going to happen with this bunch. But it looks like the batshit crazy theme (otherwise known as hard right ideology) will be the dominant one. That and the insane clown car posse aspect of that party. I am not predicting shit yet, but I thing they (the GOP) just might end up with one of the bland guys, like Mittens or Daniels or Pawlenty. And in a move towards the sanest guy in the room, the GOP money bosses might be thinking this way already, go with the better known name. Who but for political junkies know anything about Pawlenty of Daniels, really? Never mind Hunstman. So I am not predicting anything yet. But I think the money will follow a more 'establishment' candidate. I don't think the people who actually run the GOP want anyone on their ticket who either is not really "one of them" or otherwise a reliable puppet.

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Friday, May 06, 2011

So the Oath Keepers and the Birchers Sponsored the First GOP Wannabe Debate? Wassamatter?

Were the CCC and the Tea Party Nation busy that night?

Remember, kiddies. The Birchers were too extreme for Bill Buckley. And let's just say that anyone too extreme for Bill Buckley should be considered a paste eating moron. And that used to be the majority view on the right. (Not in so many words, but there used to be standards.)

If the American right wing is so extreme that the Birchers are now considered mainstream GOPers, that's some of the best evidence that the party has been hijacked by the lunatic fringe. Shit. Them batids have all but 'disappeared' all the so called moderate GOPers. They're gunning for Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe next time round. If they get them out, who will be left (pun not intended) for moderate GOPers? Will too extreme Lindsey Graham be the new benchmark? How about McCain or Orin Hatch? Fucking nuts!

On the one hand I hope that such a further lurch will hasten the demise of this too-evil political party/movement. On the other hand, after these most recent midterms, I am appalled to see how reckless people will get when they are indys and/or swing voters and lodging 'protest' votes. Lots of seriously mentally unstable wing nuts went down in flames, last round. But too many got elected.

Grr.

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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Are They All Eating the Paste?

Yes, that is my new go-to line. Until the next one. So let's get into it.

Firstly, the sadists/monsters who want to see the pictures. Now I am not saying the only reason one would want to see the pictures is on account of being sadists/monsters. However, no matter what other reasons are there, you can't make the sadistic monster part go away. No surprise Mrs. Palin is in that camp. (Confession. I have a very high threshold for 'stylized' violence. Loved both new "Spartacus" series. And when it comes to the real messy stuff, I once had a summer job at my University's Medical School Photo department. I used to mount the slides of Vermont State Police accident scenes. I have that high a tolerance. I just don't go out of my way, usually, for real world gore.)

Now after that, the most surprising line of attack from the wing nuts is this,"It was illegal," argument. Ok. It completely contradicts just about every damn thing the wing nuts say they believe in, in prosecution of the War on Terror. Hmm. On second thought, we are talking wing nuts. Expect hypocrisy. So I should not be that surprised some of them are saying a democratic president killing internationally-loathed, notorious mass murderer, and leader of an organization that has declared war on We The People of the U.S., is illegal. This is the most extreme evidence of what I think, and that is that the wing nuts will go to any length no matter how hypocritical or otherwise absurd, to take a whack at a Dem. POTUS.

And moving on from there, the paste eaters who are all excited because details of the raid have changed. Now as much as I am prone to cussing Ollie North out, he was on Hannity the other night, and set that chicken-shit, drop-out ignoramus Hannity straight on that matter. It takes a while to sort it all out, and get a definitive report. I did not watch the video, but it was said Hannity was not pleased to have his meme crushed with truth and facts and reality, like that.

I think I willl stop there. Oh. One last note. Today P. Obama is visiting the WTC site (I don't call it that other way. I hate that shit. I gave up calling it that less than a year out from 9/11.) Some of the paste eaters are trying to cheapen the moment by describing it as,"A Victory Lap."

Damn right! There's not a damn thing wrong with claiming victory after you take down the enemy of the Republic. But still, what I want most to see is the pix of Obama awarding SEAL Team 6 with their Navy Crosses (or what ever awards they get.)

Oh. And that reminds me. This really will be the last thing. All those fucktards who are denying that this happened? In order to actually believe in that, not only would one have to believe in a massive conspiracy involving hundreds if not thousands of people, but you would have to believe that our fine men and women in service are in on it, too. Of course the fine heroic and honorable members of SEAL Team 6 are not going to show up at any deathers house and "instruct" those paste eaters in the errors of their ways. But I would not say the same thing about former SEAL Jessie Ventura. He has a lot of time on his hands, and he's not at all shy about his opinions.

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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Birtherism, and Other Nonsense Thinking, Explained.

An interesting, thoughtful deconstruction of the sort of insane thinking behind not only birtherism, but other ideological beliefs that seem to be unhinged, or otherwise favored by the unhinged.

The logician and pragmatist C.S. Peirce called these sorts of patterns of thought 'pseudoreasoning,' and it looks very much like a form of rationalizing. And the key to the effectiveness of these strategies of thought is that the people making errors with them are not exposed to the consequences of being wrong. If you pseudoreason your way to believing that you can fly, you pay the consequences. But if you pseudoreason your way to believing that the President of the United States is a Muslim Marxist AntiChrist, you make lots of friends (and if you stop believing them, you lose those friends).

'Pseudoreasoning.'

In the preceding graph, and specific to birthers, the writer notes that."Birthers don't dislike Obama because they think he was born abroad. They think he was born abroad because they dislike him." He does not deconstruct the why of it. He avoids the racist component. And that's ok with me. After all, it's not an either or thing. People can dislike P. Obama for a variety of reasons. Racism doesn't exclude other reasons, nor do other reasons exclude racism. Thing is, it's coming from a place of irrational hatred. Everyone (but for birthers that is) gets that part. Part that some folk disagree about is, how much of the hate soup is comprised of racism?

Oh. One note further about how pseudoreasoning can help folk make crazy friends, and lose rational ones? I have seen how that works, in life. Well, to be more honest, it mostly was on the Internet. It was before birtherism became the rallying cry for batshit crazy GOPers. But still, just after the election of Obama, the shit hit the fan. And I was already in the process of losing a friend to the batshit insane, redneck, racist hordes.

Ever see someone change from a rational human being to an evil lying zombie? It can happen pretty fast, I tell you. One day you are having a rational conversation with a rational human, and the next day the person is saying idiotic shit like,"I can prove Obama is a Marxist." That's practically a verbatim quote. Yes, you can experience shit like that, or (again from the archives of my life) you can end up seeing a person who claims to be offended by vulgarity proclaiming in public on the Internet they might be a redneck. Ya. That friendship ended ugly. Anyway, I used the word zombie for the imagery, as it is not a pretty thing. I bet that she either is a birther still, or at least was before the so called long form was released last week.

Anyway, that's it for now, kiddies. Oh. One last note. Remember, if you have to get intoxicated, do it on wine, not on ideology, or pseudoreasoning, or some other batshit crazy nonsense. Hmmkay?

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Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Now There's Your Average Idiot Conservative. And Then You Have The Kids Who Eat Paste.






I was revolted when I read or heard (maybe both) Rep. Bachmann's insane comparison of the budget/deficit issue to the Holocaust. Did not post on it. Put it on the back burner, though. Turns out Mike Huckabee was using the same shit-brained meme.

Now, the ADL has righteously come down on them like a Jericho II missile. Ye haw!

It is highly inappropriate to use America’s mounting debt crisis as another occasion to invoke Nazis and the Holocaust, particularly on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time dedicated to memorializing, not trivializing, the six million Jews and millions of others who perished at the hands of the Nazis.

While we understand that there are legitimate concerns about the nation’s debt, they do not justify invoking these kinds of Holocaust and Nazi comparisons. Rep. Michele Bachmann herself acknowledged ‘there is no analogy to that horrific action’ that was the Holocaust, but she should have refrained from drawing such a parallel in the context of remarks about taxes.

We hope that Rep. Bachmann, Mike Huckabee and others will weigh their words more carefully and stop invoking this offensive analogy.

The ADL is Not Amused.

Hmm. Taking another look at the statement, I think my analogy to a ballistic missile is much exaggerated. And instead of just deleting that, I leave it up instead, for the teaching moment. It's one thing to make an exaggerated comparison. It's another thing to be completely insensitive, detached from reality and history, and when all is said and done, reptilian in the depth of repulsiveness. Said another way, now there is being tone deaf, and then there is being a despicable moron. Bachmann and Huckabee resemble that emotion.

And no. I don't really think that completely unforgivable, indefensible comparison is evidence of anti semitism. But it is evidence of how slimy and stupid and dangerous some people are.

And both want to be POTUS. Granted, my Jewish ancestors were likely all Sephardim, but I would need to take a DNA test to rule out having any Ashkenazi ancestors. So work with me here when I say, Oy vey!

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Some People Have a Wonderful Ability to Spot the Obvious. Others are Way Too Stupid for That. We Call Those People Conservatives.

Or republicans. Either way, too fucking stupid to get the obvious. Speaking of the obvious, the following article from the Washington Post about the Nation's budget problem.

Routine increases in defense and domestic spending account for only about 15 percent of the financial deterioration, according to a new analysis of CBO data.

The biggest culprit, by far, has been an erosion of tax revenue triggered largely by two recessions and multiple rounds of tax cuts. Together, the economy and the tax bills enacted under former president George W. Bush, and to a lesser extent by President Obama, wiped out $6.3 trillion in anticipated revenue. That’s nearly half of the $12.7 trillion swing from projected surpluses to real debt. Federal tax collections now stand at their lowest level as a percentage of the economy in 60 years.

That was from the article. This is from me. Sometimes I refer to Occam's Razor. And sometimes I say the following. Not only is a cigar sometimes just a cigar, but actually, usually, a cigar is just a cigar. (Idea is don't listen to someone with a convoluted, nonsensical answer until they disprove, and I mean fully, the damned obvious answer.)

Less tax revenue leaves the country poor. Tax cuts leave the country poor. That seems perfectly obvious. And it's perfectly logical. And it's not only the best answer. It's the only one based in reality.

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Monday, May 02, 2011

Ding Dong, the Bitch is Dead!


Nice shooting boys. Now just for the record, I am all for some wet-work, now and then. And I fully approve of this action. Even if (as is the case of extreme sanctions for mass murderers) it's sorta like getting off easy, seems to me. Osama Bin Laden died a lot more mercifully than many of his victims.

Anyway, I missed the excitement last night. I went to bed nice and early, intending on starting this week with my wake/sleep cycle set to normal. Ish. And then I looked on the puter and saw the news. And it is news. And to explain what I mean by that, let me just post here my remarks from FB, earlier today. For those of you who don't know, remember, I am a native and current resident of the Metro NYC area, and was here on 9/11. And my comment comes from a thread started by one of my fellow Joiseyans, who likewise was and is in the area. (Typos corrected):


I went to bed early and did not know until this morning. What ever good feeling I had from the news, did not last past my first cuppa coffee. I hear you, about the memories of that day, Bob. I was one of the last cars to get on the NJT ... between Newark and the city. That's an erie memory I will never forget. Being the only car on the pike on a bright sunny day, mid morning.

And that's near my point. 911 and being here in the NYC area for the month after, was my real life. I lived it. This news, as good as it is, is news. It did not happen to me. It happened out there.

Now I could go longer, but for now, this will do. Well I will add one more thing. Last week, I discovered, in a sorta fenced off area sort of near the Weehawken Ferry Terminal, some framing from the Twin Towers (or as I have come to think of them, "The Girls.") Here are some pics of these real world reminders of what once was:








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Sunday, May 01, 2011

Mittens' Dog Whistle: "Hang Him."

Yesterday I typed out a post regarding Mitt Romney's (so called) gaff, in making an extended metaphor regarding hanging things around P. Obama's neck, like the famous Albatross in the S.T. Coleridge poem. And Mittens ended up saying, "Hang him with that," and immediately pulled his punch with weasel words.

Anyway, I decided to sit on the draft, and did not publish it. Partially, I held my horses back, as I got off on a tangent about Ann Althouse -- her post on her blog set a fire under my ass. I chose to hold back, hoping one of her commenters would point out her misremembering misunderstanding of the meaning of the word lynch. And one did. Kudos to that sharp knife in that drawer.

Also, kudos to the bright commenter who called out Mittens as knowing full well what he was doing. I agree. I just now watched the vid, and I agree. No mistake there. He was engaging in a racist dog whistle with deliberate intent, if not having practiced delivering the line. I am not going to say my theatrical training in the acting arts means I can always call out an actor acting. That would be claiming too much. But I will say what I know about good actors and the best actors. You can see the work, watching a good actor. You don't see the work, you don't see the effort, watching a great actor. And I am going to say, as far as the political stage is concerned, Mittens is one of the greats.

Anyway, that is the set up. So let me now get to the real point. As there is no reasonable doubt, really, that Mittens was deliberately blowing the racist dog whistle there, and this is definitely not the last time we will hear that racist dog whistle from the GOP Contenders and Wannabes, comes the following question:

How far out racist need any GOP Contender or Wannabe get, before the others pounce on him or her like a piece of red meat tossed in the tiger cage?


They all want to run against P. Obama. And this time the nerve to push harder against the racist taboos seems higher already than last time (and that was ugly enough!) But eventually these chuckle-headed clowns will have to understand the following fact. They have to run against each other, before they get to run against P. Obama. So is there some objective point where the dog whistles get too far out there, or will we just have to wait and see who pounces on whom for what crack? I'm thinking wait and see.

There are few blood sports I enjoy, but I do enjoy GOP Gladiator Contests. Or maybe the better analogy is a pack of hungry, feral dogs, pouncing on the weakest member of the pack, for a snack? I'll be well entertained, once that starts. And if what happened to Mr. Comb Over during the Press Corp party leads to the pack smelling blood from that critter, and if the rest start to pounce, then we will know, it's on!

(And I did not start out trying to throw in as many metaphors as I could. It just worked that way. A subtle bit of commentary, I am thinking.)

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