Dropping Like Flies

Damn. No sooner had we discovered that Elton Dean has been dead for two yrs. then we looked up someone else (just below) who'd also died w/o the courtesy of letting us know. And while we read that we saw that the youngest Isley Brother, Marvin, has died. Recently, however. AT 56!! And Saturday night we heard this on the radio.

The Ring In Two Cities

Los Angeles & New York.

Meaningless disclosure: We used to live next door to the guy who typed the L.A. Times piece. Unless it was Mark Schwed. Who, we just discovered, has been dead for two yrs.

Funny, 'cause we once gave neighbor Swed some mail we'd gotten by mistake, & asked if he was the Times music guy. He wanted to be sure we knew he wasn't the tee vee crit.

Banana Republicans

Per POLITICO, La Taitz is not an incredible longshot.

Taitz is running against Damon Dunn, an African-American former professional football player. As with Obama, she’s turned to lawsuits to challenge him, arguing that Dunn’s brief time as a registered Democrat in Florida — from his playing days with the Jacksonville Jaguars — disqualifies him from the California ballot and amounts to fraud.

“Our country will turn into a banana republican [sic] until we disclose information that is related to voter fraud,” she told POLITICO.

Can't a brother get a break around here? Is she going to sue every black guy who runs for office?

This, however, warms our evil little heart:

[L]ongtime California GOP strategist Allan Hoffenblum, who publishes the California Target Book, says a Taitz victory is entirely possible. “It will be a complete embarrassment if she wins, but these things can happen,” he said.

Fingers crossed, breath bated, & so on.

Annals Of Self-Promotion

We get some credit from Johngcole, & he's on it immediately. Sullivan takes two wks. & doesn't even give w/ the "a reader writes" bit.

(Matter of fact, we'd completely forgotten we'd sent that to Sullivan; it was chance we were even sifting through the debris there today.)

Oh Them Jooos:Diseased Homosexuals, Every One!

This Is Something To Be Nervous About

We hope to see this image plastered across our fair state should NutMeg win tomorrow's primary.

Think about it: the one question that’s never remotely been answered about her obsessive spending spree to buy the governorship is: Why the hell would she want the lousy job? (And don’t tell us it’s because she had an epiphany and — barf — realized she “won’t let California fail”)

Put another way, why else has Meg Whitman “invested” –- that’s the word she invariably uses when she’s asked about her obscene campaign spending — more than $71 million of her own fortune to capture the Republican nomination for governor? And why is she prepared to spend at least as much in the general election?

Answer: Because she wants to be president of the United States.

Even worse, they think it could happen.

Annals Of Nervousness

Whew. Not sure all of this will happen by the end of the wk.

Those gathered into the arms of this Christian fascist movement are desperately struggling to survive in an increasingly hostile environment. We failed them; we owe them more: This is their response. The financial dislocations, the struggles with domestic and sexual abuse, the battle against addictions, the poverty and the despair that many in the movement endure are tragic, painful and real. They have a right to their rage and alienation. But they are also being used and manipulated by forces that seek to dismantle what is left of our democracy and abolish the pluralism that was once the hallmark of our society.

The spark that could set this conflagration ablaze could be lying in the hands of a small Islamic terrorist cell. It could be in the hands of greedy Wall Street speculators who gamble with taxpayer money in the elaborate global system of casino capitalism. The next catastrophic attack, or the next economic meltdown, could be our Reichstag fire. It could be the excuse used by these totalitarian forces, this Christian fascism, to extinguish what remains of our open society.

But we suppose it's fun to anticipate one's own martyrdom.

View From Our Damn Window

We Have Always Despised Elton John

So we don't get the big deal about his whoring his assfingers & vocal cords for Rush Limbaugh's Incestfestvirgin sacrifice in Florida.

Rogers told the Post in 2008 that the couple's age gap is part of what makes the romance work.

"I grew up so differently, traveling around the world, that I'm sometimes not able to relate to the average person my age," Rogers said. "Rush has such amazing experience."

Oh, indeed he does. And an example of the former Ms. Rogers' sophistication & accomplishments:

The couple met six years ago, while she was running a charity golf tournament and Limbaugh was in the process of divorcing for the third time.

More People info:

Rogers is a direct descendant of President John Adams, and her father attended the U.S. Naval Academy with the future Arizona Senator (and 2008 Republican Presidential candidate) John McCain, reports NewsCore.

The wire service also quotes the new bride as saying of the couple's 26-year age gap: "I'm sometimes not able to relate to the average person my age."

If your skin isn't crawling yet, you should probably consult a dermatologist as soon as possible.

No Sex, Please: We're Disgusted By The Whole Thing

We're the first to admit we haven't the intestinal fortitude (or a strong enough gag reflex) to go gently or apprehensively into the dark night of the soul that is NRO. But we've haven't seen any mention of this by more intrepid sorts. No, we had to wait for the old, legacy, state-run mainstream/lamestream media (where the "20 Hottest Conservaskanks" competition was under discussion) to find this:

But K-Lo has also blasted pornography for "quietly tearing at the time, efficiency, and souls of young men, families, and workplaces today" (porn being a contentious issue throughout feminism) and has complained about the salacious content of—well, of NEWSWEEK's site, actually.

So, let's see what Lopez has to say to Goldberg:

Snark and Boobs? The things you learn ... I suspect you didn't enlist an AEI intern for this assignment, but covered it yourself.

Ss-snap!!

You Think You're So Smart

Every jerk on this planet (were there non-jerks they'd think they were exceptional, just for not bring jerks) thinks he or she is special; many extend specialness & exceptionalism to a tribe w/ which they have some connection. Well, you aren't special, & neither are those who accept the same conventional wisdom you do. You're a piece of dirt like six billion other cretins taking up space & oxygen on this spinning rock who are supposed to have rights & stuff, just like you are, but probably don't, so get over it.

Reading this may wise a few of you up. Chabon may be a bit culturally specific, but we extend the pointy finger & explaining voice at every one of you not reading this.

Ghetto Fabuloso

Via Getty Images (really, from DR) Sarin at the Belmont:

If you keep making that expression, Sarin, your sell-by date will be coming sooner than you realize.

One would think that Sarin worshipers would be taken aback at a well-known NON-ELITEST somehow getting from AK to NY to watch a fucking horse race. One would, of course, be sorely mistaken to make such an assumption.

Why We Are Not Willing To Take Torture Off The Table

Madoff Revered Behind Bars

Most inmates are happy to share space with Bernard Madoff, 71, who has become a sort of folk hero to those on the inside. But when someone decided to criticize him for his theft, the disgraced financier shot back: "Fuck my victims. I carried them for 20 years, and now I'm doing 150 years," he said, according to the New York Post, citing an upcoming issue of New York magazine. In general, Madoff, once described as sticking to himself behind bars, seems to be much more comfortable now talking to his fellow inmates, many of whom seem to admire him for being a criminal legend. When a fellow convict told Madoff he admired the way he had stolen millions from his clients, the financier was quick to correct him: "No, billions." Meanwhile, Madoff has made it clear that just because he's behind bars doesn't mean he's going to stop being a savvy businessman. An inmate who does laundry for others for $10 a month agreed to wash Madoff's for $8.

Read original story in The New York Post | Sunday, June 6, 2010

We do think torture should only be used on the convicted. Surely no one could object to Mr. Madoff being placed in the stocks & having various rotten crap heaved at him. Limits on the size of stones & rocks hurled would have to be set, of course. Perhaps approved items could be sold to the hurlers for a small profit, to benefit those suckeredvictimized by Madoff.

D-Day + 66 Y-Years

Notion's Capital recycles from last yr., so we'll recycle as well. Double use!

From this Quay, 60 cutters of the United States Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla 1 departed for the Normandy Invasion, 6 June 1944.  These 83 foot boats, built entirely of wood, and the 840 crewmembers were credited with saving the lives of 1437 men and 1 woman.  In remembrance of the service of Rescue Flotilla 1, and with appreciation of the kindnesses of the people of Poole to the crews, this Plaque is given by the men and women of the United States Coast Guard.

Saturday Afternoon In The CityW/ M. Bouffant

Bougainvillea invades Silver Lake Bachelor Central.

The Naked Bar-B-Q. That damned bush (& its leaves) is everywhere.

Our Shrinking Sheep: Middle-Class Joins Wage-Slave Service Economy

America eats its own:

As head of human resources for Nationwide Auction Systems, it was Wivory Bell's job to travel around California in late 2008 and tell people they were being let go. By last April, there were so few humans left, her own services were no longer required.

From an AP story personalizng the results of boom-&-bust economic cycles & the bizarre desire of corporate entities to destroy the nation's consumer base.

One of the ways they get away w/ it:

But his Pentecostal faith tells him that things happen for a reason. Although his salary isn't quite where it was, he's with a good company, one where he seems to fit.

"I think I really have to experience the things I've had to experience to get me where I'm going," he says. "I can't really explain it, but I'm a whole lot happier than I've been in a long time."

As if on cue, the couple's dilapidated van died recently. They bought a replacement, meaning their hopes of socking away some money will have to wait a bit longer.

"Just once I want to catch a break," Marshall says.

Does his Pentecostal faith tell him that the "reasons" for which things happen aren't necessarily good, & that he shouldn't be taking this lying down?

Up-Close & Personal:

"I didn't think it was going to be like this," he says. "I thought, `I'll be a doctor of chiropractic. I'll work hard, save up a bunch of money, maybe retire early.' Now it's like, work until you die."

We Told You So; Now We're Going to Rub It Your Faces Segment:

"Nation of Sheep
Stupid wage-slaves
Your bosses will work you
'Til you're in your graves"
— The prescient Malignant Bouffant, ca. 1983.

Sunday Post

In case we decide to sleep until Monday.

Quit Copying!

John Wooden Dies At 99

Oh garg, now we in So Cal, especially (Although most of the rest of you will experience some suffering. If symptoms persist, have another drink, or try aspirin.) will be subject to this old bastard's platitudes, homilies & unadulterated corn at least through next wknd.

It is fun when someone's condition is given as "grave." Ha ha. (Not as much fun as "extremely grave," but you can't get everything.)

Proved (@ 2022): Vin Scully has already started.

Attempts to Relieve Ennui

This one gives us the chance to complain (once again) that if the protagonist of Mr. Cash's tune shot a man in Reno, NEVADA, he wouldn't be doing time in Folsom, a CALIFORNIA state prison.

Celtics Finished (Pretty Much)

To keep it in perspective, the (Former) Brooklyn Bums Of Chavez Ravine will be playing good teams in the immediate future. We'll see how that works out.

Two-Tub Man

Laundry, two tubs.

The horror is never-ending.

We are taking a paper & plastic system under advisement.

Peaceful "Prevention"

A guy named Fly, at the Weekly Standard:

On Tuesday, the day after Israeli commandos prevented a flotilla from breaking the naval blockade of Gaza, ABC News reported the (supposedly) definitive U.S. position.

Antiseptic: No mention that the prevention ("It's like wearing a rubber.") involved loss of human life.

More "When To Stop Reading"

EVALUATIONS

The Culture of Narcissism

By ROSS DOUTHAT

The solipsism of the millennial generation.

Not w/ our eyeballs on 10-ft. stalks!

Call For War On Turkey In ...

A Roman Catholic bishop has been stabbed to death in southern Turkey, state-run media report.

Luigi Padovese, 63, was attacked in the garden of his summer house in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun, according to Anatolia news agency.

Police have arrested Bishop Padovese's driver, a man identified only as Murat A. He was suffering from psychological problems, the provincial governor said.

There has been a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey in recent years.

More at the Beeb.

NB: The Editorial Policy here is that anyone w/ a summer home is fair game.

Amity Shlaes: Dumb Or Disingenuous?

Apparently a complete stranger had to point out to Ms. Shlaes what a complete dimbulb she is, not that it hasn't been proved before.

Except, of course, that the online social communities of teenage girls and the real businesses of Wall Street traders have nothing in common. Shlaes might as well be recommending using the United States’ successful drunk-driving laws to referee the upcoming World Cup.

Local Action: Police Terror Up-Date

Four LAPD officers accused of clashing with bicyclists are relieved of field duty

The department launches an internal investigation into a videotaped altercation Friday night in Hollywood that appears to show an officer kicking the wheel of a cyclist.

Porn Killer On Loose!

Stephen Clancy Hill, a.k.a. Steve Driver, allegedly went through a Van Nuys production house with a machete, killing a former co-star. Police are investigating reports that he was being fired and evicted.

The LAPD is investigating the attack as a case of workplace violence. The suspect fled in a blue Toyota RAV4 with license plate 5YTC423.

Please keep your eyes open.

Postulating W/ Gravity

A Pastor Swank sort, able to make perfectly legitimate English words sound oddly out-of-tune, though not w/ the artful dissonance of the Swankster. And, unlike Swank, published in a forum that reaches a larger forum than Alan Keyes' Renew America, Tucker C.'s Daily Caller. Is it the yrs. reading the KJV at divinity school that disconnects them from American English usage?

William Temple is a historical re-enactor, a pastor of a Bible church in Brunswick, Ga., and a well-known figure at Tea Party events across the country.

So, they worship the Bible rather than gawd or Jesus?
Read more.

Yes, why don't you? We have some knitting needles you can shove in your eyes when you've had enough.

So maybe, just maybe, “professionals” are not the solution. Perhaps they are the “whole” problem, and have been for many years; creating a vast bloated federal bureaucracy with departments and agencies our founders never envisioned; taking away the rights of the sovereign States and the people, rights so clearly laid out in our founding document—the Constitution; so that even an amateur Tea Party buffoon, like myself, could reasonably understand its heavy machinations. And no lawyer required! How about a citizen legislature with no perks? You just go, serve, and then go back home! I like this!

The Tea Parties are not going away! We will demand that our Constitution be obeyed, that it be taught in our schools (as well as the founders who wrote and signed it), and that it be restored to the absolute “center” of all government actions. For anyone coming new to the political world, running for office in the future, you better read this document, understand its simplicity, then follow it carefully. The Tea Parties have nothing better to do than hold legislators accountable for breaking their oaths to it.

So for you with eyes to see and ears to hear, this little parade of amateurs is just getting started. And if the career “professionals” could make such a mess out of this great Nation, do you really think for a moment that the “non-professionals” could do any worse? They are the ones after all who know how to balance a check book day to day; say “no” to their excessive wants when they can’t afford them; do real productive work; pay the exorbitant taxes; fight the wars; and feed, clothe, and house their families without handouts from stuffy bureaucrats.

The Tea Parties have only one thing to tell the government professionals and the media elites—“It’s the Constitution Stupid!”

We researched this sad sacker,

who is described as amiable, & cheerful.

"Note it is called the Contract From America, not the Contract With America," said William Temple, who runs a tea party group in Brunswick, Ga. "We are the ones giving the direction."

A cheerful man with a broad set of interests -- he is a pastor of "an all-black Maranatha" church, a painter, a retired Secret Service and Homeland Security employee, and a historical reenactor -- he made these pronouncements using an accent he hoped would sound early American, and he was dressed in period costume as Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Funny, he doesn't type so amiably.

A note of non-madness on these buffoons.

When To Stop Reading

The bravest woman I know—and I know plenty, including Margaret Thatcher—

Yes! Right there.

We must be the only person who still glances at Tina B.'s Daily Beast.

You Know Who At It Again

How Hitler Is Making the European Economic Crisis Even Worse

Hitler's Daughter Tells A Lie

WHEN REPUBLICANS LIE ABOUT RELATIVES' SERVICE RECORDS.... When people compare Arizona's "let me see your papers" immigration law to 1930s Germany, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) takes it personally. "Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that ... and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts," she said the other day. "It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced."

The problem, as Kos noted, is that Brewer's father didn't die fighting the Nazi regime in Germany.

Not really a problem for these people, who will lie like a rug at the drop of a hat.

For crying out loud.

OK, so Brewer misled the public about her father's service record. She'll apologize and move on, right? Wrong.

Officials with the governor's administration said her statement should not be taken to mean that she was claiming her father was a soldier in Germany during the Nazi regime.

I'm confused. When Brewer said her "father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany," that wasn't intended to mean that her father was an American soldier in Germany during the Nazi regime?

Well, it's not "intended" to mean anything at all. It's just something one says, y'know?

Today's Rights Rollback Round-Up

Not Carmen, You Cretin

In a nation where the vast majority of sheep can't name any of the weasels on the Supreme Court, is it fair to ask that an affirmative Miranda declaration be made before suspects' rights are observed? Is the traditional reading/explaining of rights already a thing of the past?

The real problem:

"This result is not especially surprising nor, by itself, should it be alarming," said Michael C. Dorf, a former Supreme Court clerk who currently teaches constitutional law at Cornell University Law School and authors a legal column for FindLaw. "Even though Supreme Court rulings can have a major impact on contentious issues such as the death penalty, abortion rights, discrimination and environmental protection, the Court issues its rulings as a collective body. After their 15 minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee are up, Supreme Court justices rarely appear on television. What is a source for concern are polls consistently showing that many Americans are unfamiliar with basic features of our constitutional system."

Increasing White Reactionary Dementia-Sufferers in The Senate

By repealing that pesky Seventeenth Amendment.

That the idea has taken hold among a vocal subset of activists does, however, tell us a few things about our times. The first is that skepticism of government generally has reached such intensity that it has become commonplace for the losing side in any political argument to scrutinize not just their party or their candidates, but the system itself.

The same thing happened after the 2004 elections, when a group of frustrated liberal academics began to posit that the real problem in Washington was the structure of the Senate, which prevented the urban masses from imposing their will on sparsely populated rural states. (Funny how that complaint has largely disappeared, now that Democrats control 59 seats.)

Having been through a controversial impeachment, a deadlocked election and a divisive war, all within a dozen years, perhaps it is unavoidable that we should now cast suspicions not just on the actors in our democracy, but also on the rules that govern it.

Yup. That's bullshit you smell. Also known as "balance." Jonathan Chait gets the shovel & exposes it.

There is a whole lot of wrongness packed into one small section. Bai's suggestion that liberal complaints about the malaportioned Senate have "largely disappeared" since the start of 2009 is simply bizarre.

Kaus, Klaus, Whatever ...

Via McGravitas, we were exposed to this:which we've not yet seen on our telescreen, though we've been exposed to more Whitman & Poizner adverts during seven & a half innings of the ball game than we dared count.

"Liberal!" "More liberal!!" "Liberalest!!!"

Mickey may have a new career in front of him.Pointless aside: This was related to "Kaus."

"What The Hell Is Going On Here?And Why?"

All Gawd's Chillun got problems (we certainly have our share) but it wasn't until we read this sufferer's complaints

"I don't understand at all what is going on here," she says.

"None of it makes sense. What's happening here? How did I get here? What's happening? Please. Please."

that we realized we, too, have been suffering from Reagan's disease, & not just of late, but from the time we realized that was a world external to ourself. (We're still struggling w/ that whole concept, too.)

Freedom & liberty: Crazy ideas?

Nancy has deteriorated from a benignly forgetful doting grandmother to a raging harpy, who slaps her granddaughters, calls her beloved grandson variously a bastard, arsehole and bitch, cannot remember how to use cutlery, prefers not to wash, tucks used bits of loo paper up her sleeve, squats on the floor to pee and hides her own turds behind paperbacks in the bookshelves ("the kind of discovery that's unexpected late at night when you're looking for something to read").

Sounds like a Randian paradise. Nobody tells us nuthin', y'hear?

2 June 2010 @ 1938PDT: Added the "The" to the title. We weren't asking for a description of the hell we're in.

Roosevelt & The End Of Prohibition: The Beginning Of American Cultural Decline & The Rise Of Secularism

More crap we didn't know that is not entirely uninteresting. This time the crap concerns the connection between Prohibition & suffrage. As well as the economic interests involved.

You call Wayne Bidwell Wheeler "the genius behind the Prohibition movement." Who was he?
Wheeler helped found the Anti-Saloon League, in 1893. And their first effort was to go state by state. We'll get a law here. We'll get a law there. He was an extremely effective, absolutely sincere, somewhat ruthless, and indefatigable political manipulator who realized that if you control the margins, you could create a majority. So if you had 10 percent of the people in a given district, if you could deliver those 10 percent to one candidate or another based on their position on Prohibition, you could win elections, and in fact take over Congress, which he did in the 1916 election.

You write that another Constitutional amendment—the 16th Amendment, which passed in 1913 and provided for an income tax—helped spur Prohibition.
In 1913, when the income tax amendment is passed, things suddenly change. The federal government up until that point got as much as 40 percent of its annual revenue from the excise tax on alcohol. After the income tax was passed, reformers realized there was a replacement for the revenue that came from taxing alcohol, and they started to push for a Constitutional amendment.

At the time, beer was becoming a major industry. Didn't the beer and spirits industry fight back?
They shot themselves in the foot. What they really fought more than anything else was suffrage, because they knew that women would vote against the saloon. And the more public they were about fighting suffrage, the more it guaranteed that women would vote against the saloon because it was very clear what the brewers were up to. In World War I the Anti-Saloon League was able to paint the brewers as the tools of the kaiser, because they had names like Pabst, Blatz, and Anheuser-Busch. And that almost guaranteed the ratification of the prohibition amendment. It was ratified in 1919, to go into effect one year later on Jan. 16, 1920.

Fucking Krauts! And the Kaiser!

The "Straight Scoop," & Where To Get It

Good gawd!! Look at this:

Via Anti-Semite Andrew Sullivan (Get it?) who also raised this question:

A response from TNR.

Nation Of SheepStupid Wage-SlavesYour Bosses Will Work You'Til You're In Your Graves

We love typing "We told you so!" as The New York Times asks the question:

How high can or should the retirement age go, and should it be tied to increases in life expectancy? What will changes in retirement patterns mean for the United States, compared with Western Europe?

And while we're in visionary mode: Indentured servitude for gov't. workers.

... government officials are looking for ways to reduce the costs of ballooning public sector pensions and are pressuring unions to agree to later retirement dates.