Just Another Blog (From L.A.)™

Captcha Report

2012-01-31T10:32:00.000-08:00

Last Night's Entrée

2012-01-31T01:06:00.000-08:00

Shit on a shingle, Stouffer's® style.

Not as bad as it looks, but we can't believe they're still making this crap & markets are still selling it, yet one can't find Stouffer's® Welsh Rarebit anywhere.

Lucky Friday The 13th

2012-01-30T23:57:00.000-08:00

ICYMI. (We did.)

Yes, the Matthew Vadum seen here grimacing next to rat-eating sociopath G. Gordon Liddy:

So, what did he have to say?

The pot projecting on the kettle, apparently. And we are highly amused that Mr. Vadum is represented by an empty white box.

Better Late Than Never ...

2012-01-30T22:57:00.000-08:00

... but never better late: Slate of the Washington War Crimes Post discovers that Spielberg is a pathetic hack, while noting that even the Academy®©™ has snubbed him.

P.S. to the author ("Bill Wyman is the former arts editor of NPR and Salon." There's an admission of middle-of-the-road horseshit.): Try calling yourself William Wyman, to eliminate confusion. Never again type the non-word "sameyness:"

This big-picture repetitiveness is paralleled by Spielberg’s little touches, which are presented with a similar sameyness.

And then just go fuck yourself & your mother, 'cause you're as big & lame a hack as Spielberg. (But a fuck of a lot poorer.)

P.P.S. (for fun): Spot the errors in this paragraph:

1941 was an attempt to pull off an It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-style comic panoply, complete with some elaborate fight and dance scenes, all set against a panorama of life in Los Angles when paranoia about a potential Japanese attack supposedly gripped the city. Watching it today is like watching a comedian flop on stage. There’s a lot of energy, and increasingly desperate moves, but no one laughs.

Fucking idiot.

Pinko ComSymp Attacks Canada

2012-01-30T22:33:00.000-08:00

And who can blame him?

What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to [sic] if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment.

But that was the old Canada. I was in Montreal on Friday and Saturday and saw the familiar and disturbing tentacles of the security and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental degradation. It carried out the largestmass arrests of demonstrators in Canadian history at 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover police into indigenous communities and activist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a diminished version of George W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers and is a Christian fundamentalist.

The voices of dissent sound like our own. And the forms of persecution are familiar. This is not an accident. We are fighting the same corporate leviathan.

Professor 2012!

2012-01-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, just under Sullivan's nose at The Daily Beast, perhaps the reason for his crush on Gingrich.

It’s one thing for Newt, who gave his think-tank life a chatty frat aura during his Rose interview, to drink the AEI, Hoover, DPB, Present Danger, Liberation committee, Cheney/Rummy, Centcom, War College, Chalabi Kool-Aid. It’s quite another to take it intravenously in both arms until bloated.

What is most amazing about the national press corps is that we can have 19 debates and not hear a single memorable question about the war that is America’s greatest international debacle since Vietnam, with no moderator even wondering if Newt’s role as at least a junior planner schmoozing away at Centcom and in the AEI home office of its architects, merits questioning. Everyone agreed in 2008 that Hillary’s war vote and Obama’s early opposition helped decide that race; yet Newt’s enlistment in the Cheney/Rummy army that planned and boosted it goes unmentioned (as does Rick Santorum’s vote for it).

Doesn't amaze us in the least in this nation of short memories & chicken-shit assholes. Not in the least.

On the other hand (& this is easy to type, because it won't happen) we'd welcome a Gingrich presidency. Can't think of a better way to reveal the absolute ick that is conservatism & Republicanism to the great American unwashed & unlettered. Sometimes you just have to give a child (or a nation of sheep) a good beating to get the message across, & New Ton Lee Roy Ging Rich is just the man to beat some sense into America.*

Really. Imagine Professor New Ton as Prez. (Being a "professor:" Bad if you are a Negro &/or Democrat, yet somehow great stuff if you're Perfesser Glenn Reynolds or Gingrich. Example:

Gingrich offered an historical endorsement of pre-emptive war, describing it almost as an American habit, and said he was “fairly involved” in the Iraq attack, calling himself “the longest-serving teacher in the military” with “21 years of teaching brigadier and major generals” at the National War College. “I talk to people,” he explained.

We all know people who "talk to people." Said talkers are usually on public transit or in parks delivering deranged monologues to people who wish the talker would just go the fuck away. Imagine four yrs. of that.)

*One should, of course, be wary of one's desires. Bush the Lesser's reign from terror didn't seem to teach the undifferentiated tissue that is America much. We're probably beyond all hope.

A Moment W/ Jimbo

2012-01-30T19:34:00.000-08:00

Powerful, yet ludicrous.

"Repulsive, Nasty and Delusional ..."

2012-01-30T19:24:00.000-08:00

Is Sullivan talking about himself? One would think so, but ...

Here's the weird thing. I find myself rooting for Gingrich now, one of the most repulsive, nasty and delusional men in American public life. This primary season - when it hasn't eaten deep into my soul - has driven me to all sorts of strange emotions. There were a few nanoseconds when I even wanted Santorum to rally after Iowa. That's a horse race for you, I guess.

You have no soul, Sullivan, but we'll grant that all your emotions are very strange indeed. And there's nothing "weird" about it: This is the kind of crap to be expected from a sick fuck like Sullivan. Any sane country would have instructed him to "march right back on that plane, mister," the moment his onion-head appeared on the jetway. Close these porous borders, Mr. Obama!

Anorexia Up-Date (Final G-D Version)

2012-01-30T18:47:00.000-08:00

We resolved (perhaps not here in text & all, but to ourself) never to post pix of food other than the revolting crap, raw meat & whatnot we prepare for ourself to eat, but this shallow, surface distraction is the exception. (Though really, who in hell cares what it looks like, short of actual maggots?) Anyway, this display was not for distraction; it was eminently edible, & we edibled it all.

Great, not even focused. That'll teach us to type something before a close examination of the subject.

Musical reinforcement of the message:UPDATE 2045 PST: Gee-ziz, this whole item is a complete cock-up! Here's the more specific musical item we'd planned to use until a shiny object or something distracted us:(You need only hear the first few seconds.)

The Cycle Of Death & Capitalism

2012-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

Monday again, already? Oh, how we empathize w/ the little people & their "careers." Slave for wages as they will, their eventual reward is service as worm food.At least we won't have wasted the best yrs. of our life (Oops, too late!) slaving for a minuscule wage & paying debt to our masters.

Murder Is Your Middle Name

2012-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

But at what cost to ourselves and the rest of the world? We’ve become the suppliers of weaponry to the planet’s hotspots. And those weapons deliveries (and the training and support missions that go with them) tend to make those spots hotter still—as in hot lead.

As a country, we seem to have a teenager’s fascination with military hardware, an addiction that’s driving us to bust our own national budgetary allowance. At the same time, we sell weapons the way teenage punks sell fireworks to younger kids: for profit and with little regard for how they might be used.

The blood is on your hands, Americans! Anything that happens to you is your fault, & we'll be laughing hard (If we aren't on the receiving end of the righteous justice of the oppressed.) when the chickens come home to roost.

Kentucky Fried Architecture

2012-01-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

OK, we never intended this to be a photo log, but, political discourse being what it is, we are more & more convinced that direct & violent action is the only solution. (And population reduction. We'll start w/ you!) And as we're just too effing apathetic, slothful, yada to take any direct action, it's pix.

Moon Over Pigeons

2012-01-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Blank empty space.

3 January 2012.

Murder In Eagle Rock!!

2012-01-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

Kill kill kill kill kill!
I got a rage to live!
— Gregg Turner

More songs about you lying on the floor in a puddle of (your own) blood will be sung by some dude

Saturday, January 28, at 8 p.m. at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, in his segment of “Murder Music: An Evening of Songs About Killing.”

He will be joined by singer/songwriters David Serby, David Poe, Brian Wright, Phil Krohnengold, Carla Werner, Amy Raasch, Vivek Maddala, Edward Tree and Sara Lov, who will each be performing two songs in front of projections of classic Los Angeles crime scenes—visual homage to the evening’s macabre theme.

“You can see why I would be hosting an evening of murder music,” Saunders says, laughing, to Patch. But he underscores a more compelling thematic subtext: “Murder ballads are the way we have of experiencing the most extreme emotions possible without killing somebody.”

NB: To be completely clear (for once) Gregg Turner is not the singer in question, who is named Saunders but no relation that we know of to Turner's one-time associate in the Angry Samoans, Mental Mike Saunders, either.

Afternoon Plans

2012-01-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

Off to L.A.'s The Grove, where we will be throwing paving stones at this Apple Store. (We do what we can.)

Lots of glass.

Nothing but, really.

You don't suppose those drones in the blue shirts live in dormitories, do you? Or the bloated pig consumers?

Does this Jobs guy have a grave we could desecrate? (Pissing doesn't seem enough: It's shit-smearing time!)

Meanwhile, On Planet Earth ...

2012-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

Drinking & Driving: Richard Roberts.

Drinking & Hosting: Pat Sajak.

Sucking, Biting, Chewing, Blowing, &/or Eating: Everybody & everything else.

SEO

2012-01-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

Young Dong.

Ha ha.

Strictly Roots Musical Interlude

2012-01-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Somewhat-less-rootsy:Unless the differences are a result of YouTubery &/or a crummy source.

Embarrassing Items Of The Day

2012-01-25T17:57:00.000-08:00

TMZ:

Demi Moore's friend called paramedics Monday night after the actress inhaled a dangerous amount of nitrous oxide ... TMZ has learned.

Sources tell TMZ ... one of Demi's friends who was at her home told emergency workers Demi was doing whip-its. A whip-it is a street name for a type of nitrous oxide inhalant.

The friend said she became upset when Demi had a reaction to a whip-it and lapsed into semi-consciousness.

TP:

GOP contender Newt Gingrich made a bold pledge to establish a permanent U.S. base on the moon “by the end of my second term.” He further promised that if he becomes president, America will get a man to Mars “in a remarkably short time.” A budget-conscious President Obama ended the program for a lunar colony and moon trip after NASA reported it didn’t have the money for any part of the plan, “and even if it were to get a budget infusion, the schedule was unworkable.” Gingrich rebutted the charge that he is “grandiose” by comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln, the Wright Brothers and John F. Kennedy. ThinkProgress has previously reported on Gingrich’s curious space fetish, which has included an idea for a “mirror system in space could provide the light equivalent of many full moons” for nighttime driving.

Filler

2012-01-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

Trying to wade through The Ten Commandments before it has to go back to the library.

The Bitter Clingers Hope

2012-01-24T01:40:00.000-08:00

Danziger.

iPod Skin

2012-01-24T00:28:00.000-08:00

You know where you can put your slave labor, Apple.

Why We Hate Part II

2012-01-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

The Queen of Versailles

RTEP:

The hook for the movie and the source of the title is Jackie and David’s thwarted ambitions to build the largest house in America, modeled after Versailles and based on a sketch David drew on a private plane on the way to Las Vegas. The design is a monument to bad taste, as are the hilariously tacky portraits that litter the house they’re still living in, of Jackie as a Greek goddess and David as a Roman warrior.

But it’s also a testament to waste. Rather than using any room for multiple purposes, Jackie and David tacked ten kitchens onto their monstrosity so they can have a sushi bar as well as other specialized cooking spaces. The house has a wing for their children, a place Jackie plans to “visit” in one of the unintentionally callous things she regularly says about her brood. The basement is stacked with $5 million worth of Chinese marble, and Jackie has a warehouse full of decor she plans to use in it, from French furniture to giant replicas of Faberge eggs. Those piles of junk, and scenes of a garage full of unused bicycles for their children, or post-recession Jackie being coaxed into spending less for Christmas by her nannies and still walking out of Walmart with three sets of the game Operation (among other things) have blown past abundance or fulfillment straight to gorged. Nothing about the way the Siegels live their lives looks particularly desirable, from the house littered with dog shit to Jackie’s bed, plumped with seven layers of pillows.

Context & photo source & the like. Oh, let's double the ick factor, too:

Siegel, a 74-year-old Florida billionaire, and his 43-year-old third wife, Jackie

Think they might be big Gingrich supporters?

Amateur Campaign Strategist "Really Big Ideas" Wrap-Up

2012-01-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

Some ~~fucking doofus~~inane drone at the Washington Examiner:

The longer this farce goes on, the more it helps President Obama’s reelection chances. Mitt Romney is either going to have to step up his game and embrace some real big ideas, like running on Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., budget, or another conservative will have to enter the race.

Boy, that's a terrible idea. Wouldn't do that, no sirree. Uh, while you're at it, please don't throw us in that briar patch, either.

America's School Funding & Infrastructure Renewal On Parade

2012-01-23T20:12:00.000-08:00

Wave good-bye to our nation's future.From DefenseTech, where it's noted that many have seen this train, & some of them have recorded it & thrown it on the Internet. Don't think you can get away w/ this sort of thing in the new media era, Big Gov't.!

Hugh Hewitt Projects

2012-01-23T14:59:00.000-08:00

The South Carolina electorate didn’t vote for a person or a platform; they voted for a personality — the fiery, combative, MSM-hating Newt. They want the GOP nominee to charge at the president, throw around the term Alinksyite, push back at John King and Juan Williams, and shout out the absurdity of Barack Obama as president and the destructiveness of his combination of epic incompetence and awful ideology.

Just a cotton-pickin' minute here: Is Hewitt implying that Gingrich is not the dictionary definition of epic incompetence & awful ideology? (Frankly, we'd be a little hard-pressed to find the President's ideology at all.)

No, Hugh thinks we need to hear all about the usual:

[T]he absolutely awful record of a failed president, about how the elite media cleared his path in 2008 and has protected him since, and how Barack Obama’s contempt for the rule of law is not only startling but a source of great worry.

When we hear the phrase "contempt for the rule of law" we reach for our Google & use biased facts & direct quotation to demonstrate how far Mr. Hewitt has projected:

The Republican contender told a forum of anti-abortion activists ahead of South Carolina's primary election that as president he would ignore supreme court rulings he regards as legally flawed. He implied that would also extend to the 1973 decision, Roe vs Wade, legalising abortion.

"If the court makes a fundamentally wrong decision, the president can in fact ignore it," said Gingrich to cheers.

The Republican contender, who has made no secret of his disdain for the judiciary, said that as president he would expect to have repeated showdowns with the supreme court. He said the court would lose because it is the least powerful and least accountable arm of government.

Gingrich 2012: "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!" Newt'll be impeachable from the moment he puts his grubby hand on a Bible & swears to uphold the Constitution.

And what does strategist Hewitt suggest? It's a simple strategy, & nothing new. Articulate the fear:

Center-right voters fear for the Republic and know their fear is legitimate. “Independents” also feel that fear, but don’t know what it is, or express it as just worry over the economy. The deep sources of that fear have to be articulated, and forcefully.

We're not absolutely sure that's a racial dog-whistle, but what are we supposed to believe the deep, beyond-the-economy sources of this legitimate, felt, yet unknown fear are? Surely not Rockefeller Republican Obama, or any actions the Congress might allow him to take. Perhaps Hewitt's center-right voter fears for the Republic because he or she is among the GOP voters who believe that Obama is Muslim, & once independents are fully informed the Republic will be saved from whatever's scaring us this wk.

The kicker? After all that slurping, Hugh doesn't think Gingrich is the man for the job. Poor little Rick Santorum should be leading the charge, because, well ... they keep picking on him, & it wasn't fair how he got his ass kicked in 2006 &, & ...

The Palmetto State was unfair to Rick Santorum, as was the MSM throughout the fall, the Iowa GOP on the night of the caucuses, and CNN’s John King on Thursday night, when the first question should have been about Iran and should have gone to the former Pennsylvania senator.* Santorum may soldier on, but whether he does or not, everyone has to respect the grace with which he has accepted a series of unfair turns dating back to 2006 when a last name in a suit swept him aside because that legacy candidate could surf a flood. Santorum is a good and very able public servant, and though he faces a very uphill battle in Florida, he’s not had much help from anyone to date, and he doesn’t need anyone’s advice on how to run that race.

In our humble opinion, if the result of one's ~~last~~most recent electoral effort (Against a named suit legacy candidate!) looked like this,

In the November 7, 2006 election, Santorum lost by over 700,000 votes, receiving 41.3 percent of the vote to Casey's 58.7 percent, the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent senator since 1980 and the largest losing margin for an incumbent Republican senator ever.

one might need someone's (Anyone's. Please!) advice on how to run a race. And why is Poor Richard Santorum getting so little help? Because he's a creepy loser?

Incredibly the GOP next turns its fate over to NBC on Monday night. Advice to Mitt and Rick: Don’t copy Newt, but understand that he won in South Carolina because he absolutely refuses to let the MSM set the agenda, which is the president’s agenda.

Please. Just one actual example of this unified agenda? Or even the actual "agenda." (Surely it's written down somewhere, & one of Hewitt's many sources can dig it up for him.)

You may also be interested in: Dr. Freud, to the Radio Ward Please

*Why, might we ask?

Harlan Ellison & Patton Oswalt

2012-01-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

Let's Review

2012-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

In the three wks. of the new yr., three Republican electoral processes: Two elections & a caucus held in a state w/ an estimated 3,000,000 & change, 95%+ honky population that holds caucuses as early as possible every leap yr. to scam a few million dollars from campaign war chests & reporters' corporate expense accounts. (Obligatory yada.) Iowa's caucuses are the first step in a Byzantine procedure which renders them electorally meaningless:

Delegates from the precinct caucuses go on to the county conventions, which choose delegates to the district conventions, which in turn selects delegates to the Iowa State Convention. Thus, it is the Republican Iowa State Convention, not the precinct caucuses, which selects the ultimate delegates from Iowa to the Republican National Convention. All delegates are officially unbound from the results of the precinct caucus, although media organizations either estimate delegate numbers by estimating county convention results or simply divide them proportionally.

And remember that the parties themselves, not the State of Iowa, conduct these caucuses. So Romney's eight-vote caucus "victory" was later discovered to be a Santorun "victory" by 34 votes, & records from eight precincts had been "lost" & couldn't be found or used. Bear that in mind the next time a Republican drags out the voter fraud horse & starts beating it. (This is encouraging; chatter about not paying any attention to Iowa is already up, & these are the solidest reasons to do so yet.)

(Recapping that was so Iowa-dull we lost our train of thought ... Hang on, it's coming back. Something about Florida. That's it. But we're getting ahead of ourself.)

Once past the fraud & the essential tie (Which will nonetheless be remembered as a Romney "win," at least as long as anything is remembered now.) of Iowa, on to New Hampshire (Pop. 1,300,000+not much, & not quite as white as Iowa.) where Willard Mitt won but not by as much as he should have, considering his summer vacation house is right there in the Granite State; this round's first runner-up was Dr. Ron Paul, not surprising in the "Live Free or Die" state.

Then South Carolina (Unofficial motto "Too small to be a republic, too large to be an asylum.") where Gingrich somewhat unsurprisingly parlayed his ~~debate~~forum performances/red meat toss exhibitions prior to the election to victory in the state that could be said to have invented red meat politics.

The point being that despite all the yammering, few delegates have been selected from these three backwaters & the first primary in a large & not so homogeneously populated state (Granted, we saw a headline somewhere claiming that Florida is South Carolina w/ Cuban-Americans. No question there be loons.) is still 10 days off, meaning everything typed & blathered to this point has been even more meaningless & futile than the ordinary hideous emptiness of human existence. Is it time to start paying attention? We ask because we've marginally better things to do than pay attention if none of the horse race crap from this wk.'s go-round is going to make any difference.

(We slave over a hot keyboard for hrs. writing a pseudo think piece & that's the best ending we can come up w/? Back to photos.)

K.C. & Rain

2012-01-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

Boston's Best was no picnic, but we shudder to think which Bay Area musical figure may be called upon to sing.

Oh. A real singer. A vocalist, certainly. At least the Frisco crowd isn't booing the ~~Lampoon~~Anthem, even if they're making noise.

Kicking Game

2012-01-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

Better the Belichick Cheaters than the Lewis Killers to represent the AFC & hold the Lamar Hunt trophy, we suppose.

Asshole Of The Day, So Far

2012-01-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

Go fuck yourself, your mother, & the horse on which you rode in, Cagle. No more free exposure for you around here. Hell, you should probably be paying us for running your sorry drivel in the first place.

American History

2012-01-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

Can't embed it & just as well, it's as graphic as it gets: A link to PA State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer offing himself at a news conference 25 yrs. ago today. If only Nixon had taken this approach when he announced the press "wouldn't have him to kick around any more."

Old Peoples' Ears

2012-01-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

Thought the announcer said we were going to hear the "National Lampoon" sung. Then the wretched Steven Tyler was hauled out to squeak & rasp it. A rendition like that should be considered an act of treason.

Elitism Report

2012-01-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

My Dem friend Rich Yeselson asks: "Can you imagine if Barack Obama mentioned that he'd been president of the Harvard Law Review as often as Newt Gingrich reminds us that he taught history at West Georgia College?"

A Big "If"

2012-01-22T11:27:00.000-08:00

Great American Ninny Jennifer Rubin:

If conservatism becomes a movement of anti-media bashing and hyperbolic rhetoric, it will cease to be a force in American politics. And if it is led by an egomaniac whose personal advancement takes precedence over any principle, the GOP will be (correctly) mocked.

"If?" It's not even a question of when. We can only assume that Ms. Rubin is a sort of Helen Keller figure, unable to perceive what's been occurring around her.

OK, Wait ...

2012-01-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

Is Coach Joe Paterno of Happy Valley dead for sure? There were discounted rumors yesterday, & we'd hate to jump the gun.

Sermon Parts I, II, III & IV

2012-01-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

Murder At The Zoo

2012-01-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

Is this is what Medicare will become, shape up in a mo. or it's check-out time?

The sole hippopotamus at the Los Angeles Zoo was euthanized Friday after being ill with an unknown ailment for a month and not responding to treatment, zoo officials said.

Zookeepers noticed in December that the 28-year-old hippopotamus, Jabba, had a decreased appetite, abnormal bloating and was not responding to medication, zoo spokesman Jason Jacobs told City News Service. The hippo was under close veterinary care, but his condition rapidly worsened in the last few days.

The zoo's staff made the "difficult decision" to euthanize Jabba, according to a statement released by the zoo.

Jabba had been at the zoo since 2009. Before that, he lived at the San Diego Zoo for several years, where he sired several calves.

Crikey, we've had decreased appetite, been abnormally bloated & haven't responded to medication for yrs. That's no call to send us to the happy hunting ground.

Late Nite Music Bite

2012-01-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

"Manifestations Of Western Culture"

2012-01-21T23:58:00.000-08:00

By Associated Press, Published: January 20
TEHRAN, Iran — Police have closed down dozens of toy shops for selling Barbie dolls in Iran, part of a decades-long crackdown against “manifestations of Western culture,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Friday.

Barbie dolls are sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear headscarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together.

A ban on the sale of the Barbies, designed to look like young Western women, was imposed in the mid-1990s. In its latest report, Mehr quoted an unidentified police official as saying authorities confiscated the dolls from Tehran stores in a “new phase” of the campaign.

In 1996, a government-backed children’s agency called Barbie a “Trojan horse,” sneaking in Western influences such as makeup and revealing clothes.

Authorities started confiscating the dolls from stores in 2002, denouncing what they called the toys’ un-Islamic characteristics. The campaign was eventually dropped.

Iran that year also introduced its own dolls — twins Dara and Sara, designed to promote traditional values with modest clothing and pro-family values — but those proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.

Despite bans on many Western books, movies, satellite TV channels, music, haircuts and fashion, young people maintain their interest in that culture.

Iran’s state TV channels broadcast several Western and Hollywood films every week. Islamists have repeatedly tried to fight what they see as a cultural “invasion” since 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy.

Since then, importing Western toys has been discouraged by the regime.

In 2008, the Iranian judiciary warned against the “destructive” cultural and social consequences and “danger” of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys. Even so, Iranian markets have been full of them. One-third of Iran’s population of 75 million is under 15.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Not that we (necessarily) disagree w/ the mullahs in their righteous stance against Western you-name-it. Mostly we needed an excuse for these shots of a Barbie-on-a-Harley Hallmark (we assume) ornament we spotted on a Yule tree somewhere.

Etta!

2012-01-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

Stole from Salon. (Can't be arsed to embed the others.)

Johnny Otis Show

2012-01-20T00:12:00.000-08:00

Good piece on Johnny Otis by Erin Aubry Kaplan. Good excuse to run more of Johnny's music,'though none of the really wailing shit seems to have reached YouTube.

Steak Tartare

2012-01-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

The Naked Dinner

It is murder, y'know.

Street, Sign, Skulls

2012-01-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

"Whore Of Babylon!"

2012-01-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Would've titled it "Slut-Shaming," but we doubt if the current Mrs. Gingrich has any shame.

"Dobson first talked about how great Santorum is," recalled one source, who had first-hand knowledge of Dobson's comment. "[He said,] 'I want to tell you that I've gotten to know Karen [Santorum] and she is just lovely. She set aside two professional careers to raise these seven children. She would make a fabulous first lady role model.* And Newt Gingrich's wife, she was a mistress for eight years."

Karen Santorum (left) and Callista Gingrich (AP)

Another source confirmed the account, and said Dobson concluded the sentiment about Callista Gingrich with, "Who do you want as your first lady?"

"It was like a chill [set into] the room," said one source. Several people were offended by the comment, said another source, adding that it was noted among some participants that Callista Gingrich had only been married once.

This Good Christian Bitch, meanwhile, has little shame herself. Wonder how many glass walls she has?

Yet while Dobson’s candidate won the group’s endorsement, it’s Gingrich who’s gaining steam this week. Some evangelicals seem surprised. Concerned Women for America president Penny Nance endorsed Santorum early on, and she told the New Yorker’s Ariel Levy she expected other evangelical women to fall in line. But many haven’t.

“Initially, my reaction to Newt Gingrich and to Callista is that the third wife doesn’t get to be the First Lady,” Nance said. “I came at it completely believing that evangelical women would not even consider him, and I’ve been surprised by their willingness to listen and forgive. I attended an event he had here with evangelicals, and there were some pretty tough questions. The most interesting thing to me was not the answers but how he handled them. The old Newt that I knew would not have handled it very well, but this Newt did. He really tried to divine what was at the heart of the question and didn’t come across as rude or arrogant.”

But Nance held a hard line nonetheless, “We cannot allow Newt Gingrich or anyone else’s moral failure to be used as an excuse by others for their own wrongdoing and saying ‘Hey, I can still be President!’”

I think Gingrich’s rise has less to do with evangelical women forgiving him than with his pitch-perfect race-baiting, especially in Monday night’s debate. On Wednesday, a South Carolina voter praised Gingrich’s performance, telling him, “I would like to thank you for putting Mr. Juan Williams in his place.”

Sexism from a "concerned woman" & race-baiting. Go Newt!

(Ab-so-fugging-lutely not cross-posted at Whiskey Fire.)

*Cf., as they type.

Dep't. Of Amplification

2012-01-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

Traxx, the other, open restaurant at Union Station isn't doing so well either.

Traxx bar

Easy to get that Health Dep't. "A" IF YOU AREN'T USING THE KITCHEN!

Could it be the stupid name?

TMI

2012-01-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

It's as if everyone is shouting in our eyes 24/7. Stop it!

You know who else's color scheme was red, white & black?

Simply desperate for happiness.

Don't make us stop you. You won't like that.

The Dregs

2012-01-19T18:19:00.000-08:00

So Rick Perry has been run out of town, leaving the Party of Greed & Fear w/ whom, exactly?

Let's recrap [sic]: Presumptive nominee Willard Mittens Romney, Newton Leroy Gingrich, Rick Santorum (Who has so suddenly & completely dipped below the radar that we're having trouble finding a recent absurd or lying quote from him.) & somebody's grampa who wandered into the hall from the old folks' rookery next door & started talking about how the "niggers" were going to riot for white women & other white property & that touching a "queer" or using his bathroom will give you AIDS.

If any of these four fuckfaces were to be elected to the American Presidency 10 mos. from now, it would confirm our carefully researched thesis that democracy (&, therefore, your entire species) is a huge & pathetic failure & we'd consider ourself perfectly justified in getting out the key & starting the Doomsday Machine.

TCB III: Queen Amy

2012-01-19T17:18:00.000-08:00

La Brea Lenin

2012-01-19T16:21:00.000-08:00

The Gao Brothers' "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin's Head," now visible.

Show Biz Squirrel

2012-01-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's as if the little rodent bastard were posing.

Super Squirrel

There's That Blimp!

2012-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hollywood Does It Again

2012-01-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

And again.

It’s not just 3-D but re-releases of popular titles in 3-D. Disney is leading the way with 3-D upgrades of several popular animated titles, including last weekend’s release of Beauty and the Beast in 3-D. Also to follow this year is a 3-D release of Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

Fans will also get to venture to a galaxy far, far away in 3-D when the upgraded Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace hits theaters next month.

Director James Cameron’s Titanic, which ruled the world as the most successful film ever when it was released in 1997, returns April 6, and Pixar’s Finding Nemo from 2003 follows on Sept. 14.

As usual, Cameron is enthusiastic about the new technology and his use of it. ”Even the scene where (Kate Winslet’s) mother puts her corset on her. In 3-D its mesmerizing,” says Cameron. ”It brings the rest of the movie up to the big sweeping thing you remember. The intimacy is accented.”

A) James Cameron, just shut up!

B) The movie industry is about to reduce, reuse & recycle itself to death.

Cover Version

2012-01-19T12:13:00.000-08:00

We'd been hoping for something a bit more apocalyptic, & certainly weren't expecting a version of the Skeeter Davis classic, about which much has been bandied of late here, & elsewhere.Alas, Mr. Isaacs was no Skeeter Davis. (Nor was she any Gregory Isaacs; it's all good.)

This Seems Familiar, But We Can't Quite Put Our Finger On It

2012-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

It is not even safe to look at clouds.

Self-Pouffing Croissants

2012-01-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

Presentation is all important.

Burning The Wicked In Fire

2012-01-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

Traffic Control Box II

2012-01-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

Head Up-Date

2012-01-19T07:08:00.001-08:00

We know just where this is.

The body parts were discovered near a concrete ramp frequented by skateboarders.

And the ~~concrete ramp~~flood channel/skate ramp is the final vestige of civilization before the rugged parkland.

Parts Unknown

2012-01-19T06:07:00.001-08:00

We dunno how much of a real life Sopranos this is, but the initial discovery was certainly straight outta any given Law & Order opening.

The homicide investigation began Tuesday afternoon after two dog walkers in Bronson Canyon Park noticed their dogs playing with a plastic bag and went to inspect it.

PHOTOS: Body parts found below Hollywood sign

Inside was a man's head. His hair was graying. Police said he appeared to be in his 40s and that he probably had been dead for a day or two.

Although we've been going there regularly since 1978 or 1979, note well that the murder didn't occur in the area, so nyaah, can't pin nothing on us, copper!

Where nature more or less begins:

(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times-0846 18 January 2012)

LAPD at the entrance to Bronson Canyon; 30+ detectives
& officers on horseback searched seven acres of
rugged parkland for body parts.

"Rugged," bitchezz!!

Johnny Otis Joins Jumpin' Band In Sky Or Hell

2012-01-19T05:06:00.001-08:00

A very important figure in the world of race music. He hung on till 90. That'll show the bastards!

To return to the important subject, we are in possession of the 0s & 1s that comprise Rhythm & Blues Caravan: The Complete Savoy Recordings (And only Discs One & Three; the Santa Monica Library's copy of Disc Two wouldn't rip.) & that is some seriously down stuff. Funky's too easy & trivializing a description; it has the beat, the flats & the sharps, all in the right places. Torrent a copy today, while you still can.

Big Fucking Dummies

2012-01-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

It's still a democracy: You are privileged to decide which group is worse, the exploiters or the exploited.

The candidates are close to literally out of their minds:

What's really scary is that the way that Republicans—including Ron Paul—talk and act about Israel shows that their grasp of world affairs ranges between incompetent and delusional.

But they must keep ahead of their flock, whose delusions are never-ending.

MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA—In talking to Republican voters across the state, one thing I’ve found interesting—and alarming—is the degree to which apocalyptic rhetoric is par for the course. “We will not recognize the United States after four more years after Obama,” said John Leach, an avid supporter of Newt Gingrich who attended the candidate's Sunday rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “We are surely moving toward socialism.” he said.

Likewise, at the South Carolina Tea Party convention, attendees were worried that Obama would make irrevocable changes to the country if he won re-election. “He will take the God out of America,” said Carolyn Church, a housekeeper and domestic worker who sees the country’s “Judeo-Christian heritage” as its most important characteristic.

And at Rick Santorum’s town hall at Daniel Island Elementary, attendees were terrified that Obama would impose tyranny if he made it through 2012. “This is the most important election of our lifetimes,” said Susan Sloate, “Obama has made huge strides in destroying the America we know, and if we don’t win this one, there will be no elections in 2016.”

What fun these next months will be. An eternity of fun.

Traffic Control Box

2012-01-19T03:04:00.000-08:00

Now art nazis are trying to, uh, control it.

An Imprecatory Prayer

2012-01-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

May his days be few; may another take his office*.

*Bead-rattling version, w/ lyrics.

Not In Service

2012-01-19T01:02:00.000-08:00

Back To Abnormal, Yet Dull

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Closed For The Duration

2012-01-18T00:13:00.000-08:00

Sure, don't mean shit if'n people can still look at the old crap, 'sif anyone would, but a day off is a day off, innit?

Cassius "The Greatest" Clay 70 Today

2012-01-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

While it's still the big day in most of these United Snakes. (As always, really on top of it. Note MLK tie-in.)

Muhammad Ali & Martin Luther King Jr. meet the press
after conferring on The Champ's draft status,
Louisville, Kentucky, 29 March 1967.

Certainly the greatest draft resister ever. Keep punching, Champ!

Lucky Ducky

2012-01-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

Very lucky. Lives in a rich person's pond in Pasadena which is not open to the 99%. We had to shoot these through the fence.

Big Back-Up

2012-01-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

What was in the sink when we returned yesterday.

American Dream Report

2012-01-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

Headline in one of the S e-rags:

Get used to living with
Mom and Dad

The era of empty nests may be over unless we change our work culture and our economy. An expert explains

We didn't read the item & don't advise you do so either, but apparently mentioning w/o linking is a breach of form.

So, not only will the next generation not "do" as well as their parents, the rapacious Boomers, they'll be not doing as well at home w/ Boomer mom & dad. (Or whatever generation of sheep came after the Boomers. We don't have to keep up.)

We can not emphasize how good a deal being childless & alone is. Imagine your new, adult empty nest again overrun as the brats you spoiled come home to roost.

Hilarity Ensues

2012-01-17T14:40:00.000-08:00

Beyond Mombasa

Critics' Rating:

Release Year:: 1957
MPAA Rating:: NR

A missionary in Kenya tells a drifter his uranium-miner brother has been killed by leopard men.

Whozis Dude?

2012-01-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Whoever he is, he has a website & everything.

ABBA Reuniting?

2012-01-17T00:16:00.000-08:00

Dulled Out

2012-01-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

To the extent that our eyes rolled back in our head & we contemplated biting our tongue off to see if we could feel it.

Maybe we're having a fit.

Wave Bye-Bye, Junior

2012-01-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

Jon Huntsman leaves the stage in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images/16 January 2012)

Son Of A Billionaire

2012-01-16T17:39:00.000-08:00

Per The New York Times, via e-mail:

Former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah formally ended his once promising Republican presidential run with a call for party unity, asking the five candidates he leaves on the field to end their negative ads, and chastising President Obama for engaging in “class warfare.”

Class warfare indeed. As committed by the dirty libs of The NYT & patrician Obama, not by a "billionaire industrialist" & his loser son.

Days Of Our Lives

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

Bringing The War Back Home

2012-01-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

The latest & apparently last victim of the O.C. serial killer was, just like the alleged killer, a military veteran,

John Berry, 64, is warned on Jan. 5 by Anaheim Police Sgt. Mike Lynch about the serial killer preying on homeless men in Orange County. On Friday, Berry himself was killed. (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times/January 6, 2012)

although the victim of one of America's earlier wars of aggression.

ANAHEIM - A tribute made up of candles, ballooons, coffee cups, cookies, cigarettes and a gray-white stuffed elephant lies next to the trash enclosure where a serial killer's fourth victim was stabbed and killed.

Locals in the area who say they knew him, calling him John, came out early Saturday to pay respects and remember the friendly, God-fearing, Santa Claus-like looking man.

Marilyn Holland and Linda Maher shared stories about the mild-mannered Vietnam vet who was known to never ask for money but always got it anyhow.

As Maher drive up in her pickup truck, she called over to Holland, "Was it John?" she asked. "This makes me so mad. I'm so sick about John. He never asked for money. When people gave him money, he always said, 'God bless you.'"

Holland said she had warned John about the serial killer and had wanted to buy him a cell phone.

"He always liked to sit and drink coffee at Carl's Jr., read his bible and do crossword puzzles out of the paper. It such a tragedy, he looked just like Santa Claus," she said. "He was friends with everyone. Even the coyotes in the riverbed, he gave them all names."

Have we mentioned how much we hate this fucking country, & the people in it that make it such a shit-hole? You might have missed it.

Fractal Trees

2012-01-15T00:48:00.000-08:00

A Zillion Wordsworth

2012-01-14T22:41:00.000-08:00

10,000+ pix at 1,000 words each would be a zillion, right?
"For entertainment purposes only - All rights go to Ryan & Sheri Killackey."Most amused by "A DAY IN CALIFORNIA" when none of it takes place more than, say, 100 klicks north of Laws Angeleeze.

Found object.

Wanna Make Something Of It?

2012-01-14T13:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, we muted the National Anthem (performed by what appeared to be Huey fucking Lewis) at the beginning of the NFL game.

Simpleton Report

2012-01-14T00:13:00.000-08:00

Today's morons brought to us by The New York Times.

“There are a lot of folks who believe that we are really in the end times,” he told me, “and the election of Obama was a signal that the end times were here.” But after Republicans came roaring back in 2010, he said, a lot of those conservatives decided that maybe the apocalypse was still a way off, after all.

There's no indication whether it was Mr. Obama's negritude or Democrat-ness that caused this belief.

It Was A Fucking Joke, Nimrod

2012-01-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

See? And not that bad a joke.What we find most disturbing is that this took place at a dump in SC (Redundant?) called the Squat 'N' Gobble. (Equally repugnant name for a Frisco restaurant. The kind w/ a website.)

Not even this tired bullshit disturbs us.

“We need to have a president who respects the men and women in uniform from the standpoint of knowing what it's like to wear the uniform,” Perry said, playing up his credentials to this crowd in an area heavily populated with military bases. Ads have been running on local TV in South Carolina emphasizing Perry’s military credentials -- Ron Paul has also run ads here about his military service.

There's a no-religious-litmus-test clause in the Constitution, but (NB, Dr. Ron Paul!) no requirement that a candidate for office have ~~killed any foreign babies~~been in the service, either. Americans have been so deeply submerged in the national security mindset they can no longer conceive of an unmilitarized society.

Most of those Founders were more than a bit leery of a standing army, weren't they? Funny how that turns into "the only reason for a Federal gummint is dee-fense, & plenty of it" but no other changes in the world outside the Constitutional bubble need be reflected in Federal government.

Here's the visual aid. It's not Mittens & his fudge glove, but we suppose it says something or another about liberal media bias.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at the Hilton Head Diner in Hilton Head, SC
(AP Photo/David Goldman/13 January 2012)

Almost forgot, also from the local fish-wrap:

said Perry, dressed in khakis and a blue fleece with his name embroidered on it.

Are these fashion notes to legitimize future commenting on eventual/further female candidates & their fashion moves? Reverse sexism? Perhaps an observation that the dark suit, blue shirt, red tie costume is no longer de rigueur (not all the damn time, anyway) for a serious (or even a Republican) presidential contender?

Friday Night Music

2012-01-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

All-frantic, non-stoppadelic, under two minutes & at least 30 years ago.And for the hell of it, 40 yrs. ago:Izzat Kenny G. on the horn? We'd go for 50 but that was a suckier-than-ordinary time in popular music. No wait.Tempted to cross-post this at Whiskey Fire, but cooler heads prevailed.

Just Following Orders

2012-01-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

Orders in a long chain.

I invite readers who (a) have similar sentiments, and (b) have their own blogs to write posts with the word “gmail” hyperlinked to this post, in order to see whether we can get a bit of a googlebomb going. If nothing else, it would be an interesting experiment in algorithmic politics. Google claim that they can do nothing to help Santorum wipe himself clean of Santorum. But would they tweak their algorithm if their own product were the target? It would be interesting to see.

So: gmail, gmail, gmail.

Eck-shully, we've no complaints about the new GMail. Hell, we kinda like it, 'cause we can see more of the theme we chose. Nor did we give that much of a shit about the changes to Google Reader, beyond the harder to read redesign, because all that social media & sharing crap is just that, crap. We don't care about you. And by now, the bastards having ground us to dusty nothing, we've gotten used to the crummy new design.

Plus which, the GPhone or whatever it is deal where you can call anywhere in the area code world free from your devil-box is pretty damn sweet.

On the other hand (Is this the third one now?) we don't like trying to access our Picasa or Google Photos or whatever the fuck it is account (They seem to have a tough time identifying their products clearly, don't they?) & being sent to Google+. Walled garden bullshit. Get out there on the real Internet, you sissies!

Doing Some Math

2012-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Awful excuse for a human being Liz Cheney has opened her pudgy yap again:

I think, in fact, what President Obama is doing is something that America's enemies--the Taliban, al Qaeda--have been unable to do, which is to decimate the fighting capability of this nation," Cheney said. "And when you look at his rhetoric, he talks about the need now that hostilities are over to cut our spending, as though we're no longer at war. He's acting as though this is a time for a peace dividend when we're not, you know, truly at peace.

So as, of 2010 (We aren't doing any more research.) there were 1,430,895 active-duty in the U.S. military, round it down to a million four-thirty & divide by the 5,500 dead the Pentagon admits to, that's 1/260th of the armed forces, not actual decimation, but a good start made by that witch's father Dick & George W. Bush. Now who's decimatin' whom?

Watch if you dare.Enjoy the hag-spackle too. Little old for eye-liner aren't we, Liz?

"Honorable?"

2012-01-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

Martin Peretz is still nuts. Indeed, we expect he will remain so until he dies.

Mitt Romney is a pious Mormon and an honorable man, as was his father

Also:

I’ve had many students at Harvard who are Mormons. They are honest, candid, smart, hardworking, and touched by the pain of others. That’s what I think motivates them to spend one or two years of their lives in service to others.

Apparently colossal intellect Peretz is unaware that two yrs. missionarying is not what any one would describe as "service to others," unless he thinks converting people & taking their money is a "service." We'd call it fraud, but why be picky, right?

And try to make sense of this:

Which brings me to former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, who is a Roman Catholic, a pious Roman Catholic. I would have thought that John F. Kennedy had done away with fright of the Catholics. And, for that matter, the Church, which has its own moral problems—here, there, everywhere. What with the universal sex scandal that has never been addressed candidly by the hierarchy, its authority in preaching the virtuous life on abortion, sexual matters and gay marriage, doctrine in general has been miserably undercut. Still, it’s not for me to press. Catholics will have to do that, and maybe Santorum himself has. I do not agree with much that Santorum says on other matters. (Although let me confess that on American foreign policy I find myself more in agreement with the Republicans—Paul excepting—than with the Democrats, or at least with the Democrat who is their standard-bearer.)

So Santorum said “we will always need a Jesus candidate.” What of it? It is clearly a metaphoric statement. It would be strange if a practicing Catholic, a believing Catholic, would not have the phrase and the thought close to his heart. For him, I suspect (no, I believe), a “Jesus candidate” means an ethical candidate, one who does not sully others, who does not lie, who nurtures the poor and the ill and those born to rotten lives. Yes, those born into prejudice and hatred. Of course, this is not exactly his politics. I’ve judged him separately on that. But are you certain—I am not—that those with whom we agree on health care and taxes are ethical human beings? On drones, for instance?

No rational person can.

Panel Of The Day

2012-01-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

Tell Us Again Which Party Hates America & Loves Terrorists

2012-01-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

The Greedy Ol' Party. How could we forget?

Former Michigan Republican Rep. Mark Deli Siljander was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for his work with a Missouri-based charity purportedly tied to terrorist groups.

“I stand before you broken in so many ways,” he told the court prior to sentencing, reports the Kansas City Star. “I did something wrong. I mistreated the system I believed in, and I mistreated my family and friends.”

Siljander, who left office in 1987, was sentenced to 366 days in prison for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and obstruction of justice. He had admitted to receiving payments from the Islamic American Relief Agency in return for lobbying for their removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of organizations tied to foreign terrorist groups.

He also admitted that he lied to federal authorities when they originally asked about the payments, which he claimed were to help him write a book.

Elected in 1980, Siljander first made a name for himself as an outspoken social conservative. He lost a primary to Fred Upton, now the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, in 1986.

Siljander described himself as a “poster boy for Jerry Falwell” who decided to devote himself to fixing “cultural misunderstandings” in a 2007 interview with Urban Tulsa Weekly. That effort led him to start studying the Quran to find common ground between Christians and Muslims.

Couldn't even get ecumenical do-gooding happening right, had to make a buck on it too.

Andy Admits It

2012-01-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

Fuck humanity, what's important are the "general benefits" to the economy, sez Andy as he bitches about Gingrich's "Romney is a shitheel" video.

[I]t focuses on the specific human suffering of the necessary "creative destruction" of capitalism not its general benefits to the economy.

Nice, Sullivan, real nice. As long as those "general benefits" continue to accrue to the already wealthy, what's the fucking problem, right?

Public Speaking 101

2012-01-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

Can any of these inane drones make anything clear? Ever? John McCain:

"These attacks on, quote, Bain Capital is really kind of anathema to everything that we believe in. We believe in job creation, and the record of Bain Captial is to take companies that would otherwise fail and restore them to some kind of viability, and sometimes that doesn't work, but, you know, when it always works is a thing called communism, where you keep everybody in business."

"Quote."

Subject-predicate agreement is entirely too much to expect, of course."That's Adam Smith." There you fucking have it. Because absolutely nothing has changed in however long it's been since Smith roamed the earth.

Last word, from Charlie Rose: "Hope we'll see you at this table ... a lot." Oh, please.

Some Good News For The Planet

2012-01-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

@Ali_DavisAli Davis

Uh-oh. Consumption makes a comeback. tinyurl.com/7qtnnyn I hope everyone enjoyed those pointless antibacterial dishwashing liquids!

Not A False Equivalence

2012-01-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

Yet to many Chinese, the constant barrage of criticism, whether over human rights, hacking, military policy, or intellectual property, feeds a sense of paranoia that there is a broad American plan to undermine China.

“A conspiracy theory has taken root in China,” says Liu Yawei, director of the China program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. “Some very influential scholars see the whole currency manipulation as a ploy, along with the dollar devaluation and war with Iraq and Afghanistan, as all meant to make China disintegrate.”

And yet, according to Liu, if the Chinese government could vote in the American election, they would probably side with the red states. “The Chinese elite actually like the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party,” he says. “They believe the Republicans just want to make more money, while the Democrats are more concerned with human rights.”

Yeah, fucking imagine that. The extremes of left & right somehow connecting & being interested in power & profits before people.

G.O.P. Brain Trust

2012-01-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

Missouri Candidate Claims Degree in Economics
Missouri gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence (R) says he "earned a degree in Economics" from the University of Missouri.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that "may be true -- but it is not entirely accurate. According to the university, Spence's degree is not in economics. It is in home economics."

Spence admitted he had to change his major in order to graduate on time: "I was not the greatest student in the world. I'll make fun of myself: I was a 60-watt bulb in a 100-watt society."

We'd guess more like a 40-watt incandescent bulb in a world of fluorescents. See?

Futurism

2012-01-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

Possible fun.

Three ½ hp DC motors with motor controllers, 1100 custom manufactured die-cast cars, 13 HO-scale train sets with controllers and tracks, steel, aluminum, shielded copper wire, copper sheet, brass, various plastics, assorted woods and manufactured wood products, Legos, Lincoln Logs, Dado Cubes, glass, ceramic and natural stone tiles, acrylic and oil-base paints, rubber, sundry adhesives. 9 feet, 9 inches (H) x 28 feet, 3 inches (W) x 19 feet, 2 inches (D).

But no mention of this?
Via, w/ pix.

Hollywood Dumbs It Down For You

2012-01-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

"Slag?" The best thing about The Hobbit is the dragon being named Smaug.

If you geeks aren't too busy posing your Star Wars® & Star Trek® action-figures in perverted sexual positions, more on this version from the hazy mists of 45 yrs. ago.

Straight Outta Wenatchee

2012-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

"We Like Our Own Meat"

2012-01-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Tester's Carry On
If you see Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) in an airport, the New York Times notes he "can often be found lugging an extra 40-pound roller bag, which he gingerly stuffs into the overhead bin. His precious cargo is neither briefing books nor an extra raincoat, but roasts, ribs, round steak and (his favorite) rib steak."

Said Tester: "Taking meat with us is just something that we do. We like our own meat."

"Just as some lawmakers cannot part with their pillow from home, the Testers do not like to leave their state without its meat, which they have been schlepping around the country for years, including to a family reunion in Hawaii."

Aways hungry
We're in heat
Never never
Never enough meat

Props

2012-01-11T01:07:00.000-08:00

Reporter: Speaker Gingrich, given where we are today, do you own any guns personally?

Gingrich: No.

Reporter: When was the last time you went shooting?

Gingrich: It's been a couple years. I can tell you that my grandson just got his .410 for Christmas. Very exciting.

[…]

Reporter: Have you ever owned a gun?

Gingrich: No, I actually personally have never owned a gun. I believe in the right to bear arms, and I strongly defend the right to bear arms.

Per Mother Jones. And previously in Gingrich World: