'Christmas Hating' Ohio Man Swipes Red Kettle
Shawn Krieger of Toledo grabbed the kettle Saturday evening outside a general store and told the bell ringer "I hate Christmas"
Maumee, OH -- Police in northwest Ohio have arrested a man who they say swiped a Salvation Army red kettle full of donated money and pushed one of the charity's bell ringers to the ground.
Police in Maumee say 44-year-old Shawn Krieger of Toledo grabbed the kettle Saturday evening outside a general store. When the bell ringer tried to take the kettle back, police say Krieger pushed her down and said, "I can't stand you and your bell-ringing. I hate Christmas."
Police say Krieger drove off in a pickup truck with the kettle and tripod it was hanging from.
Krieger was charged Monday with robbery and held on $25,000 bond. The judge will assign a public defender to his case.
The Salvation Army estimates the kettle held $500 to $700.
Following Friedman of The NYTbitching about unappreciative Moooslims, & the Eunomia refutation is this:Why the fuck do they hate us again, you glorified Michael Ledeen?
Following this story, we see that tribalism is not being instilled in our young people, but the State of California's left-wing academic establishment instead allows students to listen to that gawd-awful hop-rock "music" as their once-proud symbol is defaced
by the brave students of the private school that is their cross-town rival, the University of Southern California.
In years past, UCLA had a Bruin Bear* Security Force, a gathering of people charged with protecting the statue before the big game against USC, the report says. Students would camp out near the statue and guard it. But this year, the event was merely "symbolic" and didn't include any security measures other than a tarp over the statue, the report says. According to one student government member, there wasn't enough interest in the traditional security force, so the event focused more on carnivallike events and less on protecting the statue. Because of the change, there were no witnesses to the vandalism.
Below: Said Spoiled Children not shirking their duty to their school & nation.
Note how private enterprise does the job, while the "good enough for gov't. work" UCLA students could barely be bothered to drape a tarp over their mascot. Victory for libertarian principles! All hail Ayn Rand!
We're so busy being anti-fascist & anti-bourgeois that on the rare occasions we remember PBS's NewsHour, w/ its Limey-influenced "Here's some actuality on film, & when it's done we'll be back in studio w/ a brace of eggheads/pols/flacks/pundits/trained lemurs to discuss the subject in an objective & balanced manner" approach to infotainment, we can't help but larf & look down our noses at the entire "Please, do not offend the corporate entities that pay us" operation.
So we can barely imagine being such a down-trodden, resentful schlemiel that we'd think the NewsHour is a "snob" fest. Tim Graham needn't imagine being such a schlemiel. He lives it everyday.
Has longtime PBS anchor Jim Lehrer listened to Rush Limbaugh – ever?
[...]
Lehrer wants his show to be up-to-date, but his take on the New Media is stunning in its ignorance:
Stunning, indeed! Esp. as Graham's idea of "New Media" is talk radio & cable-blather.
Lehrer needs to do his homework and listen to talk radio and TV before he sings this snobbish Done Somebody Wrong song again. Get out of your taxpayer-subsidized cave, anchor man, and see how the other half talks. —Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
PASCO — Sarah Palin is excited to be in the Tri-Cities.
Moments after arriving by private jet Wednesday evening from Orlando, Fla., she told reporters, "It's kind of surreal. But it's really good to be back in the Tri-Cities to reconnect with the roots."
The former Alaska governor's last visit with family here was about a year ago, she said during an impromptu news conference as she held her son Trig and her daughter Piper stood next to her.
"I like the summer here," she said.
Her husband Todd, she added, stayed at home "fixing the roof."
"I need to call him," said Palin, who plans to be in the Tri-Cities through Sunday.
Surprise, surprise, the woman of the people, the common clay, riding in a $4,000.00/hr. Gulfstream II. (Not a V? Oh, Sarah, they're dissin' you!) No, couldn't be. Not the Queen of We The People. Must be a different Sarah Palin. Or a vicious "state-run media" lie.
"Two of them were just flat executed, sitting writing reports. One of them stood up and tried to go for the suspect and got shot. Then the fourth one fought his way out to the parking lot and fired off some rounds." ED TROYER, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, on the killing of four police officers at a coffee shop near Tacoma, Wash.
As is so often suggested, it's obvious that well-armed freedom & gun-loving (White) Patriots would have been able to handle this. Really, what can be expected from police officers? They're lazy, bureaucratic gov't. employees, for heaven's sake!
In the days of dial-up, we had many an AOL acc't. under fake names, using phony bank acc'ts. Worked for yrs. Never had "bouffant@aol.com," though, let alone a subscription to the Black & Decker email newsletter.
Nor have we ever purchased anything from B&D. And we certainly aren't likely to at this stage in our rapidly declining life. Indeed, we probably bought the last tools we'll ever buy (Other than weapons: Two more yrs. & it's probably legal again!) last month, to switch the refrigerator doors. (And we posted how that turned out.)
Nonetheless, it disturbs us that evil robot consciousnesses cruise the web looking for "bouffant," even though we've nothing to hide but our legal name & current address.
Today is Monday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2009. There are 31 days left in the year. UPI Almanac.Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 30, 1939, the Russo-Finnish War, also known as the Winter War, began as Soviet troops invaded Finland. (The conflict ended the following March with a Soviet victory.) On this date: In 1731, a series of earthquakes struck China. More than 100,000 people died. In 1782, the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. In 1803, Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States. In 1804, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial, accused of political bias. He was acquitted by the Senate. In 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — was born in Florida, Mo. In 1874, British statesman Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.
In 1900, Irish writer Oscar Wilde died in Paris at age 46. In 1936, London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire. Sixty years ago, in 1949, Chinese communist troops captured Chongqing. In 1962, U Thant of Burma, who had been acting secretary-general of the United Nations following the death of Dag Hammarskjold the year before, was elected to a four-year term. In 1966, the former British colony of Barbados became independent. In 1975, Israel pulled its forces out of a 93-mile-long corridor along the Gulf of Suez as part of an interim peace agreement with Egypt. In 1981, the United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe. In 1988, the Soviet Union stopped jamming broadcasts of Radio Free Europe for the first time in 30 years. In 1989, rebels launched a fifth major coup attempt against Philippine President Corazon Aquino. Also in 1989, Czechoslovakia announced an end to travel restrictions and said it planned to dismantle some of the fortifications along the Austrian border. In 1990, the three Baltic republics -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- had an historic joint parliamentary session to consider a common course. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.
Authorities in California arrested Richard Allen Davis, who confessed to abducting and killing 12 year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma. In 1995, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland. In 1997, the government of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic resigned after Klaus's Civic Democratic Party was accused of accepting contributions from foreign sources. In 1999, the opening of a 135-nation trade gathering in Seattle was disrupted by at least 40,000 demonstrators, some of whom clashed with police.
In 2001, Robert Tools, the first person to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart, died in Louisville, Ky., after living with the device for 151 days. In 2004, flash floods and landslides killed more than 300 people in the storm-swept Philippines. Also in 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross charged that the U.S. military intentionally abused prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced his resignation. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced he was stepping down after a nearly nine-year tenure. President George W. Bush tried to repair strained U.S.-Canada relations during a visit to Ottawa. In 2007, an AtlasJet Airlines plane traveling from the Turkish capital of Istanbul, to Isparta, Turkey, crashed near the Isparta airport, killing all 56 people on board. Also in 2007, police arrested a man who claimed to have a bomb and took several people hostage at the presidential campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, N.H. No one was injured in the almost six-hour ordeal. In 2008, space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station. The world's most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters, who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana. The owners of a Ukrainian arms ship hijacked off Somalia more than two months previously agreed to pirates' $20 million ransom demands, an official says. Also in 2008, India's home minister resigned in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, saying he took "moral responsibility" for the wave of coordinated assaults that killed at least 173 people. Today's Birthdays: Historian Jacques Barzun is 102. Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is 91. Actor Robert Guillaume is 82. TV personality and producer Dick Clark is 80. Radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy is 79. Country singer-recording executive Jimmy Bowen is 72. Movie director Ridley Scott is 72. Singer Rob Grill (The Grassroots) is 66. Movie writer-director Terrence Malick is 66. Rock musician Roger Glover (Deep Purple) is 64. Playwright David Mamet is 62. Actress Margaret Whitton is 59. Actor Mandy Patinkin is 57. Musician Shuggie Otis is 56.Country singer Jeannie Kendall is 55. Singer Billy Idol is 54. Historian Michael Beschloss is 54. Rock musician John Ashton (The Psychedelic Furs) is 52. Comedian Colin Mochrie is 52. Former football and baseball player Bo Jackson is 47. Rapper Jalil (Whodini) is 46. Actor-director Ben Stiller is 44. Rock musician Mike Stone is 40. Actress Sandra Oh is 39. Country singer Mindy McCready is 34. Singer Clay Aiken is 31. Actress Elisha Cuthbert is 27. Actress Kaley Cuoco is 24. Today In Entertainment History November 30 In 1913, Charles Chaplin made his screen debut in Mack Sennett's short film "Making a Living." In 1965, the state of Colorado declared "Rolling Stones Day," in honor of the Stones concert in Denver. Forty years ago, in 1969, Simon and Garfunkel's first TV special was broadcast in the US. In 1976, singers-songwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson got married. In 1977, David Bowie sang a duet of "Little Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby on his Christmas special. In 1979, the album "The Wall" by Pink Floyd was released. In 1988, LL Cool J performed the first rap concert in Africa, in Cote D'Ivoire. In 1996, entertainer Tiny Tim died after performing his signature song, "Tiptoe Thru' The Tulips," at a benefit concert in Minneapolis. Reports put his age at either 64 or 66.
In 2000, Loverboy bassist Scott Smith was washed off his boat about four miles off the coast of San Francisco. His body was never found. In 2004, "Jeopardy!" fans saw Ken Jennings end his 74-game, $2.5 million winning streak as he lost to real estate agent Nancy Zerg. Thought for Today: "'Plain English' — everybody loves it, demands it — from the other fellow." — Jacques Barzun, French-born American historian, born on this date [102 yrs. ago. Damn. — Ed.] as was Jonathan Swift, who, the UPI claims, wrote: "I never saw, heard, nor read that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular but some degree of persecution."
Maybe this is why Mike Huckabee is "less than likely" to run for president in 2012: The Seattle Times reports that a man wanted for four police murders in Washington state was granted clemency by then-Arkansas Gov. Huckabee nine years ago and released from prison.
Said the Arkansas prosecutor who objected at the time: "This is the day I've been dreading for a long time."
If it's the case we're thinking of, the alleged perp had one of those jailhouse conversions & scammed everyone from Huck down w/ his Jeezizosity.
we'd already forgotten the cop ambush. You know, crime in these United Snakes doesn't count unless it committed by a Muslo-terrist, & since the reactionaries didn't start the screech, it's as if it never happened.
We're pretty sure the porcine preacher will be happier in New York City hosting a Fox News opinion hour anyway. Certainly This Great Nation of Ours™ will be in better shape if he's not President, no matter the bullshit that comes from his jowls during a Fox appearnace.
UPDATE (29 November 2009 @2105): No, this is of whom we were thinking. And this is an over-view of Fatso Huck at work:
"It seems to be true at least anecdotally that if a minister is involved, (Huckabee) seems likely to grant clemency," prosecutor Robert Herzfeld said in 2004 after successfully battling the then-governor over the release of a killer.
The urge to commit murder is strong in us. Think Huck's ghost would work to commute our sentence after we killed him?
A peek into the reactionary legal mind, & its love of & respect for The Constitution.
U. S. News & World Report: You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to have a lawyer present before police questioning. Shouldn't people, who may be innocent, have such protection?
Meese: Suspects who are innocent of a crime should. But the thing is, you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect.
Apparently from a 1985 interview w/ U. S. N&WR, per The Economist (Not something we'd brag about, if we were you.) who provide no link, & who brought it up because of this NYTcrap in which Meese bitches about what are, essentially, his own policies.
Or not. No mention of The Family in the TimesOnline. Just stirring condemnations from two P. C. countries that are succumbing to liberal Islamic homosexual atheism.
Naughty People's Radio is happy to spread the hatred of religion, of course.
GROSS: Let's talk about The Family's connection to Uganda, where there's a, really a draconian anti-gay bill that has been introduced into parliament. Uganda already punishes the practice of homosexuality with life in prison. What would the new legislation do?
Mr. SHARLET: Well, the new legislation adds to this something called aggravated homosexuality. And this can include, for instance, if a gay man has sex with another man who is disabled, that's aggravated homosexuality, and that man can be - I suppose both, actually, could be put to death for this. The use of any drugs or any intoxicants in seeking gay sex - in other words, you go to a bar and you buy a guy a drink, you're subject to the death penalty if you go home and sleep together after that. What it also does is it extends this outward, so that if you know a gay person and you don't report it, that could mean - you don't report your son or daughter, you can go to prison.
And it goes further, to say that any kind of promotion of these ideas of homosexuality, including by foreigners, can result in prison terms. Talking about same sex-marriage positively can lead you to imprisonment for life. And it's really kind of a perfect case study in the export of a lot of American, largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.
GROSS: This legislation has just been proposed. It hasn't been signed into law. So it's not in effect yet and it might never be in effect. But it's on the table. It's before parliament. So is there a direct connection between The Family and this proposed anti-homosexual legislation in Uganda?
Mr. SHARLET: Well, the legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family. He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.
GROSS: So you're reporting the story for the first time today, and you found this story - this direct connection between The Family and the proposed legislation by following the money?
Mr. SHARLET: Yes, it's - I always say that The Family is secretive, but not secret. You can go and look at 990s, tax forms and follow the money through these organizations that The Family describe as invisible. But you go and you look. You follow that money. You look at their archives. You do interviews where you can. It's not so invisible anymore. So that's how working with some research colleagues we discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Family's work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveni's kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Family's National Prayer Breakfast. And here's a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda's executive office and has been very vocal about what he's doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family.
Perusing a TPM Photo Feature of Michelle Bachmann (Minn. Representative Bachmann, if you haven't heard of her, is sort of an attractive Sarah Palin, if an attractive Sweet & Sacred Sarah can be imagined.)
we found this nugget that furthers the explanation of why anything environmental makes religious reactionaries mental:
This continues Bachmann's, er, crusade against environmentalism. On August 12, 2008 she spoke out against Nancy Pelosi's "global warming fanaticism" that has come "to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet." According to Bachmann, "we all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."
Who are the "they" she's talking about? Rome? China? India?
One of the most irritating things I have noticed during the last decade has been the whining from American pundits about how ungrateful the world’s Muslims have been in response to our alleged beneficence on their behalf. The grimly amusing part of this is that the whining pundits accept the assumptions of pan-Islamists, but put them to different, limited use: Muslims everywhere must feel gratitude for any assistance we have ever rendered to a Muslim population. Of course, if our policies have ever adversely affected a Muslim population, Muslims everywhere should not think that they have any particular interest in this, but should instead resist the siren song of pan-Islamism.
The punk-ass losers of UCLA couldn't summon the intestinal fortitude to give the long-suffering fans something to enjoy at the end of this snoozefest.
So the Trojans let 'er rip, throwing a long touchdown pass and then celebrating it with a taunting ferocity that brought the Bruins onto the field on the verge of a brawl.
But no.
The last 90 seconds of Los Angeles' 79th crosstown showdown had more action than the first 58 1/2 minutes, even if it was just a few extra fireworks at the close of No. 24 USC's workmanlike 28-7 victory Saturday night.
Ignore the mess & scroll down a bit for an inkling of serious aesthetic activity in the megadysopolis of sunny etc.
[M]otorists were left scrambling to figure out on their own how to find the 5 North turnoff from the 110 North (if you knew it was there at all).
That is, until artist Richard Ankrom's infamous August 2001 installation "Guerilla Public Service."
Ankrom took two years to design an exact replica of the Interstate 5 logo, as well as the word "NORTH" in an identical font to Caltrans signs. Then, in the middle of a sunny day, Ankrom -- dressed as a Caltrans worker -- installed the markers on an existing "110 North" sign.
And then... nobody noticed! The helpful signs finally directed 110 drivers to the 5, and yet Caltrans didn't have any idea. Nine months later, the Los Angeles Downtown News finally broke the story.
Fully Pointless Disclosure: We have lived on Franklin Avenue.
Today is Sunday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2009. There are 32 days left in the year. UPI-manac.Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 29, 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning. On this date: In 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, onetime adviser to England's King Henry VIII, died. In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre. In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated his invention, a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders. Edison shouted verses of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into the machine, which played back his voice. In 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played, with Navy winning 24-0 at West Point, N.Y. In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera "Turandot." (It was finished by Franco Alfano.) In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.
In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews. In 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower kept his campaign promise to visit Korea to assess the ongoing conflict. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank. In 1989, in response to a growing pro-democracy movement in Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run Parliament ended the party's 40-year monopoly on power. In 1990, the U.N. Security Council voted 12-2 to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by Jan. 15, 1991. In 1996, a U.N. court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims - the first international war crimes sentence since World War II In 1999, Protestant and Catholic adversaries formed an extraordinary Northern Ireland government designed to bring together every branch of opinion within the bitterly divided society. In 2004, President George W. Bush picked Carlos Gutierrez, the chief executive officer of cereal giant Kellogg Co., to be commerce secretary. The U. S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a gay-marriage law in Massachusetts. An Army helicopter crashed near Waco, Texas, killing seven soldiers. In 2005, Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals reported 1,086 bodies were recovered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Also in 2005, a Vatican policy paper said men who recognize homosexuality as a "transitory problem" can be allowed to pursue ordination to become Roman Catholic priests. In 2006, U.S. investigators heavily criticized security at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico after classified documents were removed from the building. In 2008, Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India's financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people. Architect Joern Utzon, who designed the iconic Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, died at age 90. Today's Birthdays November 29: Hall-of-Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 82. Former French President Jacques Chirac is 77. Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 76. [There's three guys who wouldn't ordinarily pass through the mind at the same time. — Ed.] Actress Diane Ladd is 74. Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 69. Country singer Jody Miller is 68. Pop singer-musician Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) is 67. Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 63. Comedian Garry Shandling is 60. Actor Jeff Fahey is 57. Movie director Joel Coen is 55. Actor-comedian-game show host Howie Mandel is 54. Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano is 52. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is 50. Actress Cathy Moriarty is 49. Actress Kim Delaney is 48. Actor Tom Sizemore is 48. Actor Andrew McCarthy is 47. Actor Don Cheadle is 45. Actor-producer Neill Barry is 44. Musician Wallis Buchanan is 44. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 41. Rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) is 41. Actress Jennifer Elise Cox is 40. Actor Larry Joe Campbell is 39. Rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) is 39. Actress Gena Lee Nolin is 38. Actor Brian Baumgartner is 37. Actress Anna Faris is 33. Actor Julian Ovenden is 33. Today In Entertainment History November 29 In 1948, "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" made its debut on NBC. Fifty years ago, in 1959, the Record of the Year Grammy Award went to Bobby Darin for "Mack The Knife." Frank Sinatra's "Come Dance With Me" won the Album of the Year award. Sinatra didn't show up to the ceremony, supposedly because he had gotten shut out at the very first Grammys, only six months earlier. Forty years ago, in 1969, John Lennon was convicted of marijuana possession and was fined. In 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player, Norman "Butch" Owens, twice in the chest while trying to hit a soda bottle. Lewis was charged with shooting a firearm within the city limits. Thirty years ago, in 1979, the four original members of Kiss performed together for what they thought was the last time. They reunited in 1996. Also in 1979, model Anita Pallenberg, Keith Richard's common law wife, was cleared of murder charges. Her young male companion had been found shot to death in her home in New York state. In 1981, actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43. The death was ruled accidental. In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82. In 1995, singer Sammy Hagar married Kari Karte on a mountain in northern California. In 1997, singer Whitney Houston canceled an appearance at the last minute at a Unification Church mass wedding in Washington, citing illness. She had said earlier she didn't know the Unification Church was behind it when she agreed to the event. In 1999, game show host Gene Rayburn died in Gloucester, Mass., at age 81. In 2001, musician George Harrison, the "quiet Beatle," died in Los Angeles after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 58. In 2004, John Drew Barrymore, the sometimes troubled heir to an acting dynasty and absent father of actress Drew Barrymore, died in Los Angeles at age 72.
You may have missed it (We certainly did.) but New Majority seems to have become FrumForum. (Are you giggling a bit already?)
Did someone talk David out of calling it FrumForum when he (& his backers) started it? As Republican identification plummeted, was it realized that "New Majority" was too much of a crock even for the reactionaries? Goodness, this is fascinating.
The saying goes: ordinary leaders move to the center – great leaders move the center to them. Sarah Palin endorses neither concept. At least if this transcript from her 11/24 interview with Greta van Susteren is reflective, she adheres to what might be called the Go F— Yourself school of leadership.
I lived in NZ for two and a half years. Sheep jokes are a dime a dozen. If you really want to get a taste of the Kiwi mindset, there is a satirical blog called Kiwianarama which is modelled after the “Stuff White People Like” blog. (Lots of parallels to the Canadian mentality. Esp. this one and this one.)
We should have known. Damn Churchillian "English-Speaking Peoples."
Our patriotic observance of Don't Buy Nuthin' Day yesterday has not brought the consumer society to its knees, begging for discretionary income. It has resulted in the emptying of the cupboards (Flagrant lie: Our bunker has neither cupboards, nor an oven.) & refrigerator; we are forced not only to leave the house but to go some distance to purchase stuff. This necessitates showering, & a shower on re-entering the bunker, to wash the stench & filth of commerce (& humanoids) from the sacred temple of our body, as well as various other indignities we will not recount for you, as we have yet to fabricate them.
All we want for Xmas (Don't need two front teeth, we got 'em in the medicine cabinet.) is for the gift that never fucking stops giving to stop. First, listen for Woody Guthrie a-spinnin' in his grave. (The obligatory image of W. G. & his fascist-killing guitar is available on-line somewhere for your perusal.)See it in context.
Today is Saturday, Nov. 28, the 332nd day of 2009. There are 33 days left in the year. UPI-manac.Today's Highlight in History: One hundred years ago, on Nov. 28, 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff's notoriously difficult Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 had its world premiere in New York, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony and Rachmaninoff himself at the piano. On this date: In 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name. One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1859, American author Washington Irving died in present-day Tarrytown, N.Y., at age 76. In 1895, the first automobile race took place, between Chicago and Waukegan, Ill. Ninety years ago, in 1919, American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament. Seventy years ago, in 1939, James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, died at age 78. In 1942, nearly 500 people died in a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran.
In 1958, Chad, Gabon and Middle Congo became autonomous republics within the French community. The United States fired an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time. In 1963, Cape Canaveral, the space center in Florida, was renamed Cape Kennedy to honor the assassinated president. Area residents later voted to revert to the original name. In 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course to Mars. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford nominated federal Judge John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by William O. Douglas. Thirty years ago, in 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 en route to the South Pole crashed into a mountain in Antarctica, killing all 257 people aboard. In 1987, a South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean with the loss of all 159 people aboard. In 1989, Czechoslovakian Premier Ladislav Adamec agreed to a coalition government. The next day, the Czech Parliament revoked the Communist Party's monopoly. In 1994, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate. In 1995, President Bill Clinton signed a bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit. In 1999, Hsing-Hsing, the popular giant panda that arrived in America in 1972 as a symbol of U.S.-China detente, was euthanized at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo at age 28 because of his deteriorating health. In 2000, George W. Bush's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to bring "legal finality" to the presidential election by ending any further ballot recounts; Al Gore's team countered that the nation's highest court should not interfere in Florida's recount dispute. In 2001, Enron Corp. collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over.
In 2004, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol was injured, his 14-year-old son Teddy among three people killed, in a charter plane crash outside Montrose, Colo. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where dozens of bodies had been found. A gas explosion in a central Chinese coal mine killed 166 people. In 2005, U.S. Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., pleaded guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy charges involving bribes from military contractors. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI flew to Ankara, Turkey, amid heavy security measures to mend religious fences and establish a dialogue with Muslims. Some 250,000 Muslims demonstrated against the papal visit over remarks Benedict made in September perceived as offensive to Islam.
Also in 2006, leftist candidate Rafael Correa was officially declared winner of the Ecuadorian presidential election. In 2007, a U.S. airstrike in eastern Afghanistan killed 22 Afghan civilian road construction workers. The men, working on a U.S. military contract, died as they slept in two large tents in a remote mountainous area. Also in 2007, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf relinquished his role as head of his country's military forces, one day before he was sworn in for a third term as president. O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery stemming from a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers. (Simpson was later convicted and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.) In 2008, Indian forces fired grenades at the landmark Taj Mahal hotel, the last stand of suspected Muslim militants, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish outreach center and found six hostages dead. (The 60-hour rampage in Mumbai ended the following day.) At least 400 people were reported killed and hundreds more wounded in violent clashes in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians over local elections. Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants accidentally shot himself in the right thigh with a gun tucked into his waistband at a New York City nightclub. (Burress was later sentenced to two years in prison for a weapons conviction.) Today's Birthdays: Recording executive Berry Gordy Jr. is 80. Former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., is 73. Singer-songwriter Bruce Channel is 69. Singer Randy Newman is 66. CBS News correspondent Susan Spencer is 63. Movie director Joe Dante is 62. "Late Show" orchestra leader Paul Shaffer is 60. Actor Ed Harris is 59. Former NASA teacher in space Barbara Morgan is 58. Actress S. Epatha Merkerson is 57. Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is 56. Country singer Kristine Arnold (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 53. Actor Judd Nelson is 50. Movie director Alfonso Cuaron is 48. Rock musician Matt Cameron is 47. Actress Jane Sibbett is 47. Comedian/talk show host Jon Stewart is 47. Actress Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon is 43. R&B singer Dawn Robinson is 41. Hip-hop musician apl.de.ap (Black Eyed Peas) is 35. Actress Aimee Garcia is 31. Rapper Chamillionaire is 30. Actor Daniel Henney is 30. Rock musician Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend) is 26. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead is 25. Actress Scarlett Pomers ("Reba") is 21. Today In Entertainment History November 28 In 1925, the Grand Ole Opry made its radio debut on station WSM. In 1964, Willie Nelson made his Grand Ole Opry debut. Also in 1964, "Leader of the Pack" by The Shangri-Las hit number one on the Billboard pop chart. Thirty-five years ago, in 1974, John Lennon performed in concert for the first time in several years. He sang three songs with Elton John at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was payback for a bet in which John had made Lennon promise they'd perform together if "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" hit number one. In 1976, actress Rosalind Russell died. She was 68. In 1989, IRS agents raided the Las Vegas home of actor Redd Foxx, who owed an estimated $755,000 in taxes. In 1990, officials in Los Angeles decided there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute singer Axl Rose for assault in connection with a dispute with his neighbor. The neighbor claimed Rose hit her over the head with an empty wine bottle. In 1997, Chumbawamba singer Danbert Nobacon was arrested in Florence, Italy, for wearing a skirt. He was released when a police officer recognized the name "Chumbawamba." Also in 1997, the last episode of "Beavis and Butt-head" aired on MTV. Thought for Today: "Great minds have purposes; others have wishes." — Washington Irving, American author (1783-1859). [We wish he'd just shut up. — Ed.]
In the grand tradition of B&W footage of fresh-faced Brit bands of the '60s, the band not of our faves, but this is one of their better tunes/plagiarisms, in a version probably not widely heard.First seen here, where it is inferred, w/ recent & relevant evidence, that if the Constitution isn't to be the proverbial suicide pact, something needs to be done about that Second Amendment.
Oh, no, never mind, it's just hysterical leftists who deny the O-bummer's flagrant socialism. Yet they dislike Angelina Jolie as well. Schism on The Monolithic Left?
Dirty commie moochers who should be eradicated like the money-sucking parasites they are continue to bitch about Alyssa (Ayn Rand) Rosenberg (based on the two recent bioraphies) & we continue to link thereto.
If you read both books back to back, you have a 700-page portrait of a humorless, puritanical didact who was contemptuous of, among many other things, homosexuals, American Indians (arguing that Europeans had a right to take their land because the natives did not recognize “individual rights”), Medicare, family values, beatniks, hippies, and libertarians, whom she regularly referred to as “scum,” “intellectual cranks,” and “worse than anything the New Left has proposed.”
She opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, was vehemently against the draft (but called those who evaded it “bums”), and “regarded the feminist movement as utterly without legitimacy.”
[...]
Oh, and for the last 30 years of her life, she was addicted to amphetamines.
So much for the small stuff. Rand was also, despite her avowed love of America, contemptuous of democracy. In an admiring 1958 letter, the economist Ludwig von Mises told Rand, “You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: You are inferior, and all the improvements in your condition which you simply take for granted, you owe to the effort of men who are better than you.” And apparently women, too. In a 1936 novel, We the Living, a stand-in for Rand tells a Bolshevik with blood-chilling candor, “I loathe your ideals. I admire your methods.”
Blah blah. And we thought we hated w/ the white-hot yada of heat.
Excitement mounts at the Just Another Blog™ bunker, as Time Warner Cable (A corporate entity that is entirely appropriate as the spiritual descendant of an un-holy union between TIME, Inc. founder Henry Luce & "Col." Jack Warner of the four Warner Bros.) has expanded its High Definition line-up, & now we can get suck (Ha ha, Freudian typo! We meant to type "such.") channels as E!, two of the nation's many shopping channels, & a bunch of other crap in full 16:9. Getting TCM in H-D might have interfered w/ typing activity here, but we have the impression that we've already seen every film they show.
Today is Friday, Nov. 27, the 331st day of 2009. There are 34 days left in the year. UPI Almanac.
Today's Highlight in History: One hundred years ago, on Nov. 27, 1909, author, poet and critic James Agee was born in Knoxville, Tenn. On this date: In 1701, astronomer Anders Celsius, inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, was born in Uppsala, Sweden. Two hundred and fifty years ago, in 1759, town officials in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, evicted the Rev. Francis Gastrell from William Shakespeare's home after he cut down a 150-year-old tree that had been planted by the writer. In 1901, the U.S. Army War College was established in Washington, D.C. In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began regularly serving New York's Pennsylvania Station. In 1940, two months after Gen. Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King Carol II to abdicate, more than 60 aides of the exiled king, including Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian, were executed. In 1942, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of German troops. In 1970, Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest. In 1973, the Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned. In 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.
Supervisor Dianne Feinstein briefs reporters In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas airport. In 1985, the British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord, giving Dublin a consultative role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland. In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. University of Chicago doctors implanted part of a woman's liver in her 21-month-old daughter in the nation's first living donor liver transplant. Also in 1989, Virginia certified Douglas Wilder as the nation's first elected black governor by a margin of 0.38 percent. In 1990, British treasury chief John Major was elected Conservative Party leader, succeeding Margaret Thatcher as prime minister. In 1992, military dissidents attempted to overthrow Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. In 1994, Bosnian Serbs took 150 U.N. peacekeepers hostage to prevent NATO airstrikes. In 1997, tens of thousands of German students took to the streets of Bonn to protest the decline of Germany's higher education system. In 1999, Northern Ireland's biggest party, the Ulster Unionists, cleared the way for the speedy formation of an unprecedented Protestant-Catholic administration. In 2002, U.S. President George Bush created a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to find ways to thwart future strikes. U.N. specialists began a new round of weapons inspections in Iraq. In 2003, U.S. President George Bush swooped into Iraq under the cover of darkness in a surprise visit to U.S. forces in Baghdad to help serve them Thanksgiving dinner.
In 2004, after 40 years in North Korea and less than one month in a U.S. military jail near Tokyo, U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins became a free man. The Ukraine parliament declared the recently held presidential election invalid. In 2006, while deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein awaited court-ordered execution on his earlier mass murder conviction, Baghdad prosecutors resumed his second trial in which he and six others were charged with crimes against humanity in the deaths of as many as 180,000 Kurds in 1987-88. In 2007, U.S. President George Bush, addressing representatives from more than 40 countries before a meeting over Mideast peace, said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had agreed to initiate immediate talks on a peace treaty. In 2008, Indian commandoes fought to wrest control of two luxury hotels and a Jewish center from militants, a day after a chain of attacks across Mumbai. Iraq's parliament approved a pact requiring all U.S. troops to be out of the country by Jan. 1, 2012. Edna Scott Parker, who was said to be the oldest living person in the world, died at age 115 in Indiana, her family said. Today's Birthdays: Actor James Avery is 61. Producer-director Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker") is 58. TV host Bill Nye ("Bill Nye, the Science Guy") is 54. Actor William Fichtner is 53. Caroline Kennedy is 52. Writer-producer-director Callie Khouri is 52. Rock musician Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) is 50. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is 49. Rock musician Charlie Benante (Anthrax) is 47. Rock musician Mike Bordin (Faith No More) is 47. Actor Fisher Stevens is 46. Actress Robin Givens is 45. Actor Michael Vartan is 41. Rapper Skoob (DAS EFX) is 39. Actor Kirk Acevedo is 38. Rapper Twista is 37. Actor Jaleel White is 33. Actress Alison Pill is 24. Today In Entertainment History November 27 In 1939, the play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York. In 1953, playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65. In 1957, "The Chirping Crickets" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets was released. It contained the singles "That'll Be the Day," "Maybe Baby," and "Not Fade Away." In 1967, The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" album was released in North America. Forty years ago, in 1969, the Rolling Stones opened a four-night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden. Portions of the first two concerts were released on the album "Get Yer Ya-Yas Out." In 1970, George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album was released. In 1980, the sitcom "Bosom Buddies," starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, premiered on ABC. In 1985, actress Amy Irving married filmmaker Steven Spielberg. They have since split up. In 1995, The Beatles' "Anthology One" set a record for first-week sales, selling 1.2 million copies. That record has since been broken. Thought for Today: "You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition." — James Agee (1909-1955).
On Enforced Family Solidarity Day, we consider ourself fortunate that we are an orphan, & that our closest known relatives are on the other coast of This Great Nation of Ours™. (No fucking fly-over country losers in our family tree.)
But why be "grateful" to a random, meaningless universe that could have given us all one hell of a better deal to be thankful for?
The Three Stooges made two 3-D shorts and you can download one of them from this site. And this Saturday out in Glendale, CA, the Alex Theater is running that same short (plus four 2-D Stooges shorts with Curly) as part of the 12th Annual Three Stooges Big Screen Event. I will not be there. I love the Stooges but (a) I'm not sure I could take five shorts in one sitting, (b) 3-D movies have a hypnotic effect on me that induces slumber and (c) I'm a little afraid of being in a room with that many Stooge fans. — Mark Evanier
Today is Thursday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2009. There are 35 days left in the year. Also: UPI Almanac. This is Thanksgiving Day.
Today's Highlight in History: Nov. 26, 1789, was a day of thanksgiving set aside by President George Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. On this date: In 1825, the first college social fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Society, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. In 1832, In 1832, the first streetcar railway in America started public service in New York City from City Hall to 14th Street. The car was pulled by a horse and the fare was 12 1/2 cents. In 1842, the founders of the University of Notre Dame arrived at the school's present-day site near South Bend, Ind. In 1883, former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Mich. In 1922, In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and George Carnarvon became the first humans to enter King Tutankhamen's treasure-laden tomb in more than 3,000 years. In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book "Ulysses" was not obscene and could be published in the United States. In 1940, the half million Jews of Warsaw, Poland, were forced by the Nazis to live within a walled ghetto. In 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted U.S. proposals to the Japanese peace envoys in Washington. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning Dec. 1. In 1943, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed. Sixty years ago, in 1949, India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth. In 1950, China entered the Korean War, launching a counteroffensive against soldiers from the United Nations, the U.S. and South Korea. In 1965, France launched its first satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit. In 1973, President Richard Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she'd accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.
Rose Mary Woods, personal secretary to President Richard Nixon,
poses at her White House desk in 1973. (AP Photo)
In 1975, a federal jury in Sacramento, Calif., found Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, guilty of trying to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford. (Fromme was later sentenced to life in prison and released in August 2009.) In 1992, the British government announced that Queen Elizabeth II had volunteered to start paying taxes on her personal income, and would take her children off the public payroll. In 1998, Tony Blair gave the first speech by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament. In 1999, sixteen people were killed when a Norwegian high-speed passenger ferry hit a shoal and sank off Boemla Island, 250 miles west of Oslo. In 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified Republican George W. Bush the winner over Democrat Al Gore in the state's presidential balloting by 537 votes. In 2004, leading Iraqi politicians called for a six-month delay in the Jan. 30 election because of spiraling violence; President George W. Bush said, "The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in January." (The vote took place as scheduled.) In 2008, teams of heavily armed gunmen, allegedly from Pakistan, stormed luxury hotels, a popular tourist attraction and a crowded train station in Mumbai, India, leaving at least 166 people dead in a rampage lasting some 60 hours. A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl, Megan Meier, to suicide. (However, Lori Drew's convictions were later dismissed.) Today's Birthdays: Actress Ellen Albertini Dow is 91. Author Gail Sheehy is 72. Impressionist Rich Little is 71. Singer Tina Turner is 70. Singer Jean Terrell is 65. Pop musician John McVie is 64. Actress Marianne Muellerleile is 61. Actor Scott Jacoby is 53. Actress Jamie Rose is 50. Country singer Linda Davis is 47. Blues singer-musician Bernard Allison is 44. Country singer-musician Steve Grisaffe is 44. Actress Kristin Bauer is 36. Actor Peter Facinelli is 36. Actress Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge is 35. Actress Maia Campbell is 33. Country singer Joe Nichols is 33. Contemporary Christian musicians Randy and Anthony Armstrong (Red) are 31. Actress Jessica Bowman is 29. Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield is 28. Rock musician Ben Wysocki (The Fray) is 25. Singer Lil Fizz is 24. Singer Aubrey Collins is 22. Today In Entertainment History November 26 In 1942, the motion picture "Casablanca," starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York. In 1956, bandleader Tommy Dorsey was found dead at his Connecticut home after apparently choking. He was 51. In 1962, The Beatles recorded "Please Please Me." In 1968, Cream performed its farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker continued working together in the band Blind Faith. (The band reunited for seven shows in 2005.) In 1976, 10cc broke up. In 1982, trumpeter Miles Davis married actress Cicely Tyson in New York. Comedian Bill Cosby was the best man. Twenty years ago, in 1989, more than 45 acts participated in an earthquake relief "Rock-A-Thon" broadcast on public television and in northern California. Three concerts were held in San Francisco, Oakland and Watsonville, the town hit hardest by the quake. In 1992, Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" album was released. Hundreds of fans lined up at stores nationwide to buy it on the first day. In 2004, French movie director Philippe de Broca ("King of Hearts") died at age 71. Thought for Today: "Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route." — Sister Elizabeth Kenny, Australian nurse (1886-1952).
Had been contemplating plugging the bogrolls (We've been paying much more attention to what goes on there since adding the "Live! Hap-nin' now! Updater" thing.) w/ a bit of bitch&moan ("C'mon, Savalas.tv, NINE YEARS since your last update? Stop embarrassing us!") but, you know, contemplation is one thing, action is often equivalent to work.
However, the appearance of the "Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody" video on at least four of the sites listed over there w/in 18 or so hrs. is starting to raise our ire. (Irks us, too.) We are not referring only to the juvenile-to-adolescent pop culture nostalgia endeavors, either. As far as overtly political (And really, isn't everything political?) operations go, you didn't all have to embed the (8:22) of Paliens at the Borders Books Music Cafe in or near Columbus, did you? Some of you better shape up if you expect to remain in good standing.
