Yesterday's Clouds Today

We'll be sweating like the pig we are all night long.

Staff Photo

The amorphous "they" tell us politics is Hollywood for the ugly; this does nothing to disprove that dictum.

The Romney campaign staff w/ Paul Ryan & Mittens. Get ready for a nation run by frat boys & their little sorority sisters.

Tip o' le chapeau to YAFB at Rumproast, who inspired us w/this:

Joseph Smith's Lame-Ass White Folks Band

And you shouldn't use ugly & Hollywood in the same sentence w/o showing these mugs:V.O. (no commercial potential):

Crummy (Exhibition) Game Of The Wk.:

Oakland at Seattle.

Clint Speaks!

Eastwood looks to have a movie about the old getting oldercoming out in a few wks.; he must figure the entire target demographic of angry white guys will be watching the convention. Christ, what a whore.

Another Tab Closed

Par for the course, far behind on this, to which we were going to link, as we'd already banged our toe on this non-commitment.

Now it is brought to our attention that others have noticed & responded.

Our reaction: Astral Weeks? Who'd want to hear what it sounded like? Another tortured singer-songwriter complaining mid-tempo. We prefer complaints about existential agony from Americans like Bangs, because we can understand them.

LOADING ZONE

Watch Out, Pretty Boy

Something caught our eye when we finally read all the POLITICO thing mumbled about an item below:

“We’re not your crusty old white guy party anymore,” boasted Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), who at 31 is at the tail end of the Reagan generation.

Nope. Just dumb-ass middle-aged honkies.

Now, students, comparing Rep. Schock to his crusty buddies Jim Hoft, the late Breitbart & the InstaPundit, why might we imagine young Aaron to have a Napoleonic complex? And how might he deal therew/?

That's one way to compensate. (Dr. Freud, may I speak w/ you a moment?) Fit, sexy Paul Ryan better watch it. There's always someone younger & even buffer on the prowl for a sugar-daddyvice-presidential slot/position as heir to the manliness that is the Republican party.

Christ, what a bunch of assholes.

Who Types This Shit?

When will this reporter learn to ignore POLITICO? We do ignore it most of the time, but even jaded cynics can be suckered by something that appears interesting; we click & six short paragraphs in we are reminded why it is to be avoided.

The two bookends, Reagan and Ryan, represent a party that is unmistakably moving from George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism to a new Republicanism that sounds a lot like the old-time religion but with fresher packaging. To use the language of their youth, these children of the 80s want to dispense for good with New Coke and return to Coca-Cola Classic.

Sweet blood of Jesus, we pretty much agree w/ what we read of the premise (Too many pp. to give them the satisfaction/increased page views so we qualify it w/ "pretty much.") but if TIME® (allegedly, once) was written at a "ninth-grade" level, which level of hell are we on here?

Just What Is Needed

Well-known Reagan-crush holder (He's dead, Peggy! Dead as your wretched Catholicism.) Peggy Noonan is now emitting her high-pitched squeals from The WSJ on a daily basis, because ... we don't know. Why?

Example:

I think the headline was that she and Mitt got married young, lived in modest circumstances and struggled a bit while he studied and tried to get a foothold in business.

It can certainly be a struggle when a young college student wants to sell some of the stock he was given just for being such a wonderful millionaire's son but it's the wknd. & all the brokerages are closed. By the way, did Mme. Romney do any studying? Or is learnin' too hard for Mormon ladies?

Christ, what an asshole.

Annals Of Self-Defense

A New York judge who has been threatened several times during his nearly 20 years on the bench decided he wanted to get a concealed-carry permit and take a loaded firearm into the Tioga County courthouse at which he worked.

However, although there was no rule against having a gun in chambers, Judge Vincent Sgueglia should not have approved his own concealed-carry permit, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct said in an opinion (PDF) earlier this month.

It censured the judge—who admitted, on reflection, that he should have handled the matter differently—for doing so, as well as for an accidental discharge of a revolver in chambers in 2010, as Sgueglia was trying to repair a faulty mechanism that cocked the .38-caliber Smith and Wesson and rotated the cylinder.

The judge, who is now 70, stopped bringing a loaded gun into the courthouse after the accidental discharge incident. He plans to retire at the end of 2012.

From the ABAJournal.

Also noted at the Journal: We may not have to kill all of them.

Yesterday & Today

People in shorts just don't scare us. Not even armed cops.

Above Reuters photo located here, where Friedersdorf hits the ground in Tampa.

There are countless events with corporate sponsors, delegates from all over the country, political professionals networking for future gigs, and a security infrastructure that really ought to be conveyed to America, because the fact that it's invisible to television viewers is a distortion of reality.

Not to worry about the future America: There's work for about half of you protecting the 1% from the other, unemployed half of the 99%.

Long But Readable

A bit o' Mormon history, personal & beyond. Romney's ancestors: Just as grifty as he.

Police Beat:Tampa 2012

The scamps at TPM saved the best for last in their "The Stage Is Set In Tampa: Gearing Up For Republican National Convention" photo featureslide show.

Handcuffs and restraints at the St. Petersburg Field Force Prisoner Processing Center, set up specifically for the Republican National Convention.

"Y'all make sure they's tight now."

2012 Republican National Convention: Policemen
near the convention site in Tampa, Fla.

2012 Republican National Convention: U.S. National Guard members patrol near the convention site in Tampa, Fla.

Previous deployment: Target duty w/ the Afghan Nat'l. Police.

"ZOMG, ZOMG-BBQ!"

From another universe barely recognizable as an odd mutation of what we know as reality, this has jumped the dimensional divide:(You must listen for an impression she does of somebody. We have no idea who.) What is she on about? Literal textual analysis may help.

LOESCH: What is that shrieking that you hear? Do you hear that? What is that? I think Joe Biden would call it, like, squealing pigs, wouldn't he? That's the left collectively losing their minds because ZOMG, ZOMG-BBQ! Mitt Romney made a joke. He made a joke. The left doesn't -- the left likes to have a sense of humor except when it comes to conservatives. When it comes to conservatives, we are no longer funny. We have no humor after conservatives talk. He was just making a joke. The Obama campaign sells mugs with birth certificates on them on their website. Give me a break. You people need to stop being all uptight. Did you just say you people?

Nope. Still nothing.

The birf surf-i-ticket on the mugs is because of silly accusations. No one's ever said Willard Mitt was born anywhere besides Michigan. So there's no point in pointing it out about himself; it's not a "moment of levity." (Think about "moment of levity." Can they be less connected to humans?) Lest we forget, it was Mitt's father JorgeGeorge who was hecho en Mexico. And George's father & whichever sister wife his mother was may not have been U.S. citizens. Got a joke for that?

Thanks of a sort to an apparent obsessive.

The Real Victim

Have yet to watch whatever the hell happened this a.m. on hideous Morning Joe, but it's all over the electron tubes & it really ticked off both Matt Lewis & The News. Hell, they were so mad they forgot to refute any of Tweety M.'s "relentless attacks" & just went ahead w/ the personal attacking.

If you haven’t seen Chris Matthew’s embarrassing meltdown on “Morning Joe” this am [sic], it’s worth a watch — if you can stomach it. RNC Chair Reince Priebus handled the relentless attacks as well as possible (several times Matthews interrupted host Joe Scarborough — in order to press his points). Most people being accused of playing the “race card” wouldn’t maintain their composure as well as Preibus did. Still, one wonders why he would ever volunteer to endure such an interrogation (it was a monologue, really) again? This poses a real problem for “Morning Joe.” Unlike MSNBC’s prime time lineup, the show has generally been able to attract top-tier Republicans, such as Gov. Chris Christie, Rep. Paul Ryan, and Chairman Preibus. Unlike the ideological shows, “Morning Joe’s” cachet has generally come from being an “insider’s” show — must-see TV for opinion leaders on both sides of the aisle. But at some point, that could end. A good way to avoid that possibility would be to ensure that Matthews — who clearly has some anger problems to deal with — is no longer capable of hijacking the program. They shouldn’t have him on again.

Holy crap he's threatening Chris Matthew's First Amendment rights! Actually he isn't, but how many times have reactionaries trotted that one out? (And are there any Daily Callgirl reporters who should be banned for embarrassing meltdowns? See, both sides do it.) And for crying out loud, think of poor Reince Preibus, obviously the sufferer here, yet a model of stoicism!

Most people being accused of playing the “race card” wouldn’t maintain their composure as well as Preibus did.

Not to go out on a limb to defend Matthews (essentially a Reagan Democrat waiting to happen) but on occasion he gets close to the truth & tells most of it. Matt Lewis & The News will call it an embarrassing meltdown & suggest he deal w/ his "anger issues." Christ, what an asshole.

Might Be Of Interest

Some may not care.

This is an until recently unpublished interview with Brian Eno by Lester Bangs from 1979.

Last Call For Meat

Not that there will be meat animals left.

Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists

Water scarcity's effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed population expected to reach 9bn by 2050

Facts & figures.

Huckabee Calls For Holy War

A little loose w/ our words aren't we Governor?

“This could be a Mount Carmel moment,” said the former Arkansas governor, referring to the holy battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the book of Kings. “You know, you bring your gods. We’ll bring ours. We’ll see whose God answers the prayers and brings fire from heaven. That’s kind of where I’m praying: that there will be fire from heaven, and we’ll see it clearly, and everyone else will to.”

"Fire from heaven" sounds like nuclear holy war to us. Bring it, Fat Man.

Bombs away for Jesus!

In other fallout, inelegant phrasing, that is, lying, from the Huckster:

Huckabee released a statement Saturday walking back the comments he made on the call.

“I have not had any direct contact with leaders or staff from the NRSC,” he said in the emailed statement. “This is an attempt to create a story. My comments this week on my own forums of radio and to the people who choose to receive communications from me are first hand and accurately reflect what I said. I hardly need third-party news outlets who ‘heard’ things to report on that which simply didn’t happen. Harry Reid has imaginary friends who tell him things about others, and it appears that there are some others in the media who have some imaginary friends.”

Not unlike the former Governor's imaginary friend in the sky w/ the fire.

His spokesman declined to answer follow-up questions about who Huckabee was talking about in the direct quote or whether he had indirect contact with party leaders, saying he’d discuss the matter on Fox News on Saturday night.

Remember, just mis-speaking, & nothing wrong w/ anything anyway (as long as one is a Republican & believer) because the gawd of personal responsibility will forgive you.

The executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, John Yeats, told the group that he counseled Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) after he was linked to a prostitution ring in 2007.

“David had been exposed for going places he shouldn’t have been going. And there were calls for him to step out, but he stayed by his campaign and restored his relationship with his wife,” Yeats said. “As I think about Congressman Akin, his quote, ‘transgression,’ was not nearly as vile as Vitter’s. So I think this thing is survivable. And beyond survivable, I still think he has a real shot at winning the race here in Missouri.”

“One of the things we have to remind ourselves of and remind our people of is that Congressman Akin represents the mainstream of our values,” he added. “He is the mainstream of our values.”

Funny, their values aren't quite as one might think. Major gaffes (murder, for example) can be forgiven.

David Barton, the founder of a Texas-based conservative group WallBuilders, was asked to offer some historical perspective for the group.

“There’s been a lot of political leaders who have made major gaffes but not just misspoken,” said Barton. “One of the greatest leaders in Israel’s history was David, who had [committed] adultery, murdered Uriah, etc. But he repented. God gave him forgiveness. Great leader. But that was not a misspeaking of words. And then Noah had trouble with drunkenness. God still used him. Samuel couldn’t control his children. He ran a nation. Moses, guilty of murder. He came back, delivers a nation.”

“There’s a long list of people who were absolutely flawed, but nothing for as small a misdemeanor – if you will — as misspeaking,” he added. “So this is really unprecedented.”

Barton, who was once the co-chairman of the Texas Republican Party, decried “party bosses” for calling pastors, supporting Akin to pressure them to stop doing so.

“This is a guy that we can’t let a lot of loud-mouth people take from the rest of the nation,” he said, “because he’s too much of a fighter that we need on these kinds of issues in D.C.”

David Barton there is the liar who is known nation-wide for his lying; isn't it funny that he should beg for another's forgiveness on the basis of misspeech. It's beyond too late now, nevertheless we'll pretend that we care (or that anything makes any difference) by making it clear that Akin did not "misspeak" (Wingnut faves "57 states" or calling an admiral a general are misspeaking. The word was popularized by the Nix's press sec., Ron Ziegler, we should add.) but laid bare the awful truth of the usually otherwise amorphous (hidden because they aren't all morons) values & beliefs these people of faith all endlessly & insufferably profess to hold.

And there's always a mad as hell type who ain't gonna take it & you shut up or else; no one tells him what to do because AmericaMissouri Baptists. This one is also a prophet.

David Baker, pastor of First Baptist of Church in Belton, Mo., chimed in to say that he met with 60 men* earlier in the evening and the view was unanimous Akin should keep fighting.

“We have a responsibility as prophets to speak out,” he said. “One thing I know about Missouri Baptists is that we don’t like to be told what to do.”

Drone drone drone, no tax exemptions for obviously political churches, ZZZZZ.

---

*We haven't the energy to deal w/ this clarification/emphasis of gender. A recording of the 'phone call for Christ would be amusing until the urge to throttle one of these dopes became overwhelming & an aneurysm developed. We didn't even drag J.C. Watts in, but he's a riot too.

Hello? Some Americans There?

Remember an election cycle or two ago when weight-loss guru, FOXNews Tee Vee Personality/radio yapper & complete failure as a presidential nominee (Which has indeed worked out well for him, hasn't it? Fucking hell, all the creatures in the GOP's candidate corral are in it for the money to be made being a public loudmouth/"author"/Queen of Facebook/Tweeter after an unsuccessful bid. Name one not currently in office who doesn't have some donation/no-tax scam going.) Mike Huckabee was considered somewhat less repellent a toad than most of the other contenders? And he knew just how, where & when (right after Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke as the war on womenRepublican campaign against women's rights began to make itself better-known.) to position himself:

"They are going after Rush's affiliates," said one radio company executive who received Cumulus' email and spoke on condition of anonymity. "They are positioning Huckabee as the safe, non-dangerous alternative to Rush and saying to station owners, 'If you are looking for conservative content, we want you to consider our guy instead of theirs.'"

Extra funny because Limbaugh's audience is 70% old men, & of course mass advertisers are most interested in middle-aged women so Huckabee decided to build ratings by siding w/ Rep. Rep. & Sen. candidate Todd Akin (MO) against the GOP establishment.

Speaking harshly about establishment Republicans who have tried to force Akin from the Missouri race, Huckabee at one point compared the National Republican Senatorial Committee to "union goons" who "kneecap" their enemies.

OK, bag of obese hammers, really now, when was the last time someone was "kneecapped by a union goon?" And why not compare Akin's treatment at the hands of the establishment to, say, being shot by an actual goon white supremacist for living-while-Sikh? Wrong century for Huck's frame of reference? Oh-kay.Huck appeared on the 'phone w/, among others, congenital liar David Barton &

encouraged the pastors and radio hosts to aggressively defend Akin to their congregations and listeners.

"The poll numbers need to come back up," he said. "Todd needs to show that he can raise money and be competitive. That will be a game changer. If not, the pressure will still be there for Todd to exit the race and clear the field for somebody else."

All about the competition & the numbers & the money. Whether what Huck wants aggressively defended is objectively wrong (& creepy) doesn't enter into it.

And we see precisely how genial & civil Huckabee is. Reasonable & open to conversation too.

And blah blah. Another pointless typing exercise. Where's the outrage?

---

See item below for notes on this.

Oops ...

Seem to have missed an entire calendar day, for the first time in some time. Possibly yrs. (Sad, huh?)

We did start typing something (same old same &c.) yesterday, but had nothing snappy for the end* beyond the usual nihilistic plea for apocalyptic relief (Meteors? Plague?) from jaded suffering & intense ennui, which are probably a reaction to Internet political climate & an electorate that is (if one scans polls as headlined on said Intertuberous) bizarrely & inexplicably evenly divided.

So we started watching telebision (to clear/empty head/mind, zenning it up for a later stab at creation, or, or ...) & suddenly it was Sunday.

---

*OK, OK, not just the finish, most of it was tedious, if not actually irksome. Banal is a given.

Pukey Pizza Cheap

If you want crummy anti-abortion pizza at 50% off, this is the wknd.

Presented as a public service for those not on the MLB.com sucker list, although the real public service would be bankrupting Papa John's.

58-Yr. Old Man Gets Sane, Kills Asshole Who Ruined His Life

Then NYPD cops shot another nine people, apparently just to watch them die, Johnny Cash-style. We don't give one fucking shit about anybody anywhere anymore, but were somewhat relieved to discover that we weren't the 58-yr. in question. It could happen 'though, so don't think you're safe if you've ever fucked w/ us. We have a list, & it's a long one. (Now that our parents are dead, the one & two spots on the list are open. We guess if we're doing it chronologically, there are some teachers who need to be dead, if they haven't already been brought to justice by a vengeful gawd. Might be easier to look for certain employers, supervisors, managers & bosses who may still be alive. Not for long, however. When's the next gun show?)

Do not make the mistake of thinking these are empty threats. They are promises.

The Cattle Are Coming!

Things are tough all over, as cattle come down from the hills looking for lawn, & find it at an apartment complex.

“They were there for the grass,” said Diestel, a 10-year sheriff’s veteran assigned to the Malibu/Lost Hills station. “They went from green belt to green belt. The canyon is just so dry.”

The animals had made their first appearance the night before. Deputies, aided by county animal control workers and an apartment-dweller with a couple of herding dogs, thought they had successfully shooed the herd back up Browns Canyon.

{...]

Suddenly, though, help appeared in the form of a woman who said she was the neighbor of the rancher whose cattle had wandered off.

The woman, armed with what Diestel described as an “Indiana Jones”-style bull whip, was able to persuade the cattle to git along.

“She drove them the rest of the way,” he said. “It was funny as heck.”

Fungal Fun

More or less actual color.

Fuck The North Too

Looks as if it'd be easier just to cut the Left Coast off from not merely the South (immediately below) but the entire continent; people are as fucking stupid/ignorant/nonsensical/post-modern above the Mason-Dixon line as well:

In a separate experiment, Nancy Niedzielski, an associate professor of linguistics at Rice University, told 50 NCS speakers that she was going to play a recording of a speaker from Michigan saying the word B-A-G, which she spelled out for them. She then asked the test subjects to identify whether the signal they heard sounded like byag (the NCS pronunciation), bag (the “standard” pronunciation), or baahg (a vaguely British pronunciation). Not one of the 50 subjects said that they heard the NCS pronunciation. “There’s just an incredible deafness to the local pronunciation,” Preston says—adding that the reason, in his opinion, is clear. “They believe that they are standard, normal, ordinary speakers, and when they’re confronted with evidence to the contrary, they reject it. They reject it in their daily lives, and they reject it even experimentally. They don’t even understand themselves.”

Maybe we should replace the slash-string of adjectives up there w/ "self-deluding," but we'll have our cake & eat it too, thank you.

Canada Holds The Line

(This part of The North may be exempted from the inflammatory headline.)

And the NCS dialect is, it appears, becoming more ordinary. Forecasting the likely growth of a dialect is tricky, but the NCS dialect appears to have spread in recent decades. Only in the United States, though: While dialect boundaries tend to blur at the edges and pay no heed to political borders, “the starkest dialect boundaries in North America are the boundaries between Detroit and Windsor and the boundaries between Buffalo” and Canada, according to Aaron Dinkin, an assistant professor of sociolinguistics at Swarthmore College. George Mason University maintains a database of native English speakers from across the globe reading the same paragraph. It includes samples of a woman from Detroit and a man from Windsor that highlight the stark contrasts in their dialects. Her classic NCS pronunciations of the short a and short o vowels belie the fact that her hometown is separated from his hometown and radically different Canadian dialect pronunciations by nothing more than a 7,500-foot bridge. Geographically, these people might as well live in the same city. Linguistically, they inhabit different worlds.

Prior coverage of shifty vowels.

FTS

Saw it off & let it go, if the oceans don't drown most of the crackers. No apparent link to further info from The NYT, so here. Author chats.

Stylish Action Jump

That mean woman at The Exiled:

Well, I will give him this: he died interestingly. Very few famous people kill themselves deliberately and unequivocally, in such a way that it can’t be argued they took an accidental overdose of their drug of choice or something like that.

[...]

But I can’t think of a single one who ever did it by jumping off a bridge into deep water.

[...]

Jumping off a bridge is pretty bold. And he didn’t hesitate, either, according to witness reports—just up and over.

We suppose we should type TONY SCOTT here so Internet fuckheads can drop by & whine about what a jerk we are.

Hydrodynamics

Disadvantages of living in a bunker under a lake: The lake wants to get in.

Humor In Uniform

See how long this lasts. Liked this one:

Miller said that officials were concerned that Tapout clothing “could give the enemy a big-picture idea of how many military personnel are in an area, where they go in their off time, and what kind of asinine garbage they spend on their money on. Basically, if I go to a movie theater and see a bunch of Tapout shirts, I know two things: one, there must be a base nearby, and two, with all these posers around, I’m probably the best fighter there, pound for pound.”

Miller said that a defense working group was sent to San Diego, CA, Fayetteville, NC, Jacksonville, NC, and San Antonio, TX to observe people in Tapout gear. The group went to shopping centers, bars, and Dave & Busters, and asked people wearing Tapout clothing whether they were in the military. The working group’s data indicates that 1% of the people interviewed were civilian mixed martial artists, 15% were local douchebags, and 84% were active duty military.

“84% is a big deal,” Miller said. “Even though this wasn’t a formal study, we can’t sit by and do nothing. Not too long ago, I went to a mall outside of Joint Base Lewis-McChord on a Friday night and thought I was in the middle of a UFC Fan Expo. And I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that not one of those guys could throw a switch kick, or counter a basic double leg, or maintain an appropriate range against a fighter with a reach advantage. Also, don’t forget the OPSEC.”

Many military personnel are not pleased. Specialist Frank Alvarado, who is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, said, “This is bullshit. I wear Tapout because it’s an expression of who I am. I’m a soldier, but I also train UFC.”

Miller said that the working group will be sent out to identify other possible OPSEC concerns, such as skin-tight Under Armour workout shirts worn at bars and restaurants, high-and-tight haircuts, and civilian wives so overweight they make the passenger side of the couple’s Honda Civic dip when they get in.

Follow us: @theduffelblog on Twitter | duffelblog on Facebook

We had no idea. Worst we see in our zone is Ed Hardy.

Not A Hateful Personal Attack

From Forbes, Henry Miller requests that Vice-President Biden undergo a check-up from the neck-up. Nothing wrong w/ that, right?

Biden should submit to a thorough neurological and psychiatric examination, with special attention to whether he is experiencing “transient ischemic attacks” – marked by impaired blood flow to the brain – small strokes, seizures, or suffers from a brain tumor.  After all, we often demand to know whether a candidate has recovered from open-heart surgery, cancer or a stroke, and many states require elderly drivers to be re-licensed.

Aren’t the vice-president’s highest-level security clearance and his influence on public policy as important as the ability to drive a car?

An exam by an expert offers an assessment of cognitive abilities, memory and quality of thought processes.  It includes assessments of alertness; speech; behavior; awareness of environment; mood; affect; rationality of thought processes; appropriateness of thought content (presence of delusions, hallucinations, or phobias); memory; ability to perform simple calculations; judgement (“If you found a letter on the ground in front of a mailbox, what would you do with it?”); and abstract reasoning.

Don’t voters have a right to know whether Biden is ill or merely unlikeable, impulsive and prone to deceitfulness?

Henry I. Miller, a physician, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

It would indeed be irresponsible not to speculate ad nauseum about whether he's a jerk or a crazy jerk. And sure, once we're finished w/ physician Miller, why not talk to Biden?

The Total Romney Package

Because even the host of Goofball is right once in a while.

Bringing The War Back Home

Channel surfing, & on HLN (formerly CNN's Headline News Network, currently the home of America's Scold™ Nancy Grace) Jane Velez-Mitchell is leading a panel of rape victims discussing Rep. Rep. Akin's absurd statement on rape & conception.

Now all the real Americans too busy keeping up w/ Kardashians & missing white girls to know anything about politics are getting a good look at the misogyny of the religious right. Thanks, Todd, you stupid jerk.

Andrew Sullivan Stupid

Really, Andy? Still don't know the diff between selling shit & riding your bicycle?

USS Iowa Fantail

In the left background may be seen the Vincent Thomas Bridge whence jumped Hollywood film director Tony Scott.

No nylon hawsers in our day.

From Mr. Fish

Too close to home, besides the gay Boy Scout stuff. Not that there's anything ...

Song Of This Wk.

Same lazy crap, 24/7.We need to hear last wk.'s song again.Do we earn points for consistency?

Idiotic Business Model

Small business: To mangle a metaphor, it's the backbone of the economic engine that makes America run. (Look at Chick-fil-A.)

So what are we to think of another Bob's Big Boy closing?

This particular Bob's has only been open for six years, but it's on the site of a Bob's Big Boy that operated from 1969 to 1995.

It was decided 11 yrs. later to reopen at the same failed location? Innovation: Making America great.

Roach Coach Re-Cap

Try To Understand

Deputy Dimbulb still unclear on the concept:

“Everybody is still trying to understand what happened,” Sgt. Matt Stringer of the St. Clair County Sheriffs Department said today.

Clear to us. (Oxygen, fuel, heat.) Maybe the deputy should have asked the reporter.

Someone poured a large amount of gasoline on the wood and her brother, Christopher Blewett, 27, invited her to light it.

The resulting explosion killed them both and injured four others, three of whom were hospitalized.

Exceptional American excessivism. Pour it on, losers! More!

"Totally Closed BORDERS"

Grave-pissing (3:20)-ish.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Riddled W/ Zombies

Also Ann Althouse

From an odd thing that appeared un-summoned in the editorial in-box, an AP story.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Republicans seem to have it all.

Native son Paul Ryan is Mitt Romney's running mate. Gov. Scott Walker is a national conservative hero after surviving a recall vote. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson is vying to capture an open Senate seat held for more than 50 years by Democrats. And Wisconsin's own Reince Priebus heads the Republican National Committee.

Now they're focusing on the crown jewel: delivering Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes for Romney. It won't be easy. Barack Obama cruised to victory by 14 points four years ago, and maintains a slight lead over Romney in polls. And Wisconsin hasn't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Still, the fact that the goal is even plausible shows how much Wisconsin's politics have changed in the few years since GOP nominee John McCain was blown out here in 2008 and Democrats held control of the statehouse. Wisconsin has a long tradition of political moderation, but voters have become more conservative since the recession slammed the economy and government deficits rose. A group of rising GOP leaders has taken advantage with a message that relentlessly emphasized jobs and making government less costly.

[Yada yada yada AP-style.]

Professional Althouse-related courtesy.

More Murder Music

Enjoy your Sat. night, weekenders.

Bed, Bath & Beyond

After the shelters closed in mid-March 2008 we snagged ourself a sweet spot under "Sierra & Kailyn's Cockpit" & slept there for the next six mos.

Just southwest of the Federal Bldg.

On the yellow part, next to the "engines."

All the comforts.

Claustrophobic? Yes.

Front yard.

54º40' or Fight!

We would be remiss in our enforcement of cultural hegemony if we didn't make abso-fuggin'-lutely certain that our friends to the north of the world's longest more or less undefended border knew they have yet another source for localized news info & sideboob, Arianna's PuffHo North & Western.

I'm delighted to announce the launch of HuffPost Alberta, which will bring HuffPost's signature mix of news, blogging, community and social engagement to this western province. Through a combination of original reporting and comprehensive curation, HuffPost Alberta will put a spotlight on the full range of issues affecting those who call Alberta home -- from politics, food and environmental issues to income inequality and the province's vast energy industry.

Someone smells money; screw you B.C!

The launch comes at an exciting time for HuffPost Canada; today also marks the launch of HuffPost British Columbia.

'Phoning It In Fri.*

Perspectives

LACMTA Red Line Station,

Hollywood & Highland.

---

*Were originally going to go w/ "Perspectives" as the headline, but decided honesty is the best policy when being annoying.

It's The Humidity II

Forgotten Stab From The Past

Our man from meatspace Brick found an item he liked (That he wrote & e-mailed hisse'f but doesn't remember.) here.

Posse Comitatus Report

An America-hater who worked for the gov't. (Fascist!!) whines that no one paid him any attention when he was warning George W. Bushthat lesbian about domestic terrorists & -isms.

Since the DHS warning concerning the resurgence of right-wing extremism, 27 law enforcement officers have been shot (16 killed) by right-wing extremists. Over a dozen mosques have been burned with firebombs – likely attributed to individuals embracing Islamaphobic beliefs. In May 2009, an abortion doctor was murdered while attending church, two other assassination plots against abortion providers were thwarted during 2011 and a half-dozen women’s health clinics were attacked with explosive and incendiary devices over the past two years.

In January 2010, a tax resister deliberately crashed his small plane filled with a 50-gallon drum of gasoline into an IRS processing center in Austin, Texas; in January 2011, three incendiary bombs were mailed to government officials in Annapolis, Md., and Washington, D.C.; also, in January 2011, a backpack bomb was placed along a Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Wash.; and, during 2010-2012, there have been multiple plots to kill ethnic minorities, police and other government officials by militia extremists and white supremacists.

The Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wis., and the shooting of four sheriff’s deputies in St. Johns Parish, La., in August are only the latest manifestations of right-wing extremist violence in the U.S.  Yet, there have been no hearings on Capitol Hill about this issue. DHS still has only one analyst monitoring domestic terrorism. The federal government’s failure to recognize the domestic terrorism threat tells me there will assuredly be more attacks to come.

A larger picture of "insurrectionism." More murder in Wisconsin. And the alleged perp in the St. John the Baptist Parish ambushes.

Joekel’s run-ins with police were nothing new. He was wanted by authorities in both Nebraska and Kansas since at least August 2011.

The website of the Gage County Sheriff’s Office in Nebraska listed him as a fugitive, saying he fled the area after being involved in a bizarre incident that took place in both states and involved him making “terroristic threats toward law enforcement and other individuals.”

Freedom of speech! Freedom of guns!! Politer society!!! DIE, PIG!!!!

Keep This In Mind All Wknd.

You are fucked you-know-where (sideways/sidewise). Twice.

Although the piece doesn't address this question, it's good from time to time to step back and acknowledge that the fate of our nation basically rests with some of the least informed among us, and the system is designed to maximize their power.

Aren't we exceptional?

Friday Lunch Meat Music

Too clammy to sleep past 0900. We understand that in some parts of the world it is time for lunch. Eat this.

Resistance

Not much, but it's a start.Toward the eventual death of capitalism & capitalists. Property is theft: Reduce property values.

This nation will not be free until the evictors live & work in fear.

Dead 35 Yrs. Now

Elvis Presley, among many, many others.

Presley takes it badly; it is his money, he says, and he can do with it what he likes. ‘I’m getting out of here,’ he shouts. Without telling anyone where he is going, he flies from Memphis to Washington, from Washington to Dallas, then on to Los Angeles, where he has arranged to be met by his new driver, an Englishman called Gerald Peters.

He then takes the next flight back to Washington. In flight, he writes the following letter:

Dear Mr President,
First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and Have Great Respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The Drug Culture, the Hippie Elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it The Establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out …

He asks to be made a Federal Agent at Large. ‘First and foremost I am an entertainer but all I need is the Federal credentials.’ He has, he adds, pursued ‘an in depth study of Drug Abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques … I would love to meet you just to say hello if you’re not too busy.’ On another piece of paper, marked ‘Private and Confidential’, he lists his various phone numbers.

Hoo boy. Another conserva-celeb. Who died on his toilet as a result of prescription drug abuse. But loooooved America.

How'd He Guess?

In response to a previous item (which consisted almost entirely of this:)mock was made:

Murfyn said ...

Why blame the band? Maybe there was an evangelist up there protesting General Mills.

Ah ha ha ha, wait ... Who's sorry now?

A Twin Cities man who staged a fiery protest outside General Mills headquarters in Golden Valley last week has died of a heart attack, his family and its minister said Wednesday.

Michael L. Leisner, 65, of Andover, gained national media attention for setting a box of Cheerios on fire outside the cerealmaker's corporate offices Aug. 5 in a one-person protest of the company's support for same-sex marriage.

Leisner posted a video of his act online, with it showing him scrambling to stomp out the flames before he hurriedly instructs his off-camera friends to get in a car. The video made its way onto cable TV's "The Daily Show" and "Chelsea Lately."

Leisner died Saturday while waiting in his car for his sons to finish playing tennis, said the Rev. Dwight Denyes, senior pastor at Emmanuel Christian Center in Spring Lake Park.

The family said in a statement that the two sons found Leisner in his car and not breathing. He was taken to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and died "of a massive heart attack," the statement said.

Denyes said that while he didn't know Leisner well, what the nation saw in the protest video "doesn't accurately reflect who he was as an individual. He was a very loving and caring father of his four children, a loving husband and he seemed to get along with other people."

Which is precisely why G-d wanted him in heaven at His right hand, lighting Cheerios, instead of disturbing the peace on Earth.In the future, everyone will be the butt of Internet humor for 15 mins. & then they'll die.

Tensions Rise As War Criminals Honored

Not Bush or Cheney yet; convicted & executed war criminals.

A war veteran leads others clad in costumes of
the Imperial Japanese Army during a visit to Yasukuni Shrine
to pray for war victims in Tokyo on August 15, 2012.
(AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

Toys For Tots

Not necessarily dumbing down, but infantilizing:

Google claims you’ll enjoy holding its tablet, reading books on it and playing games, because the size is better for all of those things. Of course that means watching movies is a diminished experience.*

How about writing? Or creating a podcast? How about building a website or putting together a serious photo portfolio?

People don’t want computers that do anything anymore because people don’t want to do anything anymore.

The worker drones will always have their spreadsheet generators, but when they come home they want something deliberately too simple to run Excel.

And that means their kids won’t have access to the computing software and hardware necessary to create things beyond sophisticated finger paintings. And the nation will slowly get dumber and collapse in on itself. Meanwhile the country that builds nearly all of these devices, China, is pumping out spaceships and people smart enough to build them. Oh well. We can import those people, and use their math skills to put a rover on Mars as long as Beijing keeps buying enough of our debt to finance the project.

---

*We did not spend many dollars for a large high-definition television (& added monthly money for cable service)  so we can pay Netflix even more each month to watch crummy movies on an insanely expensive toy w/ a postage stamp-sized screen while dropping a load. Yet millions of Americans, already so fucking stupid you can't dumb anything down any further for them, have. You deserve what you get, suckers.

Jack In The Pants