Westbound, Santa Monica Blvd.

Our empty world:

Where They Are Now

The World's Foremost Authority is handling the pan in the Big Apple, at the age of 97. "However ..." not for himself, but for Cuba.

Why haven't you seen him on the tube lately? (Because it's not a tube any more, it's a flat screen, you big dummy!) And,

Mr. Corey became known for his left-wing advocacy and an outspokenness that he says hobbled his career as an entertainer, getting him blacklisted from television networks.

Encouraging: The youngest person quoted in the item is 81. Fuck boring & ignorant young people! Really, what do they know?

Hearing Voices: The Cross & The Flag

God as Political Consultant
Anita Perry said yesterday her husband Rick Perry was called by God to run for president and noted some of his rivals for the Republican nomination "may feel like God called them too."

Apparently, according to Bloomberg, that's very true.

Karen Santorum, wife of Rick Santorum, said her husband was also called, noting "we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants."

Michele Bachmann said she regularly receives "assurance" from God about her direction, including running for office.

Herman Cain has also said that God wanted him to run. "I just know at this point I am following God's plan."

No loving Christian gawd could say anything but to tell all of these people to go home & shut their pie-holes.

Nighthawks At California Donuts

Urban Camping Up-Date

Bragging &/Or Complaining

Current temp outside: 72°F or 73°F, depending on which source you'd like to believe. Inside, a tolerable 79°F, which is as hot as it got in here. Not bad when the outside temp yesterday was at least 98°F. The record in our bunker is 84°F; no idea why it didn't get there today. Angle of the post-equinox sun maybe.

Wrapped In Cross & Flag Recap

Via Right Wing Watch, what you may have missed from the Values Voters.

Here's the comedy part:

Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel gave a meandering address that moved from U.S. policy on Israel to the war on Islamic radicalism to an attack on the United Nations to denunciations of sexologist Alfred Kinsey and humanist/educator John Dewey for undermining western civilization. He warned against conservatives using rhetoric that might push the growing Latino population into the maw of the “leftist machine,” making an aside about Latinos whose names end in “z” having a special connection to Israel.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who ended up taking third place in the straw poll, seemed personally hurt that conservative evangelicals weren’t rallying around him given all that he had done for them and the price he had paid for it. He whined, “Don’t you want a president who’s comfortable in his shoes talking about these issues?”

Rep. Steve King of Iowa said that people who support marriage equality or legal abortion don’t do so because they have a value system supporting those things, but because they want to spite the Religious Right – “because they know it’s precious to us.”

Former Fox TV personality Glenn Beck gave a trademark lurching speech contrasting visceral anger with his recitation of Abraham Lincoln’s “with malice toward none.” The speech was long on mockery of Wall Street protestors and on the messianic narcissism that was on display at his Lincoln Memorial rally last year.  “We need to give America the same choice” that Moses gave Israel, he said: good or evil, light or dark, life or death, freedom or slavery.  He said America is in a religious war, a race war, a class war, and other wars.  In one breath he insisted that the nation “must return to God” and talked about the “country’s salvation” – and in the next he denounced the notion of “collective salvation,” which he has elsewhere attributed to President Obama and denounced as evil and satanic.

The rest is not so funny. Some of these people aren't kidding.

Those w/ the stomach to see & hear the drooling maniacs can get links to YouTube posts here.

A Blimp

Bombs away!

Two Wrongs Make A Mystery Cult

William Donohue (The Voice of Tolerance & Respect) appears to be angry because Rick Perry's Bab-tiss friend Robert Jeffress is cutting in on the hate market.

“Now I find out that Satan infected Catholicism,” Donohue added, a reference to the pivotal role Perkins asked Jeffress to play at the summit and Jeffress’ prior Catholic attacks. Jeffress called Catholicism “a Babylonian mystery religion spread like a cult” and suggested that it was “the genius of Satan” to make this “counterfeit” religion look like real Christian faiths.

But isn't the whole Protestant thing a poor man's version of Catholicism? "Poor man's" in the sense that poor people couldn't afford indulgences & so fought endless wars w/ Catholic Armies (How many divisions does that Pope have again?) so they could arrive in the 21st century bitching about taxes. Shouldn't Jeffress & his real Xians have returned to the Eastern rites, rather than start another version of Babylonian mystery religion?

Either way, we can't wait for these two skunks to get in the same room & start spraying.

Scoring Political Points

Note the license plate holder of the men's rights activist who (allegedly) shot up a beauty parlor, killing at least eight people & wounding who knows how many more (while wearing body armor) in Seal Beach, south of Long Beach, earlier today.

More pictures & info.

Because no one is innocent: Note the (female) suburban scumbags who get fat & dye their hair in the photos from the L.A. Times. And the flag displayed on the (alleged) killer's house. What a horrible country, that it should give birth to such "patriots."

Is It Genetic?

Megan McArdle, the mathematical genius, reveals a bit about both herself & all the glibertarian "Taxes, waaaaaaah, too hard, & coercion, too!" element:

My mother actually paid taxes for her cleaning lady, and it was not only expensive, but an administrative nightmare--somehow, the numbers never added up right, the paperwork got lost, etc.

Oh goodness, it was "expensive" too. The horror.

Other notes of genius:

Many middle class people could probably afford to pay about $500 a month, plus a room and some food, for someone who would take care of all the housework, all the time. But how many Americans would work for such a sum?

"Some" food. That third meal will be granted if the silver is especially shiny.

Assuming the silver hasn't been stolen, possibly to allow the servant to buy some food.

5. Labor saving devices Servants were often standing in for things that machines now do more cheaply, and without stealing the silver.

All of which goes to prove that there is no oligarchy.

Book Burning

Installed Kindle for PC recently, mostly so we could read free crap in bed w/o purchasing a lengthy piece of cable.

Not terribly surprised, but there's a very good reason that free e-books are free.

Equinoid Up-Date

Number of times Ann Coulter runs a hoof through her mane in an effort to get it out of her eyes: Four, in six minutes.And does anyone out there have any before & after photographic evidence of when she had those vacant soulless peepers tucked & rolled?

Irony-Packed

From The WSJ, a little laugh:

The Saudi embassy in Washington issued a brief statement condemning the alleged plot as "a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions." Saudi officials believe the plot targeted the ambassador, Adel A. Al-Jubeir, because of his close ties to the king and his influential role in shaping Saudi policy.

Does not apply to the international norms, standards & conventions of democracy, women voting, women being allowed to drive, freedom of & from religion (OK, may be pushing "international norms, standards and conventions" a little w/ religious freedom.) & so on.

Shouldn't the United Snakes have invaded Saudi Arabia post-11 September 2011 to punish them for providing the majority of the 11 Sept. attackers, free the Saudi people from their tyrannical rulers, & get our oil back?

Oh, never mind.

Another Debate Tonight

Phony

Mike Lupica agrees w/ us that Eric Cantor is a shitheel.

Now here is Eric Cantor, whose inspiring story involves pulling himself up by his bootstraps and into his father's real estate business before going into politics, at a Values Voters Summit on Friday, wringing his hands about this terrible movement of unwashed and uninformed people that started in downtown Manhattan and somehow keeps growing.

But less than a year ago - as The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart was smart enough to remind everybody - here was Cantor on Don Imus' show making it sound as if the rabble rousers of the Tea Party have been storming the beach at Normandy instead of town hall meetings.

"The Tea Party is an organic movement," Cantor said that day. "This is not some movement that started in Washington. It's about the people."

Well, his people.

Cantor went on to tell Don Imus that "[Those in the Tea Party] represent and reflect the frustration that Americans have what's going on in Washington."

So if you're mad at Washington in general and the Obama administration in particular, that is healthy dissent and democracy in action and God bless America, at least according to young gun Eric Cantor. But if you are angry and loud and broke and yelling about Wall Street and living in a park across from the World Trade Center, yelling about the 1% in this country who have theirs and screw the other 99%, then you are a threat to everything good and decent in America.

Good one, Loopy.

The City Expands

Many of the losers w/ whom this reporter used to boogie down in the Hollywood & Silver Lake areas moved their quitter asses to Highland Park & environs, at which time they were, of course, dead to us.

So if you gave a shit you could click, look & listen.Stuff we did not know:

Faced with difficulty accessing water and an increased need for police presence in a rowdy red light district, Highland Park was annexed to the city of Los Angeles in 1895, creating one of the first suburbs. Situated along the Arroyo Seco below the San Gabriel Mountains, the area provided a respite from downtown city life that combined easy access to natural amenities, open space, and the center of the city.

Situated between what were then the county's two largest population centers - Los Angeles and Pasadena - Highland Park provided commuters with convenient transportation options. With the establishment of colleges and art communities, soon the rustic community along the Arroyo became a hub for intellectual life.

Although older bedroom communities had been established in the region prior to Highland Park - Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, and Angelino Heights to name a few - its annexation created what was the first true expansion of the city, Los Angeles absorbing the unincorporated town to expand from its original 28 square miles.

The urban grittiness that some see in Highland Park may not conjure up images of a "suburb," the word usually evoking the sprawling rows of identical homes found farther from the city's center than the few miles that separate it and Highland Park. A closer look, however, reveals that many of the original structures from Highland Park's small-town past still stand.

A photo we snapped in H.P. recently:

All of our close personal acquaintances are, of course, much too old to be confused w/ hipsters, 'though they dress about as well.

Bunker Hill Massacre II

Rumor mill (i.e, Twitter) has it that the Boston PD & Mass. State oinkers are brutalizing people encamped at OccupyBoston.

When will people wise up, arm themselves, & begin to defend themselves against their own damn country? That is, the aristocrats & their tools?Goodbye, First Amendment, & "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Same Old Thing

It was suggested this thing

Totally different shot.

might be a theater. Not that we were playing guessing games, but our curiosity was piqued, so we ran down these shots from 1978.

Neither of which tell us much more. Note to smart asses: "Disco" Drugs as in discount, not as in a cocaine clearinghouse.

Life's Losers Assembled

From Toilet Paper Memo, a gallery of the insane & inane. TPM is to be commended for not commenting on these bizarros but leaving it to the perceptive. Which, in this case, is us.

Marriage is now between not a man & a woman, but between two sexless circles, one black & one an off-red.

Are these two married? Perhaps to Gawd? Alternate: Dude, where's your affect?

Median age at the Summit: 76, maybe?

The hair coloring actually makes you look even creepier, Uncle William.

OK, OK, we are imagining a three-way w/ these two. A three-way light bulb.

Another just creepy-looking type. Home-schooled, & not up on social cues? Brain-damaged?

He Looked Up "Mob" In The Dictionary!

MSNBC Republican Ron Christie deals w/ the issues, which, to him, consist of urination, unruliness & sex on the lawn, when all anyone needs to do is write letters to their representatives. Be sure to include a huge contribution if you want it to be read by anyone other than the intern generating the we-got-your-letter form letter. AND GET A JOB, HIPPY!!Yes, it's exactly like 1968 again, & the Republican reaction is about the same as it was then. Is Ron as bad as a FOXNews Democrat? We doubt it, because it takes a lot to be as contemptible a sack of human shit as Christie is.

History Corner

100 yrs. ago today, California made a move toward actual democracy.

Created by artist Bertha Margaret Boye for the 1911 California campaign, this is probably the most popular poster produced during the American suffrage movement. Boye’s design, featuring a draped western suffragist posed against the Golden Gate as the sun sets behind her, won first place in a contest sponsored by the College Equal Suffrage League in San Francisco. The image was later reproduced on cards, fliers and publicity stamps.

The poster’s vibrant colors and evocative imagery helped draw attention to the suffrage measure, which was one of 23 propositions on the ballot. For an entire week in August, stores in San Francisco featured the colorful poster in their windows, often accompanied by festive decorations in suffrage yellow, which supporters referred to as "the color of success."

When male voters went to the polls in California in 1911, one of the questions on the ballot was: Should women be allowed to vote? The issue of woman suffrage was being raised across the country and 5 states, all in the west, had approved the radical and controversial idea.

NB that it was in the West where this first happened, Eastern Elitists.

Just before the election, 10,000 people gathered for a final "monster rally" in San Francisco, which was followed by fireworks and a band concert. But on Election Day, October 10, 1911, the measure was soundly defeated in the San Francisco Bay Area and just barely passed in Los Angeles. Disheartened and disappointed, suffragists began to plan yet another campaign when late reports from the far flung counties began to swing the vote in their favor.

When the long count was finally completed several days later, Equal Suffrage had passed by only 3,587 votes – an average majority of one vote in each precinct in the state! The final tally was 125,037 to 121,450. As suffragists had hoped, work in the rural districts successfully overcame the more organized opposition in the cities. With the passage of votes for women in California, the number of women with full suffrage in the U.S. doubled, and San Francisco became the most populous city in the world in which women could vote.

Note also that San Francisco (Stupid hippies!) was against, while more civilized Los Angeles was for.

Monday Montage

Before the plunge into the cesspool of politics & today's world of shit & pain, some nice/pretty pictures.

Santa Monica from Malibu.

View housing.

See lower right of top photo.

These Colors Don't Run ...

...they just fade & fray.

 Criminy, Ralphs, you just remodeled the whole fucking store, couldn't you spring for a new flag while you were at it?

We don't remember Ralphs stores flying a damn flag before being taken over by the Kroger empire. Even Safeway-owned Vons doesn't have flags. We guess they know what country they're in.

Good Eatin' Report

Post all the pictures you want of food before it's eaten. No one will know that it was so inedible that Phydeaux found a surprise under the dining room table. Here, however, is proof of food eaten & enjoyed:

More War For Jesus

Continuing proof of the non-existence of a Big Spook in the Sky:

(CBS News) Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich spoke out Sunday against a Dallas pastor and Rick Perry supporter who recently disparaged Mormonism as "a cult" - noting that "We're not running for theologian-in-chief."

In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Cain (who was joined on the show by Gingrich) argued that while it was fine to question candidates on their principles and values, he did not support getting into "the specifics of your chosen religion."

"We're not running for theologian-in-chief. We're running for President of the United States of America," he said.

"I think that none of us should sit in judgment on somebody else's religion," Gingrich told CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday. "I thought it was very unwise and very inappropriate."

When asked if he thought Mitt Romney could be defined as Christian, Gingrich's response was, "I think he's a Mormon, and they define themselves as a branch of Christianity."

Cain concurred: "I believe that they believe that they're Christians, based upon their definition," he told Schieffer. "But getting into whether or not they are more Christian than another group, I don't think that's relevant to this campaign.

"While I believe that the American people want to know, what are your values? What are your principles? Because your values and your principles may impact how you make decisions, but not get into the specifics of your chosen religion," Cain said.

Compare & contrast. Have either of the smirking assholes pictured above ever listened to anything that fell out of their mouths?

Weaselity also noted.

Religious Warfare

A month ago:

Reporting from Greenville, S.C. — Stan Craig, a Vietnam veteran and fundamentalist Baptist preacher here, winces at the idea of a female president.*

Yet he hesitated when he was asked recently to make a hypothetical choice between Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

"I probably would cast my vote for Michele," Craig said.

His thinking: Romney is Mormon. Mormons, in Craig's view, are not Christian.

"The devil wrote only one Bible," Craig said, "and Joseph Smith found it under a rock."

---

*Gender war too. Nice.

Part II

Continuing the close calls in personal cleanliness theme, we were going to meet the insignificant other (Whom we will continue to abuse like that, 'cause she claims not to read this drivel. We'll see!) at a cultural event, had the water running for a shower, & had stripped off our undies in preparation for ablutions when the 'phone rang & we were advised she was too beat to go, having been gardening & cleaning about her residence since an ungawdly (To us, certainly, on a Sunday a.m.) hr.

Now somewhat quandrified: If she'd called a min. earlier we'd still be relatively clad, & would just turn off the water. But we don't want to sit around nekkid for the next 12 hrs. (It'll be getting colder, among other things.) nor do we really want to take a shower. Yet we don't want to put clean threads on dirty skin.

We'll just hope this isn't the shower that kills us.

Compromise (1710PDT 9 October 2011): Put on the bathrobe.

Almost Cut Your Hair

We thought the Amish were peaceful, if not actual pacifists, but this sounds like bullying, as reported from the birthplace of Dean Martin:

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Four men believed to be members of a breakaway Amish group have been arrested for allegedly going into the home of an Amish man and cutting his hair and beard with scissors.

It's common practice for married Amish men to have beards and the attack on the 74-year-old man in his home Tuesday night was believed to be an attempt to degrade and insult him. Likewise, Amish women do not cut their hair based on biblical teaching.

A sheriff's deputy said authorities arrested 38-year-old Johnny Mullet, 26-year-old Lester Mullet, 53-year-old Levi Miller, and Lester Miller. Lester Miller's age was not immediately available nor were the charges against him.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Mullets and Levi Miller were charged with kidnapping and burglary.

Why we bothered: The Mullet Brothers? (Or cousins, or whatever.)

Young Journalist Training Program

Who's the "thug" here?

Immediately after the incident began hitting the newswires Howley published a “Breaking News” story with The American Spectator online in which he reveals that he had consciously infiltrated the group on Friday with the intent to discredit the movement. He states that “as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator — and I wasn’t giving up before I had my story.”

If you don't like the news, go out & make some of your own, right?

According to Howley’s story he joined the group in its march toward the Air and Space Museum but the protesters on the march were unwilling to be confrontational.  He states “they lack the nerve to confront authority. From estimates within the protest, only ten people were pepper-sprayed, and as far as I could tell I was the only one who got inside.”

[...]

Ironically Howley concludes the story of his adventure mocking the lack of courage of the protesters, who he admitted did not seek – as he did – to confront the authorities, by praising the courage of the guards who twice pepper-sprayed him.

A seriously disturbed young person.

Corporate Media Shorthand: Looks as if any public political activity not initiated by Tea Baggers & their ilk will be linked to "Occupiers."

The not-so-mainstream but still very corporate American Spectator would like to add (Greater legibility here.):

That's some training program!

Additional: In a fit of "journalistic" integrity (Or cowardice, you decide!) The Spectator has changed their story. The preserved original.

Atonement

Moon, Malibu