Talking Heads Ad Nauseum

TNR's sincere form of flattery of bloggingheads.tv gives us an example of the state of discourse (Just Another Blog™ is starting to hate that word, especially if it has "civil" tacked on before it) in This Great Nation of Ours™. A far right pantload from the National (Socialist) Review, and a centrist from the Council on Foreign Relations who was a big supporter of This Great Nation of Ours'™ latest adventure in military adventurism. Couldn't they find a moderate Republican to moderate the panel? Then it would be just like NPR. Fair & balanced.

Heat Stroke Update

Current temperature one foot from the floor @ 2130 PDT: 82ºF. If The Editor starts an Amazon wish list, will one of you fucks send me an air conditioning unit? Last April?

Sorry...

No semi-funny fake iPod shuffle/random music listing today. Why bother, really?

"It Was So Hot Today..." "How Hot Was It, Johnny?"

So fucking hot that poor Princess Lillie has withdrawn to the (slightly) cooler tiled floor of the bathroom. And that's not to mention the humidity.
Lillie: Be sure you don't tap your paws (or tail) in a salacious way if anyone else goes in there.

Photo actually from May or June of this yr. Gives you an idea of the suffering we've been undergoing the last few months. But she is in there, trying to chill.

Die, The People's Princess

"People's Princess." There's an oxymoron. Not one more word.

The Enemy At Home

D'Souza on Countdown:
You might remember when Dinesh D'Souza's book The Enemy at Home ("This book uncovers the links between the spread of American pop culture, leftist ideas, and secular values, and the rise of anti-Americanism throughout the world") came out. Yes, the book in which he says he has more in common w/ the Grand Mufti of Egypt than w/ Michael Moore, at least as far as "family values" & repression. Now, from the backwaters of AOL.com, he comes out in favor of democracy in Turkey. (Well, "Islamic democracy.") His last paragraph, appropriately, sums up his take on the matter:

No. Turkey, like Iraq, offers a better model. This is the model of traditional Muslims who support modernization and free markets and free elections. These traditional Muslims are willing to work with America and they are fiercely opposed to Al Qaeda and to the radical Muslims. Yet at the same time they believe that traditional Muslim values that enjoy majority support sometimes should become the basis of law. I'm not Muslim and most of the readers of this blog surely aren't either. We don't support all these laws, but then Turkey is not our country. Why should America or the West dictate how the Turkish people govern themselves? Why is secular thuggery preferable to Muslim democracy?

He could be given credit for not wetting his pants at the very mention of Muslims, but considering that secularism gives him the same piss-puddle Islam does to most of his conservative compatriots, we're not cutting him any slack here. Not to mention statements like this: Turkey, like Iraq, offers a better model. Oooh-wee!! That Iraq! No thuggery going on there. Indeed, shouldn't Iraq be offered to all the world as the very best model of a nation ever? Speaking of Iraq: Why should America or the West dictate how the Turkish people govern themselves? Indeed. Why should America or the West dictate how the Iraqi people govern themselves, either? Sounds like D'Souza can't wait for that ol' Sharia law to be imposed. We expect Mr. D'Souza's call for total withdrawal of American forces any day now.

And if you dirty leftists w/ your pop culture & secular values don't just stop it right now, it may be necessary to impose a little "religious democracy" here in the U.S. as well. After all, September 11th was your fault.

He's certainly setting out in some interesting directions here. As an immigrant from India who's managed to attach himself to the teat of the Wingnut Welfare Machine, he of course has the zealotry of the convert to inspire him, and as a Catholic (imagine how marginalized he was as a Catholic w/ Portugese colonialist ancestry in India) he is wide open to the fascism of religion, whether Christian or Islamic. Deeply rooted psychological (& logical) problems is our conclusion. Proof, from Wikipedia:

Prior to his marriage, D'Souza had relationships with two well-known female conservatives, Laura Ingraham, a nationally-syndicated radio commentator to whom he was engaged but never married, and best-selling conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter.

Pointless side note: While looking for a shot of Mr. D., the editor came across this Sound Politics (one of Washington State's leading wingnut sites) story concerning the editor's alma mater (is it one's alma mater if one didn't graduate?) deciding not to have D'Souza speak there. When the editor was there, way back in the last century, it was chock-full of the male children of the old money right wing buttwads who ran Seattle. And the editor suspects it hasn't changed that much (other than having gone co-ed) though of course now the parents are the editor's age, or younger, and they may have learned something their parents didn't. Damned liberal education.

NASA & National Security

Little Debbie takes off into the wind. No "muzzies" allowed.
Two days ago, we wondered how much "national security" work was done @ NASA. Here's an answer from The Nation. (Also available @ Yahoo!® NEWS Opinion, where we first found it, & where the font is bigger & more legible.)

"Almost nobody at NASA does classified work," says Robert Nelson, a veteran scientist at JPL who heads up the photo analysis unit on the Cassini-Huygens space probe project exploring Saturn and its moons. "I think this is really all about NASA director [Michael] Griffin putting a security wrap around us."

The security crackdown has nothing to do w/ Little Debbie Snackcake's fear of "Moozlim infiltration" of NASA; it's thought by those on the receiving end to be an attempt to keep any information on global climate change from reaching the public.

The new security clearance requirement, which involves interviews of neighbors and checks into the distant background activities of scientists, many of whom have worked at JPL and Goddard for as long as thirty years, is puzzling because both locations have little or no involvement in secret or national
security research. Indeed, by law, NASA's activities and the research its scientists engage in are required to be publicly available.

America First W/ The Romney Campaign

Mitt makes his big announcement at the Henry (Protocols of the Elders of Zion) Ford Museum.
From the Herald of Beantown:

Romney’s five sons appeared with their dad onstage in February when he announced his presidential bid in Dearborn, Mich., at the Henry Ford Museum, father of the American auto assembly line. But all of Romney’s boys are foreign car owners, and most have never owned an American vehicle, records show.

(One little question, as the writing above isn't too clear: Is "Dearborn, Mich.," or "the Henry Ford Museum" the "father of the American auto assembly line?") Other than that quibble, it's an interesting but not terribly significant story. Big surprise: Republicans w/ money drive foreign "status" cars. Most Democrats w/ money as well, we're sure. But as we so often find w/ the Rs, there might be just a touch of hypocrisy involved:

The parking lot at Romney’s Commercial Street campaign headquarters could be mistaken for a high-end foreign car dealership as staffers drive Lexus SUVs, Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Audis and Saabs, many adorned with Mitt Romney campaign stickers.

[...]

But Romney has touted American-made cars, including during his presidential kickoff speech at the Ford Museum. At the event, he stood in front of a Ford hybrid SUV and a white Nash Rambler as a soundtrack of all-American music played at the event.

Just Another Blog™ has to wonder if Frederick of Hollywood Thompson will be driving his formerly leased (apparently he bought it after the lease ran out, so as not to look like the show biz phony he is) red pick-up when he finally makes his big announcement next week.

Editor's Note: Try as we might, we couldn't work any Mormon bashing into this, although we can point out that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Henry Ford had printed & distributed, are as bogus as The Book of Mormon, and anythng else ever to escape the lips of Joseph Smith. Happy now?

Bo Diddley Is a Gun Slinger

Bo Diddley's been mentioned before in these pages. He rocks it hard & he's got a sense of humor. But he's not as young as he used to be, as a matter of fact he's illin', again.

Loud, Fast & Stoopid

Some of us are cursed w/ both literacy & a liking for loud, fast, simple, lyrically obnoxious music, two predilections that can be hard to reconcile. From 35 yrs. ago (35 years!!! Where's it all gone? What the hell?) Metal Mike Saunders (recent photo here) reviews the rock press of the day. And says: "literacy is irrelevant." The article is no big thing, but Just Another Blog's™ editor used to hang w/ the Angry Samoans, of which (whom?) Metal Mike is still the lead vocalist.

It comes to us from Crawdaddy, a now on-line mag that used to be paper & ink, whose archives (& other archives: Metal Mike's list is from something called The Rag) have been made available through Wolfgang's Vault. If you wallow in the good old days, or aren't old enough to have been there, but for some reason wish you had, you can hear live performances (Hey, maybe you were there!!) from about 1965 on, most of them probably recorded straight from the house sound board, in their Concert Vault.

Bird

Charles Parker, Jr., b. 29 August 1920, d. 12 March 1955. An absolute genius, who woodshedded like hell to become one of the greatest sax players ever (Greatest alto player ever? Could be.) & still died long before his time. Max Roach, w/ whom Bird often jammed & recorded, just passed a couple of weeks ago.
A Virgo. (So what.) Named Charles. Went by a diminutive of Charles, Charlie. Only child. And that's about where the similarities w/ Just Another Blog's™ editor end. (The Editor goes by another diminutive of Charles, & it ain't "Chuck!" And he did learn most of "Louie Louie" on the soprano in college. Now there was some honkin'!!)
Music available here.

Hideous UPDATE: Today is also Michael Jackson's B-Day (1958). The less said the better.

Bow Tie Justice (W/ Updated Link)

Very appropriate image from BilgeBucket Gazette. Took a peep @ AlterNet, for the "Holy Joe" Lieberman to be appointed AG rumor. (Urrk!!) Saw this as well, about the Swanson TV Dinner™ heir, Tucker Carlson. Let's go to the original post, from Pam's House Blend:

The MSNBC host has serious masculinity issues. He said that Obama "seems like kind of a wuss" and "It makes you wonder what he won't compromise of himself. Are we going to have mani/pedi parties next?" because the presidential candidate belongs to a book club.

[...]

As I've noted before, Tucker has to deal with Freepers continually questioning his masculinity and sexual orientation; I guess it leaves him so wound up about his manhood that he can't simply tell the bathroom perv he's not interested or report the guy to the cops. Think about it -- he came back with a friend to bash the guy. Nice.

Just Another Blog™ does have to question the above paragraph a bit. If the "hit him against the stall with his head," event was perpetrated in high school, we don't think it was because Tucker was "so wound up about his manhood" by the Freepers questioning his masculinity, as Pam suggests. The Freepers weren't bugging him in high school. But it's pretty obvious that a bow tie wearing twerp's masculinity would be under question in the behavioral sink of high school, especially if Tuck was sporting bow ties then.

Media Matters has the full transcript & video, as well as a disingenuous response from Bow Tie Daddy himself. And see Just Another Blog's™ previous take on Tucker.

Photos above & to the right: No one could possibly question this person's macho, could they? And below: How you would live if "mater" were the Swanson heiress. Photo: Daniel Norton.UPDATED LINKS: Yes, we've picked on her (economics is so dismal) but Megatron provides this link to Wonkette's coverage. And Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog™ has a swell image of Tuck & Craig, & plenty on the infamous Mpls.-St.Paul Airport restroom/tearoom. "Two lumps, please."

Levee Failure + 2

The grim ugliness above was not the result of Hurricane Katrina, but of levees in New Orleans failing, the direct responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers & President George W(orst) Bush.

Moozlims On Mars? Jihad On Jupiter? Sharia On Saturn? Debbie On Drugs?

While slogging through the muck of Internment (she's in favor of it) author M. Malkin's site, we spotted a link to the Cut-rate Coulter, Debbie Schlussel, whose panty-hose are in a bunch about the current Iraqi Ambassador to Japan, who, she alleges, "infiltrated" NASA. Well, that's her headline. The only reference in the actual item, however, is:

Al-Jumaily worked at the highest levels of NASA as a jet propulsion engineer on the Mars Rover Team and in that capacity had high-level security clearances and access to classified information.

Just Another Blog™ isn't sure that working as a "jet propulsion engineer" is the "highest levels of Nasa." And now that we've clicked on her link, we see that Dr. Al-Jumaily was a member of the Control & Navigation Team for the Sojourner Rover MFEX: Microrover Flight Experiment. Can't get any higher up than that. And we're not too sure what sort of high-level clearances & access to classified info he may have had. No question there may be some hi-tech stuff going on w/ the Mars Rovers that we might not want in the hands of, say, China or Russia, but it isn't as if he was building nuclear weapons @ Pantex. And the Mars Rovers have worked very well so far, better than expected, if we're not mistaken (& unlike Debbie, we seldom are) so Dr. Al-Jumaily didn't manage to sabotage anything.

Ms. Schlussel goes on to state:

And the presence of Jumaily on the Brotherhood's American board confirms what has long been known: that the Brotherhood is part of Al-Qaeda and should be put on the State Department terrorist list.

Not according to the Anti-Defamation League or the Council on Foreign Relations, however. And you'd think Little Debbie would trust the A-DL, if not those Rockefeller one-worlders @ CFR.

Also: Dr. Al-Jumaily knows people in the gummint!

And Al-Jumaily had access to government officials at the highest levels. Top FBI, ICE and Justice Department officials repeatedly broke pita with him. That includes current U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy III (a Bush Federal Court of Appeals nominee), past Bush U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge for Michigan/Ohio, Brian Moskowitz, and several FBI Special Agents in Charge.

Gee, you don't think they're, oh, getting information from him or anything like that? But in Debbie's world, talking to "The Enemy," instead of imprisoning & interrogating him, is, of course, a sign of weakness.

The rest of the story is taken up w/ various half-baked assertions that so & so knows what's-'is-name, and they're involved w/ various Muslim charities or HAMAS, or they know some guy who was accused, or suspected of, doing this or that. The final paragraph:

But now we know, he was far more than that--a high-ranking member of the Muslim Brotherhood. And he helped carry out its "grand jihad [against] Western civilization."

If he "helped carry out" the grand jihad, does that mean it's over & we've lost already?

Best indication of what really goes on in Debbie's world? The disclaimer @ the top of the item:

**** EXCLUSIVE - MUST CITE Debbie Schlussel and link to DebbieSchlussel.com (That Means You, Sean Hannity, WorldNutDaily, and Steven Emerson) ****

She doesn't think she gets enough bookings on Hannity & Colmes, etc., even though they all use her well-investigated items. A second or third tier fear-blogger, trying her best to get her face all over the place before no one wants to look at it any more. And that day is coming soon.

And do read the comments, if you dare to go there. Foamy site, foamier commentariat.

"Gem Of The Mountains"

Left overs, miscellany, & oddities from the Larry Craig caper:

You just have to love local telebision, especially small town local telebision. Sac'to's Channel 13 shows us how to cruise a tearoom. Dig the sandals.

The Idaho Values Alliance has a nicely ironic page pointing out how Sens. Crapo (no jokes, please) & Craig "cast pro-life votes" against a stem cell bill, followed immediately by "Bonus Bytes" about airport restroom activities in Atlanta. Best line:

It is a little-acknowledged secret that many active homosexuals will have more than 1,000 sex partners over the course of a lifetime (the average among heterosexuals is seven – still six more than we were designed for).

If you have more than one is your warranty invalid?
And, their "regretful" call for Sen. Craig's resignation.

After that you'll want to look at "Idaho Blows." Just Another Blog™ has always thought of Idaho as that narrow place between Washington State & Montana, but the author of "Give Idaho Back to Britain" takes a closer look, & doesn't like what he finds.

And Michelle Malkin calls Senator Craig a "supremely arrogant, lying crapweasel." Projection, we assume. And what is a "crapweasel?" A high school word? Considering Lady Eminem's repressed cheerleader desires, it just could be: "Now that I'm in 10th grade, doody-head just doesn't sound very mature any more."

Stall Kickin' Mule Denies All

Mug shot: Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police.
Couldn't even open our e-mail w/o encountering Sen. Craig's denial. In both the legal & psychological senses of the word. From the Associated Press:

Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday said the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a complaint of lewd conduct in a men’s room. He declared, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”

[...]

Craig also lashed out at the Idaho Statesman newspaper, which reported Monday that, according to an anonymous source, Craig had a homosexual encounter in a Washington train station. Craig accused the paper of waging a witch hunt against him.

Here, again, is the Statesman story. (Gotta love it when a member of the Party of Religion & McCarthy calls "witchhunt." "Jiminy God," as the Senator likes to say.)

Like Jelly On A Plate

Is this new fangled interweb thing just bringing more of them to our attention, or...is something up?

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia's Kuril Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey said Monday

And w/ the country burning up, the last thing needed in Greece was this:

ATHENS, Greece - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck the western Greek island of Kefalonia on Monday, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Think Zeus & his friends are angry about something, and coming back w/ a vengeance?

Megatron In A Barrel

From the "dramatic slide into the abyss" of The Atlantic, we bring you Megan "Jane Galt" McArdle, & her Asymmetrical Information web log. (We think "Asymmetrical Information" may have something to do w/ "asymmetrical war," though as practiced by Ms. McArdle it seems to mean saying something she finds quite daring & contrarian, backing it up w/ "it seems to me" & "I assume," then copping out w/ an "Oh, but you didn't understand my hidden meaning" @ the end.) Or just this sort of thing:

It wasn't long after I stopped writing short stories that it occurred to me that dying old, desperate and alone probably wasn't nearly as inspiring for the people it happened to as it was for twenty-year olds looking for an excuse to smoke too much.

Huh? At least she stopped writing short stories. We can't imagine why.

Another Mule (With A "Wide Stance") Kickin' In My Stall

L to R: Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo), Sen. Larry Craig (R-Id), Unidentified, Skeletor. White House Photo: Kimberlee Hewitt. (Any relation to Huge Hewitt?) Photo for illustrative purposes only. Just Another Blog™ makes no implications about the sexual orientation of those pictured. (But we do have our suspicions.) Open season on Republican office-holders & activists commences now, & one doesn't even need a license, thanks to the First Amendment to the Constitution.
First of all, there's plenty of action in the Orlando, Fla. area. Literal "open season" in this story:

Police: Former Marine Killed 2 Others, Self
Motive For Shootings Unknown, Officials Say
The Orange County Sheriff's Office did not reveal a potential motive for Jason Robert Drake, 30. Deputies determined that he killed Ralph Gonzalez, a well-known 39-year-old GOP political consultant, and David Abrami, a 36-year-old attorney also active for the Republican Party.

The earlier headline for the story:

Lovers' Quarrel May Have Sparked Murder-Suicide
Prominent Republican Party Consultant, 2 Others Found Dead

More from Orlando:

Rep. Allen's Solicitation Trial Date Set
Official Accused Of Offering $20 To Perform Oral Sex
Statements police said Allen made about being scared of a "stocky, black man," will not be entered into evidence. Also, taped statements Allen made to Assistant Chief John Lau will also be excluded, as previously agreed to by both sides.

Plenty of swell video on all stories from LOCAL6.com @ the links as well.

But a couple of local Republican consultant/activists who were shacking up & a Florida state representative offering a "stocky, black" police officer $20.00 to put a lip-lock on the officer's love muscle is nothing compared to Monday's big fish (to continue the "open season" theme) U. S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho). Yes, that's a U. S. Senator, a member of "the most exclusive (formerly men only) club in the world." Michael Rogers, @ blogActive, more or less outed Senator Craig last year, but there's nothing like an arrest & guilty plea to get serious attention:

Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.
“It should be noted that there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper,” the arresting officer said in the report.

Local take from the CBS affiliate in Boise:

For conservative group the Idaho Values Alliance the news was unexpected. "There are some disturbing elements to the police report and I think the Senator needs to give the public a thorough explanation," Bryan Fischer from Idaho Values Alliance told CBS 2 Eyewitness News.

And some 25 yr. old video of Craig denying stuff before even being implicated.

Bonus items: Sen. Craig was a Romney supporter. But no longer.

And a story in the Idaho Statesman. Plenty of accusations & rumors recounted.

Read It & Weep

Punk Ass Chump Rich Lowry
Internet comment buddy D. Sidhe has posted a beautiful (in its horror) description of the agonies of being a member of the working poor, in response to an exceptional HTML Mencken destruction of National Review editor Rich Lowry @ Sadly, No!, which quoted Lowry's recitation of the usual "poverty is your fault, you lazy (insert derogatory term for any non-white group here)" theme so popular w/ those who suck at the teats of the wealthy & powerful.

Poverty in America is primarily a cultural phenomenon, driven by a shattered work ethic and sexual irresponsibility. Child poverty would be nearly obliterated if every household had one adult working full time and married parents.

Sure, Rich. That's all it takes. Marriage & a minimum-wage job. Thanks for the advice. Don't ever let us catch you where Just Another Blog™ can take a swing at you. The Editor will do the job Al Franken wanted to do on you, but you were too cowardly to face, you faux macho punk. Pardon us while we expel some bile. Where's that bucket?

Trouble At The CupOn The Web

Just visited Franklin Avenue (Hey, if you guys moved to Burbank, change your name!) & noticed that their YouTube™ embeds aren't showing. Neither are Just Another Blog™'s. Nor is the "Sucky Gôögle News Feed." Is the mighty Google™ empire collapsing?

Totally

Damn, the info just keeps oozing in here @ Just Another Blog™. From NASA:

Bombs Away!! Follow Up

USAF B1-B SovietRussian Tu-160 Blackjack
The Russkies say they aren't flying their new bomber patrols w/ nukes.

The resumption of the long-range patrols, recent tests of a new generation of intercontinental missiles and the resumption of large-scale exercises have taken place against the backdrop of new strains in ties between Russia and the West.

[...]

Russia has 79 strategic bombers in service including 64 Tupolev-95MC, known as Bears by NATO pilots, and 15 Tupolev-160, known as Blackjacks by NATO, according to Russian media.
"There is deep modernization (of the bomber fleet) going on," Androsov said. "We are working on a new generation (of bombers), I don't even know what it will be called."

Oh well. Guess the Doomsday Clock can go back a few seconds.

Gonzales Gone?

"Fredo" & a portion of wife Rebecca, 9 August 2007. AP photo by Ron Edmonds.
Just heard on the tee vee that AG Alberto Gonzales has resigned, according to the New York Times. So go to the NYT website & find out. Perhaps Skeletor™ will be the replacement. Nothing further on the "Sucky Gôögle News Feed" on the sidebar, as of 0530. That's why we call it "sucky."

All right, enough updating, this isn't Little Green Shitballs™, use the News Feed, under "Attorney General" &/or "Gonzales."

From The Sitemeter

A Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ Senior Executive Vice-President finds out just what the hell is going on in that Devil Box:
Just Another Blog™ barely cares, but while checking Sitemeter™ we were led to Technorati™, where we are currently ranked 1,372,336, putting us in the top 14%, based on an estimate (very rough, obviously) of some 100,000,000 "web logs" in existence. And we found that Techorati™'s "Authority" ranking (currently four) is how many other "web logs" link to us. Four may not be much, but we know for a fact that more sites than the ones displayed @ Technorati™ link to us. The ego swells.
And a great big all American "Howdy!" to the Woosh Wireless user in Auckland, N. Z., who comes by & actually spends a few minutes reading this crap. Good for you, & don't be shy, leave a comment sometime, we don't bite!

Patriotism Is The First Refuge Of A Scoundrel

Maybe, maybe not, but when you sunshine patriots leave them out in the sun they sure as hell fade.
And when it fades or is otherwise too damaged for repair, the flag is to be burned in a dignified ceremony. The flag is only to be displayed from local sunrise until local sunset, unless it is illuminated.

While You Were Out

Mature adults: Click on image to read.
From Carry a Big Sticker.

"Wimoweh, Wimoweh"

We're grabbing onto something else from Obsidian Wings' hilzoy, guesting chez Sully. She posts something from NYT op-edder Roger Cohen. Here's the part Just Another Blog™ likes best:

Alluding to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his successor, Condoleezza Rice, who was then national security adviser, Khalilzad continued: “Powell and Condi were incredulous. Powell called me and asked: ‘What happened?’
And I said, ‘You’re secretary of state and you’re asking me what happened!’ ”
Powell confirmed his astonishment. “The plan was for Zal to go back,” he said. “He was the one guy who knew this place better than anyone. I thought this was part of the deal with Bremer. But with no discussion, no debate, things changed. I was stunned.”

The next time some neo-fascist dipstick says something to the effect of: "Oh no, there's no racism in the Bush administration, look at Condie Rice & Colin Powell," remember that they have been/were so completely marginalized by the warmongers that they're barely tokens. And you don't think their somewhat darker skin tones would make it easier for the good ol' boys to ignore them, do you? Go ahead, call us cynical. We are, & we have every reason to be so.
One can't expect much of Dr. Rice, erstwhile member of the Chevron board of directors (fill in your own blanks about her relationship w/ Mr. Bush) but one can hope General Powell will write a book about how he was essentially fucked royally at every turn by Cheney & the neo-cons. He really should be doing that right now, if he's got any guts. Oops. Forgot about his role covering up the My Lai massacre back there in 'Nam. Never mind.
Powell in Viet Nam, 1963.

21st Century Willie & Joe

Not that there is any relation between the War in ah Babylon & WWII, but Bill Mauldin's "Up Front" single panel, which featured two inrantrymen named Willie & Joe, summed up the G.I.'s point of view in WWII: "Don't look at me, lady. I didn't do it."

Mr. Peabody (check the comments) brings to our attention a 21st century grunt (Do they still call themselves that?) writing from Mesopotamia/Babylon (at least until the Pentagon weasel-dick monitoring this "web log" finds out & shuts him down) "Army of Dude." None of that WWII pencil & paper crap, censored & known only to the family & friends of the writer. (Until Ken Burns gets ahold of it & has a voice over artist read it over pans across some still photos.) "Dude" has a laptop, & must have access to a satellite link, or Wi-Fi, or a landline to a server somewhere. And he has a digital camera, photos available hither, under the name "˜leavethegun."

Never did read the Scott Beauchamp stuff in TNR (possibly hidden behind the subscription wall) but we wonder what the warlovers & chickenhawks will make of Dude. It's all required reading, but these seemed like the best excerpts:

Do you know what the light at the end of the tunnel is for us?

Food.

Yeah, food. When we're on patrols and house clearing missions, what's keeping us going is not the promise of freedom and democracy in Iraq. It's the vision of hamburgers, fries and ice cream. I can live without a market based economy in the Middle East, but I can't live without a toasted ham sandwich.
Several times we have raced back to the base to get to the dining hall as it closed. Something to eat is the high point of the day. Imagine the low points.

[...]

As Kurt Vonnegut suggested, our morale is shot to pieces. The few tattered remains left were eviscerated when they extended us four months. The most devious trick the media and the government has pulled in the last ten years is suggesting to the public that the soldiers believe in the mission and the war itself. In my unit that is definitely not the case. We just fight for food and friends, and the hope of getting home. I know a few people who still believe in the cause. I would know one more, but he died when I was on leave.

[...]

Readers, fear not! Despite the caustic undertone of this entry, I am glimmering with hope. The dining hall opens in ten minutes for breakfast, and they make some killer omelettes. [graphic from the hideous MoveAmericaForward.org.]

The military is obsessed with taking something and renaming it with a totally different term. A jumping jack is a side straddle hop, and any Islamic terrorist not affiliated with Al Qaeda is a concerned local. When a mission is complete, there is a rollup of killed enemies and found weapons. A rollup is another term for a summary. So I present my own summary (er, rollup) for the time my company has spent between June 2006 and June 2007:

525,600 Minutes Passed

Countless Enemies Killed and Captured

3 Destroyed Strykers

Dozens of Rifles, RPGS and Mines Found and Destroyed

2 Fatherless Baby Girls

Thousands of Rounds of Ammunition Found and Destroyed

9 Figure Severance Paycheck to Dick Cheney, Courtesy of Halliburton

3 Cleared Cities

2 Dead Friends

100,000 Contractors Making Five Times My Pay for Doing Laundry and Serving Food

Thousands of Cleared Houses

1 Quagmire

A year later and this is what we have to show for it. A year later and we care about the survival of each other more than a fledgling democracy in the Middle East. To officers and officials influencing policy, our goal is to stimulate the economy and prop up competent Iraqi Security Forces. To the unwashed enlisted in the muck, we’re just trying not to get blown to fucking bits. A year later and we have realized finally: we’re biding time until the next unit comes to replace us. That’s it. Rotate in, rotate out. A year’s worth of sore backs, twisted ankles, near death experiences, shootouts, blown up buildings, fires, mangled corpses, dead kids, dead soldiers, cold desert nights, hot desert days, shit covered boots, trash filled streets, unfulfilled dreams, stagnant aspirations and murdered futures.
A year well spent.

AH

"They call the boys who shovel our shit in Viet Nam shitshovelers."
End the occupation. Now. The military will never be able to impose a "political" solution to the charnel house we've created, and now that the talk is of replacing the elected Prime Minister w/ yet another buffoon, Allawi (who, by all that is unholy, has hired Washington lobbyists to pimp for his appointment as P. M.) the Viet Nam analogy is complete.

Early Sunday Morning Chronic Brain Syndrome w/ The Angry Samoans

Possibly the first visual recording of the Angry Samoans, from New Wave Theater, 1978 or '79. The late Peter Ivers, host of the show, & later a victim of murder, is the interviewer. Gone are the days. At least "punk" (even such as it is today) has long outlasted "new wave."

Bombs Away!!!

RAAF F-111s @ Red Flag. Photo: M/Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald, USAF.
Pong Su in Sydney Harbour. Photo: ABC TV. While wandering the wasteland of LiveLeak™ (Your source for stuff blowing up!!) The Editor came across this footage of a North Korean "drug ship" being sunk by an Australian F-111. Would that Bugger™ or LiveLeak™ could get their respective shit together so embeds would work here. Further info on the event, from F-111.net (WARNING: loud jet noise when site opens) reveals that the ship was set adrift & used for target practice, explaining why this wasn't a big news deal. (More video from Australian Broadcasting Company @ F-111.net. Requires WimpyWindows Media Player.)

Motor City MadmanHas-Been Comes Through W/ Mature Political Discourse

Randy Andy is gettin' hitched, so Just Another Blog™ figured it would be safe to look at The Daily Dish™, as there would be guests typing & probably a significant reduction in righteous moralizing (no one more zealous than a convert, as they say). We were (as we so often are) correct. Paydirt w/ the very first item, guested by hilzoy of Obsidian Wings (who gets the link). It's the confluence of art (well, crummy "rock" music) & politics. The Nuge™ (only good tune: "Stranglehold," & it's been so long since The Editor's actually heard it that the memory may be incorrect) is advocating murder again, & not his usual "death to defenseless animals" schtick:

But perhaps telling four sitting Senators, two of whom are running for President, to suck on his machine guns will transcend even their limits.

"Their limits" refers to the Wall Street Journal's opinion page, which has given The Nuge™ free rein at least twice. Do click the links; as one might imagine, the screeds are short & don't involve many polysyllabic words. Laughs & outrage guaranteed, however. And hilzoy (looking mostly to bother the WSJ's op-eds) doesn't mention that of the four Senators Mr. Crotch Rot Fever mentions, three are women, & one is of a more recent African heritage than most Americans. Interesting. (The Nuge™ also refers to an "Arnold" @ the very beginning. Just Another Blog™ would love to see Ted try to make Schwarzenegger "suck on his machine gun.")

Technical whatnot: Recorded @ The House of Blues™, Anaheim, CA, 21 August 2007. The whole clip (w/o the YouTube™ logo, just the LiveLeak™ logo) is available @ LiveLeak™, which seems to have the same problem YouTube™ used to have, that is, their fucking embeds don't embed. Of course, that could be a Blogger™ bugger.

Annals Of Pants-Pissing

Scary Mooozlims practice synchronized swimming before crossing the oceans to attack us!! Quiver in fear, mortals!!
One can't be sure (it is The Corner on National Review Online, after all) but we'll guess this guy is not joking:

But after the inevitable failure of Islamic movements to provide an adequate response to the challenge of modernity, what will Muslims embrace? The only thing left, at that point, will be the ever elusive “moderate Islam,” a new, modernity-compatible faith that retains the name of Islam but jettisons all the substance (kind of like mainline Protestantism).
But Muslims have to come to that conclusion on their own, by living under regimes that will exemplify that failure (like Iran).

E-mail Mr. Krikorian for some stock tips. He seems to be quite the prophet. And he keeps going & going. Yes, it's not just ideologies, it's The Clash of Civilizations™.

Here’s the way it will play out: When Iran’s Islamic regime finally unravels, some significant number of nominal Muslims will quickly become apostates, embracing Bahai or Zoroastrianism or Christianity (or Buddhism or even Judaism). As this becomes a more widespread and public thing, some of the many remaining fundamentalists will start beheading newly Christian school children and raping newly Zoroastrian women and blowing up newly constructed Bahai temples, intensifying the existing popular disgust with the Islamic faith and thus accelerating conversions to other
faiths.

[...]

Thus there will still be hundreds of millions of Muslims, now living side by side with large new non-Muslim communities, but their Islam will be qualitatively different from anything that has gone by that name in the past. It will take a lifetime to work its way through the Islamic world, and we must do our best to ensure that relatively few of our own people are killed in the inevitable tsunami of violence that is coming, but there really isn’t any alternative.

Okey-dokey. Attempts to impose "democracy" have worked out so well, we'll be able to spread Zoroastrianism like whipped butter on a short stack. And we'll be able to do this by "separationism."

“Separationism” is the isolation of Islam from the rest of the world through military action, restrictions on immigration, and other means, presumably including a radically more aggressive search for alternative automobile fuels.

Pretty much the same thing that was being done to Iraq before the opposite was decided upon. These ninnies don't even have straws at which to grasp any more. And this sort of inanity is being spread by the magazine that fired Ann Coulter for her famous "invade their countries, kill their leaders & convert them to Christianity" statement. Now it looks like "blockade their countries, assassinate their leaders, & hope enough of them convert to something else that Islam will mellow out." Don't hold your breath.

P. S.: OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh was a Roman Catholic. Do you think we needed to "shock & awe" the Vatican? Put all those dirty fucking Bishops under surveillance? Hell, when pedophile priests were running wild (& they may still be, since the R. C. Church is so interested in keeping everything it can under wraps) there wasn't this hysteria. This is the stern, manly Daddy Party? Pants-pissing Pussy Party is more like it.

We Again Channel Larry King's Newspaper Column

On a personal note, I'm happy to announce that I've been forced to put pants & a T-shirt on over my usual attire of a pair of underpants...What passes for fall has arrived here, coincident w/ the Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom...Indeed, as this is typed @ 2342, the temperature has dropped below 70ºF for the first time in an eternity...Of course, September is the hottest month, so anything can still happen...(Ghack. Not even The Editor really gives a damn...At least he didn't use before & after pics of his sorry ass in his skivvies & w/ pants & shirt on.)...Here's a pointless fact: Europe is the only continent that does not have a desert...What about that Nicole Richie?...Only had to do 82 minutes...Is the American legal system now handing out sentences in minutes?...Could someone bring me some coffee?...Do you feel safer now than you did 20 minutes ago?...Think I'll let my belt out a little...Good thing I'm wearing suspenders...Blogger™ is now offering users the chance to post videos directly...Whatever...There's a really goofy dame on The Tonight Show W/ Jay Leno...No idea what her name is...And don't fucking care either...Stupid ditz...Heh...How much longer before people are living on the moon, huh?... They've been promising that for 50 years...But nothing yet...How safe do you feel now?...It always pays to be polite...My shoulder hurts...Someone bring me a Demerol™, would you?...Only one in four Americans read a book last year...Well, one in four of those asked...We read a couple this year...On-line...Speaking of which, I wish I had a laptop, with a wireless card, so I could read in the room with the chair made of stone...Hey, where's that goddam coffee?...I musta asked five minutes ago...What's wrong with you people, anyway?...Oh yeah, where's my flying car so I can fly to my condo on the moon?...I can't wait forever...They haven't made any good music since 1984...And most of that was crap too...Club soda is good for removing stains from something, but I can't remember what...Or what kind of stains...Thank goodness for dry cleaning...Did Starbucks© just stop making those delicious caramel Frappucinos™?...Without asking me?...Saw John (Johnny Rotten) Lydon on that clever show for the young people, Redeye, last night...It's on the Fox News Channel, so you know it's "hep"...And the host is a clever young man, for a homosexual...Although I wish he didn't share so much of his sex life with us...What's his name?...Greg something...Greg Gutfeld, that's right...A Jewish homosexual...How did he ever make it in show business?...And why doesn't John Lydon have that missing tooth replaced?...And stop dressing like a parking valet?...Hollywood has lost all its glamour...Look at that Brittany Beavers girl...Well, don't look, you might see something you didn't want to see...And that Lindsay Lolife...What's with her, anyway?...I just don't think it's funny at all...Now my neck hurts...I asked for a Demerol™ 15 minutes ago...Now it's 67ºF in here...Don't you agree, the commercials are the best thing on the television?...Ouch...I'll settle for a couple of Codeines™...Uhhmm, crotchless pantaloons...Is there anyone who doesn't like a slice of apple pie with a nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream?...I didn't think so...Is it nap time yet?...They say that dogs are man's best friend...Do you feel safer now than you did three years ago?...Na na na na hey hey...Handsome is as handsome does...Herb Caen my ass...Hey, are those Mormons wacky, or what?...If a dog is your best friend, what about cats?... And hamsters, what about them? One good turn deserves another...It must be nap time by now...Well, how 'bout a little drinkie-poo, then?...Just a little one...We give up.

More Music For Morons

1. Sweatin' Like a Pig -- Southland Scumbagz
2. What's That Smell? -- Hot Tuna
3. Earth Angel -- The Abductees
4. Blow Me, Blow My Goat -- Bottlecaps & Bongos
5. Étude for Uke & Banjo -- Skillet & LeRoy
6. Get Offa My Couch -- Leonard Maltin
7. Mr. Roboto -- Styx (Tagg Romney remix, f/ Donny & Marie)
8. Born To Be Wild -- Mike & The Hucktones
9. There's No A/C in Hell, Sinners! -- Bible Thumpin' Bob
10. Under The Wheel -- Retrovirus
11. Bonus Comedy Item: Dolomite -- Rudy Ray Moore

Favicon Update

Now all of a sudden it's working again. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Dog Pile On Bloody Bill!!

Kristolcard from BESTandWORST.com.
Jonathan Chait calls Bill Kristol a thug @ TNR. (We can just see Billy w/ some bling, his pants hanging low, no laces in his Air Jordans & maybe a big Olde English tat on his gut reading something like: "Killa 4 Life," or, "History Will Prove Me Right.") Course he's one of those "thugs" who's always saying, "Let's you & him fight."

"The fact remains that it is today more possible than ever before to envision a future in which the Middle East and the Muslim world truly are transformed," he insisted. "For this, no one will deserve more credit than George W. Bush." Of course, this was an opinion, not a "fact." But the failure to distinguish between fact and opinion is typical of his mentality.

Then Andy jumps on the pile.

The vileness and chutzpah of the current neocon right on the war are still somewhat staggering to me. I thought better of them. I really did. But this Weimar crapola is really depressing. I guess they have nowhere else to go.

Well, what you can say about Sully? He's pulled his head out of his behind, yes, but there's still a lot of stuff to wipe off his eyes before he'll be able to fully perceive reality. Same w/ Chait, really, he has a couple of lines about "liberal hegemon," & the like (which Sullivan excerpts in his item). How could any one w/ a lick of common sense not have known what the Project For a New American Century & so on were all about? Didn't the word "American" give it all away?

Also from Sullivan, more on Weimar "crapola." And one of his readers gets on the pile as well.

And further yip-yap from TNR, w/ links all over the place.

Plus: One more from Chait. This is getting ridiculous, but we're always happy to abuse Kristol.

Virgo Activity & Info

Let us first make it absolutely clear that Just Another Blog™ has no truck w/ "astrology." It's bullshit. We post this link to "Fun Facts About Virgo" only because it is all positive (none of that "Oh, you Virgos are all a bunch of uptight, anal-retentive assholes" crap) and because today marks the birthday of two Virgos directly involved w/ this "web log," Peabody, King of the Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ Commentariat (&, oddly enough, one of The Editor's few remaining friends) & Blogger™ itself. Imagine that. And because The Editor here is also a Virgo. (Almost 54 & never been touched.) From "Fun Facts About Virgo:"

Tactile, methodical and willing to take as long as is needed, they make excellent lovers. Even though the Virgo won't express many words of love, they will show their affections in the bedroom. Virgos prefer to have a few strong connections rather than many partners.

Well ladies, there you have it. Line forms over there, take a number, please.

Loving Wife Spanking In A Christian Marriage

From the commentariat @ Tbogg, Susan of Texas linked to the Christian Domestic Discipline website. Don't get the wrong idea though:

CDD is so much more than just spanking. It is the husband loving the wife enough to guide and teach her, and the wife loving the husband enough to follow his leadership. A Christian marriage embodies true romance and a Christian man a true hero.

The discipline is unilateral, of course. It's those potentially uppity women who need guidance & teaching. And if homeschooling taught them to bake, but neglected reading, well, it's up to hubby to explain & enforce God's Law. And don't you forget it, bee-yotch!!

Of course there are Traditional Marriage Products. If you're a big fat varicose-veined pile of barely human Christianity, hubby may not want to see those shapeless legs, so get some crotchless pantaloons!!

Thanks, Susan of Texas. Thanks for making us sick, that is.

Annals Of Sportsmanship

Another anniversary. On 22 August 1965, a beat-down was administered by Giants pitcher Juan Marichal on Dodgers catcher John Roseboro. Brawling is not uncommon in baseball, but it's usually a few wild swings that don't connect, followed by the original participants being restrained as they make a lot of noise. Pro wrasslin', in other words. Not this time though.

dodger blues tells the story:

Dodger catcher John Roseboro was a clutch hitter and classy fielder, but he's remembered most for an incident in 1965, considered by many to be one of baseball's uglier moments. Juan Marichal, the San Francisco Giants pitcher, came up to bat in the third inning of a game at Candlestick Park. Marichal had hit a Dodger player earlier and a peeved Roseboro had been firing Sandy Koufax's pitches back to him just inches from Marichal's ear as he took his turn at bat.

Marichal turned around to tell Roseboro to stop and Roseboro stood up and took off his mask. Marichal saw this as a threat and immediately hit the catcher over the head with the bat twice, opening a 2-inch gash in Roseboro's head. With blood gushing down Roseboro's face, the two teams—already heated rivals battling for the NL pennant—brawled for 14 minutes. Marichal was suspended for eight games, and Roseboro later sued him for $110,000 in damages. Yet, the two men somehow became friends in the 1980s.

And from BASEBALLLIBRARY.com:

On August 22, 1965, Marichal faced Sandy Koufax at Candlestick Park in the heat of a tight pennant race. The Giants and Dodgers had come close to a brawl two days earlier over catcher's interference calls. Los Angeles's Maury Wills had allegedly tipped Tom Haller's mitt with his bat on purpose, and Marichal's best friend, Matty Alou, retaliated by tipping John Roseboro's face mask. Roseboro nearly beaned Alou with his return throw to the mound. In the August 22 game, Marichal had flattened Wills and Ron Fairly with pitches when Roseboro purportedly asked Koufax to hit Marichal. When Koufax refused, Roseboro's return throw came close to Marichal's head. Name-calling ensued, until Roseboro suddenly ripped off his mask and stood up. Marichal rapped the catcher on the head with his bat. What followed was one of the most violent brawls in major league history. Willie Mays led away Roseboro, who had suffered a concussion, while Dodger Bob Miller tackled Marichal, Alou slugged Miller, and Tito Fuentes menaced the Dodgers with his bat. Roseboro sued Marichal, but eventually dropped the suit. Marichal was fined $1750, was suspended for a week, and missed two starts as the Giants finished two games behind the Dodgers. Years later, Marichal said, "I feel sorry that I used the bat."

Photo from Neil Leifer.

The former New York Giants & former Brooklyn Dodgers moved to California in 1958, and have continued their rivalry to this day.

Currently, they are battling for last place in the NL Western division.

These Are Your Rights!!

John Graham Mellor, b. 21 August 1952,
d. 22 December 2002. Hard to believe he's
only 13 mos. older than The Editor of this "web log." Harder to believe he's been dead almost five yrs., & only lived 50. On the right,
in better times. Below, a memorial mural on NYC's Avenue A. At the bottom, a recognition of current SoCal weather, palm trees & backyard diving boards. L. A. always sucks 'em in.

Why We'll Be Glad To Have The Second Amendment (And Wish We Had Some RPGs & Armor, Too)

Dig this almost unbelievable, "is it a joke?" item that's already been removed from its original posting @ Family Security Matters.

By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.

Note how the buffoon who wrote this capitalizes "Democracy," as if it's some sort of Democratic National Committee plot. And what's the solution? No, it's not Ann Coulter's "kill their leaders & convert them to Christianity." It's kill them all & move Americans ("the citizens of Western Civilization") to Iraq:

If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege [sic] while
terrifying American enemies.

(Note: "his army.") Next he goes to on suggest that if the above is done, Bush will have the American military on his side & be able to cancel the 2008 elections & start a Pax Americana, w/ Bush in charge for as long as he wants!!! I kid you not.
It's all over the web. Just Another Blog™ got it from Sadly, No!, who found it @ Hullabaloo.

Sad personal aside: Just Another Blog™ noticed Family Security Matters several months ago, & while it was very easy to read between their lines, the opening page always presents the inner articles in a non-foaming at the keyboard way, so, alas, we didn't even put it in our extremely wacky dominionists & white supremacists bogroll [sic] which is located far down on the sidebar. Ah, if only...

UPDATE: A closer examination of the site that kindly copied the item reveals it to be a parody site, but the item itself, & Family Security Matters, are no fucking joke, as the links @ Sadly, No! & Hullabaloo to various internet cache sites will reveal. And a link to some correspondence w/ Philip Atkinson, the author of the item under discussion.

O. C. Fatwa: God, Please Kill My Left-Leaning Enemies

From Thursday's L.A. Times-PicayuneFishwrapper:

Pastor asks followers to pray for his critics to die His response comes after a call to the IRS about a political endorsement he issued on church letterhead. By Dave McKibben August 16, 2007

Wiley S. Drake, a Buena Park pastor and a former national leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, called on his followers to pray for the deaths of two leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The request was in response to the liberal group's urging the IRS on Tuesday to investigate Drake's church's nonprofit status because Drake endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for president on church letterhead and during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.

Drake said Wednesday he was "simply doing what God told me to do" by targeting Americans United officials Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming, whom he calls the enemies of God."

"God says to pray imprecatory prayer against people who attack God's church," he said. "The Bible says that if anybody attacks God's people, David said this is what will happen to them. . . . Children will become orphans and wives will become widows."

Imprecatory prayers are alternately defined as praying for someone's misfortune, or an appeal to God for justice."

Let his days be few; and let another take his office," the prayer reads. "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

Conn said he was "startled" at Drake's reaction to the complaint against Drake's First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park.

"We expected him to try to defend his actions," Conn said.

"Instead he goes on spiritual blitzkrieg against us, praying for our destruction. He completely glossed over the fact that his actions are clearly a violation of federal tax law."

Drake is a long-time Orange County evangelical preacher who frequently captures the spotlight.

In the 1990s, he protested "Gay Day" at Disneyland and a 2 Live Crew concert as obscene. He also fought Buena Park city officials who tried to stop him from sheltering homeless people on church grounds.

The religion named after the "Prince of Peace" comes through again. You have to love how the pants-wetting, "they're outbreeding us," Islamo-Nazi under every bed & behind every curtain element of Wingnuttia (Element? Isn't that virtually every one of them?) thinks it's hee-lariously ironic to label Muhammadism the "Religion of Peace." Here's a clue, dipsticks: All religions are evil, because they are all lies, used to keep simpletons like yourselves under control w/o wasting money & resources on the project. Godhead is tyranny, a fatwa is a fatwa, and Christianism's lies about peace & love are no different than any crap spouted by Those Who Must Wash Their Feet to Pray. All stupid, all evil, all the damn time. Any questions?

Links to Americans United for ... (second has more juicy quotes from Pastor Drake).10 June 2016: Not to arse yourself, links no longer exist. Nor does the L.A. Times item we quoted but didn't link. Why does anyone bother at all anymore?