Semi-Natural World

Three hrs. Saturday afternoon hiking in the park.

Last indication of humanity.

The day being too overcast for the standard shots of downtown, our eye was drawn to the stark & morbid.

Wrong fork.

Correct fork.

Do not fall off.

Giant Moon Over The 7-Eleven®

Sunset & Normandie, Los Angeles, CA/19 March 2011, 2000 PDT

No Flying, Please

Apparently shot down by revolutionary forces, rather than a result of any no-fly zone. Still, quite encouraging.

©AFP/Patrick Baz

Liquidation Up-Date

Sure, it's probably all inane drivel, but we are advised that Borders etc. (several items below) is now in liquidation mode.

Crap, by the time the invisible hand forks over the disposable income in a couple wks. it'll probably be bare bones there, not that we need more crap we'll never read, listen to, or watch.

The New Nature Photography

More.

Public Service Announcement: Trapped!

Not as bad as it once was, when you could literally be stuck inside the route, but along the Sunset Bl./March to the Sea corridor there will be some biiiig detours.

Not that we needed a reason to stay inside.

Street closures. All times (especially re-openings) approximate & subject to the whim of a petty bureaucrat.

Back To Mono Extended Remix

Foot tapping bg. music for web weaseling. (The video is so dully lame we've spared your peepers.)

Fire Us All You Want, We'll Still Outlast Your Sorry Corporate Asses!

Oh, ha ha ha. Noticed that the Borders Books Music Movies closest to us, at the corner of Sunset & Vine, will be closing soon. Extra fun in that it's only been open a few yrs. Five, maybe?

The Hollywood Borders is located where Wallach's Music City, Dot Records, The Crocker-Citizens Nat'l. Bank & Alexander Stationers were in the above 1965 photo. Between the photo & the recent erection of the Hollywood Marketplace complex the Borders is in, a pod mall w/ a Fatburger & a Wherehouse or Music Plus or something was built & then razed on the same corner.

Time marches on.

Ferlin Husky Sleeps Beneath The Clay

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ferlin Husky, a pioneering country music entertainer in the 1950s and early ’60s known for hits like “Wings of a Dove” and “Gone,” died Thursday. He was 85.
He was one of the first country musicians to bring the genre to television and helped spread its popularity in booming post-World War II California, an important step in country’s quest for a national audience.

Consumer Round-Up: Six Shit-Mobiles Devolve

Design & fail of the auto empire.

Not Quite A Two-Headed Dog

Or even a two-headed turtle, but we like the idea of speciation.

Is It Art Up-Date

It's enough to give a guy a persecution complex.

Gheorghiu's attorney, Peter Bibring, said deputies told him they planned to show that Gheorghiu's possession of graffiti tools was a violation of his probation and also merited new charges.

"It raises extreme 1st Amendment issues," said Bebring, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "The government shouldn't be in a position of saying you can't make art from certain materials."

Gheorghiu, 34, told The Times on Tuesday that he was not home when deputies searched his house. He said they removed an artwork, some art supplies and his computer. He said he was ordered to surrender to deputies for an alleged probation violation related to possession of vandalism tools. Gheorghiu, however, said that a judge at a prior hearing had deemed his art tools exempt from the terms of his probation.

Wicked X

Never watch Dr. Phil.Most amusing is step-dad's front plate.

Can we pronounce the whole "weed" thing over, now that it's as branded as the beer cooler in the supermarket, & jimson weed or whatever is being dealt on the Internet under varying name brands as if it were a boner pill?

Hollywood Decay f/ Chuck Norris

Poison All The Water, Use Up All The Air

Sweet Blood of Christ! The long version:The kids agree.

Hollywood Round-Up

Has anyone out there seen this piece of crap?

The Santa Monica-specific alien invasion spectacle, starring Aaron Eckhart, hip hop star Ne-Yo, and Michelle Rodriguez, barely lives up to the L.A. part of its title, as the theater of war between staff sergeant Eckhart’s squad of scrappy Marines and towering alien warriors is obviously downtown Santa Monica and, for a few scenes at the police station on Butler, West Los Angeles.

Having spent eight or so hrs. in the LAPD's West L.A. Division on Butler (As a prisoner, we suppose we should add. Not just hanging out.) we'd have no objection to seeing it cinematically crushed by aliens or a bulldozer, 'though probably not at the expense of 15 bones.

Previously aggregated at laist.

Don't Spare The Internet

Chris Hedges on the ‘Disintegrated’ Media, Cultural Illiteracy

... chagrined by the future of a culture in which “people don’t read anymore,” as he notes in this interview with Media Roots. Hedges doesn’t spare the Internet in this critique, either ...

I Have Just Been Killed By The Government Because ...

Haven't been in the proverbial mood, but we're sure we'll we feel morbid enough in a while, so we've left ourself a link or two to what would seem horrific, & just because we are a horrid human being or two, we'll post the "extremely graphic" one.FUCK! Never mind. Geez, Sullivan.

Not absolute certain, obvs., but it does look as if most of the helmeted thugs (Union?) are shooting bean-bag guns. Nothing to scoff at, but not usually fatal. And doubtless made in the good ol' "We're #1!" U.S. of A.

UPDATE (0230 17 March 2011): Forgot to mention our approval of eliminating the House of Saud from the face of the earth. And the House of Big Oil, while we're cleaning houses.

Police Beat: [Expletive Deleted]

So, were we to ask an LAPD officer to give us, say, $500.00 in cash, & we were holding a knife, would we get the money, or the air let out of us w/ a bullet?

Manuel Jamines Asked to Die, Reports Police Commission

In a report following the 2010 shooting of Westlake resident Manuel Jamines by LAPD Officer Frank Hernandez , the LA Police Commission stated that Jamines asked to die.

Jamines was reportedly drunk and carrying a knife when Hernandez shot and killed him, after having been called by a concerned resident.

According to the LA Times:

Hernandez told investigators that as he encountered Jamines he "moved onto the sidewalk, getting to within 10 feet of [Jamines], and yelled, "Drop the knife, drop the knife right now or I'm going to shoot you." According to [Hernandez], [Jamines] stopped, turned toward [Hernandez] and stated in Spanish, "Kill me, [expletive]. Kill me. I want to die, [expletive]. Kill me. Kill me."

The shooting caused riots and uproar in the neighborhood in the following days. Yesterday, the LA Police Commission found that Hernandez was justified in shooting Jamines.

Totally stolen.

UP THE IRISH!

(You know damn well what we mean. In every sense.)

If we are exposed to yet another fucking PBS fund drive featuring Celtic Woman, Up Your Riverdance or whoever the hell, even if only in passing while surfing, we can not be held responsible for our actions.

Neener neener, bog-monkeys: We of (some) wop-a-dago descent have an actual Federal holiday (i.e., not just an excuse to vomit green beer) for our guy Columbus, even if he was a Polack or whatever. Also, Chris is a historical figure (REAL!) not some sad Xian fantasy. Drove the snakes out, our ass.

This still leaves us w/ the question "When the fuck will all you goddam post-Mayflower immigrants assimilate, already?"

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the Limeys & their filthy imperialism. Up theirs too!

Speaking Too Soon? Dep't.

Happy St. Patty's Day, Southland!

Click to play. Via Looch.

So we can't hope the hippies in S.F. get theirs, leaving us unscathed, as implied here.

Disaster Dulls

Not much is worse than a suspenseful disaster. If a movie dragged out this actual if not real impending meltdown it would be atmospheric poison at the box office.

Why Gingrich Went Catholic?

Probably not so his most recent wife, whose dedication to the Pope's bullshit wasn't enough to stop her from having illicit & immoral sex w/ Newt while his Mark II wife was developing multiple sclerosis, would marry him so they could have moral & married sex. Our assumption is that Newtie wanted to get in on the hot priest-on-boy rape action the Catholic priests & teachers love so much.This is truly awful. Two priests & one Catholic School teacher were using a 10-yr. old boy as if he were a baby-incubatorCatholic woman.

When does RICO come into play?

When is the Pope going to be killed?

When do we start bombing the Vatican?

Where's Catholic gawd in all this? Oh, right, telling the Japanese people to convert or die. How could we forget?

We swear to all that is un-holy, next time we see some mackeral-snapping priest we will at minimum spit on him.

Proving His Catholic Bona Fides

Newt, of course:

The Associated Press revealed yesterday that one of the cogs in Gingrich’s vast network of business enterprises and front groups, ReAL Action, provided $125,000 to AFA Action. The Des Moines Register reported this morning that ReAL Action also contributed $25,000 to yet another Iowa anti-LGBT group, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.

AFA is not only of the nation’s most prominent anti-LGBT groups, it has been officially labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  As ThinkProgress has reported, the AFA is known for making incendiary comments about gays, including blaming gays for crop failure and various other biblical plagues, claiming that Hitler was gay, saying lesbians can’t be justices, equating gay sex with domestic terrorism, and equating gay sex to heroin, just to cite a few examples.

Gingrich’s tacit support for these radical views would not seem to be in question, as his spokesman went to great pains to explain that the grant to AFA Action was for “general support,” noting:

“We leave up to the groups receiving the money to determine how they would spend the money."

Living Proof

Study Shows Unemployment Better for Mental Health Than a Bad Job 
A "demanding, unstable, and thankless" job can be more damaging to your psychic wellbeing than no job at all, researchers say.
Read original story in Time | Tuesday, March 15, 2011

☢☢☢☢☢☢FEMA ADVISORY☢☢☢☢☢☢

Residents of the West Coast of the United States are hereby advised
NOT TO BREATHE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!

Burn Out

Not really giving much of a shit*, as we only took acid once, accidentally (didn't do squat to or for us beyond pupil dilation) & we gave up on the Dreadful Grate after their second album. Nonetheless, a local guy tells a story or two about A.O. Stanley.

Even so, I liked the guy. He was never predictable, and there was always something disinterested and nobly intentioned about his intense obsessions. The last time I saw him, he was working on the development of the ultimate bell metal, which would be able to make bells that would sound for minutes on end.

*Actually, so far from caring about anything or anybody we may well be auto-typing.

More M.B. Bullshit (Not Us Or The Muslim Brotherhood, Her)

Love that Tweety!! He will be re-playing Crazy Shelley's Hardball appearance calling for investigations of "Anti-American" members of Congress as long as he's on the air, & we'll probably see it at his funeral.Not that it doesn't deserve to be seen every so often. And the clip above has new dirt on the delusional pride of Minnesota.

Our D.A. Is An Anti-First Amendment Asshole

No surprise, there probably isn't a District Attorney anywhere in these United Snakes who isn't a pin-dicked asshole. (Female D.A.s are just as evil, & doubtless compensating for something, just not a pin-dick.) It's in the job description.

But Carmen Trutanich is just plain stupid, as well as constitutionally unaware.

In 2007, Gheorghiu's problems came to a head with his first adult felony arrest. Responding to Smear's graffiti on buses, L.A. County sheriff's deputies raided his home. A graffiti vandalism conviction resulted in a 40-month suspended prison sentence, three years' probation and about $28,000 in restitution for scrawling on buses.

Gheorghiu remains on probation because he has paid off only about $5,000 of his fines.

Tell us, Carmen, wouldn't it make sense (And comply w/ that pesky First Amendment?) to let the guy sell his art so he can pay off his "fine?"

Creative Originality

Editorial cartoonists on the rampage in Japan.

At least this guy went w/ Gidorah/Monster Zero instead of Gojira.

Dep't. Of Amplification

More info about this.

How Can We Help?

Golly Gee Willikers, we certainly hope all the Japanese people who've been advised to seal themselves inside so they don't inhale & then die have all the duct tape & plastic sheeting they need. Maybe the United Snakes could send some of our FatherlandHomeland Security supply to them.

Home Schooling Round-Up

BURLINGTON, Colo. (AP) — New documents released Monday in the case of a 12-year-old Colorado boy accused of fatally shooting his parents and wounding two siblings show prosecutors filed nine charges against him, including two counts of first-degree murder.

That's fun as is, but the kicker is at the end. We wondered what might make a 12-yr. old do such a thing (Beyond the obvious reasons.) & then we found out.

Charles and Marilyn Long, both in their early 50s, had seven children. Four are grown and no longer live at home. Marilyn Long homeschooled her kids and ran the children's ministry at the local Evangelical Free Church. Her husband served as a church elder and was a snack delivery driver.

The couple was buried Friday.

We'll bet they deserved it.

Revenge Of The Mummies

We certainly hope we aren't sued for stealing this.

However, Mr. Fish, you can't get blood from a turnip.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

From here, to which we were lead by we no longer have the slightest idea, probably a Twit. Excellent stuff, but we just want to pick on the despicable Frank Gaffney.

Gaffney’s efforts have proven to be quite lucrative for him, despite the fact that he leads a non-profit organization. According to the Center for Security Policy’s 2008 tax return, Gaffney earned a salary of $288,300.

We will bet you he has a very nice expense account as well. And while we're piling on the stupid jerk,

Nathan Brown, professor of political science and international affairs, and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at The George Washington University, said, “Gaffney is a self-parody. I have better things to do with my time than investigating the veracity of his ravings."

No Hate Here

None at all. Whatsoever. Good question at (4:30).

Trouble For The Kud?

Uh-oh, maybe Larry spoke too soon when he said this:

CNBC's Larry Kudlow 'Grateful' That Human Toll From Japan Quake 'Worse' Than Economic Toll

because

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Tue, March 15, 2011 -- 12:01 AM ET ----- Japanese Stocks Plunge More Than 13% on Radiation Fears

Stock markets plunged in Japan and across the rest of the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday amid fears of the impact of the nuclear disaster and resulting concerns about radiation exposure. The Nikkei 225 index, already badly mauled on Monday, plummeted as much as 13.5 percent on Tuesday to its lowest in two years, exacerbating the 6.2 percent slump the previous day, as warnings about a potential nuclear disaster in the country aggravated the pain already felt by the quake and tsunami. The broader Topix, or Tokyo Stock Price index, sank 12.5 percent.

Brief Reminders To The Cascadians

One, two, three.

We hope our Canadian Cascadian friendsreaders will overlook this goateed, chauvinistic & xenophobic asshole's insistence that the world ends at the 49th parallel ("Chilean Quake a Warning to U.S. Northwest," "Rising Odds for a Great Northwest Quake by 2060," "A Postcard to the Pacific Northwest: Prepare") & get their go-bags in order too.

Bad Sheep, Worse Sheep-Dogs (Now W/ Video!)

You'll have to wait until MSNBC makes the video available, but Larry O'Donnell is attacking the unspeakable stupidity & ignorance of Michele Bachmann, her staff & those who voted for Bachmann as we type.

Nixon Redux: You Won't Have Nut-Meg Whitman To Kick Around Any More!

Whitman Will Not Make Senate Bid

Meg Whitman (R), who was an unsuccessful candidate for California governor last year, said she is "definitely not" considering a Senate bid in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Whitman: "I want to stay involved in public policy. Now I see things in a way that I had not prior to running for public office."

In other words, she's found out that her money can't buy her anything beyond a free pass for her obnoxious & criminally violent spawn.

We'll admit we're disappointed that we won't have any more opportunities to repeat accusations that she's a (CORPORATE) WHORE.

Bartblogger Gets Everything Wrong (Again)

Just a note to an asshole who worships murder: Someone in the US Navy is not an "airman." (In the Navy, they call the baby-killers "sailors.") Especially not if she's a woman.

Startling, but apparently editing & fact-checking do not exist at any of Breitbart's sites.

In the interim, she worked as an intern for the opposition in the South African Parliament (which is where she met Joel, who was working as a speechwriter).

Double creepy. Speaking of infiltration, how long before this leaf in the wind converts again, to Islam, & starts killing Americans?

She was accepted by Catholic and Anglican schools (she is now an observant Jew)

You just gotta love these people. Opposed to racism in other countries, yet unable even to perceive it here in these United Snakes. As if it's so special for the military to accept non-Anglo cannon-fodder.

Last question: If Miss "Will Convert for Dick, or A Free Pass to the U.S. of A." is such a fucking Harvard-attending genius,

After graduating from Harvard, she was hired by the Heritage Foundation as a research assistant, and worked with MacKenzie Eaglen and other analysts in studying national defense, particularly the defense budget. She has several posts on the Heritage website on these subjects.

why did she enlist, rather than become an officer?

A Clue For Dirt-Eating Hippies

AlterNet AlterNet 

Leaning Into Veganism: Kathy Freston on Why Eating More Plant-Based Foods Can Save Your Life and the Planet:http://is.gd/yGBrDk

HEY! In case you haven't noticed, Kathy, COWS & PIGS ARE "PLANT-BASED FOODS!"

Further indication that not eating meat makes you a moron.

Mostly Pictures, Some Words

Broadway sucks. U2 have always sucked. The two combined are exponentially worse than the two alone. And besides the expected psychological harm, it's caused physical harm to others.

13 other panels of abuse.

More Stuff To Read

Not uninteresting: An Echo Park resident who went to the LSE w/ Saif Qaddafi shares.

Death Threat? Maybe Not.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Hopper.

Wisconsin GOP Senator Most Vulnerable to Recall Found to Be Living Outside District with Mistress

Revelation Calls into Question Sen. Hopper's Claim That He Received a Death Threat

The way voters in Hopper’s district found out about his new living arrangements is almost as comical as Gingrich’s suggesting that excessive patriotism drove him to have extramarital affairs. First, on Friday, Hopper issued a statement saying he would not be attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Fond du Lac on Saturday, citing a purported death threat:

“I had looked forward to walking the parade route and sharing this celebration with my family, friends, neighbors, and constituents, but I, in no way, want to put the citizens of Fond du Lac in harm’s way.”

But then this happened:

Protesters went to his home in Fond du Lac. They did not find Hopper there. Instead they found his wife, who Hopper filed papers to divorce in August 2010. Hopper’s estranged wife, Alysia, told the protesters to look for him in Madison where he is living with his 25-year-old mistress and former lobbyist Valerie Cass.

Randy Hopper is 45 years old. The Hoppers’ maid signed the recall petition, and there are reports that Alysia Hopper planned to sign the petition, and may have done so already.

Given the strained relations with his family, it’s odd that he would mention them in his statement — and facts that have come to light about his living arrangements certainly make the death threat suspicious.

We're Asleep, Why Aren't You?

It's National Nap Day. Stop pretending & sack out.

I Was A Hippie ...

Via Mr. M., in reference to Owsley.Put on your cans & dig the '60s STEREO production style, esp. where the instruments are placed.

Yellow Peril Threatens Marxist-Leninist Thought

Wait a minute. It's taken them 62 yrs. to establish "a socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics?"

And what's w/ the "Chinese characteristics?" Don't remember that much of the Marxist-Leninist indoctrination shoved down our throats in the world of higher ed., but the New Socialist Person isn't supposed to have any national (one step short of nationalistic, of course) characteristics, is s/he?

In his report, Wu reviewed the process of forming the socialist system of laws with salient Chinese features, which shows the Communist Party of China (CPC) is clear-headed, firm and steadfast politically, truth seeking in social practices, and forward exploring and innovative with the legal theory, said Li Zhanshu, Party secretary of southwest China's Guizhou province. The organic unity adherence to leadership by the Party, ensuring that people are masters of the country and governing the country in accordance with law must be held, and this constitutes the core of the socialist system of law with Chinese hallmarks.

One of these days a CPC member will learn to type in English. When that glorious day of victory for the proletariat occurs, all the working peoples of the world will at last know the truth, & the dialetically inevitable socialist revolution will occur.

Until then, report to the Labor Office for your next assignment. If you're lucky.

A Huge Swatch, Alright*

There are none so stupid, blind, ignorant or just plain foolish as those who have removed their heads from their asses, yet will not wipe the shit from their eyes.

What that has to do w/ Michele Bachmann, who would require the jaws of life to remove her head from its current resting place, is beyond us. And who constitutes a greater danger to This Great Nation of Ours™, a Sarah Palin-type grifteuse, or, in Bachmann's case, what appears to be a true believer? (Because no one could be so dense about the composition of the TEA Party. Or this one: "The military still functions." About to die of laughter.Sorry: ROTFLMAO!!) *Spotted for us by some candy-assed punk at Salon who doesn't have the nerve to insult these witches in the manner they deserve. (And doesn't know the difference between swatch & swath.)

Words have more meanings than brand names, imbecile.

Christ on a fucking crutch, Salon, we could link to Mediaite items & (BONUS!!) transcribe video w/ all the words spelled correctly, & possibly for less than than you're paying some other loser. (Where do they find these people?)

Bonus Beefheart

Forgot how good this one is:

Ah Ain't Blue No More Ah Ain't Blue No More Ah Said ...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — 1960s counterculture icon and once prolific LSD producer Owsley “Bear” Stanley has died in a car crash in his adoptive country of Australia.

A police statement said a man in his 70s died Saturday when a car he was driving left a highway and hit trees near the town of Mareeba in northern Queensland state.

Police would not confirm the driver’s identity. But Oswald’s family issued a statement to The Associated Press on Monday confirming his death in the car wreck. He was 76.

Stanley was a major producer of the hallucinogenic drug LSD in San Francisco in the mid-1960s. He also was an accomplished sound engineer who worked with the psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead.

See also info/videos. From a fucking vegan. In Brooklyn. Stop it, you're killing us, hippie.

Them's Cars, Not Cows, You Stupid Fucking Hick!

We've warned you fucking hayseeds that you can not make it in the big city, & we don't want your country asses here.

More proof:

HOLLYWOOD (KTLA) -- A 35-year-old Colorado man was struck and killed after he tried crossing the 101 Freeway near the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night.

The California Highway Patrol said the accident occurred just before 11 p.m. in the southbound lanes near Cahuenga Boulevard.

Witnesses said the man seemed to be intoxicated as he staggered onto the freeway, jumped over the center divider and was hit on the southbound side by a Mini Cooper.

CHP Officer Ed Jacobs said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Mini Cooper, a 27-year-old woman from Torrance, was not injured.

The man's name has not been released.

We can only hope the deceased Coloradan cretin did not reproduce his flawed DNA before his well-deserved removal from the gene pool.

Pajamas Media Compares Jesus to Hitler

Why Every Kid in America Doesn’t Need to Be Educated

Do we really want all of us to be a bunch of educated people who never do anything useful — like the Obama administration but for the whole country?

Here's all the proof anyone could need for the know-nothing approach:

Or do we just think that kids sitting in classrooms throughout childhood makes them better people? Well, Jesus didn’t spend his childhood in a school, but know who did? Hitler.

We figure this may have something to do w/ current efforts by reactionaries to repeal child-labor laws.

Did You Remember?