Saturday, April 30, 2011

Nerd Prom

No, we haven't watched much, & haven't listened at all, but it appears the Prez is mocking birthers w/ audio/visual aids.And we heard he said something about apprentice celebrity Trump.

Freud & The Daily Caller

"Stiffle yourself, Edith."

A Dangerous Combination

Bored limp & growing restless.

Compare & Contrast

Looky here.

Use the slider to compare the landscapes before and after the tornadosee what the country will look like after the Republicans are through w/ it. Images courtesy Google Earth, GeoEye.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Actual Nobility, If Not Royalty

A pervnaughty person was on about scat ("Sick sick sick!") somewhere recently, making this an excellent choice for a Duke Ellington birthday (1899!) number.

The Old Get Old & The ...

Looks like all-nostalgia day here. Note the edifice declaring "Come to the PARTY." That's the "World-Famous" Whisky a Go Go, before it was "world famous."

One Madman, Six Million Jews

Time Oozes On, Part II

Today really is a big fucking day in Local Action/History: Riots too, 19 yrs. ago!!

Memory a bit weak, but there was some activity after the verdicts were returned. We nonetheless went to work the next day, only to be let out of work early as revolutionary activity headed north from the most oppressed sections of the city toward downtown.

Thanks to Marcia whose last name we don't remember, who gave us a ride home on her way to the relative safety of the Valley.

We then sat around in our relatively safe, high-on-a-hill residence, watching it on the telly & seeing the columns of smoke rising from behind the next hill over. Also listening to gunfire. The Radio Shack four (or five) blocks from us was looted by people who drove a car through the security gates. The Big Mac liquor store in the same strip mall was defended by its armed Korean owners, however.

Yes, we do regret we didn't go out & get some free stuff. Next time for sure!

(Maybe we should go out & start some fires or something ourself; this would seem to be what the dialectic is advising us to do.)And note today's other Royal Wedding: Adolf & Eva!

Time Oozes On

We were wage-slaving it downtown when the Central Library was set afire, 25 yrs. ago. Fire engines blocking the streets messed w/ our getting home, among other difficulties.

25 yrs. ago? Ho-lee sheet.

Just to be positive, the facility has been nicely rebuilt & expanded.

Just Asking

The Dish is looking for two interns to help with editorial content, assist with remedial tasks, and work on larger projects.
What might these "remedial tasks" be? Is Sullivan hoping someone just out of school can get him up to speed on economics & mathematics?

What Will The Culture Warriors Say?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Legislature Approves Anti-Feudalism Bill

Oh, you mock. You think that's some sort of a joke, or hyperbole. For once, it isn't.
Pérez said there was an "unprecedented pattern of corruption" in Vernon, a city of fewer than 100 residents that has faced criticism for generations that it is run as a personal fiefdom for a small clique. Perez's bill would make Vernon an unincorporated area overseen by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, a move he said would result in a more open government.

[...]

Thursday marked the first opposition to the bill from other legislators. Those urging a "no" vote included Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks), Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills) and Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield). All three said they feared Pérez's bill would cause a loss of jobs in Vernon.

"We cannot afford to continue an assault on private business," Grove said, adding that she wanted Pérez to consider other methods of addressing problems in Vernon's government.

[...]

"We keep hearing that jobs are going to leave.... Yet at no point have we heard exactly why that would happen, or how," said Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita), the bill's principal co-author. Smyth also pointed out that Vernon's electricity rates recently rose due to market conditions. The rates are one of the key benefits local business groups have cited in their arguments against the bill.

Other representatives focused their comments on Vernon's unusual municipal government. Nearly all of the voters in Vernon live in city-owned residences, and legislators argue that the arrangement leaves them beholden to City Hall.

Assemblyman Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) described Vernon as a "long-running joke" where "voter-choice and independence never existed."

"We all here ran for office; we convinced voters to elect us," Bradford said during the debate. "That does not happen in the city of Vernon."

Pérez noted that the city has held only one competitive election since the 1980s and that all but one of the City Council members were appointed to their seats. He also listed a series of criminal indictments against Vernon officials dating to the 1940s.

Sick Fuck Nation

Why America Loves Serial Killers

They give us an alibi for our murderous culture.

And, finally, there is American culture itself. Serial killers are an alibi for our nation. Think about it. What would you rather believe? That there's a single lone sicko like Henry killing 500 hapless victims? Or that there are 500 murderers still at large (by virtue of Henry "taking" their cases) who have already gotten away with one murder and may be cruising into your town right now looking for another?

What paints a more disturbing picture of American culture? The one serial killer driven by inner demons or the 500 murderers driven by a sick and murderous culture that produces 500? And yet the latter, alas, seems closer to the truth. A sick and murderous culture that, I'd argue, comes full circle by creating actual serial killers, killers who have taken as their role models the fake ones on our screens. America has made serial killing a self-replicating phenomenon.

Don't turn away: Serial killers are America's alibi, and every time you pay your 12 bucks for another serial-killer movie or put one on your Netflix queue, you're feeding the beast.

You're an accomplice. In making serial killers giggly, kitschy chic, we're all accomplices.
Everyone in this room is a murderer, & don't you forget it!

And What Did We Expect After Comcast Took 51% From G.E?

Courtesy @Johngcole.

God Hates Crackers

Tornadoes Ravage South; Death Toll at 173
The death toll in five Southern states rose sharply Thursday morning to 173 after devastating storms ripped through five Southern states, spawning a deadly tornado in downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., and leaving a trail of flattened homes and buildings in a region already battered by storms.

Across Alabama, at least 128 people were killed by storms on Wednesday alone, according to Reuters. The Associated Press reported an additional 32 deaths in Mississippi, 11 in Georgia and 1 each in Tennessee and Virginia.
Vote the right way next time, hick losers.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

A Little More Cheepnis, Please

War of the hammerers: the Thor v Almighty Thor face-off

Which version of the Norse mythical adventure wins out, Branagh's star-studded epic or The Asylum's cheapo effort?
Thor w/ an Uzi, & L.A. in smoke & flames? We know which one we'll be watching on Syfy. From the Guardian's FILM BLOG.

Whoring Up-Date

Red States That Suck All The Tax Money From Blue States Once Again Punished By GAWD For Mooching

At Least 54 Dead in Storms Across South

A deadly tornado stretching a mile wide tore through downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Wednesday evening, destroying homes and buildings and bringing further damage to a region already battered by storms. Across the state, at least 25 people were killed by storms on Wednesday alone, said Valerie Hayes, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. But that number did not include any deaths from Tuscaloosa, where 15 people were confirmed dead by the mayor's office and 100 were said to be injured, The Tuscaloosa News reported. Earlier in the day, with the damage spreading and the death toll rising, Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency. And The Associated Press reported that across the South, storms Wednesday killed 11 people in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
We now expect the "rugged individuals" of these impoverished & backward states to increase their mooching from the productive states that support them. If you are too stupid to come in out of a storm, you deserve what you get, & we aren't paying for your poor choices!

Y'all can buy some new-to-you clothes at the fucking thrift shop, & then shut up & go away.

Biting The Hand That Feeds You Shit

We'll admit this looks like a set-up, as if that dumb dentist/lawyer were ever going to apologize.What is this "uses 100 different SSNs" bit we keep hearing?

Ask Us If We Care

Go ahead, ask!

Friends In The Biznis

Friend TX Terri ("red" hair & shades, w/ top on, for once) makes an appearance at (0:14) (lower right) & crosses in front of the non-background talent at (1:31). She had the good sense to fuck off to Krautland a few yrs. ago.

Impending Local Lion Shortage

Sad stuff:
Photo: LA Zoo
A male lion at the LA Zoo's male, Lionel, passed away today, the Zoo announced today.

At 23, Lionel was considered old for a lion. He had been treated in recent months by the Zoo's veterinary team for neurological difficulties and urinary incontinence*, and officials decided to euthanize him on Saturday. He had been at the zoo since 1997.

Lionel's death leaves the LA Zoo with one female lion, Cookie, who is 22.
A lion at the LA Zoo, photographed in February 2011 by Joits via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. Caption from laist. If Lionel was the only male lion at the zoo (& this one looks quite male) why "A lion at the LA Zoo?" instead of "Lionel?"
One down, & if 23 is lion-old, we'll guess it won't be long before 22-yr. old Cookie goes too.

Last time we were at the zoo, there was but one tiger in the tiger enclosure, & we didn't see any lions.

Note to the zoo: "Lionel?" Really?

*Note to people in white coats w/ needles: Stay the hell away from us if you know what's good for you. Incontinent or not, we can still resist!

Tinasky

Sunday the Air force, NASA or someone decided to fly this test vehicle over the city.
Looking north-northwest.
Ditto.
Now looking easterly. (Not a pun.)
To the southeast.

Just Made It

Almost four yrs. in the can. Did not kill us though.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

"La Gestion Par La Terreur"

From Frogland, via the Guardian:
A France Telecom-Orange worker has died after setting himself alight outside his office, the latest in a wave of suicides at the company. The 57-year-old married father of four, described as a sociable member of staff, set himself on fire in the car park of a site at Merignac, near Bordeaux, after arriving for a morning shift.

He had worked for the company for 30 years, most recently at a call centre dealing with company accounts, and was a trade union member who monitored safety and work conditions. Paramedics could do nothing to save him.

[...]

France Telecom is Europe's third largest mobile phone operator and biggest provider of broadband internet services. But in recent years it has become synonymous with death and despair in what management called a "suicide contagion effect".

Among those who were found dead at their homes, some had left notes explicitly linking their suicide to their jobs. Unions complained of a climate of bullying, extreme pressure, poor management methods and restructuring cuts that forced people to repeatedly change jobs.

A 28-year-old worker who was found dead in his garage in Besançon in the east of France in August 2009 had left a note that talked of his girlfriend, but also mentioned how he felt "helpless" and "angry" over issues at work. A French prosecutor said it was impossible to formally establish a link between France Telecom and the suicide, but workers held a protest march over his death.

A month earlier, a 52-year-old employee killed himself in Marseille, leaving a note blaming "overwork" and "management by terror". He wrote: "I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom. That's the only reason."

Staff said the climate had worsened since privatisation. Some staff complained of divorce, family breakdown and being forced to sell homes due to random job changes.

Last October an official report found that the plan, begun in 2006, to slim down the company and scrap 22,000 jobs in three months was behind the feeling of distress among staff.
C'mon, sheep, kill your fucking bosses too. They don't care how many of you kill yourselves. They must be terrorized as well. Sauce for everybody!

MacBook User Uses Prostitutes, Too

Apparently Apple weasels can't get laid w/o paying, & then they don't pay! (Typical for church-goers, too.)
SOUTH GLENDALE — Two San Diego women were arrested Sunday on suspicion of stealing a laptop from a man who allegedly refused to pay one of them for sex at a local motel, police said

Sauceray Boyd, 21, and Kandalaria Freeman, 19, were taken into custody Sunday afternoon in connection with burglary and grand theft after police found the $2,800 MacBook, which was in Freeman’s pink suitcase, according to police reports.
Well, he may not have had any money left after shelling out the price of a used car for a fucking laptop.
A man who had been staying at the motel for about a month notified police that his laptop had been stolen from his room while he was at church, according to police reports.

Boyd and Freeman were tracked down at the Glendale Metrolink/Amtrak station by police who followed up on a tip from a motel worker.

Freeman told officers that she was a prostitute and dancer from San Diego who often visited Glendale and stayed at the motel.

Freeman told police that she was expecting to be paid $200 for her services, but the owner of the computer angrily refused to pay and fled.

She needed the money to pay for a train ticket to return to San Diego and allegedly told police that she stole the laptop.
If anyone learns anything from this, it would be to stay the hell away from the Glen Capri Inn.
At the same motel last week, officers arrested a couple who allegedly possessed more than 200 blank credit cards and fraudulent credit paperwork for celebrities like Tommy Lee Jones and Tim Burton.

Amusing Nostalgia

ME brings us this bit of fun.
Here's an interesting curio — a 1955 TV exposé on the evils of comic books. The host is Paul Coates, who was an L.A. Times reporter who doubled as a TV host, usually covering pretty salacious or controversial topics. One might suggest his broadcasts exploited these subjects, putting some pretty racy stuff on the airwaves under the cover of condemning it. He was an occasional partner with L.A. TV newsman George Putnam, who did a lot of films and telecasts with a tone of outraged public scolding of "sins" that are now, for good or ill, commonplace.
George Putnam (You could check YouTube.) is the news-spewer Jim Pons is mocking around (7:00) into this (See, we add content!) lovely piece of localism.Ha-dee-yah-dee-yah-da!

Thugs In The Parking Lot

Enough, already, but LG&M has a link to more on the essential shittiness of Frank McCourt & his corporate enablers, & LAObserved has links to items indicating fans & whatnot are still screwed:
  • The Dodgers new appointed overseer is Tom Schieffer, the former president of the Texas Rangers when George W. Bush owned the team, and later an ambassador for Bush. LA Biz Observed
  • Schieffer ran for governor of Texas as a Democrat, and once was declared one of the state's worst legislators. LA Weekly

HELP!!

As no one has paid any attention to us on Twitter, we'll ask here: Anyone else having trouble (i.e., completely unable to) connecting to gmail & Google Reader?

Also, clicking the comments in this very web log leads to unable to nowhere.

Thirdly, never mind, found the problem!!

Fourthly (1415PDT): Fixed something else as well.

Monday, April 25, 2011

"Did You Know?" Dep't.:
Lesbians Unable to Have Babies!

This according to Pat Robertson, senile dementia sufferer. (Well, that's one explanation for the drivel that drools from his pie-hole.)
Robertson: Well it’s the left; it’s this culture of death. The far-left is livid about killing babies. They want to kill do this, they want to destroy. You go back, and I don’t want to play all this psychological stuff but nevertheless, if a woman is a lesbian, what advantage does she have over a married woman? Or what deficiency does she have?

Meeuwsen: Well she can’t have children.

Robertson: That’s exactly right. And so if these married women don’t have children, if they abort their babies, then that kind of puts them on a level playing field. And you say, nobody’s there to express that? Isn’t that shocking, well think about it a little bit ladies and gentlemen.
We'll give that every milligram of thought it deserves.

Targeting

We suggest, they respond.
Last week another dissident Irish republican claimed that the Queen should be regarded as a "legitimate target" when she visits the Republic in May.
We'll assume they're keeping their powder (Or Semtex, C4, whatever.) dry (as Tea-Baggers like to type) & lips sealed w/ reference to the upcoming nuptial hysteria.

Creep Of The Day

Local Action

Former Angeleño Harold Meyerson, from safety on the wrong coast, notes institutional decline at home in the big city, & of course lays blame & points fingers at those responsible, two assholes (One a MAsshole, ha ha! Fuck you, Frankie-poo!) from the real estate game, a "profession" best described by the late J.D. Morrison:

"What have they done to the Earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences
And dragged her down"

From AlterNet, analysis of the box-office, aesthetic & moral failure of Atlas Shrugged, w/ a note about parasites like Sam Zell of the Tribune Company he bankrupted, & Frank McCourt, the Parking Lot Attendant* who is probably going to be in jail for tax evasion one of these days:
Ironically, a key theme of the book and the film is the rejection of society by the wealthy business class who mysteriously disappear. There is a correlation to that plot point in contemporary America as we have already witnessed the disappearance of business luminaries like Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Jack Abramoff, Dennis Kozlowski, Bernard Ebbers, and John Rigas†, to name a few. It doesn’t appear that society has suffered from their absence. Yet there is another industrial titan who not only hasn’t vanished, he is masquerading across the airwaves as a presidential candidate. I’m not sure Ayn Rand would approve of this, however, the popularity of Donald Trump at Tea Parties is perfectly understandable. He is the ultimate manifestation of Randian politics: a greedy, conceited, selfish bully. But for every Tea Party supporter there are probably twenty other Americans who wish that Trump would “go Galt.”

*Stolen w/o shame from T.J. Simers of the local Times.

†The shitheel who effed up cable television in L.A. for many yrs. by running Adelphia Cable as his & his sons' personal cash-box.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Syllables

Hearing Hornets fans in the Crescent City chant "BEAT L.A.!!!" "BEAT L.A.!!!" it occurred to us that one could just as easily chant "EAT MY FUCK!!!" "EAT MY FUCK!!!"

So why don't you? And if you haven't yet realized it, not much here is Safe For Work, unless you have a non-fascist workplace. Which is a contradiction in terms. So watch it.The late & lamented Derf asks the important question: "What does 'eat my fuck' mean?"

We Need More Religion In This World

So, Jewish people, or Israelis, or something, share this,And say things like this,& this.And then professional paranoid Robert Spencer gets all pissy when another bunch of people try to defend themselves from bullshit.
And they all claim to worship the same pig-god. (That's why two out of three of the religions started by lunatics whose brains were fried by the Mid-Eastern desert sun don't eat bacon, y'know. They worship a pig-fairy.)

Easter Themed Animals

Blessing of the Animals: "He only cares about porking your mom"

Dusting The Broom

"I believe, I believe my time ain't long."++A-Number One LIFE-AFFIRMING WAILING of the First Order & Water! (I.e., if this doesn't make you feel [at least] drunk & happy, you're dead, loser!)

Brought to our shortly-spanned attention here. Now pardon us while we play it a third or fourth consecutive time.

Ass-Kissing & "Relationships:"
Why Crapitalism Can't Work

Quote of the Day

"The president has got to start inviting people over for dinner, he's got to play golf with them. He's got to pick up the phone and say, 'I know we disagree on this, but I just want to say I heard it's your wife's birthday or your kid just got into college. He has to go build friendships, that's what an executive's job is.'" 

-- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an interview with Fox News.
Kiss our ass, Bloomberg, & see what that gets you.

Crucifying The Monkey God

Rumproast.

Telebision Nostalgia Beat

 (Remember Plymouths?)Added details & factoids (Bob Hope, Johnny Carson & NBC Bubank) from Mark Evanier, & who has kindly joined all four episodes for easy viewing. (We were under the impression that YouTube would now accept any length video; why the uploader didn't do it one fell swoop is a mystery.)

Waxing more nostalgic, Fri. night we were remembering how, in the old days (& through the '90s, at least) the late night blather & comedy fests would travel to such strange & exotic locales as San Francisco or Chicago (We think Letterman may have taken his NBC show to England, even.) during sweeps months in attempts to get some ratings. No longer worth the expense (or effort) we suppose.

I Am Risen, Bit-Chezzz!

And did it before noon, too.

UPDATE (minutes later): Easter Brunch in the Bouffant Bunker? Coffee & a cigarette.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

From The Home Of The U.S. Fifth Fleet

Hoping the IRA has awoken from slumber & is ready to blow these filthy murdering aristocrats from the face of the Earth.
Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, with Prince Charles in 2004. Campaigners want the Bahrain crown prince's royal wedding invitation revoked.
There will be at least one royal presence at Friday's wedding that is likely to raise eyebrows. Among the 46 foreign royals seated in the south lantern, just behind the British monarchy, will be Bahrain's crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, an invitation that could prove awkward in light of his government's brutal treatment of mainly Shia pro-democracy protesters.

At least 30 people have died in Bahrain since protests began in mid-February, including four who died in official custody, and many activists and lawyers have been imprisoned.

No Idea

None at all, & this doesn't help much. But we thought we should share these two clips, 'cause they're dirty. (Tee hee.)We feel the same way.

Art Beat

Guggenhead Collection.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Baseball Bitching

The Daily Beast tells it as it is.
There is simply no way to say it with any degree of artfulness so I won’t even try:

Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt is a vile piece of shit who not only ruined what was once the classiest franchise in all of sports but should also face legal consequences if allegations are true that he did reportedly not pay any taxes on $105 million he siphoned from the Dodgers’ for his own personal use.
Yeeesss! A vile piece of shit, no less. Bankrupt him, jail him & throw away the key.

What Have They Done?

What have they done to the Earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences
And dragged her down

More Gawd-Awful Horseshit We Wouldn't Read If ...

EDWARD TENNER

Is Neurosis the New Optimism?


We are not suggesting that anyone should look, you realize.

You People Are Fucking Sick

From the International Committee of the Fourth International:
An estimated fifty to seventy thousand people now show up for these events. McDonalds sets up a temporary store to sell burgers, fries and ice cream to those exhausted by the tropical heat. The Philippine Department of Health has representatives on hand to give tetanus shots to each kristo before they are nailed down for tourists’ enjoyment, government revenue and corporate profit. Last year the crucified included a 15-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl.

There is a putrid whiff of sanctimoniousness when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines officially disavows the events. The local priest blesses the nails and the flails. And at mass every Sunday, the devout are told that God loves them and loves justice before they are dismissed to return to their shantytowns. The church has for centuries promoted a barbaric doctrine of bloody, redemptive suffering. It cannot wash its hands so easily of the gore of Good Friday.

The Good Friday crucifixions in the Philippines are a particularly grotesque example of the way in which capitalism and all of its institutions can transform the suffering and backwardness of the most impoverished layers of the population into a source of profit.
And Steve Benen points out (as if it needed to be done) what a piece of anti-intellectual shit David Brooks is.

Let's tax religious institutions out of existence to take care of the mythical, doesn't matter deficit!

Earth Day

Note To Breeder Scum

You're fucking yourself up as well as the planet. Stop it!
In the latest knock against parenthood, researchers from the University of Minnesota looked at 838 women and 682 men and concluded that having children — particularly for moms — is linked to an array of negative outcomes. Mothers had a higher body-mass index and didn't eat as healthily as childless women, chugging more sugary drinks and eating more total calories and saturated fat.
Note to fucking TIME magazine: When typing for a national magazine, the word to use is "mother." "Mom" is what three-yr. olds call their mothers in conversation. Grow up, already.

A Message To You, Rudie

On this Good Friday (Really, they're all pretty good if you don't work wknds. What is w/ these people? It's like "The Good Book." Only one book is good, all others are to be burned.) a message of hope for the world:

YOU SUCK, WE HATE YOU, PLEASE DIE (In a fire would be good.) & STAY DEAD!!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Question Of The Day

From the feminists at NewsBusters, & Big Hollywood (Once isn't enough?):

Why No Feminist Praise for
'Atlas Shrugged'?

Dunno. Can't imagine why. Of course, one shouldn't be expected to figure too much out if one types this sort of thing:
There’s a gratuitous sex scene that probably would have been better if they’d stopped filming after the bedroom door was shut. And, structurally, the film goes on after the climax.
Ewww.

Oh Fuck, I Said Bullshit

Hey, they (Whoever they are.) let that red-headed pseudo-nerd (Conan? No, that can't really be his name.) say "bullshit" right on basic cable TBS, & he was talking to that nice Reese Witherspoon girl, too.

Time to whip off an e-mail of righteous indignation to NewsBusters about this horror.

First They Came for The Children ...

And by the time we were chained to an iPad assembly line 12 hrs. a day, working for three bowls of rice & all the industrially-polluted water we could drink, there was no one to speak up for us. (Of course, they would have been shot by the Pinkertons anyway.)

Not A Unicorn In Sight

Chomsky on the end of the species.
I do not want to end without mentioning another externality that is dismissed in market systems: the fate of the species. Systemic risk in the financial system can be remedied by the taxpayer, but no one will come to the rescue if the environment is destroyed. That it must be destroyed is close to an institutional imperative. Business leaders who are conducting propaganda campaigns to convince the population that anthropogenic global warming is a liberal hoax understand full well how grave is the threat, but they must maximize short-term profit and market share. If they don’t, someone else will.

This vicious cycle could well turn out to be lethal. To see how grave the danger is, simply have a look at the new Congress in the U.S., propelled into power by business funding and propaganda. Almost all are climate deniers. They have already begun to cut funding for measures that might mitigate environmental catastrophe. Worse, some are true believers; for example, the new head of a subcommittee on the environment who explained that global warming cannot be a problem because God promised Noah that there will not be another flood.

If such things were happening in some small and remote country, we might laugh. Not when they are happening in the richest and most powerful country in the world. And before we laugh, we might also bear in mind that the current economic crisis is traceable in no small measure to the fanatic faith in such dogmas as the efficient market hypothesis, and in general to what Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 15 years ago, called the “religion” that markets know best—which prevented the central bank and the economics profession from taking notice of an $8 trillion housing bubble that had no basis at all in economic fundamentals, and that devastated the economy when it burst.

All of this, and much more, can proceed as long as the Muashar doctrine prevails. As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
Those who survive will envy the dead.

Just Asking

Which of these three budding young propagandists in Sen. Ensign's office is he poking?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Especially when Mommy & Daddy can buy your friends for you. Or buy them off for you.What a piece of work. Another excellent example of why the rich should be sterilized.

Three Strikes & You're Out, McCourt,
Like A Giants Fan In Your Parking Lot

Some website w/ too fucking many names concises a WSJ story about what it took for not-much-longer Dodger owner Frank McCourt to get on MLB commissioner Bud Selig's bad side.
According to Futterman, the sequence of events went something like this:

1) At the beginning of 2011, McCourt and Fox agreed on a standalone $200 million loan. Sources tell Futterman that one of the main reasons MLB commissioner Bud Selig refused to approve it is that he feared McCourt would allocate a substantial amount of the cash to personal considerations.

2) Earlier this month, McCourt and Fox agreed on a $2.5 billion, 20-year broadcast deal renewal. As part of the arrangement, McCourt would get $300 million up front, but once again, Selig said no out of concern that the money would go to places it shouldn’t.

3) McCourt then arranged a $30 million personal loan from Fox, which Selig saw as a blatant attempt by the owner to circumvent the above decrees. Three strikes, and McCourt was out.
On the field, the former Brooklyn Bums have won both games since Commissioner B.S. made his move.

Now we need a commissioner of business to get rid of the parasites sucking the blood of the rest of America's working people.

If You've Been The Victim Of A Scam

You may well be interested in this.

Eat The Rich List

Here are names of over-paid & no doubt utterly & entirely useless executive parasites to contemplate while sharpening your knives.

Let's look only at Parasite Number One on the list.
Entercom: David Field. The son of company founder Joseph Field became CEO in 2002, about 15 years after leaving his job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Field made $9.1 million last year -- the total of his $791,723 salary, $444,308 bonus, $7.9 million in stock, and $28,000 in other perks including medical insurance premiums. That's a 348% raise in a year when company shares appreciated 53.2%. Though considered a strong operating executive, his salary stands out because it's 25.4 times higher than the $358,692 average for the four other top executives listed in Entercom's proxy statement. Field's salary and the $3.9 million paid to CFO Stephen Fisher accounted for 93% of the $14 million that Entercom paid to its top five executives.
Nice, huh? Nepotism. Goldman Sachs. And just as the 1% screw the 99%, he & his buddy Steve also screw their fellow executivesparasites.

Are we still running around screaming "The country's broke?"

Schadenfreude Of The Highest Order

Via The Militant Angeleño, we are informed that the Federal & California gummints are, for once, doing their jobs w/ reference to the tax-cheating wealthy.
Sources tell TMZ ... the IRS investigation was triggered by a number of disclosures surrounding the McCourt divorce. In particular, IRS agents are interested in the fact that the McCourts took $145 million from the team and paid no taxes (certain court documents place the figure at around $105 million, but we're told it's actually $145 mil).

The IRS is also interested in the fact that the McCourt children have drawn a salary from the team but performed no apparent services to justify the payout.


And the IRS is focusing on certain team losses that were carried forward.

And we're told the California Franchise Tax Board is also looking at the situation.
May the course of justice be swift & merciless, & may the two Bean Town carpet-baggers do serious time & lose all their money. And may their worthless parasite children do some time too.

STRIKE!!!

According to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, the vote to authorize a strike was "overwhelming." Results, in terms of the percentage for and against, however, were not immediately available this morning. Two-thirds approval was required.
Negotiations continue. Even if a strike isn't called, there are other reasons not to shop at these shitholes (Including the one this reporter patronizes the most. Expect an act of peoples' justice, which will be especially funny considering it has just been remodeled.):
Today Deputy City Attorney Don Cocek and the City Attorney's Criminal Branch filed suit against Ralphs grocery stores and their parent company, Kroger, following an undercover inspection that revealed 14 Los Angeles locations were overcharging customers on pre-packaged and weighed products.

The businesses "are each charged with violations of the Business and Professions Code, including 14 counts of false and misleading advertising, 18 violations of unlawful computation of value, nine violations of selling prepackaged commodities in less quantity than represented and 18 violations of false labeling," details a release issued by the City Attorney's office, who explain the investigation:
Between January 20 and March 9, 2010 undercover test purchases were conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Weights and Measures at 14 Ralph’s Grocery Stores across Los Angeles. As a result, inspectors found 27 violations of overcharges to customers. Many of the violations were for the store’s illegally charging for the weight of the package or including the ice glaze on frozen products in the net weight. Many prepackaged items were also found to be under the labeled weight posted.
The businesses could face hefty fines if they are found at fault.
If we're going to need space to grow our own food, it looks as if we'll have to burn down the supermarkets & tear up the parking lots to get rid of the concrete & asphalt. Who's w/ us?

Shoveling Dirt On Your Grave

Over half-way through yet another rotation around the axis, & not a damn thing published.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Fever Dreams From The Swamps

We're guessing 98% of the 10 people who visit here for text rather than the nudie pix will have been exposed to these indications of the reactionary/paranoid imagination, but we feel like juxtaposing them, so there.

First was this, which has been festering like an un-lanced boil in our in-box since 0236PDT today. Nine days out of ten we don't open the Pajamas Media offering, but fellow subscriber Chris did, & dragged it screaming to a comment thread:
Well, this is pretty stupid: Pajamas Media author has insight that the presidency isn’t the end of the road for Obama, that it’s just a stepping stone to becoming Supreme Ruler of the One World Government, which he will do in 2016 after he’s brought the U.S. down to the same level as the unwashed masses and created a world government.
Number two is not quite as nerts (Impeachment as a political positive, & Obama's going for it.) but it could be called counter-intuitive. Clever title 'though. (Probably trying for clicks from hippies looking for "Dope" stories.) Brought to our attention by alicublog, where it was of course thoroughly & righteously abused.

(Political Wire's, Then, If You Insist) Cartoon Of The Day

We're trying to keep it simple for the "Keep your Gov't. hands off My Medicare!" element, who occasionally put their scooters in gear & visit here. How them fat-person diseases working out for yuh, Jim Ed Bob?

Nutty Ignorant Idiot Reactionary Dolt & Thug Jim Hoft Finally Just About Out Of Words (Except "Leftist")

One other word Jim might want to run into the ground is "hypocrite." As the grotesque oaf may not be sure of the word's meaning (A few too many syllables there, Jimbo?) we'd suggest he compare his treatment of Teabaggers booing, harassing & otherwise disturbing various health care town halls just about two yrs. ago.

Load Of The Day

This apparently went better for the forces of, like, not-lying & stuff than yesterday's sit-down w/ a different MSNBC nobody.You see, Andrew is totally justified, man, to use or edit anything he can against the NAACP, because some liberals accused tea-baggers, who, for the millionth time, aren't racist, damn it! of shouting "nigger" at some African-American House members.

But the real issue here is not that Andy lied or anything, or that someone said someone did something bad, yada, but that President Obama didn't hire Shirley Sherrod back immediately. Because they all stick together, & affirmative action, which is bad, but then if a black or liberal person doesn't, for whatever reason, stand up for another it is bad, too, & they have been thrown under the bus by their liberal slave-masters!

Take That, Eastern Carpetbagger!

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Wed, April 20, 2011 -- 5:25 PM ET
Major League Baseball Takes Over Operation of Los Angeles Dodgers

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Monday that he would appoint someone to oversee all operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers because of his "deep concerns" about the state of the marquee franchise.

But two people with knowledge of the situation said that he is also strongly considering forcing the sale of the team by invoking his "bests interests of baseball" powers to wrest the team from Frank McCourt, the owner since 2004, who he believes has mismanaged the franchise while enriching himself.

Selig said in a statement that he informed McCourt of his decision, which he said was made to "protect the best interests of the club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball."

Read More
Can't be any worse than the current deal.

Fascists & Humor

As documented by Slate. Also: Romney is lame, too.

This one too good to leave: Is Mrs. T-Paw a lesbian?

Nature Studies

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Born After, Died Before

Another allegedly healthy (You'd think.) one beaten, by a mere couple of wks.
Grete Andersen was born in Oslo on Oct. 1, 1953. Her father, John, was a pharmacist; her mother, Reidun, worked in a grocery store. From an early age, she would run with her two older brothers, Jan and Arild, in a nearby forest and later at a local track club. She met Jack Waitz, a local track coach and an accountant for a newspaper, through mutual friends.

She is survived by her brothers and her husband.

Projector Of The Day

Get a shave already.

Absorbing The Self

Damnit, we thought Bobo was typing about us,
Very few people have the luxury of being freely obnoxious. Most people have to watch what they say for fear of offending their bosses and colleagues. Others resist saying anything that might make them unpopular.

But, in every society, there are a few rare souls who rise above subservience, insecurity and concern. Each morning they take their own abrasive urges out for parade. They are so impressed by their achievements, so often reminded of their own obvious rightness, that every stray thought and synaptic ripple comes bursting out of their mouth fortified by impregnable certitude. When they have achieved this status they have entered the realm of Upper Blowhardia.
until the achievements part.

Won't even start on that last excerpted sentence.

Damn Dirty Stupid Humans

Guest post from Just Another Blog™'s man Brownie (The Baboon Man):

If written language is the major difference between you people & your primate cousins, just how much differentiation is there when so few of you humanoids know there's a difference between monkeys & apes?

Passed Over Again

On the other hand, not being Pulitzered is an excellent indication that we haven't been co-opted. Yet.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Morbidity & Electoral Reports, 2008

We might not have bothered stealing this concept did we not already have a Morbidity Report category, & had ninny Sullivan's visual sense (matches his numeracy, ha-fucking-ha) brought him to slap both of these graphics in the same item. Instead, he ran the CDC map, but only linked to The NYT's electoral result page. (Must we do everything for these incompetents?)
Age-Adjusted Death Rates* --- United States, 2008
Sad, innit? Yet hopeful. Die even faster, red-staters!

Still Some Resistance In
The Land Of Limeys

Coming Food Crisis

The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis".
All we know: A bag o'bagels (six) has gone from US$1.99 to $2.49 in the last few mos., & a doubtlessly downsized box of cereal is about the same as a gallon of gas (US$4.00).

More detailed grimness from The Guardian.

Off The Pigs, Blah Blah Blah

No one is listening. Too close to the truth. Plus which, it's hippie moocher crap, & the guy thinks he's Jesus.


Throw Out the Money Changers

What is wrong w/ these people?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Where We Stopped Reading

It might be tempting to snark at these former fat cats suffering lean times. But when Beached White Males suffer, so do their wives and children. Lives, marriages, and futures are at stake. Examining who these guys are, and what washed them up, is not an exercise in schadenfreude. It's a cautionary tale.
Forget it then.

More Borders Goodness

More pix of worker resistance.
Blank empty space.
This from Politicsusa.
Six thousand people – 6,000 – out of work.

As the New York Times reported,
The troubles of Borders are rooted in a series of strategic missteps, executive turnover and a failure to understand the digital revolution — problems in many ways of Borders’ own making.
So it may surprise you to learn that Borders has the same belief as Wall Street with regards to rewarding incompetence. Rather than fix the problem, or punish those responsible, it punished its innocent employees, and the book-hungry public, by closing hundreds of stores. Meanwhile, the President and CEO is asking for $8.3 million in executive bonuses (including nearly $1.7 million for himself).

CEO Mike Edwards currently has a salary of $750,000. The bonus plan would give other top executives bonuses equal to as much as 90% to 150% of their base pay.

Doesn’t seem fair. But then, that’s corporate America. That’s the America Republicans love.

Borders is in debt to the tune of $1 billion, folks. As the Times reports,
In its filing in United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Borders listed $1.29 billion in debt and $1.27 billion in assets. As of the filing, Borders owed $272 million to its 30 largest unsecured creditors — including $41.1 million to the Penguin Group USA.
Employee raises have been frozen for years. Despite all this, last year the CEO got an 87 percent raise. Most Americans are lucky to see a 2 percent raise, if they’re not laid off altogether by the men giving themselves huge raises and bonuses.
For the last five years, Borders stock has drifted downward and the number of employees reduced to 19,500 from 35,000.

Its same-store sales were down more than 12 percent in the third quarter of 2010, with a loss of $74.4 million.
Does it seem to you the management of this company ought to be receiving rewards for running their business into the ground?

This seems more than a little immoral.

Yesterday, at a hearing in New York, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge seemed to agree, ordering Borders to rethink its bonus plan for the company’s leading executives. Borders lawyer Bruce Buechler insisted that the bonuses were reasonable, saying that “we need management not just to be there, but to be cheerleaders or affirmative spokespeople for the company.”

Sounds like management should be fired. Most of us would be, if we exhibited this level of incompetence. Judge Martin Glenn responded that, “If this business goes down the toilet bowl, there are a lot of full or part-time employees who face the prospect of going out of work.”

Bloomberg reports that as a consequence,
Bruce Buechler, a lawyer for unsecured creditors, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn that the bonus plan was revised today so the five top executives, including Chief Executive Officer Mike Edwards and Chief Financial Officer Scott Henry, would be paid based on how much they recover for creditors under a sale or restructuring by Aug. 15.
The revised plan put forward by Buechler calls for the top five executives being given a maximum of $4.9 million “if they return more than $95 million to unsecured creditors.” This amount would drop to $1.8 billion if only $73 million is recovered.

But they should not receive any bonuses at all. Companies should not reward themselves and their management for actions that harm their employees. For what, precisely, are these bonuses due? What has management done for Borders outside of driving it into bankruptcy? I worked in retail management for more than a decade and have seen employees fired for much smaller infractions than this. Fired. Not rewarded.
Borders hired us in the previous millennium, so it should have been obvious for some time that the outfit was in big trouble.

Textures

Thinking long-term for once, we acquired re-chargeable batteries, which must be used & re-charged a few times to bring them to full capacity. So we took possibly the dullest pictures yet/ever hurrying the discharge; we'll only share a few.
Not that bad, actually.
Lunar View I
Lunar View II
Next stop: Hell.