Neon (Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City)

Ann Coulter Types!

Yes, Ann Coulter. That's right, she's still alive. No, really.

Look, lemme e-mail you her latest column. It'll be appearing in Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller. Yes, yes, they're still around. They've got Mickey Kaus, now too, y'know. But check out Coulter:

These women are like triple-A ball players with the stats being: number of bankruptcies, smallest bank account, number of liens, most false claims, number of children out of wedlock, degrees of separation from David Axelrod, total trips to human resources and so on.

That wouldn’t be dispositive — except for the fact that their only evidence is their word.

But this is how liberals dirty you up when they’ve got nothing: They launch a series of false accusations, knowing that Americans with busy lives won’t follow each story to the end and notice that they were all blind alleys.

The liberal media is an old story, but it’s still a big story when it comes to creating the impression of scandal out of thin air.

Most people say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” I say, “Where there’s smoke around a conservative, there are journalists furiously rubbing two sticks together.”

Ann Coulter is a political commentator and writer.

We just want to note that the two identified harrassees (not the apparent volunteer, about whose politics we haven't heard or cared) are hardly "liberal," or "the left."

Allred described her client as a "registered Republican," though Bialek does not have an active voter card in Illinois, election officials said. The state does not allow voters to register by party, but records show she pulled a GOP ballot in the 2008 primary.

She also has not been particularly active politically. National Public Radio reported that she is a registered Republican and views herself as an independent. According to Federal Election Commission records, she has given a single political contribution in recent years: $250 to the Democratic National Committee. Kraushaar also gave modest amounts to Republican candidates.

Her husband, Kevin Kraushaar, a lawyer and lobbyist, has been a more prolific donor, giving money to both Democratic and Republican candidates, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. during his 2008 presidential bid.

Raging, wild-eyed moderates, we'd say! If that's proof of liberalism, this reporter is two progressives, an anarchist, & a Trotskyite!

NYPD ARMY OF ONE

We now assume that Mayor Bloomberg won't be running for a fourth term beyond his current quasi-legal third term, because it looks as if the quaint concept of democracy is dead in New York: There probably won't be any more elections.

Last night, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the MIT speech, he explained why he didn’t want to run for president, which included boasting of having his own army in the NYPD. “I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” said Bloomberg. (HT: @resnikoff)

We'd type that it takes some measure of intestinal fortitude for the sawed-off little prick to make such a bold declaration of his fascism, but if you have "the seventh-biggest army in the world" backing you, we suppose you can get away w/ just about anything.

AND MORE:

At first, Mayor Bloomberg sounded he was outlining why three terms as mayor was enough experience in public office for him, but he quickly switched gears and began characterizing City Hall as the perfect preparation for the White House because it allowed him to buck the Beltway establishment get real on-the-ground knowledge.

“I don’t listen to Washington very much, which is something they’re not thrillled about,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “We have every kind of people from every part of the world and every kind of problem.”

Mayor Bloomberg explained that, unlike Washington politicians, mayors are people of action.

“The difference between my level of government and other levels of government is that action takes place at the city level,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “The cities and mayors are where you deal with crime, you deal with real immigration problems, you deal with health problems, you deal with picking up the garbage.”

Someone put him out of his misery. Please.

Metal Mechanical Music

DANGER!

The AFofM speaks:

Joseph N. Weber, president of the American Federation of Musicians, said in the March 1931 issue of Modern Mechanix,

The time is coming fast when the only living thing around a motion picture house will be the person who sells you your ticket. Everything else will be mechanical. Canned drama, canned music, canned vaudeville. We think the public will tire of mechanical music and will want the real thing. We are not against scientific development of any kind, but it must not come at the expense of art. We are not opposing industrial progress. We are not even opposing mechanical music except where it is used as a profiteering instrument for artistic debasement.

The campaign to keep “real” music and “real” art in theaters was vicious. The robot represented everything that was artificial and threatening to the establishment of musicians who played live music. The campaign called out for the public to join in the fight. They were to save the art of music from “debasement.”

An advertisement in the June 5, 1930, Bradford Era of Bradford, Pa., decried the Hollywood movie machine that an established industry is now trying to protect: “300 musicians in Hollywood supply all the ‘music’ offered in thousands of theatres. Can such a tiny reservoir of talent nurture artistic progress?” The irony, of course, is that today the music industry is battling to protect recorded music. Protectionist policies to save the old business models of newspapers, movies, and recorded music mimic those of history.

So it goes.

Magnus, Robot Fighter?

On The Road Again

Thanksgiving Sunday, 27 November 2011.

Peanut

Detail, Different Decoration:

Tribute to democracy: Available for the mass market as well.

Herman Cain's 15 Mins. Of Fame Did Not End Well

Hope the FOXNews gig works out for him.

This'll Get The Economy Rolling

Prepare for hats on everyone, everywhere & at all times.

Jazz Age nostalgia? We are especially concerned by the flapper-style numbers (w/ the bows) as we are not convinced that all the ladies ("& some of you boys") look good in them.

Stick The Fork In Him

Over & done for Herman Cain if he is continuing to deny but wondering aloud how this will affect him, Herman Cain.

Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain (l.) & former Speaker
Newt Gingrich, CNN National Security debate, November 2011. In a recent poll
37 percent of Cain voters picked Gingrich as their back-up.
Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS

“This is cause for reassessment,” Mr. Cain said, according to one participant on the call who spoke on condition of anonymity. “During the summer we had to make some reassessments based on our financial situation. We were able to hang in there.”

Mr. Cain denied the accusations from the Atlanta woman, Ginger White. But he acknowledged that the latest report of sexual misconduct might be more difficult to overcome, considering that the first voting is set to take place in five weeks at the Iowa caucuses. He said that he had not lost his enthusiasm to run, but suggested it was a distraction that could be difficult to recover from.

We now await the number-crunching pundits advising us if the cheater/adulterer vote will automatically swing to Gingrich. We certainly hope no one else makes a play for that part of the GOP/TP base, as the less that is known about the sex lives of such as Ron Paul & Rick Santorum the better off this nation is.

One moment, please ... Yes, they're already weighing in. (Beaten by the XianSciMon! Sheesh.)

Chemtrails

Play spot the pigeon in the third & fourth pics. No, not the obvious one.

Droning On

Continuing from below, we (the people) are pretty much screwed until the development of ways & means to counter any & all of these devices. No doubt pepper-sprayers & other crowd-control attachments will be available in the next fiscal yr.

The U.S. military has gone from having just a few drones at the outset of the Iraq War to now over 7,000.

A sociopathic subcontractor for a privatized police force, fondling his joy-stick in front of a monitor in an industrial park in a right-to-work state will be raining napalm & depleted uranium on crowds of big-city protesters by ... 2013, let's guess.

The Iron Cross alone makes us a little nervous.

Y'know?

ADDED: From the blue Wired link above:

As of May 3 [2010. 18 mos. ago! — M.B.], American unmanned systems had carried out 131 known airstrikes into Pakistan, well over triple the number we did with manned bombers in the opening round of the Kosovo War just a decade ago. By the old standards, this would be viewed as a war.

But why do we not view it as such? Is it because it is being run by the CIA, not by the U.S. military? This has certainly minimized public debate, but it is the 21^st-century equivalent of the equally not-so-covert fleet of repainted B-26 bombers the CIA sent to the Bay of Pigs invasion. We have ended up in a very odd situation: that the only true air war that the United States is fighting right now is not one commanded by an Air Force general but by a former congressman from California. This also means that not only are civilians handling weapons of war but also that civilian officials and lawyers, rather than military officers, are wrestling with complex issues of war, such as operational concept and strategy, rules of engagement, etc., that they do not have the background or mandate to manage.

We are not now, nor have we ever been at war anywhere in East, South or West Asia.

Droning

Not the precise image we were looking for,
but it adds a certain something to the death & violence.

Rise of The Drone.

Drone aircraft, best known for their role in hunting and destroying terrorist hide-outs in Afghanistan, may soon be coming to the skies near you.

War in Context on "Death From Above" & combat.

Thus we have a picture of the future of the U.S. military’s approach to (not) facing its adversaries: that it can learn all it needs to know through electronic imagery and it [can] kill everyone it needs to kill without shedding a drop of blood or sweat. This will be America’s ignoble and blunt efficiency.

This vision of killing-without-combat resonates with the image of UC Davis police Lt. John Pike as he casually pepper-sprays student demonstrators. In each case the willingness to inflict suffering is directly related to the assailant’s own sense of impunity — his ability to fire without being fired upon.

There is nothing noble or brave in this approach to violence.

Recruiting by the USAF.

Lies, Damned Lies & Animation

Another piece of Herman Cain performance art. We were merely listening while we typed this & were amused by the idiotic Lafferism/half-baked Randism that assaulted our shell-like ears. Bet the visuals are worth a peep. Let's see!Must-see! But why didn't radio professional, Bab-tiss preacher & song stylist extraordinaire Cain do the voice-over himself? Points added for the shit-brown background.

OK, really no kidding must-see-&-hear BONUS "999/666/999" & Grover Norquist verbatim shorter! (10 sec., & worth every one.)"Put in a sump pump!!"

ADDED: ++BONUS (Full service here, no clicking about willy-nilly!) compromise: The above & this 30 sec. trailer.Never forget:Can not possibly be "real," in any real sense of the word.

All's Well In The Catholic Church

It would appear the Bishop of Rome & his minions have nothing to which to devote their attention but church design, singing & music.

VATICAN CITY

A team has been set up, to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Its task is also to promote singing that really helps the celebration of mass. The “Liturgical art and sacred music commission” will be established by the Congregation for Divine Worship over the coming weeks. This will not be just any office, but a true and proper team, whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses. The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of mass.

Nice work if you can get it.

If they so fervently desire to avoid the denaturing of modernity, one would think they'd worship among the fucking trees of God's Great Creation, wouldn't one? Get out & get some sunshine, sickos.

Get Behind Newt

And do it before he gets behind you.

Newt Gingrich. Stephen Voss/Redux

More of the inevitable: They're flocking! The flocking party & ideology of principle & family values, that is.

It’s a conundrum, he says, that many others are also grappling with. "Maybe the guy in the race that would make the best president is on his third marriage," he says. "How do we reconcile that?"

One senses him trying. "I see a lot of parallels between King David and Newt Gingrich, two extraordinary men gifted by God, whose lives include very high highs and very low lows," Deace says. David, after all, committed adultery with the ravishing Bathsheba, then had her husband killed, among other transgressions. The Bible makes room for complicated, morally compromised heroes. Now Christian conservatives, desperate for an alternative to Mitt Romney, are learning to do so as well.

In recent years, his writing and speaking have become increasingly religious and even apocalyptic, limning a great world-historical show-down between the forces of Christian civilization and those of what he calls "secular-socialism," which weakens society, allowing for the spread of radical Islam.

"A country which has been, since 1963, relentlessly in the courts driving God out of public life shouldn’t be surprised at all the problems we have, because we’ve in fact attempted to create a secular country, which I think is frankly a nightmare," he said at the FAMiLY Leader debate. Most of his audience surely knew that 1963 is the year the Supreme Court banned prayer in school.

[...]

"People know him, but they don’t know everything about him," says Perkins. "They will in the next couple of weeks, and we’ll see how well he can withstand that type of scrutiny." Still, he acknowledges, anxious anti-Romney conservatives are eager to coalesce behind someone. "The bench is getting kind of shallow," he says. "The only candidate left that has not been out in front is Rick Santorum, and time is short."

Blah blah blah & in conclusion — Wait! Santorum still has a shot? Last creep standing? Let him peak at election time in Ioway & New Hampshire!

Stab from the past: Remember these guys?

From The NYT.

Inevitablilty

We should have realized that, Mittens "Mitt" Romney having essentially/actually shot his wad in 2008 (although neither he nor the rest of the world has yet realized it) the real next-in-line-for-the-nod guy was none other than Newton Leroy Gingrich all along. Surprise, surprise, as thoroughly illustrated w/ squiggly worm-lines.

Can't wait for the Powerpoint version. Hope this picture's in it.

"I told her it was this long."

Cobwebs

In the "rafters."

The Future Never Happens When It Should

Report: Shoppers unfazed
as man dies at Target

[A] 61-year-old [man] of Logan County, W. Va., had become ill and collapsed while shopping for Christmas decorations inside Target in South Charleston. He later died after being taken to the hospital, family said.

Witnesses told the NBC News affiliate in Charleston, W. Wa., that shoppers walked around and even over Vance’s body.

Passable Infotainment

New "Natural" World Predicted

Flying cars & jetpacks, in hundreds+ yrs., when we're dead already.Big help, imaginary-easy-living futuristcreepy & childish post-hippie!!

Is the taking-pictures-of-your-audience thing next? On the (outside) chance some can't spend 15 minutes waiting for a laugh:We've seen it done, of course; it's never really caught on, but smart phones & tiny cameras will only make it worse.

Republican Brain Trust

Rep Allen West needs a bureaucratic nanny: "Failed! Duplicative! A Chamber & a Dep't. of Commerce. We'll fix that!" at (2:30).Should give him a lock on the Republican vice-presidential nomination.

Decorating For The War On Christmas

Deck the hallways.

The seven rooms that inaugurated this seasonal offering last year will return with even more liliputian trimmings.* Among the most elaborate of the rooms is the English Drawing Room of the Victorian Period, the only room with a Christmas tree. Now a ubiquitous feature of the season, the Christmas tree or tannenbaum, was only brought to England from Germany in 1840 with the marriage of Prince Albert to Queen Victoria.

The finished 1940s-era California Hallway.

Hanukkah display for a 1940s-style California hallway.

More tilty-shifty.

---

*Doubtless a funny to be made there; the urge to bother was easily resisted.

Moon Over House

Moon Over Route 66

Scratchin' for Weasels

19 November 2011, Culver City, CA

Happy Holidays!

Yet Not The Record

Private School Beats State-Run School

USC safety T.J. McDonald stops UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince
from getting into the end zone in the fourth quarter Saturday night at the Coliseum, where the Trojans whupped the Bruins but good, 50-0.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/ November 26, 2011)

1929: USC 76, UCLA 0

An estimated 50,000 took in the teams' first meeting in football, and the defending national champion Trojans showed no remorse for their cross-town rivals.(AP Photo)

Take as desired/needed.

Foreign Policy

There are many good things in this week's edition of the magazine and among them, happily, is a piece by Dan Drezner. It's not online yet so why don't you subscribe? £1 an issue for the first 12. Bargain! Anyway, Dan casts a weary gaze (there being no other kind of gaze when it comes to this sort of survey) over the Republican presidential pretenders' foreign policy views. Here's how he begins:

During the 2008 US presidential election cycle, the respected journal Foreign Affairs invited the leading prsidential candidates from both parties to outline their views of world politics. All of them responded with essays that, one presumes, they at least read if did not write. This year, ahead of next year's elections, Foreign Affairs has proffered the same invitation to the leading Republican aspirants. To date, they have all refused or not responded.

A small thing perhaps but I think you could reasonably consider this a leading indicator.

More. From. Recommended.

Big Deal?

1967: USC 21, UCLA 20

Known as the "Game of the Century," a No. 1 national ranking was on the line for both teams. O.J. Simpson, who had an iconic 64-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, led the Trojans past battered quarterback Gary Beban, that year's Heisman winner. (AP Photo)

The ever-popular "My all-American pioneer spirit moved me to Southern California because I saw a football game on the telly" legend is dragged out again, this time not in reference to seeing the Rose Bowl Parade &/or Game New Yr.'s Day on a new color television, & it's January & sunny & 70°F!, but November's annual USC-UCLA Dip Bowl.

Then on to how special it all is:

It's special because the schools aren't in different states or different cities. With apologies to Texas-Oklahoma, Florida-Georgia and Ohio State-Michigan, we see our rivals every day. We see them at home, we see them at work, we see them at school and we see them while we're stuck in traffic looking at their ugly license-plate frames.

It's the only football rivalry between two major universities in the same city.

These aren't strangers we see once a year and hate because our fathers and our father's father told us we're supposed to; it's a living, breathing rivalry we live every day. USC is less than 12 miles from UCLA and the rivalry often pits family members, friends and old teammates against one another.

If the rivalry doesn't seem as fervent as others do to those who only view it once a year, it's because we live it every day.

Arash Markazi is a columnist and writer for ESPNLA.com.

Follow Arash Markazi on Twitter: @ArashMarkazi

Or, this magically unique rivalry is more warm than hot because of the inbreeding Mr. Markazi glossed over, & the general geographic proximity. Hard to pursue aggressive civil war non-stop all yr., even for SoCal bragging rights.

Big Game

Bummer: No cable, we won't be watching as it happens.

We're Not Kidding

Knock it the hell off, already.

Covering The World

From Twitting.

Now the South Pacific cover has disappeared.