First Draft

Life On The Road

Ray Davies and the Kinks live on the Sleepwalker tour. It doesn't get any better than this:

RIP Bobby Thomson

"A Giant is gone."

I'm going to tell on Doc here, a little, since he's the one who e-mailed me about this. He used to call me up and play this, on what I think was a tape recorder, into the phone. Which was what passed for Facebook way back in the 1990s.

A.

A Welcome Addition To The Unemployment Problem

Too hard for Laura Schlessinger.

Somehow, Laura Schlessinger is in the news again.  A few days ago, on her radio show (which, mercifully, I haven't heard for almost a decade now) she was discussing racism with a Black caller--if, of course, by "discussing" you mean "insulting the living shit out of African-Americans." 

Well, she quit her job recently over the flap that resulted.  Why did she quit?  You see, when she offended said living shit out of said African-Americans (and anybody else with an ounce of decency), people did a horrible thing--they called her sponsors and asked why the sponsors were supporting a racist fuck.  And, by so doing, they usurped her First Amendment rights!  First of all, "Doctor" Laura, I'd like to point out that "Black people can say the N-word but white people can't!  It's racist!" is ALMOST the dumbest goddamn argument in a galaxy of dumb goddamn arguments.  You have to be willfuly pig-fucking-ignorant not to recognize how goddamn dumb that is.  Every fourth-rate stand-up comedian working today has used that dumb goddamn argument as a punch line.  Second, the only goddamn thing dumber than your previously mentioned dumb goddamn argument is to claim that your First Amendment rights insulate you from any criticism of any dumb goddamn things you say.  I believe our own Athenae has covered this ground a time or two.  The government didn't shut you down, stupid.  In fact, your sponsors didn't even shut you down.  When people said that you were out of line with your show, you fucking quit.  That's right.  You turned tail and ran.  You didn't even wait for the negative response, and now you're trying to come off as a fucking martyr. 

Go fuck yourself, stupid.  Please note that, in Laura Schlessinger's case, the previous sentence doesn't work without the comma.

Space Oddity

Ground control to Ray Bradbury.

Is it just me or does anyone else think the world is weirder than usual right now? Here's something else that supports my theory: the author of one of my youthful favorites, Fahrenheit 451 is sounding downright cranky and teabaggerish over the US and A's failure to <drum roll> colonize the moon. I shit you not:

From the Los Angeles Times: 

Ray Bradbury is mad at President Obama, but it’s not about the economy, the war or the plan to a construct a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

“He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon,” says the iconic author, whose 90th birthday on Aug. 22 will be marked in Los Angeles with more than week’s worth of Bradbury film and TV screenings, tributes and other events. “We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when wedo that, we will live forever.”

The man who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Dandelion Wine”and “The Illustrated Man” has been called one of America’s great dreamers, but his imagination takes him to some dark places when it comes to contemporary politics.

“I think our country is in need of a revolution,” Bradbury said. “There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”

Sorry for linking to the NRO but being a blogger is a dirty job and the LA Times can be hinky about linky sometimes if you catch my drift. (Where's Otis Chandler when you need him? Oh yeah, he's dead. Never mind.)  Just thinking about the pompous creeps who currently run the National Review makes me feel unclean: I need to be deloused. Has anyone out there ever been deloused? I was once called delouse in my younger days but never DeLuise. Bradbury is sounding like derand, Ayn Rand. 

Time for some misdirection. While I like Space Oddity as a post title, the Bowie song has not aged well. I liked it the first 10,000 times I heard it but enough's enough. Instead, here's a clip of the Tubes in their prime. I've had the KSAN radio show for years but didn't know any of it had been filmed. The video quality's even pretty good.

Space Baby you've got no planet:

Colonize the moon? Perhaps we should send Ray Bradbury, John Voight and all the people at NRO to the moon. Where the hell is Ralph Kramden when you need him? To the moon, Alice, to the moon...

Cross-posted at Adrastos.

Singin' the sun

Because pop culture history is inherently unjust, singer-songwriter Norma Tanega will be remembered for one or the other of only two things, though some may remember her for both: 1) being a one-hit wonder for her wonderful "Walking My Cat Named Dog," and 2) being Dusty Springfield's girlfriend.

Another Road Song: Tampa To Tulsa

I realized earlier today that the last several tunes I've posted have been road songs so I decided to make it official. It's road song week in my little corner of First Draft. The news has been so idiotic of late that a road trip sounds like an excellent idea. Unfortunately, I have a small business to run and a conference to help plan so I'm stuck here. Of course, once you get past the outdoor steam bath effect, New Orleans is not a bad place to be stuck. So, I guess I'm taking a virtual road trip and inviting y'all along for the ride. I promise to make frequent rest room stops something my father did not believe in. He was into making time, which gave me an early lesson in self control...

Where the hell was I? The next song on our virtual itinerary comes from the Jayhawks. I'm sure you're shocked to hear that I like them. This tune was written by drummer Tim O'Reagan and features his vocal stylings. Rumor has it that he's Irish. Whaddya think, y'all?

Hallowed

There's a word being thrown around a lot with regard to the Cordoba House location.

Hallowed.

WASHINGTON — A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of great nobility and sacrifice (Gettysburg), or by the blood of martyrs and the indescribable suffering of the innocent (Auschwitz).

When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there — and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.

But that's not actually what it means at all.

hallowed [ˈhæləʊd (liturgical) ˈhæləʊɪd]

adj

1. (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) set apart as sacred

2. (Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) consecrated or holy

hallowedness  n

To be consecrated. To be set apart. To be by human hands designated as holy, not by some god or gods, not by a mystery or visitation, but by the use to which humans intend it be put. Action, not passivity. Location matters, Krauthammer lectures us, but. Voice matters too. We do this. We consecrate and hallow this ground. It is what we make it.

Cemeteries are for history and proof, for a space where communication with the dead makes sense. Churches, temples, mosques, meeting halls, circles are for reaching upward toward God as he reaches down to us, for a meeting place between the human and the divine where each can see the other's glory. An altar is a table, where something is broken and shared by all who come to it, in radical and absolute equality. Without those gathered for the meal, it's just a table. These places are not defined as sacred space by lines on a map; it's their use that makes them what they are. It's how the people within them behave. Their purpose comes from what is done there. The ground isn't the point.

I'm a Roman Catholic by baptism, confirmation and choice, so my experience of the word is tempered this way: We are divided into parishes, but a parish isn't a building. It's a collection of souls. Did you know that a parish priest is responsible for everyone in his parish, not just the Catholics, still less just the Catholics who come to Mass and give to the collections and send their kids to the school? The ones doing it right, they're responsible for everybody. For the care of all the souls in that parish, Catholic or no. For anyone who comes to their doors. The ones doing it right, that is. Precious few of those, these days. Still, the principle matters. The word, people tell us now, matters. Hallowed.

The noun is from the Old English adjective hálig, nominalized as se hálga "the holy man". The Gothic word for "holy" is either hailags or weihaba, weihs. "To hold as holy" or "to become holy" is weihnan, "to make holy, to sanctify" is weihan. Holiness or sanctification is weihia. Old English like Gothic had a second term of similar meaning, weoh "holy", with a substantive wih or wig, Old High German wih or wihi (Middle High German wîhe, Modern German Weihe). The Nordendorf fibula has wigiþonar, interpreted as wigi-þonar "holy Donar" or "sacred to Donar". Old Norse vé is a type of shrine. The weihs group is cognate to Latin victima, an animal dedicated to the gods and destined to be sacrificed.

Dedicated to the gods. Most of those opposed to the mosque, most of those defenders of freedom and liberty and those square blocks of lower Manhattan, would call themselves Christian. I don't think they have the foggiest, but that isn't the point either. The point is that dedicating a place to God so as to turn others away from it is pointless and stupid and wrong. Is an empty church hallowed? Is salted earth hallowed? How far must the hallows reach? How many miles must their borders enclose? Someone has died everywhere you look. Photos and crosses and teddy bears at intersections, growing dirty and tattered in the wind and sun. Where do the boundaries end? Where is it appropriate to build a place to reach upward and sing to God of the glory of mankind?

Everywhere is hallowed. Someone I can't now find to cite wrote that Jesus' whole, you know, thing is that systems don't matter the most, abstract ideas don't matter the most, that people matter the most. What we do to and for and with each other matters the most. We hallow the ground. We hold it holy. Not by praying there, or not praying there, but by being there ourselves and acting as dedicated to the gods. The rest of it is differences in expression and thought and symbol and I'd never say those don't matter, but they don't matter more than we should matter to one another.

If we're doing this right, if we're holding a place as holy, setting apart as sacred and dedicated to the use of God, a place, it should be everywhere. It should be an expanse wider than we can measure, and we should never reach the borders. And in that space should be the burning wreckage and the ashes, and the strip clubs, and the fast food restaurants, and the gay bars, and the straight bars, and the mosques, and the temples, and the churches, because if we're doing this right, this is all hallowed ground.

A.

Mad Men Thread: Did you get pears?

Mad Men went back to the office in episode-4, The Rejected. That's how I like it: even the personal stories spun off from the workplace. Here are a few rambling and discursive observations:

• The focus group scenes went on a bit too long for my taste. They were only interesting for what they eventually revealed about how Don's now ex-secretary, Allison viewed Peggy. Allison was under the impression that Peggy had slept her way to her job as a copywriter. That led Peggy to heatedly say: "My problem is NOT your problem." Hey, at least Allison didn't throw a paper weight at her...
• I got a kick out of the Bohemian sub-plot involving Peggy and Joyce who's an artsy fartsy type who works for Life Magazine. Joyce seems to be developing quite a crush on Peggy, which could take us to some interesting places when she makes a move. Btw, Joyce is played by Zosia Mamet who is *that* Mamet's daughter. Perhaps she'll unleash a string of Mametian profanity at some point...
• Pete and Trudy Campbell are expecting and the unctuous Pete was able to pry some more business out of his father-in-law because the latter let the "stork is coming" cat out of the bag. Pete is a tricky son-of-a-bitch and well played by Vincent Kartheiser. He was born middle aged and in a blue suit to boot. I always enjoy seeing the spunky Trudy and every time I see them together I say: "He is not worthy of her."

Okay, that's my brief take on the episode. The post title comes from the ending when an old man in Don's building keeps asking his wife "did you get pears." There was, in fact, a whole lot of pairing in the episode although I didn't see a paring knife. Hmm, were the pears Bosch or what?

For more coherent musings about Mad Men, check out the TV Club at Slate. Julia Turner has been on a roll thus far this season whereas I am merely a nattering nabob...

UPDATE: In the comments, Virgo Tex quite correctly points out that Joyce has already made her first move. Joyce also has eyes for SCDP's receptionist.

Richard Cohen Asks a Question

Here:

If it is not false analogies that pollute this debate, it is false populism. The people are opposed. John Boehner, the House minority leader, says so, and so does Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Loud Mouth who is clearly running for something. They are right -- but so what? Would they have liked Lincoln to have deferred to popular sentiment in the South regarding slavery? Would they have liked Truman to have polled the Army about desegregation?

YES ACTUALLY THEY WOULD HAVE.

I know this offends your cocktail parties sensitivities, Richie, but these are the assholes who actually would have liked that quite a bit. These are exactly those people. They would have loved Lincoln to have deferred to popular sentiment regarding slavery. They would have rejoiced if Truman had polled the Army about desegregation and then, finding that lots of people are ignorant-ass necks in this country, refused to desegregate it.

In both cases, they would have applauded the wisdom of the president listening to the people. And then they would have turned right around and nailed him as a n*gger-lover for considering the question at all. For raising the issue. For making us think about basic human dignity at a time when people are dying. As if people aren't always dying, as if they gave enough of a damn to stop it, but nevertheless, how could the president even think we needed to think about this? Let's just get back to owning and subjugating human beings and not worry so damn much about stupid American shit like freedom and justice.

These are those people. They would have wanted those polls -- provided, of course, that the polls gave them the results they needed to keep themselves in power by making others afraid. That's who they are. It's who they've been for some time now.

Schmucks.

A.

Liz Sidoti: Mosque Is An Election-Year Hurdle -- For Democrats

Of course it is. It wouldn't be an election-year hurdle for Republicans, though you could write that story just as easily. Here, I'll do it for you:

WASHINGTON – Add another election-year hurdle for Democrats Republicans: President Barack Obama's forceful defense of the right of Muslims to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

His comments are giving Republicans Democrats a campaign-year cudgel and forcing Democrats Republicans to address a divisive issue within weeks of midterm contests that will decide the balance of power in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a competitive re-election fight, was the highest profile Democrat to move away from Obama on the matter.

"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion," Reid's spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement Monday. "Senator Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose constituents are actually affected by the issue, applauded the president's remarks as the highest-profile Republican to break ranks with his own party on the issue.

"If we shut down a mosque two blocks away from where freedom was attacked, I think it would be a sad day for America," Bloomberg told ABC News.

Democrats Republicans privately called some party members' demagoging of the issue a distraction when the party should be laser-focused on keeping comfortable gaining sizeable majorities in Congress. The political climate already favors Republicans Democrats as economically struggling voters look to unleash their fury on the party in power. have a long history of trusting Democratic presidents to turn the country around.

Granted, it's not as much fun as stringing together Tea Bag rage, a bunch of stuff "everybody knows" and a bunch of other stuff "some have said" into a narrative "we all know" so that you can get to the bar early tonight, but it would be just as valid as the flip side, which contains this bullshit:

Some Democratic candidates fear the political fallout that Republicans suggest is coming against those who support building a mosque two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And some Republicans are trying to walk a careful line in their criticism, lest they be tagged religiously intolerant or be accused of stoking fear.

Yes. Heaven forbid they be accused of EXACTLY WHAT THEY'RE DOING. And of course the writer found some weak Democratic candidates who bitched that they had to address uncomfortable issues in an election year, but come on. This whole thing is a perfect illustration of the way laziness and stupidity infect political "analysis" journalism.

I say laziness instead of bias because: We all know the narrative. There's no way the story would have run the way I edited it above. Why not? Because we all know how this works, right? Amirite? Heh heh heh? We all know how this works. Actual freedom is a losing issue electorally, those who defend it are weaklings who want us to bend over for Hitler, Republicans standing up for Freedom (tm) always appeal to Real Americans (tm) who anyway are pissed about the economy and wish everybody would stop talking about the mosque so much.

And this narrative exists all by itself, being in absolutely no way created or at the very least reinforced by thumbsucking pieces from the AP that we're all supposed to pretend are Serious Journalism (tm). This narrative is in no way reinforced by every reporter's questions being framed as "So how big a wuss are you, Mr. President? Don't you know Some Democrats (tm) think you're hurting their cause with your Black Muslim Identity Politics? What do you say to Republicans who talk about the mosque nonstop and blame you for not talking about the economy? Aren't they right? I've been to those tea rallies. Lotsa anger out there."

I really can't wait until the AP sues all us lowly bloggers out of existence so they can get back to the critical thinking and gatekeeping they're so good at.

A.

Circle Back

We're having the damnedest weather here in Debrisville. Remember that semi-tropical system last week? The sucker has returned; circling back from Georgia to South Louisiana. The John Hiatt tune Circle Back has bupkis to do with the weather: it's about John taking his kid to college. But who among us doesn't like seeing the flying fingers of Sonny Landreth moving up and down the fretboard like spider monkeys?

Abandoned Places

Pretty.

A.

Summer Afternoon

A.

Rachel Maddow Meets Rising Tide...

...panelist Clancy DuBos on the air in a discussion of the Vitter campaign.

I haven't said that much about the Louisiana Senate campaign because it's such a bummer, man. Vitter's political success has never involved being likeable. He's a loner without any friends but also one who will do whatever it takes to win.

Charlie Melancon is, of course, way too conservative for my taste but I still plan to vote for him in general election since our choice is an imperfect one. I do, however, think he'll have a chance to deliver some money and goodies to the Gret Stet. As Clancy pointed out in the video, Melancon's strategy involves reminding women what a shit Vitter is and how often he's voted against their interests. It's the path Mary Landrieu has followed in winning her three elections. I think Charlie is a helluva nice guy who will be a more effective Senator than Bitter Vitter but he's a step to the right of Mary. Oh well, nobody said life was fair...

Now It's Just Another America

Time was, we called it "a bunch of pig-ignorant fucknecks who should be shamed on the pages of our learned publications," but hey:

But there’s another America as well, one that understands itself as a distinctive culture, rather than just a set of political propositions. This America speaks English, not Spanish or Chinese or Arabic. It looks back to a particular religious heritage: Protestantism originally, and then a Judeo-Christian consensus that accommodated Jews and Catholics as well. It draws its social norms from the mores of the Anglo-Saxon diaspora — and it expects new arrivals to assimilate themselves to these norms, and quickly.

Yes. It does. You know fucking WHY, you stupid, privileged bitch? Because the people presently in charge are rich white Anglo-Saxon MEN who find it kind of awkward and passé to rag on Jews and Papists openly (but have NO problem talking shit about Mexicans when they think nobody else in the conversation will judge them).

You know what determines the expectation to assimilate to what degree? SIMPLE FUCKING NUMBERS. On a calendar and on the census. That's it. That's all. I expect you to speak English because I speak it. I expect you to keep your religious practices under wraps because I don't often publicly get into the whole "cannibalistic rite of flesh and blood" I practice every week.

I expect you to dress like me and act like me because I fucking CAN, because right now there are more people who look like me in positions of power than who look like you.

Because that's the one America, the one rule we all live by. Douthat makes this sound charmingly unrealistic:

There’s an America where it doesn’t matter what language you speak, what god you worship, or how deep your New World roots run. An America where allegiance to the Constitution trumps ethnic differences, language barriers and religious divides. An America where the newest arrival to our shores is no less American than the ever-so-great granddaughter of the Pilgrims.

It is. But guess what? It's no less unrealistic than the first passage I quoted. It's no less a false construction, one that ignores a history that has always been about the ones who came before shaming and fighting the ones who came after, over and over again. The difference is that one should be encouraged and the other excoriated, so as to continue to move our society forward.

Then again, our national press ain't in the business of doing that these days. Our national press, pindick pundits like Douthat especially, is engaged in telling us that this is the world and we should accept it, kick back, maybe shake our heads but for God's sake don't get upset about it or anything because there's no point. I mean, the tone of this thing:

The first America celebrated religious liberty; the second America persecuted Mormons and discriminated against Catholics. But both understandings of this country have real wisdom to offer, and both have been necessary to the American experiment’s success.

Just screams to the reader, "Hey, don't worry about it! No reason to advocate for one side or the other! It's not like I'm a columnist! It's not like I should be telling you with the incredibly powerful voice I possess what our reaction as a society should be to the horseshit being spewed by one America or the other! Both have real wisdom to offer! Especially that whole 'discrimination against religious minorities' thing! Chill out! Whatchagonnado?" I mean, this is kind of our modern press's whole institutional thing right now. This is what we do, tell you how best to avoid that uncouth and self-righteous faux pas of actually giving a fuck.

I read a whole rage-inducing Time magazine thing over the weekend, about how the truth is just subservient to lies because of our culture, and you can't make fucknecks believe the truth anymore, so maybe what we ought to be doing is making excuses for the fucknecks so that they'll ... I dunno, buy Time magazine, like that's ever going to happen? It's the usual passivity, because iPhones, and the Internet, and anyway it's all too hard to sort out. My head hurts. I need to lie down. Nobody cares anyway.

This is the thing that makes me the most angry among the many things that make me angry about our bullshit press these days. I don't understand becoming a columnist, putting your voice out there, only to say so little. Only to call religious ignorance and dipshittery just another way of looking at the world, equally as valid as any other.

And by the way, Douthat's column was written in English.

This is America, motherfucker.

Speak Navajo.

A.

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - Levis Stink-To-Fit edition

Well, folks -  I have to report that the Freeperati haven't been all that happy about the next Mayor of Wasilla.

First - straight from the horse's - um - mouth:

Johnston Checks In

I MIGHT OF GOT SIX GIRLS PREGNANT LAST WEEK

No, the title of this shit ain't literal. Of course I didn't get six girls pregant in one week. In case you haven't heard that's the sort of nintenduendos been circulating about me courtesy of the Palin fucking family. One unplanned pregnancy with an ex-girlfriend and suddenly you're the bad guy. Bristol has cancelled the wedding again and she has gone into defcon whatever it is when she won't barely beat me off while we're talking about custody of Tripp and Tock.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/levi-johnston/bristol-levi-split.php

Well, how are the Freepers taking the latest developments in the Snowbilly Satan saga?

Well, the iso chamber is all spic-and-span again after some heroic efforts from the First Draft crew, so let's suit  up and find out, shall we?

Palin fiance Levi Johnston to film music video
Associated Press ^ | 7-23-10 | Lynn Elber

Posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:22:34 PM by Justaham

LOS ANGELES – Levi Johnston will make his music video debut as a lover whose romance is thwarted by his girlfriend's disapproving mother, according to a Universal Music Group record label and Johnston's attorney.

Johnston, 20, who is Bristol Palin's fiance, has agreed to appear in the video with singer-songwriter Brittani Senser next month in Los Angeles. The project is based on the song "After Love" by Senser, 26, a sultry-looking R&B and pop performer from Minneapolis.

"He's looking forward to doing it," Rex Butler, Johnston's attorney in Anchorage, Alaska, said Friday. "It will give him an opportunity to act a little bit in front of a camera. He's done a commercial before, but something like this is a little more involved."

1 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:22:36 PM by Justaham

A freeper rustles up his few remaining brain cells and articulates his cogent summation of this development:

To: Justaham

Not good....

2 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:25:39 PM by spiffy

.

To: Justaham

The Left’s new pet monkey will get rave reviews from the useful idiots in the MSM. The more he bashes Sarah, the better his music sounds to them.

3 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:25:49 PM by moodyskeptic (the counterculture votes R)

.

To: Justaham

Attention whore.

6 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:27:03 PM by EggsAckley ( There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply!)

Which one?

To: Justaham

Well, the rats should have something juicy by November.

About the worst news Sarah could get.

8 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:27:32 PM by Ole Okie

And Levi should have something juicy by the end of August.   Hopefully it won't be antibiotic-resistant.

To: Justaham

That’s it I need a shrink!

I keep seeing these crazy Levi Johnston headlines.

It’s starting to scare the crap out of me.

19 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:30:22 PM by Berlin_Freeper (posted a total of 1,459 threads and 8,556 replies.)

.

To: NEMDF

These recent events just break my heart for Sarah, who deserves better. I wonder if her daughter will ever understand the damage this might be doing, just so she and Levi can keep getting tabloid space.

Bristol is a beautiful young woman; but she obviously is an idiot. Maybe she, too has resentments against her mother? Or maybe Bristol was simply destined to become trailer trash like Levi?

28 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:34:03 PM by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)

Apple. Tree. Deal with it.

To: Sarah Barracuda

Why must Sarah Palin go through this hell. Why must Sarah Palin go through this hell. Why must Sarah Palin go through this hell. Why must Sarah Palin go through this hell..

Because it's her heritage. Because it's her heritage. Because it's her heritage. Because it's her heritage.

im starting to wonder if she is even going to run in 2012. it pains me to say that..

43 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:51:35 PM by se_ohio_young_conservative

Not as much as it pains me.

To: Justaham

The Palins have decided on reality TV and hollywood.

You cannot be taken seriously doing this stuff.

44 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:53:05 PM by indylindy

You took Sarah Palin seriously?  You're thinking with the wrong head.

To: Justaham

This ought to stir up a few people into telling them how to live their lives......... Leave the couple alone and let them make their bed.

41 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:48:22 PM by deport

.

To: deport

This is the bed they are making. In public.

50 posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 3:57:14 PM by TigersEye (Greenhouse Theory is false. Totally debunked. "GH gases" is a non-sequitur.)

Can't add much to that.

More Johnston jollies after the you-know-what..

Abbey Lincoln, R.I.P.

The great jazz singer and pianist Abbey Lincoln has died at the age of 80. I recall seeing her one year in the jazz tent at Jazz Fest and her performance was so mesmerizing that people stopped talking and listened intently. A major accomplishment at any outdoor festival. Intent in the tent, y'all..

Here's to you, Abbey:

Out of Touch

So far, nobody can explain to me why that matters at all:

Earlier this month a New York City agency cleared the way for the construction of Cordoba House, a 13-story building that would include meeting rooms, a prayer space, an auditorium and a pool.

Some of the families of those killed in the attacks have mounted an emotional campaign to block it, calling the center provocative and a betrayal of the memory of the victims.

"It does put salt on the wound," King said. He urged Muslim leaders behind the project to reconsider the location.

[snip]

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll showed a majority of Americans across the political spectrum opposed the project being built near the site of the attacks.

The survey, released on Wednesday, showed nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed it, including 54 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents.

So what if 70 percent of Americans think the mosque shouldn't be built there? So what if a majority of Americans think religious freedom should take a backseat to the feelings of people who, by and large, not only weren't in New York on 9/11 but have never been to New York and likely won't go?

And so what if a broad political spectrum of people are against it? That proves nothing except that there are assholes and insects in every political party, and most of them are racist fucks who'd rather not have to deal with sticky, uncomfortable stuff like "religious freedom even for people I think suck" and "this is America, you can have your stuff anywhere you want even if it makes me itch." It's hardly news that Democrats, Independents and Republicans can be total dicksucks, even if that last has had kind of a lock on the market for the past decade or so.

So what if it hurts people's feelings? People's feelings are not law. People may be squicksome over this now, but on election day, are they going to vote based on that their kids don't have enough to eat, or are they going to vote based on the president said some stuff in a video address that nobody paid any attention to anyway, and some Republicans were jerks about it on Sunday shows nobody watches?

I mean, if we're gonna take the argument to that level you'd best bring it, King, because people's feelings are hurt over a lot of stuff right now. For example, many of us do not have jobs. Others have jobs but they suck. Others still are dying of preventable, curable diseases because doctors are expensive and/or inconvenient to them. And that's just the real stuff. I'm pretty sure I could find a plurality of Americans to oppose your hair, you chewy little fuck. Will you then shave it off? Do I have the right to tie you down and do it to you?

Prominent Republicans have opposed the proposed site of the center, saying it was insensitive and reopened the wounds of the attacks. On Sunday, several criticized Obama for what they said was his support of the center's construction and subsequent waffling on the issue.

"This is not about freedom of religion because we all respect the right of anyone to worship according to the dictates of their conscience ... but I do think it's unwise to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as the result of a terrorist attack," Texas Republican John Cornyn said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.

"To me it demonstrates that Washington, the White House, the administration, the President himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America," Cornyn said.

If the mainstream of America is a bunch of dicks who have no idea what America is actually about, then I say hallelujah, allahu ackbar, and GO TEAM, okay? Let's be clear on this: the president's duty is to the Constitution and the law of the land, not to how many dickheads King and Cornyn can make dance on the head of a pin. And if he wants to act like that for once, and tell these bigoted tools to go fuck themselves:

Well, my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion.

Then I say Happy Obama Photo, bitches: 

And by the by, this:

Republicans said the November elections will be about jobs, and that the president should be addressing high unemployment in the United States instead of speaking about religious freedom.

Is some quality bullshit. Howl and scream and release your flying monkeys to hassle all of America which IS busy with high unemployment and stuff in the world being generally broken, and then when the President has to step in and calm your asses down, claim he's diverting YOUR attention from the real problems. Sure. That's just great.

Schmucks.

A.

Saturday Night Music

Runnin' Down A Dream is my favorite Tom Petty song. This is a live version from the Heartbreakers' 30th Anniversary show a few years back. I'm not sure if Mike Campbell or Benmont Tench is more awesome on this song. Decide for yourselves:

Weekend Question Thread

In honor of the party we'll be out of town attending this weekend, what's the best party you've ever been to?

A.

Saturday Blogwhoring Thread

Post away. Expectant kitty expects it.

A.

Quote Of The Week

It comes from Project Runway Judge Michael Kors commenting on the dress below: "She looks like a transvestite flamenco dancer at a funeral."

The challenge involved making clothes out of party favors. Casanova, the designer in question, not only made this hideous dress, he also wigged out his competitors by skinning some plush puppies. I am not making this up.

Friday Night Music: Don't You Wish It Was True

Despite his penchant for wearing awful plaid flannel shirts, John Fogerty is a national treasure. He's written so many great songs that I lost count years ago. Here's a more recent one from 2007:

Malakas Of The Week: The Louisiana Coffin Cartel

The Gret Stet of Louisiana has all sorts of weird boards and such, which ostensibly regulate commerce but are just as often set up to protect special interests and fatten someone's wallet. That, in turn, leads to malakatude as you're about to see.The latest story involves a dispute between the Benedictine Monks and the Louisiana Board Of Embalmers and Funeral Directors over coffins:

When St. Joseph Abbey decided to open a woodshop on All Saints Day 2007 to sell handcrafted caskets to the public, the hope was that the sales would pay for the medical and educational needs of 36 Benedictine monks.

The board regulating Louisiana's embalmers and funeral directors, though, would have none of it. Before a single casket was sold, it mailed the monks a cease-and-desist letter, citing a state statute that carried thousands of dollars in fines and up to 180 days in prison for anyone selling funeral boxes without first paying the fees and meeting the requirements necessary to get a license from them.

On Thursday, the 121-year-old abbey fired back with a document of its own: a lawsuit asking a federal judge to strike down that law.

Obviously, funeral homes need to be regulated for health and safety reasons but this dispute involves neither. This is about money: the Benedictine's simple and comparatively inexpensive caskets are cutting into the profits of funeral homes. I don't know how many of you have had to pick out a coffin but the less expensive options cost much more than the Benedictine's and are so awful, tacky and flimsy that nobody wants to bury a loved one therein. The Benedictines are cutting into the takings of the undertakers who have rolled out some big guns to stifle competition and protect their own bottom lines. Most of the members of the Board are, of course, morticians who want to keep selling expensive caskets to their customers.

Me, I don't believe in the body in the box thing. I've told Dr. A if I go first that I want to be cremated and put in an urn on the mantle next to our cats' ashes. I've never liked open caskets but ended up *really* disliking them after my mother's funeral. Part of the Greek Orthodox funeral rite involves anointing the remains with olive oil. It creeps me out but I'm the youngest so I didn't plan the ceremony. My cousin Carol was raised a Lutheran so she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw this. It takes a lot for a Norwegian from Wisconsin to freak out but this did it. Sorry about that, cuz.

It's fascinating that this particular dispute arose in South Louisiana, which, at times, is more Catholic than the Pope. And Catholics disfavor cremation for reasons I once knew but am too lazy to look up so the coffin biz is big biz. It's time for the state to eliminate the coffin cartel and perhaps even the malakatudinous Board of malakas who embalm and overcharge for it.

When I spotted this story I wanted to, uh, box the ears of the undertakers' board but since that was physically impossible I made them malakas of the week instead.

Taking a leak on the Internet

Got an email from a former student about two weeks ago with the word “wikileaks” in the title. The email was about a former employee of a place at which I’d worked who had been “let go” prior to my arrival. He worked in the newsroom with college kids and rumors had flown around for years about this guy and his “proclivities.”

“So… I’d heard the (NAME) stories, I knew a little about it. But for our reading (dis)pleasure, wikileaks provides his actual emails.”

I knew more about this situation than the kid did, even though I never met the guy or got the whole story. I was there right after he was released and I could tell something wasn’t kosher.

Even if you’re not a reporter, you can catch on to these things when your boss tells you that, “we need to have a policy on this.” And “this” is usually something you’d never consider to be a problem, like “we need to have a policy that people aren’t to take shits on the break room table” or “we need to have a policy that forbids the running of an Internet sex ring for nuns out of the supply closet.”

In this case, it was mostly ogling college girls, making rude comments and other such things. However, the seedier rumors hit on his use of emails to solicit multiple dominatrix (what’s the plural for that?) for “encounters” in other cities while he was on school trips.

The wikileak link took me to a long run of decade-old emails that brought rumor to reality. I stopped reading somewhere along about the time where a request was made to have a woman take a shit on him and then spoon feed it to him.

I wrote back something careful to the kid and let it go.

However, when the whole Gawker/Deadspin/Brett Favre’s Gray Penis thing hit the fan this week, it made me ponder this whole thing a bit more.

Throughout history, we have always had a social need for “surveillance” as research has shown us.

We feel an intrinsic need to know what's going on around us. It used to be a member of our clan on a hill watching for dangerous animals that might harm us. Now, it’s “did you hear about Brett Favre’s cock?”

It’s also not new that philandering assholes have always been a part of life, especially in sports or positions of power. Babe Ruth chased more ass than Shrek trying to break up a Donkey family reunion. Presidents had “friends” and “mistresses” and “over-make-upped interns” for years. I’m surprised we never heard a story about Honest Abe getting caught banging a cotillion attendee in the cloak room, with her wearing nothing but his stove-pipe hat.

Over the years, we’ve opened up the aperture on what is and isn’t important public knowledge. While Ruth’s drinking went unreported, Jim Bouton broke out stories of Mickey Mantle’s drinking and other escapades for his book. Now, we know about Tiger’s dick, Brett’s dick, Greg Oden’s dick… It’s like the 2010 version of the sex tape. If we don’t have a cock shot of you on the Internet somewhere, you must not matter in the world of sports.

I honestly don’t want to know about these kinds of things. I always figured Brett had a dick and that someone, somewhere had seen it. If the source wanted to press charges for sexual harassment, I’d be all in favor of that. I don’t want to open my email and find a “thinking of you” schlong in my inbox, either. If someone wants to push the point that a public employee should know better than to use a university email account to set up some hook ups, I’d mostly agree as well. (It was the 1990s and the rules regarding public documents as the pertained to digital stuff was sketchy at best. Hell, I was still using a 28.8 modem and thinking I had the world by the ass. God alone knows what emails of mine are floating out there… Shudder…)

However, as much as the leakers shroud themselves in “the public’s right to know,” very little is accomplished in a lot of these cases. We’ll get the people who flock to read this stuff, discuss it and shake their heads. Media outlets will then flock to this to debate and discuss the merits of if this should or shouldn’t be out there and what kind of media would do such a thing… Hand-wringing then abounds as we argue about if we should be hand-wringing or not.

ESPN will run an hour long special called “The Dong” or “The Shit” and have six ex-jock studio analysts talking about how in their day, they had to take Polaroids of their own dicks and send them via snail mail to potential hook ups. And around and around it will go until the next guy whips it out in public or a different public employee comes forward about something people will likely find creepy.

Look, if something illegal or unethical or potentially important is going on, feel free to hit me with that. I want to know so I can make intelligent decisions as a citizen about things that will impact my life, my family and the world as a whole.

However, if you find out that for foreplay, Barack likes it when Michelle licks peanut butter off his toes while singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” just keep that to yourself.

Friday Ferretblogging

Riot, discovered curled up in the box where he keeps his stuffed bunny and his favorite toys:

 

Itty bitty tiny Claire:

A.

Friday Catblogging: More Awesomeness

Oscar came to live with us in the Spring of 2005 when he was about three years old. The timing was tough since we crapped out of NOLA and were in exile for about 6 weeks but it seemed longer.

The Queen of out household when the Big O arrived was the late, great Pogo who was so good natured that she didn't mind bouncing around from Shreveport to Dallas to Baton Rouge before coming home. As far as she was concerned, she was touring the country and visiting her admirers. Her greatest admirer was Oscar who she treated with icy disdain even though her would have been her sycophant if only she'd let him. The picture below captures Oscar's Pogo worship, we've always called that snap: Awesome.

'We have to be able to discuss these things'

Wow, it's like the 90s all over again, without Winona Ryder's awesome haircut and me being 20 pounds lighter. Newt's being listened to like a serious person, and via the Crack Den, "Dr." Laura's being a hideous wench:

CALLER: I'm having an issue with my husband where I'm starting to grow very resentful of him. I'm black, and he's white. We've been around some of his friends and family members who start making racist comments as if I'm not there or if I'm not black. And my husband ignores those comments, and it hurts my feelings. And he acts like --

SCHLESSINGER: Well, can you give me an example of a racist comment? 'Cause sometimes people are hypersensitive. So tell me what's -- give me two good examples of racist comments.

CALLER: OK. Last night -- good example -- we had a neighbor come over, and this neighbor -- when every time he comes over, it's always a black comment. It's, "Oh, well, how do you black people like doing this?" And, "Do black people really like doing that?" And for a long time, I would ignore it. But last night, I got to the point where it --

[snip]

Need a sense of humor, sense of humor -- and answer the question. When somebody says, "What do blacks think?" say, "This is what I think. This is what I read that if you take a poll the majority of blacks think this." Answer the question and discuss the issue. It's like we can't discuss anything without saying there's -isms?

We have to be able to discuss these things. We're people -- goodness gracious me. Ah -- hypersensitivity, OK, which is being bred by black activists. I really thought that once we had a black president, the attempt to demonize whites hating blacks would stop, but it seems to have grown, and I don't get it. Yes, I do. It's all about power. I do get it. It's all about power and that's sad because what should be in power is not power or righteousness to do good -- that should be the greatest power.

Right. We have to be able to discuss your race, and on my terms. This is what "Dr." Laura's saying: that her black caller can't discuss race when she wants to, but must do it when every stupid fucking moron at a party wants to, and "Dr." Laura's prescription for this is that her caller not be so damned sensitive and be willing to serve as Guide to Black World for everybody. I have never seen anyone miss the point so aggressively. 

Her caller should just accept being a zoo exhibit and not a person. She should just accept having to be the National Ambassador from the Exotic Country of Blackness whether she wants to be or not, because it's not important what she wants. It's important what the white people around her want. What they want is for her to be answerable to them, and she should be. Clearly. I mean, God forbid she just eat some pie or something and talk about work or school or her house or whatever else she's got going on. She should understand her life is a command performance called Being Black for Dummies.

You know, I am so Caucasian I'm practically transparent, and I freely admit that I could use a great deal of tutoring in the lives of people who are not me. It might be nice to have a Personal Protocol Vending Machine to explain to me how I should deal with X, Y or Z situation so I don't stick my foot in my mouth. However, that does not entitle me to make everybody who happens to be around me my Speak and Spell. For one thing, it's fucking rude. For another, it puts the burden on people who should be interacting with me as a fellow human being to be my teachers, and gives me an undeserved pass for any ignorant or hurtful comments I might make because hey, I was trying to learn!

Most people, not being idiots, can tell the difference between the sincere desire to understand something and the off-putting desire to make them The Other in a conversation, and it's pretty clear which is happening to this caller. Of course, when you're "Dr." Laura, it's all just one big opportunity to talk about how racist black people are for not wanting to answer to white folks all the time.

Schmuck.

A.

It is Just a Matter of Time

AMERICA. FUCK YEAH.

The line to marry is out the door.

9:30 AM: Ehhalt interviews Roger and Ron, the first folks in line to get married, should the stay be lifted. "If it doesn't happen, it's just a matter of time, it it does, well, we're here" they said.

It is just a matter of time. For people seeking justice, it is just a matter of time. The bigots get tired. The bigots go home. The bigots get old and they die off. The bigots are turned away from the courthouse steps with a great big mighty fuck you and I know that's easy for me to say, being a middle-class white chick married to a guy, but tell me it's untrue. Tell me our entire lives haven't been, from one end to the other to the ending of the world, the story of an inexorable march forward. Slow, fast, sometimes in leaps and bounds and sometimes in horrible, agonizing crawling over gravel on our knees, but forward nonetheless.

Why do you think they fight back so hard, the bigots and the loonies and the ten-a-penny fascisti? Because from where their God sits, from a way-up-high place of disapproval and fear, they're losing. From where their cruel and capricious God sits, they're being beaten back. Year after year after year, though they might howl and screech, they're losing. More people now approve of marriage equality than don't. More people now don't give a fuck one way or the other, probably, to put it more precisely. More people would rather Fred Phelps and his spiritual allies not scream in their faces. More people don't see the goddamn point anymore, of hating anybody that much based on who that anybody loves.

It is just a matter of time. And when and if justice comes, no matter how long it lasts, people like these will be there, long after those fighting against them have gone.

A.

Euphemism Of The Day

It comes from a Politico headline: Will its offbeat candidates hurt GOP?

Offbeat = Crazy.