Monday, March 31, 2008

Sports Update

George W. Bush, looking like the former cheerleader he is. Photo from Deadspin, which appears to be from the folks who bring you Wonkette & Gawker & Defamer & other such sites.
It's compare & contrast time once again. From the Baltimore Sun one has one's choice of:

Bush's first pitch: More cheers or boos?

or (a few hours earlier): Bush on the mound: More cheers than boos

The AP story doesn't decide one way or the other:

He was greeted by plenty of loud jeers, but also determined cheers, as if the fans in both camps were trying to outduel each other.
The comsymps at the LAT:

President Bush set the script into motion, delivering the ceremonial opening-day first pitch, albeit to a chorus of mostly boos.
Voice of America ("A trusted source of news and information since 1942") ignored the whole thing:

The game opened with a ceremonial first pitch thrown by President Bush. Manager Manny Acta caught the ball and says the visit by Mr. Bush made the day special.

"Sitting there in the clubhouse and seeing the President of the United States walk in. He talked to all of us. And he made everybody feel real good," Acta said.

A former Major League baseball team owner, Mr. Bush has showed interest in the construction of Nationals Park. He seemed at ease in the clubhouse, an oval dressing facility in the shape of the President's office at the White House.
The founder of Fire Megan McArdle, brad, was especially unhappy w/ the president's hogging time on the ESPN cablecast:

Motherfucker. He stayed after the commercial break. Bush is just hanging out. The President of the fucking United goddamn States is chillin with the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball crew. I'm trying to watch baseball, you assholes. Joe Morgan is bad enough. Next they'll call up Camille Paglia.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
He stayed through a second commercial break. I can't even mute it, they keep showing the shit eating twins grinning at each other in the booth.
This is proof God does not exist.
As if any more were needed.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

UGH!

Just...ugh.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Stop Loss, Part Deux: Army of Rubes

You're probably aware that words like "honor," "duty," & "integrity" have been dragged through the mud & stripped of all meaning by the American military, much as their civilian counterparts in the forces of fascist repression have removed all meaning from, among others, words like "liberty" & "freedom." A particular example would be as described in an L. A. Times marketing review of the new Paramount flick Stop-Loss (Yes, we typed "marketing review." We don't know what else to call it. Look for yourself.):
the stop-loss military provision that can legally re-conscript combat veterans -- even against their wills -- creating what has been decried as a "back-door draft."
(We think there's something else of a "back-door" nature there. Ouch!) Unlike real wars, WWII for example, where enlistments or conscription were "for the duration," the "professionals" of the American armed services currently enlist for a fixed term. Just one little problem: If it is decided that a soldier or Marine is somehow better at ground pounding, baby bayoneting, or interrogating insurgents, he or she can be kept in the service by means of the "stop-loss" provision in the enlistment contract. How much honor do you think was involved in the recruiter's explanation of the enlistment papers? Even subtler, though perhaps not quite as dishonorable, is the old "you'll be able to get a really good job when you get out, 'cause the Army/Navy/Air Force/Marines will train you for something," schtick they pull on the yout'. Don't believe a word of that either. From the L. A. Times of the day after the above Stop-Loss marketing story. Bear in mind that this is the VFW talking, not the Hippie-Dippie Peacenik Association:
Daniel M. Ortiz, department service director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., says the military misleads young recruits into believing that a stint in the armed forces turns them into attractive job candidates. "I don't put it past our military to spin stories that soldiers will get the best training and, when they get out, they'll have the world at their feet," said Ortiz, a veteran of the first Gulf War. "It is a false promise." The transitional assistance program run by the Department of Defense is insufficient, Ortiz said. And when veterans get intimidated by the lack of job opportunities, many give up on finding civilian work and reenlist, he said. Discouraged by an unsuccessful job search, with no gas money to go to interviews or college, Fabian Serrano, 27, of Riverside County, said he was tempted to rejoin the Marines. He doubts he will ever find his ideal job as a cartoon designer, or any other worthwhile post. And with a wife, parents and younger brother to support, Serrano said he can't take a minimum-wage position and hope for a promotion later. A fellow Marine persuaded the sergeant, who served in Iraq and is now in the Reserve, to attend his first job fair. But Serrano had no resume -- only a high school diploma and nearly a decade of experience shooting cannons and working as a military policeman. "I have no good sense of direction of where to start and where to go. None of my experience transfers," he said. "There's nothing out here for me, so I might as well go back to active duty and stay there."
So assuming you weren't stop-lossed from getting out in the first place, you're screwed if you can get out, & may end up re-upping, Never forget that words like "duty," "honor," "patriotism," "integrity," & so on are w/o meaning. They are used merely to cause knee-jerk reactions in the naive & trusting (or just plain stupid) so they'll follow orders & die for this country, even though this country won't educate them or provide jobs that would give them something worth defending. Noble warriors, our ass! Suckers, every last one. An Army of Rubes, as it were.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Hopes Up (For an End to the World, That Is)

No, we've not turned into a sappy optimist. But this story put some pep in our step, hope in our heart, & our finger in our nose. Burn, baby, burn.
[T]he experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet.
Hope springs eternal. The waiting is the most difficult aspect.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Just to Be Disgusting, Or: Sex Sells

From the AP, via MSNBC.com:
Boyfriend in toilet case accused of exposure He's arrested after allegedly exposing himself to girls Updated 2:01 p.m. PT, Thurs., March 27, 2008 NESS CITY, Kansas - A man whose girlfriend sat on a toilet for so long that the seat adhered to her body has been arrested in a separate case. Kory McFarren was arrested Sunday for alleged lewd and lascivious behavior, police said. He allegedly exposed himself to a neighbor's teenage daughter and her friends. He spent the night in jail before posting bond. No charges had been filed by Thursday. The 36-year-old McFarren could not be reached for comment. He was charged last week with a misdemeanor count of mistreatment of a dependent adult. That was after his girlfriend was found stuck to the toilet in late February.
What a species we are.

Emo: "Fucking Bullshit" per Mexican TV Host

Hey, where was this intartubes crap when we were young energetic punks? Maybe we could have destroyed the world, or at least musical culture. Look at Punknews.org. (They have the Mexican emo story.) Or even SoCalList.com. We wouldn't have had to get that L. A. Weekly ink smeared all over our hands to find gigs worth attending. Still doesn't make us want to leave the house we no longer live in though.

Note to Self

The sprinklers in the park where we're sleeping go off every other night just before midnight, for about five minutes. Don't be caught again.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

We Told Him to Hang On

Below: Widmark w/ The Late Great Duke in The Alamo. Not a veritable barking dog, but not one of his (or The Duke's) greatest, either. Photo added 27 March 2008 @ 1300.
One of the all-time psychos (well, portrayers thereof; Robert Ryan was another) Richard Widmark, has decided not to take our birthday advice & stick around any longer, but shuffled off this mortal coil Monday. His premier screen exposure in Kiss of Death has been giving people the creeps for 61 yrs., and once he got past the psycho parts he turned out to be a fine all around actor as well. The Bedford Incidentremains a personal favorite of Just Another Blog™, & is well worth a peep in these days of madness & war-mongering. Here's the H'ywd. Reporter poop, w/ footage of the famed wheelchair scene from Kiss of Death. (Asswipes cut it before the giggle, though.)

Good job all around Richard. You won't really be missed, as we''ll always have your representations to amuse us.

Dodging the Bullets

Below: Not-Sen. Clinton & Sen. McSame. Talk about fun!
(Photo: Spencer Weiner/L. A. Times)
Time is short & we must e-mail the head-candler, but in all the fuss about Sen. Clinton & her time in Bosnia, we think the real question that should be asked is: "How the fuck does merely being under fire make any one a foreign policy expert?" Why does Sen. McBush's being shot down & allowing himself to be captured make him a national security expert? Why does the service of either of these two on the Senate Armed Services Committee make them anything more than pork-barrellers (or earmarkers, if you wanna get all 21st century)? By this criteria, anyone who's been shot at on an L. A. freeway should automatically be the next California Highway Patrol Commissioner.

Why is our foreign policy continually considered only in terms of bellicosity? Oh, right, highest murder rate of any developed nation, etc. Kill for Peace, or Peace Through Strength, or something.

Racist Trash

Every Tuesday is trash day somewhere; at the Los Angeles Times (& most other major metropolitan dailies) it's virtually every day, but Tuesday is toxic stupidity trash day, as the Times rolls out to the curb a can containing one Jonah Goldberg, ignoramus nonpareil. Yesterday's load, as usual, is barely worth the effort (the usual crude attempts to sweep issues of racial discrimination against non-white people under the rug) but there was one extra special note of idiocy we thought deserved mention.
Who is Janet Murguia? Oh, she's just the president of a group called the National Council of La Raza, which -- despite what they'll tell you -- means "the race."
We don't know "what they'll tell you" (& if Jonah knows he doesn't bother to tell us either) but it is the impression of Just Another Blog™ that "La Raza," in this case, refers to the fact that many or most of the people known as "Latino" or "Hispanic" in this hemisphere are, to varying degrees, descended from all three major breeding groups that compose the single "human" race, that is, the people from Asia who got here first, the Europeans who decided they should be running things & the Afrikan people who so kindly swam here under their own power & offered themselves & all their descendants for all eternity to help the Euros build things up in exchange for room & board, & maybe one of Massa's old shirts every couple of yrs. So there, Mr. Jonah Goldberg. One race, the human one, recombining here in the New World. The very "tea-colored world" that strikes fear in dedicated whitey-lovers all over. Not as much chance for advancement by nepotism in that new world, is there, Mrs. (Lucianne) Goldberg's son? The rest of the paragraph:
In fact, doesn't it seem like the majority of people begging for a "new conversation" on race are the same folks who shout "racist!" at anyone who disagrees with them?
In fact, doesn't it seem that most people who cry "Class Warfare!" when confronted w/ the facts of surplus labor, economic inequality & the shrinking of the middle-class are indeed those committing the class warfare against the classes underneath them on the economic ladder? Final Note: Fish wrapping version of the Times entitles the piece:
When haven't we talked about race?
While were one to go on-line, one would see:
A race conversation? What are you talking about? Judging by the reaction to Obama's speech, you'd think Americans had never uttered a word about race.
We're well aware that column titles are usually written by the op-ed editor at whichever paper (as columnists love to screech when called on an especially offensive title) but why/what's the diff here? Separate editors for cage-lining & web-viewing? Or...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Annals of Euphemism

From yesterday's West Coast fish-wrapper & today's East Coast cage-liner, we see that our boys & girls who've died in vain on the other side of the world (victims of, at the very least, voluntary manslaughter, at the hands of the Bush-Cheney criminal consortium) are now gloriously, poetically known as "The Fallen." NYT today: "Six of the Fallen, in Words They Sent Home" Yesterday's LAT: "Stories of the fallen" "Help, I've fallen & I can't get up! Again. Ever." Wouldn't destroying our Army & Marine Corps in a war of choice qualify as treason, or "aid & comfort to the enemy?" Aren't those impeachable offenses?

Monday, March 24, 2008

Blackwater Worldwide Keeps On Rollin'

As we aren't scared of Blackwater in the least (As if they could even find which park we're sleeping in; it changes every night.) we will refer you all to an article from Mother Jones (the magazine, not Tom's mom) as brought to our attention by lovely reader Sophia L. (Name changed for security purposes.) Looks as if BW is branching out. Remember, Mr. Prince is a hyper-religious nut-job who's convinced that Xtians are being "persecuted" anywhere there's not a Xtian theocracy, & would like to do something about it. An outfit like Greystone may well be able to function w/ virtually no legal checks on it. We doubt Barbados is going to put them out of business, even if they start shooting up any one in a Third World country who refuses to accept Jeezis as her or his personal savior.

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics

Another bleeding-heart pinko opposed to personal responsibility who wants to steal your hard-earned money & give it all to bums weighs in w/ some "facts" & a story that attempts to tug at your heart strings. Fortunately, as a decent American, you have no heart, & this Marxist crap won't suck you in.
According to the most recent information provided by the Los Angeles Housing Service Assn. (current as of October), about 73,000 homeless people seek shelter or are on the streets on any given night in Los Angeles County. There are fewer than 13,000 shelter beds in the county, so more than 60,000 people live in the streets. Twenty-five percent are part of a homeless family, 15% are under the age of 18, and according to a study by the nonprofit group Shelter Partnership, there are from 3,000 to 4,000 homeless people older than 62 in L.A. County. When considering the causes of homelessness, the following statistics may provide some insight. Seventy-four percent of L.A.'s homeless are disabled in some way; 33% suffer severe mental illness; 35% are physically disabled; 42% struggle with addiction; and 50% are clinically depressed.
Jeez, no wonder we can't find "shelter." This article should have been headlined: "L. A. County to Homeless Low-Lifes: 'Fuck You!'" Hey Doc, a question: What, if any, is the difference between "severe mental illness" & "clinical depression?" Don't be slighting us here at Just Another Blog™. Just because the editor isn't a raving paranoid schizophrenic doesn't mean he's not totally screwed up. Not for much longer though. Here's another stat:
The Los Angeles Coalition to End Poverty and Homelessness [More accurate name for this group: Coalition to Smash Capitalism.] released a document in December that presented the results of a study of homeless mortality in the county from January 2000 through May 2007. This study presented the sobering statistic that the average age of death was 48.
Shee-yit, we're living on borrowed time already.
If a disease emerged that struck hundreds of thousands of people and killed its victims at an average age of 48, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would jump to attention and commit enormous resources to curing it. The National Institutes of Health would grant millions of dollars for research. Scientists who developed effective treatments would rightly be celebrated.
Here we must believe the doctor is being optimistic. Pollyannaish, even. Or naive.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Further First Amendment Violations

Why in the hell are both the Los Angeles & Santa Monica Public Libraries closed for Easter? They're only open from 1300-1700 anyway, why bother closing? Has the ACLU looked into this? (This of course means there'll be nothing desk-top published here until Mon. We believe our free speech rights are being curtailed.) We'd also like to complain about the God-squadders taking all of our glorious pagan/Northern European rabbit, egg & chick activity & conflating it w/ their pathetic resurrection fairy tale. It's spring, time to fuck, not to worship death, fools!!

Easter Notes From Hell

Mrs. Laura "Pickles" Bush. Are the eggs pickled too?

Mr. Pickles gave his weekly radio address today, violating the First Amendment as usual.
Easter is a holiday that beckons us homeward. This weekend is an occasion to reflect on the things that matter most in life: the love of family, the laughter of friends, and the peace that comes from being in the place you call home. Through good times and bad, these quiet mercies are sources of hope.
(Read that last sentence again. Does it have the slightest meaning, or is it just another platitude – if that – from the most platitudinous president ever?)

Funny, we thought Thanksgiving was the holiday where all America ran like lemmings to some relative or another's house to drink. Isn't Easter the holiday where throngs of drunken collegians run like lemmings to the seashore & act like George Bush used to, before he found Jeezis & (allegedly) got off the sauce? George's connection to actuality is about as tenuous as Sen. McSame's.
On Easter, we remember especially those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. These brave individuals have lived out the words of the Gospel: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And our Nation's fallen heroes live on in the memory of the Nation they helped defend.
Say, kind of a fucking shame that those almost 4,000 "brave individuals" (most of whom probably died with their skivvies full of shit & piss) won't be coming back to life in another three or so days, as Bush's favorite political philosopher, Jeezis Hussein Christ, is rumored to, isn't it? Not to mention the uncounted contractors & mercenaries. Or the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, & the millions of Iraqis who don't have "the peace that comes from being in the place you call home?" Not even an afterthought to our president. What a holy man he is. Read this if you doubt it:

Presidential Message: Easter 2008

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies."
John 11:25

Laura and I send greetings to all those celebrating the joyful holiday of Easter.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ reminds people around the world of the presence of a faithful God who offers a love more powerful than death. Easter commemorates our Savior's triumph over sin, and we take joy in spending this special time with family and friends and reflecting on the many blessings that fill our lives. During this season of renewal, let us come together and give thanks to the Almighty who made us in His image and redeemed us in His love.

On this glorious day, we remember our brave men and women in uniform who are separated from their families by great distances. We pray for their safety and strength, and we honor those who gave their lives to advance peace and secure liberty across the globe.

Happy Easter. May God bless you, and may God bless our great Nation.

GEORGE W. BUSH

# # #
No Passover message yet.

Friday, March 21, 2008

There's One on Every Corner, & There's One Born Every Minute

Besides screwing people stupid enough to pay their ridiculous prices for ground beans & water w/ some flavoring added, Starbucks™ has been (no surprise here) screwing its wage-slaves. A judge in San Diego ruled yesterday that the practice of letting "shift supervisors" help themselves to the tip jars was wrong, wrong, wrong. (Remember, "supervisor" is Latin for overseer. As in plantation labor. We don't know what the fuck-tuck-tucking hell a "barista" is.)
Saying baristas were entitled to $86 million in back tips plus interest, San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction preventing Starbucks’ shift supervisors from sharing in future tips. Cowett said the practice was a violation of a state law prohibiting managers and supervisors from sharing in employee tips. Starbucks Corp. spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said the company planned an immediate appeal, calling the ruling “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason.”
Pardon us Val, it's, how do you say it, "against the law?" And if you don't like the law, you can always bribe some legislators to change it, fascista. Valerie went on to say:
“This case was filed by a single former barista and, despite Starbucks request, the interests of the shift supervisors were not represented in litigation.”
Then who exactly was Starbucks'™ team of legal eagles representing, assuming there was representation? Won't you even stand up for your managers?
Terry Chapko, an attorney for the baristas, said the ruling was a victory, but the case was far from over. “Starbucks should be paying their shift supervisors a supervisory wage, not compensating them through tips that legally belong to baristas,” he said.
Oh, now we get it. Starbucks™ is interested in paying its overseers & plantation managers the least possible amount it can, just as w/ its "baristas." Don't believe Valerie for a minute. Their hearts do not bleed for their management wage-slaves either. It shouldn't be hard for the urbane sophisticates who read this to locate one of their ubiquitous stores; we suggest you heave a heavy object through a Starbucks™ window tonight. A heavy object like a Starbucks™ shareholder, or an executive vice-president.

Famous Last Interview Words

From the recently late Arthur C. Clarke
who died Wednesday at age 90 and left explicit instructions that no religious ceremony accompany his death. (For good measure: In what was possibly his last interview, in BBC Focus magazine last December, he said the greatest danger humanity faced was "Organised religion polluting our minds as it pretends to deliver morality and spiritual salvation.")
No shit.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

From Sen. Bab's Out-Box to Our In-Box

Dear Friend: I have joined in an effort to ensure that seniors, people with disabilities, and children who rely on Medicare and Medicaid can continue to receive care under these programs. As you may know, the Bush Administration recently proposed unprecedented cuts of nearly $200 billion to services that patients and communities rely on. Medicare alone would see funding for hospital programs cut by $135 billion. I recently joined other Senators in writing to the Senate Budget Committee, and asking that the proposed cuts in Medicare and Medicaid funding be rejected so that people who depend on these services will have assurance that they will continue to receive care. Many people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid already are facing challenges, including rising pharmaceutical and specialized care costs and physicians who may decline to take new patients. This is not the time to create new challenges by slashing the budget for these programs. You can count on me to continue working to ensure that the people who need medical services the most can receive it. Sincerely, Barbara Boxer United States Senator
Senator Babs wrote a fucking letter!! Wowie Zowie! That's really kewl. I know it'll be a big help to losers like The Editor here, who is asked "Do you have Medicare/MediCal?" by every single gov't. or private agency he has any contact w/ in his effort to find someplace inside to sleep. Really, is this what these fucking people do all day in Washington, send letters to each other? "Please don't hurt dem po' folks no mo', Sen. Brer Fox, don't cut off they funds, an' please don't throw me in the briar patch!" "Fuck you!" is a waste of three and a half perfectly good vowels & an exclamation point on crap like this. Tell you what, Senator Babs, why don't you write a fucking letter to the damned Social Security Administration & tell them to get a move on w/ their obligatory turn-down of The Editor's first application so he can hurry up & get the appeal going? That might be a service to your constituents. Or at least one of them.

I'm Sick & Tired/And I Really Have My Doubts/I've Tried & Tried/But It Never Really Works Out

Screwed again by the heartless, faceless, scatter-brained bureaucracy. And we knew better, but didn't want to tell someone how to do her job. At least she gave me bus tokens, so no hard cash was wasted on a trip to nowhere. A sad state of affairs, when the editor of this web log has a better idea of how to do something w/in the County Mental Health bureaucracy then its own wage-slaves do. Just too smart for our own good. Our problem all our life. (Here we break into song, something along the lines of: "I wish that I were stupid/as fucking dumb as you/I wish that I were stupid/then I'd be happy too." Needs a little work, but you get the idea. Or are you stupid too? We bet you just might be. Wouldn't want to be different, would you?) Anyway, we've just about had it. 54 yrs. wasted in this world of liars, thieves, murderers & cheaters, not one fucking thing to show for it, & surrounded by stupid, ignorant incompetents every step of the way. Oh, no, we have three bags of shit to show for it ("Yes sir, yes sir, three bags of shit full.") which we have to drag around w/ us everywhere we go. That's something to show. Show the world that we're dangerous homeless scum, mostly. Quiver in fear, members of the housed community! We may urinate in your fucking alley some day. That'd be the end of your world, wouldn't it? We wish that one of those bags were filled w/ something that would blow up real good; one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter, as they say, & we'd really like to free most of the world from their mortgages & SUVs & hair-styles & hideous jobs (even worse: "careers") & relatives & beliefs & everything else, especially their ugly bodies. P. S.: We were really fucking angry before we spent some of our precious Food Stamps on some food. Two new assholes would have been torn, & many more idle threats would have been made. Hope this was enough to keep you happy for a while.

Annals of Pin-Dickery

That squeaking in the corner there? No, it's not a little mouse w/ its tail in a trap, it's a conservative trying to show both his macho (Or, in Freudian terminology, "Still trying to show mother something?") & how clever, creative, & artistic he is. (W/o being thought of as a sissy though. Wonder what Klavan thought of 300?) Anyway, it's news to Andrew that David Mamet is some sort of RW type. Take a gander at The Unit ("Herr Doktor Freud, paging Herr Doktor Freud.") Mamet's paean to the boys who commit crimes for us in the name of democracy, Tuesdays @2100 Eastern & Pacific on CBS. Appears that Mamet officially came out of the conservative closet in The Village Voice last wk., & little Andy is all a-twitter.
The left has monopolized the arts for so long that some on the right have lost the knack of them. We love to denounce Hollywood and indulge in paroxysms of rage about the latest artistic insults to patriotism and God. But when it comes actually to producing mature and complex works of art -- or supporting the people who produce them -- a good conservative can be very hard to find.
You don't suppose that has anything to do w/ '"conservatives" being brain-dead receptors of conventional wisdom, authority & tradition, do you? Note, for example, the linking of "patriotism" & "God." Or his summation of Mamet's plays:
searching for remnants of heroism in the rubble of modernity through a hilarious and poetic tough-guy vernacular.
ANDREW (from offstage right, in whiny simpering voice):
Oh, there aren't any heroes in this horrid modern world any more. Oh, tough-guy vernacular is just the coolest, don't you think, Bruce? Hold on for these two:
The journey 60-year-old Mamet has made from being what he calls a "brain-dead liberal" to acknowledging the genius of philosophers such as Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman is a difficult one for an artist. We in the creative world swim in liberalism like fish in water. It's hard for us even to imagine that one might evolve and walk on dry land.
Note that Thomas Sowell is a "genius philosopher."
So now Mamet has grasped the nettle. He will come to find out just how small-minded, exclusionary and intellectually corrupt many on the left can be. Colleagues may abandon him; theater critics will contrive to ignore and attack him; his dependable audience may turn away.
If Mamet's going find "intellectual corruption" anywhere, it'll be coming from the mouth of Thomas Sowell. And wasn't the deservedly dead Milton Friedman alleged to be an economist, rather than a philosopher? That may explain the problem w/ most of his ideas. That & the fact that people like Chile's Generalissimo Pinochet are the ones most likely to carry out his "reforms." And if any one "turns away" from Mamet's art, it'll probably be because it's become propagandist shit, not because he's no longer a "brain-dead liberal." This is awfully repellent too:
Will they turn out for his plays and embrace their excellence? His is a hard language of four-letter words and scorching insights. Will rightists, despite their commitment to good behavior and values, remember that art is an examination of the world as it is, not as we would have it be?
Good behavior, huh? Wholesale murder & torture is excellent behavior, but don't say "poopie-doodie" on stage. Values, he says. They "value" everything, but know the worth of nothing, to coin a phrase. And art (although what Klavan knows of it is beyond us) as examination of the world as it is is exactly why the arts are hardly filled w/ the right wing fantasists who worship Reagan & think Cheney's "So?" is the height of clever discourse. The right wing, however, is filled w/ louts. But Klavan thinks that Mamet may still be able to get some:
He will meet women of intelligence and competence who -- mirabile dictu -- don't despise men and manliness but openly admire them.
"How 'bout belching for me again, big boy? You're such a man, not like those nancy boy artists! And your vernacular is tough as nails!! Ravish me, you brute!!" And let's take a peep at what passes for art (& manliness) in the Klavan klavern. This is straight from Andy's website:

Damnation Street They are two sworn enemies with a single obsession: a woman on the run from them both. Scott Weiss is a private detective. John Foy is a professional killer. The woman is Julie Wyant, a hooker with the face of an angel. Julie spent one night with Foy - a night of psychopathic cruelty that Foy called love. Desperate to get away from him, she vanished without a trace. And Foy wants her back. There's only one man who can find her: Weiss, the best locate operative in the business. She's begged him not to look for her, fearing he'll bring the killer in his wake. But Weiss can't stay away. Now, from a town called Paradise, through a wilderness that feels like hell, Weiss searches for Julie - and the killer follows, waiting for his chance. They are two expert hunters matching move for move - until it ends in gunfire on Damnation Street.

There's further disgusting crap in Klavan's screed, & we can't let this one pass:
Rather than the low and tiresome obsession of the left with the color of people's skins, he will find people who embrace a philosophical colorblindness.
Jeezis Hussein Christ, you fucking asshole, who was obsessed w/ the color of people's skins, & their superiority or inferiority, & how one "race" should be in charge of all other "races" for most of the history of this country? For the right to deny history, & then accuse the left of being "low and tiresome" in its efforts to bring about that "philosophical colorblindness" is as good an indication as any that Mamet is unlikely to
discover thinkers who seek historical and moral truth as if it really mattered[.]
on the right. So Klavan, you pin-dicked overcompensator, if you're man enough to live in Southern California, I cheerfully challenge you to an ass whuppin'. Show us what a hero you are. It'd be worth a few days in jail if we could keep you from writing another book or "adapting" another Japanese movie.

Mono-Syllabic Dick

From WaPo:
After a reporter cited polls showing that two-thirds of Americans oppose the Iraq war, Cheney responded: "So?"
Yeah, this is a unitary executive, not a republic, let alone a democracy, & don't any of you peasants forget it.
"I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls," he added in an interview in Oman with ABC News. "There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better."
Sure has. That Iraqi gov't. is united & moving as one, the insurgents are just a few dead-enders in their last throes, there's no more sectarian squabbling, blah blah blah. Meanwhile, in the real world...

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Multiple Faces Have They

Perhaps the lack of demands that Sen. John ("Bomb-bomb") McCain denounce & repudiate various statements by one of his "spiritual guides," Rod Parsley, & the other mega-church pastor whose endorsement he actively sought, John Hagee, as opposed to the hysteria concerning the sermons of the retiring pastor (Baaa! Baaa!) of Sen. Obama's church has something to do w/ Jeremiah Wright's comments (Except that the gov't. developed HIV to kill black people; why would it even bother, black people die younger already?) all being true, whereas the "end times" crap spouted by Hagee & Parsley is obviously the ranting of the delusional mentally ill (You too can play "Spot The Symptoms." Just get out your DSM-IVTR & start flipping through it.) & needn't be taken seriously by serious white people, while Wright is speaking the truth & the slapping of the juiciest parts all over the media is embarrassing to those who say that the only racism in This Great Nation of Ours™ is when black people mention that they might have gotten a raw deal at the hands of Euro-Americans. (And are still getting a raw deal.) Let's take a closer look at ol' Rod's "prosperity gospel," through the lens of an actual (Gasp!) Xtian who takes issue w/ the prayer hankies, etc. Even his own people see right through his scamming. From the spiritual to the profane, we go to David Corn, formerly of The Nation, who's taken his keyboard to Mother Jones, & dug into some of Pastor Parsley's plans for the physical, political world.
Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes this point: "Allah was a demon spirit."
Just Another Blog™ does support the eradication of Islam, & all other religions. One of the first steps would be to recognize that "Allah" was not "a demon spirit," but the hallucinatory delusion of a mentally troubled merchant from Medina. Again, check the DSM-IVTR. (Sadly, no longer available on the innertubes. Try any chain bookstore or the lie-berry.) Rod's take on This Great Nation of Ours™ vis-a-vis Islam:

I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed [.]

He traces this back to Christopher Columbus. Seriously. And is, of course, a dominionist. Well, fair enough, "Bomb-bomb" thinks this is an "Xtian" country, & you might remember he was a little nervous at the prospect of a Moooslim pres. a few months back, 'til he made a U-turn w/the "Straight Talk Express." Flip. Flop. Flip. Flop. P. S.: This just in, as we type:
McCain: Sunni? Shia? What? Where did all that vaunted national security experience go? WaPo: Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran. He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq. Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back." Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."
Emphasis theirs. Either MoJo's or WaPo's. Being a prisoner of war does not foreign policy experience make.

Homeless Notes From All Over

Olga (top) & Helen (below)

Sadly, just in our brief time on the streets, we've had to turn down more than one offer from attractive but aging women to take us into their homes. Hard to believe that a parasite such as Just Another Blog™ would pass up such opportunities, but we're just a little nervous due to the (alleged) activities of the septuagenarian slaughterers, Helen & Olga, whose trial on charges of taking in homeless men & staging hit & run fatalities for the insurance they took out on said hard cases has just gotten underway. Boy, we could be on easy street right now, but we're just a little too nervous.

Helen & Olga are

accused of murdering a pair of Los Angeles homeless men in a chillingly deliberate scheme that required them to feed and shelter their victims for two years -- the period after which insurance companies often cannot contest policies -- before crushing them to death under cars in dark alleys.
Grim, eh? And no rest for the weary (us).

2001 + 7

Arthur C. Clarke, the remaining member of the science fiction "Big Three" (the other two having been Isaac Asimov & Robert A. Heinlein) died early this a. m. If not for him there might not be any satellite communication.
A radar pioneer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, Clarke wrote a 1945 article in Wireless World magazine in which he outlined a worldwide communications network based on fixed satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 22,300 miles -- an orbital area now often referred to as the Clarke Orbit. Clarke's seminal article, for which he received $40, was published two decades before Syncom II became the world's first communications satellite put into geosynchronous orbit in 1963.
Well, someone had to come up w/ the concept, but he was the first. Thus, DirecTV, satellite 'phones, that delay between the anchor person & international correspondents (they call it "instantaneous" communication) & many other ills of the modern age:
Deemed a scientific prophet, Clarke foretold an array of technological notions in his works such as space stations, moon landings using a mother ship and a landing pod, cellular phones and the Internet. "Nobody has done more in the way of enlightened prediction," science-fiction author Isaac Asimov once wrote.
Oddly enough, in our desire to escape the grim reality that surrounds us, we've recently been reading anthologies of early or "classic" sci-fi short stories from both the L. A. & S. M. Public Libraries. Clarke had a few early classics. Guess that $40.00 for the satellite concept wasn't enough to keep him going, so he had to keep writing.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Bail Out (w/ Golden Parachute)

If we here at Just Another Blog™ were not so full of hate, pain, rage & fear (to name but a few of our "emotions") we might be able to gently mock the parasitical scum that control the financial markets & make our lives miserable w/ their greed, filthy hypocrisy & sense of entitlement. But the chances of mockery w/o a full keyboard melt-down are slim to none, so for some mild invective, let's turn it over to a guy who has to go to the same cocktail parties as the rest of them, Mr. E. J. Dionne Jr.:
Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.
See? He has "conservative friends." How are we to get the truth about economics from someone who claims to have such friends? Probably financial conservatives, not the drooling, hallucinating, schizophrenic religios who endorse Sen. John ("Bomb bomb") McCain, but still.
The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. They are desperate to be bailed out by government from their own incompetence, and from the deregulatory regime for which they lobbied so hard. They have lost "confidence" in each other, you see, because none of these oh-so-wise captains of the universe have any idea what kinds of devalued securities sit in one another's portfolios. [...] Enter the federal government, the institution to which the wealthy are not supposed to pay capital gains or inheritance taxes. Good God, you don't expect these people to trade in their BMWs for Saturns, do you?
Our favorite potential outrage would be the investor class having to take its lunch to work. Of course, the lunch would be packed by "illegal" immigrant slave-labor. Nonetheless, what an indignity!
So now the bailouts begin, and Wall Street usefully might feel a bit of gratitude, perhaps by being willing to have the wealthy foot some of the bill or to acknowledge that while its denizens were getting rich, a lot of Americans were losing jobs and health insurance. I'm waiting.
Don't hold your breath, E. J. We've been waiting quite a while ourselves. How are those cocktail weenies, anyhow?

Irksome, Tedious & Banal

The editorial staff here is exhausted & bored today. But we shall not bore you. Leave, & find information or abuse elsewhere. Go on, scat! Shoo!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Blame America: First, Always & Often

A reader (more like likely a mouth-breather who wraps his/her lips around every syllable) who signs him/herself "A Christian Prophet" comments:
It's not about the pastor. If Obama's THEOLOGY is seen for what it is the election is lost. See: http://miraclesdaily.blogspot.com/
which leads to "Our Conservative Spirit." Jesus Hussein Christ on a Crutch, where do they grow these automatons? Just in case you haven't yet had enough green beer to make you vomit, let's pull just a few samples from OCS:
Barack Obama is not a real Christian. He is a Marxist attempting to sneak into the flock in Christian clothing. His most beloved early teacher was a communist. (See: Barack Obama's Communist Friend and Guru).
Funny, huh? These people can't find an enemy to replace the dreaded menace of Communism (not even swarthy Mooooslims who WANT TO BLOW US UP11!1 are scary enough) so they rely on the spectre of Marxism to attract the 60 yr.-old & up demographic that had fear of Stalin so inculcated in them it's never coming out. Or is Sen. Obama merely the ultimate in evil? A mixed-race (as we all know, colored people are naturally docile & take well to slavery, it's only when you get white blood lusting for liberty in them that they're dangerous) Muslim radical Marxist. Talk about hitting the trifecta!!
A free market does redistribute wealth, but by means of voluntary transactions and voluntary charity which affords spiritual benefits to all. To grasp the unnatural insanity of Obama's agenda of using taxation (government force) to redistribute wealth, it is only necessary to imagine a reasonable person covered with leaches[sic]. Might as well just lay there and let the leaches [sic] go on sucking ... true or false? In other words, how long are producers of wealth going to continue producing wealth knowing it will be redistributed by force?
There's so much stupidity in that paragraph we're not even going to bother, other than to note that there's so much charity going on that Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon went off the air the first yr. it was on; donations were so magnanimous that the disease cured itself. And heart disease & cancer? Gone w/ the buggy whip. Just Another Blog™ can personally advise you how much private charity has helped us in our current situation. No need whatsoever for gov't. assistance. Yes, charity has put an end even to unpopular diseases & conditions, except the sickness of not producing "substantial" wealth. That is a sin that cannot be forgiven. And remember, it must be "substantial." No mere millionaires allowed:
...those who do not produce substantial wealth must be protected from learning the lessons the results of their decisions are trying to teach them.
For if you do not "produce substantial wealth" you must be taught a lesson, by not receiving any charity, except when it can be used like a stick to teach you the Jeezis lesson. And that "affords spiritual benefits to all." And may we ask quickly about those who do indeed "produce substantial wealth," except that they do it at minimum wage, w/o health insurance (WalMart, foe example) & all that wealth goes to others (Walton family members, for example) who produce nothing but memos from the head office?
Jesus Christ tells us in his modern day revelation, A Course in Miracles, that taxation was invented by mankind, not God. And He tells us that we will abolish taxation when we wake up. Until then we might have to convert Barack Obama and his followers to true Christianity.
No idea what the "modern day revelation, A Course in Miracles" is, but it's plastered all over Our Conservative Spirit. "Modern day revelation" makes this reporter think Joe Smith & Mormonosity, but who knows? And who invented tithing, again? So, A Christian Prophet (modest little fellow, aren't you?) please respond as soon as your charity volunteering can be put aside for a moment. If you are anywhere in the Southern California area, we'd love to meet you somewhere & debate. Bring a few copies of A Course in Miracles, we'll use them to pound a modicum of sense into your pea-sized dinosaur brain, you chump!! Seriously, that is an actual physical threat against your person, you deranged sub-human. It's assault. Are you & your butt-buddy Jeezis going to do anything about it? Or will you just rermain hiding behind His skirtsrobe, you closet-case?

Up the Irish!!

In all possible orifices. Columbus has a day, the wop-a-dagos get all hot & bothered about that. Mythical figure St. Paddy has a day, the bog monkeys have a parade & vomit green everywhere. How 'bout Just Another Blog's™ Teutonic ancestors? All we get is Hitler's B-Day, except somehow the potheads got hold of that. We guess that our quarter-Italiano heritage should be satisfied w/ Columbus Day (a real Federal holiday, you Guinness suckers should notice) & shut up about the whole thing.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Real Terror Threat to Real Americans

One time acquaintance & professional loudmouth Johnny Angel (forced, for one reason or another, to use his legal name, Johnny Wendell, on air) suggested today on his 0700-0900 Sat. show on L. A.'s own KTLK 1150AM "progressive" talk station that the various federal anti-terror laws passed in the wake of 11 September 2001 should be used immediately by Generalissimo Bush to round up gang members (there's been a spate of gang shootings of alleged innocents here in Los Angeles recently) declare them enemy combatants & ship 'em to Gitmo. Sounds like an excellent idea to us, but since contributions to Republicans are more likely to come from developers & car dealers, we're sure the only Federal activity against domestic terror will continue to be against "eco-terrorists" who deface Hummers or burn down McMansions & gigantic apartment complexes that are under construction, w/o killing anyone. When the FBI says "eco-terrorists," we suspect they mean people who are terrorizing the economy (the campaign contributors' economy, that is) not those who are acting to protect the environment. No idea where one could find the stats, bet we'll bet our next General Relief check that more Americans have been killed by gang-related violence since 11 Sept. 2001 than died in the attacks that day.

God Damn America to Hell!!!

We at Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ would like to announce our complete & absolute endorsement of Jeremiah Wright's "incendiary" sermons. Incendiary, in this case, meaning truthful. The truth hurts, doesn't it? We also "vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements" that have been made by Sen. Obama trying to disassociate himself from J. W.'s truth. Stand up like a man, Barack. If "Insane in the Membrane" McCain can actively seek the endorsement of John Hagee, & be photographed w/ him (not that Just Another Blog™ thinks the Roman Catholic Church is any thing but The Whore of Babylon & a cult) then why can't you be a man & support the truth your "pastor" (Guess that makes you a fucking sheep to be led around, doesn't it?) has the intestinal fortitude to speak. P. S.: There are better sermons than the one linked to above, where Wright does indeed say: "God Bless America? God Damn America!" So say we all here at Just Another Blog™, except for the Gawd part, 'cause there ain't no such thing!

Friday, March 14, 2008

More on Mental Health (Or the Lack Thereof)

I've no idea why the "group" concept is so fucking popular w/ mental health professionals, other than laziness or a feeling that compensation for their labor isn't enough (probably isn't, in the public sphere) so let the wig jobs handle it themselves. Why, just yesterday, being in a mood to grab a sledgehammer & begin wreaking total & absolute destruction on inanimate objects ranging from newsracks to single-story buildings, I attended an hour-long group described as "Living with Strong Emotions," facilitated by an unpaid non-professional ( just plain busybody?) who took cues from Big Bill W.'s Big Blue Book of Big-Ass Bullshit. (I've got your Moral Re-Armament & higher power right here, you surrendering losers!) Once the nine or ten groupies introduced themselves, said how they were feeling on a scale of one to ten (I guess) & expressed gratitude (Didn't some wise-ass say "Gratitude is an emotion for dogs?") for something, as well as explained the trivial reason they were less than a 10 (really, you wouldn't believe some of the insignificant crap, compared to my glorious troubles) & the person who won't shut up & always has something on a tangent to add "contributed" (Is it a Law of Group Dynamics that every group has one?) I'd only been able to rant/rave for two minutes, & the group was over w/o any concrete, positive suggestions as to why I shouldn't start smashing things. There seems to be some concept that being in a group w/ other less functional types is "supportive," whatever that means, but it's not the support this melancholic needs, it's housing, not an over-medicated slow-talker offering me a hug. (Not that any one offered one, but you know what I mean.) Not to be a sexist pig, but recognizing, if not celebrating the differences between the sexes, mental health workers should realize that support, to males (one of whom I more or less count myself) means a resolution of the problem, not a processing of the emotions (whatever the hell that means) as occurs when women gab about their problems. (OK, "gab" could qualify as sexist, but I find the slang of past ages highly amusing, & at least I didn't type "have a henfest.") Something I realized at a sadly late age, but now that I understand it I'm not letting the concept go. All jocularity aside, what are we supposed to get from these things? There is almost always the person who won't shut up but is way off on a tangent, the person (often me) who doesn't want to share w/ the group, & cliches, platitudes & psycho-babble/jargon from all. And the sub-text of being a member of the group, participating, not being isolated, ad nauseum. I. e., they want you back in the herd so you may be manipulated w/ greater ease, & become a productive member of Pig Nation again. Phooey!!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

A Day Off & a $ Short

We note that Friday the Thirteenth has arrived a day early this month.

Don't Even Bother Asking

You bet your sweet ass we're as bitter as fuck here at Just Another Blog™? How'd you notice?

Econ Notes From All Over

The latest indicators indicate recession. Here at Just Another Blog™ we can't wait for an economic depression, so middle-class pigs will be right there w/ us, wandering the streets aimlessly w/ all their material goods in a couple of bags, victimized by callous, greedy landlords, wondering where their "investments" went (See that yacht at the marina? That's where your retirement is, sucker!) & why they can't get Medicare or any other help. Bush War & Reagan economics, taking us back to feudal society. Couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving nation.

Where's The Outrage?

Unlike other office holders recently caught w/ their pants down, the most prominent of whom would be Sens. Craig (R-ID) & Vitter (R-LA), Gov. Spitzer resigned his office, although we here at Just Another Blog™ saw no reason for him to do so. None of the ex-gov.'s personal activities are really any of our or the gummint's business. And where are all the glibertarians bemoaning the gov't. prying into people's bank acc'ts. & personal lives? Apparently if you believe the "free market" doesn't mean a free pass for corruption & cheating, & then do something about, it's another story for the forces of "Freedom and Liberty." Maybe Spitzer should pull a Larry Craig & change his mind about resigning, so he can at least serve the remainder of his term. Wonder if Sen. Diaper-Doo Vitter plans to run again, & if the good moralists of the state of Louisiana will send him back to Washington? (They may just want to have him safely out of their state, so they can concentrate on titty-flashing for plastic beads.)

Rant/Rave Concluded

Yesterday I ran out of time (& it's running out for all of us) to conclude effectively my little load of righteous anger, by returning to the R. D. Laing reference (Hard to stop once a good spew of hatred, rage & pain starts, & the Santa Monica Public Library only gives one 90 mins./day.) The point being that if this unspeakably horrid culture/society/scam ("the world") that's been perpetrated/constructed on this once decent & honest planet by you awful mutants believes me to be "mentally ill" for not wanting to be a part of it, it is the one illin', not I. Step back & look in the mirror, world. Why would I want to have anything to do w/ either the ignoramuses or, even worse, those who think they know something, but don't? For example:
Only 28% of the public knows that nearly 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war[.] [...] In the poll released Wednesday, around a third said about 3,000 U.S. troops have died and about one in 10 said 2,000. On the other hand, about a quarter put the figure close to 5,000. The actual number Wednesday was 3,987, according to the independent website icasualties.org.
Of course there's a partial excuse for this stupidity: The media needs you to be a brain-dead food tube, consuming tainted beef & useless Made-in-China-by-slave-laborers-who-have-what-used-to-be-your-jobs objects.
The portion of news stories that are about the war also has dropped in recent months, according to a study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The medication I take doesn't make me feel any more like participating in or "contributing" (that means being exploited like a dog, for those of you reading by wrapping your lips around each & every syllable) to this world. Desiring blissful ignorance of & numbness to all that surrounds me (Will it & they never shut up?) is a healthy reaction, not a sick one. Enough of this, already. What's the point (of anything)?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Mental Health/Illness Manifesto Rant/Rave

It was some published shrink (R. D. Laing?) who wrote that mental "health" was defined by society. Here's my take, in the first person singular, so you'll know I mean it. I'm not interested. I'm not interested in being a "healthy" member of your unhealthy, death-worshipping culture. I'm not interested in being a member of your "community," which means only sucking up to you & playing the same fucking political games that I can't play (I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place if I could, would I?) in the"real" world either. I'm not interested in being in "groups" where the truly deranged go off on tangents & I get nothing but more hopelessness & despair. I'm not interested in having to attend your bullshit chapel services to get a meal or a cot. (Stop preying on the ruined & hopeless, religious assholes. Take your fucking missionary work to the wealthy, successful & popular, see how far your exploitation goes there!) I'm not interested in receiving charity from wealthy women (that's the alliterative form, the rhyming form is "rich bitches") attempting to use up their spare time, & assuage their guilt for prostituting themselves to men who lie, cheat, steal & murder to achieve success & buy trophy wives in this world of liars, cheaters, murderers & thieves. It's entirely about how much better they feel about themselves after "helping" poor unfortunates. Stick your day old bread from overpriced, pretentious Westside restaurants up your various wretched holes! I am not interested in waiting in lines for food or shelter, nor am I interested in waiting on lists for yrs. & yrs & yrs. for transitional or permanent shelter. I am not interested in being a wage-slave to a corporation that will pay me a wage (even though it's a $ or two an hour over the so-called minimum wage) that will not allow me to live alone, w/ a tiny amount of creature comfort, in this city of shit & pain. Especially when said corporation's managers will treat me like a piece of shit. It's not enough that your humanity is destroyed by the crummy wages, they must take what little dignity one might have too. Screw 'em. But enough negativity. Here are positive affirmations, for your lying, stupid, "Oh, don't be so negative," attitudes even though I'm living in the streets & piss-drenched alleys on $221.00 cash & $160.00 in Food Stamps a month, w/ no realistic hope for any relief, just an even shorter life w/ greater physical suffering. Easy for you to say, w/ your crummy job "helping" people, which seems to consist of telling them to "be positive," or "chill out." I am not blind. I know what my future holds, & there's nothing "positive," or "possible" about it. I am intelligent, much more intelligent than you, who are too stupid, ignorant, or willfully blind to notice that everything is made of shit & you are all dying. I know too much for my own good. I am tired of living & less & less scared of death, especially as I hope to take many of you w/ me when I go, or at the very least screw up traffic somewhere, or delay the Red Line for quite some time. I could not possibly care any less, except for the destruction & agony I will leave in my wake. I am nothing to you, you are less than nothing to me. I will not die w/o being noticed! NB: This has not made me feel any better. But it's entertaining. Can't tell if I mean all of it or not, can you? P. S.: Should I tell my shrink or case managers or any other of the useless "be positive" element about my little "web log?" Because the slightest threat against their precious world of violence, hatred, war, greed & general evil would result in my being committed to a mental hospital, while the truly insane & violent continue their merry way through the world, in positions of power, producing & causing more twisted fucks in their image. Yes, George Bush & Dick Cheney can rant, rave, rattle their sabres and threaten entire nations w/ horrid mutilation & death from above any time they fucking want to, but I mention that I'm tired of living & wouldn't mind being dead, & it's off to the loony bin. Where's the justice, or even simple fairness, in that?I'm glad I'll be dead soon; your world that I never wanted anything to do w/is only going to become worse. I pity the young, for even worse shall be their world, though at least in part it will be their own fault. And that's it for today's Ranting Lunatic Prophecy Corner!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Compare & Contrast (Again)

We're beginning to think that we should transform this "web log" into a review of the L. A. Times, as we no longer have 16 hrs./day to wander the web looking for outrages, but instead are limited to dead trees & radio waves for our input & inspiration. Example: Just yesterday we referred to a Times op-ed about the probable return of RW militias. Yes, we understand the difference between an op-ed (not written by a Times staffer) & a news article written & edited by Times employees. Still, the one day separation between the op-ed,
Home-grown terrorism Current political conditions are conducive to violent domestic extremism.
& today's
Domestic terror groups in disarray after Sept. 11 After the violent mayhem of the '90s, right-wing extremist groups are less active. Some believe the 2001 attacks diverted rage away from the U.S. government and toward foreigners.
is somewhat amusing. And in no way, shape or form does today's story indicate there won't be a revival of domestic non-governmental terror. Nor, indeed, does today's piece make any note of the facts from the op-ed, that is, this sort of mania flourishes under (relatively) liberal administrations. It does refer to those dangerous "eco-terrorists" that the FBI wastes so much time on. Let's see how the FBI will respond to RW hate groups screaming that "the Democrats surrendered to Al-Qaida" by pulling troops out of Iraq (assuming such actually happens, & we're not holding our breath) therefore any action against the current "Jew-dominated" gov't. is legitimate & necessary. Funny part (there's always something w/ these people):
Three years after foreign terrorists killed nearly 3,000 Americans in the Sept. 11 attacks, Steve Holten left the San Francisco Bay Area, drove east through the Tahoe National Forest, skirted the Truckee River and settled himself in Reno. Here he proclaimed himself a lieutenant colonel of the local chapter of Aryan Nations. He sent an e-mail to area newspapers declaring war on the federal government, the media and the Jews. But no war came. Holten's career as a domestic terrorist was short and uneventful. FBI agents promptly arrested him, and a federal grand jury indicted him for transmitting a threatening e-mail. He pleaded guilty and served four months in prison. After getting out he contracted the AIDS virus, and he was rearrested, this time for soliciting a man for sex in a nearby city park. With shaved head and Nazi lightning-bolt tattoos on his neck, Holten is emblematic of how far the anti-government terrorism movement has sunk in the years since the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Don't worry, The South (or its mentality, if you can call it that) will rise again.

Lapel Pin Patriotism

The eternally shallow Jonah Goldberg offers yet more drivel to This Great Nation of Ours™, pretending there's no difference between nationalism & the "patriotism" he'd like to practice (try enlisting & "surging" in Iraq, Loadpants, if you're such a patriot, rather than attempting to lower the national I. Q. w/ every sentence you type). Key line:
Nationalism, a romantic sensibility, says "my country is always right." Patriots hope that their nation will make the right choice.
And left-o-commie Democrats actually try to make the nation make the right choice. Case in point: The invasion & occupation of Iraq. What was the "right choice" there? And whose "patriotism" was questioned at the merest mention that Our Current National Clusterfuck™ might not be the "right choice?" We might also note the irony of an op-ed piece entitled:
Loyalty oaths fail the test of democracy Such requirements are an anachronism from the McCarthy era.
appearing on the same page as Goldberg's column.
Certainly, a truly disloyal employee could pose risks to the government. She might (if she were doing something other than teaching remedial math) disclose secret information to an enemy, destroy important government files, make decisions intended to harm the public interest and recruit other employees to engage in subversive activities. But just how does a loyalty oath guard against such dangers? After all, anyone who is truly disloyal will simply take the oath falsely. No dangerous subversive will be deterred by the requirement of an oath.
In other words, Jonah, you twit, actions speak louder than words, & the phony flag-on-the-lapel patriotism that Republicans practice, at which you claim the "left" is deficient, is another red herring. Of which country do you think Sen. Obama is campaigning for the presidency, Nepal? Real patriots needn't advertise; their actions, policies, etc., prove their patriotism w/o drawing attention to it, as if they were "old fogy right-wing bullies." What's that proverbial "last refuge of a scoundrel," again?

Monday, March 10, 2008

The Worstest Generation

If your curiosity was piqued by our brief quotations from the review of Nicholson (C'mon, dude, lighten up, just call yourself "Nick.") Baker's new Human Smoke, there is a podcast or something where you post-literate types can listen rather than read. (Jeezis, we thought this whole devil-box thing would return us to literacy, but no, it's all "txtng" & A/V crap.) Click here & scroll down until you see a guy who thinks he's Santa Claus (Speaking of "lightening up," get a fucking shave while you're at it!) w/ the words "Nicholson Baker" beneath his visage. It's in the right column. (The embed lead somewhere entirely different. We are so fucking sorry to have made any of you do any extra clicking. We know there are only so many million clicks in that mouse of yours.) Looks as if this one may cause some controversy. As usually happens when someone thinks for him/herself.

People Get Ready

From today's cage-liner:
In November, it is possible that a liberal Democratic administration will be elected to replace the long-established conservative Republican leadership. Such a transition has occurred three times in the past 80 years, in 1932, 1960 and 1992. (For various reasons, the defeat of Gerald Ford in 1976 does not fit the model.) In each period, within two to three years, the nation had a frightening upsurge of radical right-wing, paramilitary movements. In each case, these angry movements spun off terrorist cells that plotted assassinations and bombings. Significantly, these upsurges only characterize the shift from conservative to liberal administrations. Paramilitaries remain few in number and marginal under GOP administrations.
Not the first time a rise in action (rather than mere babbling) by right-wing lunatics after the replacement of the W(orst) admin. has been forecast, but this item provides historical context.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Imperial Hubris Indeed

In today's regional fishwrapper (We've decided not to worry so much about half of our items being based on L. A. Times items, after all, this is Just Another Blog [From L. A.]™, not from Peoria or Washington, D. C. or even Walla Walla, Washington.) Michael Scheuer, whose first two books were published anonymously, has the lead piece in the Opinion section. It probably should have appeared under the "Anonymous" byline as well. Mr. Scheuer is not a total fool, he's derided the current administration for its foolish "war of terror," & its insistence that "they hate us for our (slowly eroding ) freedoms, but in his article he calls for
the use of massive, largely indiscriminate military force
against the
worldwide uprising of radical Islamists.
"Worldwide uprising?" No question there are religious fanatics out there, wishing to harm the United States & its interests (mostly oil, of course) & they are not to be taken lightly, but just what indications are there of a "worldwide uprising?" A few thousand "radical Islamists" per Islamic country, or non-Islamic country, carrying out acts of terrorism in the Islamic Crescent & parts of North America & Western Europe do not a "worldwide uprising" make. For some reason (payments from the military-industrial complex?) Mr. Scheuer seems to think that "the clandestine service and special forces" are not enough:
Simply and callously put, covert forces cannot kill the number of enemies that require killing.
He offers no estimate of the numbers that need to be offed, but claims
[t]he fact is that in this global war against non-uniformed, religiously motivated foes who live with and are supported by their civilian brethren, and who are perfectly willing to use a nuclear device against the U.S., victory is only possible through the use of massive, largely indiscriminate military force.
Is he suggesting the carpet bombing of any place occupied by Muslims, simply because the "radicals" live in the same neck o' the woods? And what does this mean:
But as long as we continue to avoid the broader, Europe-angering death and destruction that are the necessary byproduct of war-winning conventional military campaigns, we will not be able to win. Although the covert services can successfully eliminate the enemy's leaders, its foot soldiers and civilian supporters are not being wiped out. Thus, fallen Islamist chiefs are quickly replaced, and their troops and civilian support networks remain intact. Bluntly put, using covert forces as our main war-making tool ensures an endless struggle against a well-led, resilient and manpower-rich enemy.
Manpower-rich? No one can say w/ much certainty how many fundamentalist foot soldiers there are, let alone "civilian supporters," but we would really like to know what the targets of this "broader, Europe-angering death and destruction" are. Believe you us, if there were divisions of radical Muslim troops, armor & artillery, supported by an Al-Qaida air force (other than the ones they manage to high jack, of course) & navy, we'd know exactly where to apply plenty of conventional military force. But this sounds like the old "turn the Middle East into a glassy parking lot" routine, especially in light of this:
The knee-jerk reaction to calls for applying massive military force is an anguished cry of "oh, but we will lose the battle for hearts and minds!" That is an utterly false claim because the United States has already lost the "hearts and minds" war -- up to 80% of Muslims worldwide share Osama bin Laden's belief that the goal of U.S. foreign policy is "to weaken and divide the Islamic world," according to a poll by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes. More military force could only drive that number up marginally.
So we should continue w/ foreign policies that alienate & then radicalize Muslims, then bomb the shit out of them, because 80% of them are lost anyway? As opposed to electing leaders who would at least weaken the stranglehold of the oil & armament industries on American foreign policy & enable us to attempt to win back some of that lost 80%? Sad, as we had thought Mr. Scheuer had some common sense. Oh well. Once you've read this in your dead-tree edition of the Times, flip the Opinion section over, & it will magically become the Book Review, where the cover review is of a book Jonah Goldberg might want to consult when carefully researching & detailing what should be his next book, Conservative Fascism. (Fair & balanced, y'know.) It's about the origins of WWII, & not the standard "if only they hadn't appeased Hitler, blah blah blah" take, either. Let's look at some quotes from Winnie Churchill, the hero of the National Review crowd (it gets their knickers all squishy when they refer to George W(orst) Bush as Churchillian):
Churchill is a dominant figure in "Human Smoke," depicted as a bloodthirsty warmonger who, in 1922, was still bemoaning the fact that World War I hadn't lasted a little longer so that Britain could have had its air force in place to bomb Berlin and "the heart of Germany." But no, he whined, it had to stop, "owing to our having run short of Germans and enemies." Churchill was not driven by anti-fascism. In his 1937 book "Great Contemporaries," he described Hitler as "a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner." The same book savagely attacked Leon Trotsky. (What was wrong with Trotsky? "He was still a Jew. Nothing could get over that.") Churchill repeatedly praised Mussolini for his "gentle and simple bearing." In 1927, he told a Roman audience, "If I had been an Italian, I am sure that I should have been entirely with you from the beginning to the end of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism." Churchill considered fascism "a necessary antidote to the Russian virus," Baker writes. In 1938, he remarked to the press that if England were ever defeated in war, he hoped "we should find a Hitler to lead us back to our rightful position among nations."
And from the Big Appeaser himself:
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said in 1939 of German treatment of Jews that "no doubt Jews aren't a lovable people. I don't care about them myself."
Winston again:
But even more than the communists, Churchill's enemy No. 1 in the 1920s and early '30s was Mohandas Gandhi and his doctrine of nonviolence, which Churchill warned "will, sooner or later, have to be grappled with and finally crushed."
As previously documented here.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

More of the Same

Other than the funny pictures (Ha ha, we're all laughing, aren't we?) below, we still have nothing, except a hideous sinus infection that makes us think our left eyeball is about to implode, or perhaps pop out of its socket. Indeed, if we hadn't wanted to find the nearest chain drugstore in our new home city, we might not even have hit the library today...

Dancing Primate

The Chimp-in-Chief. Especially the shot on the left. AP photos by Charles Dharapak, taken while the ape-man waited for his new butt-boy McCain on 5 March 2008.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Emptiness

We've nothing today. It all seems especially idiotic & more pointless than ever. Perhaps it's because self-appointed (by ourself) bête noire Megan McArdle is or will soon be here in Santa Monica ("Official Home of the Homeless," per Harry Shearer) for a "conference." Now, besides the police & everything else, we have to watch out for people w/ the appearance of overgrown elves. Will the agony (& suffering) ever end?

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Annals of Homelessness

What your editor sleeps under, or sometimes on, when occupying his G. I. cot in an armory:
DISASTER BLANKET
30 % WOOL 70% MAN MADE FIBERS
UNICOR - FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES, INC.
SPM1C0-07-FCF03
7210-00-119-5335

THIS BLANKET CONTAINS NO DDT
DO NOT DRY CLEAN OR LAUNDER
We kid you not. Nor did we even know there was an issue of DDT in blankets. What does bother us are the gold & silver metallic fibers(?) like tinsel, spread throughout the blanket.

P. S.: We have already copywritten the phrase "Disaster Blanket" for our next emo band, so you needn't bother.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

How'd We Miss This?

Also in yesterday's L. A. Times, at the bottom of the page, like the "Jonah Goldberg has the day off" statement referred to a few items below, but on the other side of the page:
For the record Flag: Jonah Goldberg's Feb. 26 column said a Che Guevara-emblazoned Cuban flag was hanging in the Houston headquarters of Barack Obama's campaign. The flag had been in the office of some Obama volunteers, not campaign headquarters.
Well, that'll give you a good idea of the "carefully detailed research" (paraphrased) that Loadpants claimed for his Liberal Fascism.

Meet The New Boss, Etc.

It's official. Sidney is the Republican nominee for president. Looks as if Bush endorsed him. From the White House itself:
He's a President, and he's going to be the President who will bring determination to defeat an enemy, and a heart big enough to love those who hurt.
Except that we heard W(orst) on the radio, & he said "He's gohn be the President..." The White House website is lying to you, America. Sidney's not a President, either. Other thoughts on John Sidney McSame (as Bush): He didn't really "serve" his country. He wasted his Naval Academy education & flight training for five yrs. in the Hanoi Hilton, not to mention the aircraft he lost. We'll more than grant that he suffered for his country (or was punished for his war crimes of bombing civilians) but there was little service involved. We're not going to look it up, but we heard a caller on RW Rant Radio, when RWRR was busily hating on McCain when he suddenly popped up again, state that McCain was a lousy pilot who'd lost at least two other aircraft in training missions, & the caller, as an alleged aviator himself, said he wouldn't trust McCain's judgement. But the Rant Radio attitude has changed a bit since then. We might also add that McCain's only actual executive experience was as the CO of the largest naval aviation squadron (We've heard him say that himself.) whatever that means. And then he was the U. S. Navy's liaison to the U. S. Senate. Another l-word for liaison: Lobbyist. As in the lobbyists who apparently run McCain's campaign. From VA Watchdog.org, here's Sidney's record on veteran's issues:

2006 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006. 2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D. 2006 Senator McCain sponsored or co-sponsored 18 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006. 2005 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005. 2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 50 percent in 2004. 2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004. 2003-2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 100 percent in 2003-2004. 2003 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The American Legion 50 percent in 2003. 2001 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 46 percent in 2001. 1999 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 66 percent in 1999. 1997-1998 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 0 percent in 1997-1998. 1989-1990 On the votes that the Vietnam Veterans of America considered to be the most important in 1989-1990 , Senator McCain voted their preferred position 50 percent of the time. Date Bill Title Vote 10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 NV 02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment N 11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment N 10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment N

A stellar record. That must be what Bush meant by "...a heart big enough to love those who hurt." (More proof of our contention that W(orst) is a closet case, which explains his substance abuse problem. Have your ever heard anything gayer? Not that there's anything wrong w/ that.) Sidney was smart enough to marry money though.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Annals of Egotism

Our lust for self-gratification has been thwarted recently by the time limitations of desk-top publishing from libraries. We haven't been perusing the Sitemeter obsessively to see whence our readers/viewers/visitors come. Yesterday, however, we did a bit of looking which led to Technorati.com & this very nice mention from Scott of World o' Crap, one of the supreme snarkmeisters in the world of Internet tubery. Also, World o' Crap are local yokels, earning them a prized place on the Locals Only bogroll [sic] to your right. Return the favor, investigate them!

Technical Notes

Today we publish from the Santa Monica Central Library, which only offers 90 min. of use per day, rather than the 120 min. from the L. A. Public Library. Better devil-boxes, though. And not quite as limited as the L. A. devil-boxes. Still won't let us save images to the hard drive. May have to shoplift a USB device, in order to provide the full visual spectrum we once did. Very nice library too, open, airy, all that crap. And they were kind enough to hand over a library card on the basis of an expired Calif. I. D. card...Suckers!!

Why Do You Think They Call Them Dopes?

A surprising item from the news services of Mighty Sorry, No Body Cares: Popular religious figure Moses may have been as high as a mother-fucking kite when he saw the burning bush & heard the blaring of a trumpet. Not to mention flames inscribing ten commandments onto a rock. The author of the study may not be that trustworthy, or he may know exactly what he's talking about:
Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having “partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts.”

Another Day, Another Dollar

Today is the second Tues. in three or four wks. that, per the L. A. Times, "Jonah Goldberg has the day off." We don't get this. He only types his column once a wk. Shouldn't The Times announce, "Jonah Goldberg has the week off?" Is he too busy on a book-pimping tour? (Whose title dare not speak its name.) Can't he send his column from whichever Barnes & Noble he's in? We're sure they have Wi-Fi. Maybe the psychic toll of being laughed at in the Q&As is too much. We sort of miss the opportunity to pick some low-hanging fruit. Yes, Pantload, you've just been called a fruit. But it's just as well, really. Requires more discipline from us.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Annals of "Religion"

Here's a surprise! The Dianetics/Scientology scam that talentless hack sci-fi typist L. Ron Hitler invented as a result of a $50.00 bet w/ some of the guys in his sci-fi authors club was plagiarized, much like that other "most American" of "religions," The Scam of Jesus Hussein Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mormon/American values: Strictly enforced tithing (if you don't tithe, you can't get into the secret temple & have an official Mormon marriage, etc.) Telling the faithful they're in the "last days " & should have two yrs. of canned goods & other supplies in their pantries, then selling the faithful said goodies through the church. Scientology/American values: Charging an arm & a leg for the "sacrament" (E-metering) which conveniently also reveals hidden secrets of the person seeking to be "clear" (or an "Operating Thetan") allowing the "Church" to exercise even more control over the marks. At least the Catholics don't actually charge for Confession & Communion. The Popes got their money the old-fashioned way, they stole as much gold & art as they could, or in the U. S. use the tax dodge to keep all the profits on their real estate holdings & the like.. Brought to our attention by boingboing.

What's in a Name? Shit by any Other Name Would yet Stink as Shit

Until the end (When, oh when?) of the current election season/cycle, we've decided that the "M." in M. Bouffant stands for Muhammad, or Mohamed, or Mahomet, or however one spells it. And should we have to refer to the legendary (or mythical) first-century Hebrew troublemaker & (per George W[orst] Bush) "political philosopher" Jesus H. Christ, the "H." will stand for Hussein.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

If Not a Tragedy, Certainly a Crying Shame

From a review of "The Bush Tragedy" in the NYT:
The Bush whom Weisberg skillfully and largely convincingly portrays is a man who has rarely reflected, who has almost never looked back, and who has constructed a self-image of strength, courage and boldness that has little basis in the reality of his life. He is driven less by bold vision than by a desire to get elected (and settle scores), less by real strength than by unfocused ambition, and less by courage than by an almost passive acquiescence in disastrous plans that the people he empowered pursued in his name.
Just Another Blog™ is hoping that, in the interest of those great conservative shibboleths personal responsibility & accountability, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rove & all the other scum who have served them will be brought up on an infinity of criminal charges here in the United Snakes, & will then, after a fair trial & inevitable conviction, be handed over to the very International Criminal Court whose jurisdiction over American war criminals they have attempted to prevent for so long.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

On The Radio, In The Paper

Newest right wing talking point, as heard recently on right wing rant radio: The U. S. hasn't been attacked since September 2001 because of the (llegal) Iraq war & occupation. They don't even put it quite that way, it's usually expressed "We're in Iraq & we haven't been attacked since 9/11," not quite daring to make a direct connection. This was also expressed in a letter to the editor in the L. A Times this wk., so it's sunk into the minds of the mindless reactionary masses now. The latest attempt to justify the Iraq adventure & keep war-lover McCain from being the first Goldwater/McGovern of the 21st century, essentially. As if the people who would be/are plotting to infiltrate the U. S. & blow everything up, or whatever, have decided they're more useful planting mines & taking potshots at U. S. forces in Iraq, instead of letting illiterate goatherds do that sort of thing while the educated types are plotting mass terror in the "Homeland." Also in the fishwrapper today:
THERE is no mystery in deducing the decline in viewership of the Academy Awards show. The U.S. today is divided, half socialist and half conservative, as witness the past two U.S. presidential elections. Hollywood has overtly embraced the socialist half and turned off the conservative half, thus the latter group has begun to turn off Hollywood. Jack V. Fogarty Los Angeles
Yep, the U. S. is divided into "socialists" & conservatives. And the conservatives don't want to watch the Oscars™©. Jack V. Fogarty, you are a brain-dead idiot, unable to see beyond your phony "socialist"/conservative dichotomy. No one goes to movies or watches television anymore, & those who do are all pinkos, right?