What he says

A good question

The real estate baron (Donald Trump) said if he were President, Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden "would have been caught long ago."

"Tell me, how is it possible that we can't find a guy who's 6-foot-6 and supposedly needs a dialysis machine?" Trump said. "Can you explain that one to me? We have all our energies focused on one place - where they shouldn't be focused."

You know he always gets what he wants....

Now our Brilliant Comander (order of the codpiece with oak clusters) has a nice little chore for our friends in Pakistan.

The Bush administration has ordered the Pakistani government to capture Osama bin Laden and other terrorists before the November election. Like a demanding patron at a classy restaurant, they'd like their politically expeditious capture on a particular date, "it would be best if the arrest or killing of HVT [high value targets] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"-- the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Good to know that dear leader hasn't forgotten about the taliban or Bin Laden and the scary people he hangs out with. Remember way back in September of 2001 when he said

"I want justice," Bush said. "And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'"

but then six months later "I don't care where he is". Good to know that after getting it on in Iraq, he can go back to gettin' Bin Laden or maybe some other HVT (high value target), In time to show up the democrats at their convention. Why can't he just pay some hippies to riot in Boston to make the Dems look bad-worked for Nixon.

ABC's of terra for the children

This might take the edge off, if the news is a little too much to take-I know my snark tank is running a bit low. Here ya go enjoy.

Macedonian street "cred" takes a hit

I vaugly remember this story to be a rumor, and one of those kinds of rumors that you really wish weren't true. Hope springs eternal they say, Outrage fatigue continues to grow, and just when you thought It couldn't get any worse...... thanks to this comment
for the eye opener. You can read the whole thing at the Guardian.

AP in Lahore
Monday May 3, 2004
The Guardian

Relatives of six Pakistani immigrants who were framed as terrorists and executed by Macedonian police are to sue for damages, lawyers said yesterday.

The group of illegal migrants were lured to Macedonia two years ago, driven to a remote spot and gunned down by the security forces.

They were then paraded as terrorists to enable the country to "prove" its credentials as a frontline US ally, Macedonian officials have acknowledged.

Ansar Burney, a lawyer and head of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, a civil rights group which has campaigned on behalf of the victims' families, said he was preparing to file a suit in the international court of justice in The Hague, seeking $2m (£1,125,000) in damages for each of the six families.

What in god's name were they thinking. Children and innocent Iraqis tortured in Iraq, and Afganistan.
Billions of our treasury down the haliburton sinkhole, hundreds of thousands of troops slowly loosing their souls as they twist like dead leaves in the wind on the tree that is the war on terra. Unfreakingbelievable......

Exploding heads in Funditopia

By way of Athenae whos doing some guest posting at Atrios It would appear that the fundies are either throwing in the towel or trying to rile up the base. Apparently the homosexuals have won. I'll let Athenae finish

The rest of the article is a collection of blathering about how evangelical Christians have been portrayed in the debate over gay marriage as a bunch of backward whackjobs, and gays have been portrayed as angels with shiny little wings, and other GOP talking points that have so much straw stuffed in them they should be legally classified as fire hazards.

Lets get ourselve a Fire marshall and see if he can't do something about the firehazards presented by strawmen arguments piling up in freeperville and Funditopia. Thanks for the laugh Athenea. Really, I needed that.

Where is Lincoln when you need him

If I had a brain in my head or a working crystal ball I would have relocated to chicago, and registered as a republican. Why? you ask. Well I'm looking for a job and apparently the Illinois GOP is looking for one good man.

The Illinois Republican Party took another body blow Thursday, as the candidate considered the favorite by a number of GOP leaders dropped out of the running to replace U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan.

State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger said his late entry into the race would have made it nearly impossible to raise the money required to compete effectively against Democrat Barack Obama.

Rauschenberger said he plans to focus instead on a possible run for governor in 2006.

On the same page in a a sidebar, there seems to be some questions about the recent "draft Ditka" drive.

How desperate are Republicans?

A few are still dreaming about drafting Mike Ditka to step into the U.S. Senate race, even though the former Chicago Bears coach is not registered to vote in Chicago and has spoken to neither party leaders nor his wife about entering the race.

"This whole thing is kind of fluky," Diana Ditka told the Sun-Times. "I think somebody just made it up."

Hindsight is 20/20, and the Time machine still doesn't work.

The Hague-an to Israel "Tear down this Wall"

Inspired by the passing of a former president and aquisition of his soul the following decision was issued by the Hague.

"The wall ... cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order," said Judge Shi Jiuyong of China. "The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of its obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law."

Meanwhile from the White House

"We do not believe that that's the appropriate forum to resolve what is a political issue. This is an issue that should be resolved through the process that has been put in place, specifically the road map," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said aboard Air Force One as President George W. Bush was en route to a campaign tour in Pennsylvania.

A frustrated Karl Rove had to pull his Soul Recovery Unit out of the Reagan library "We had plans for that puppy, it was going to be instrumental to our re-election efforts, but now that the Hague has it......We can't go anywhere near that place" he said while slowly turning and shaking his head as he walked away.

Israel's response was unexpected.

Billmon is Back

Fire Breathing Dog , I mean Dogzilla

From the NYT via Digby comes the latest reagarding the whereabouts of prince inadvertant servitude.

Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.

"Darn, these records would have let the fire breathing dog that is the question about my service records to rest. Now youll just have to trust that I served like I said I did." Said a slightly annoyed Bush. "Not that I haven't allready answered those questions to the best of my memory" the CIC answered

It said the payroll records of "numerous service members," including former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices dated June 25.

This is really bad news. The records in question would have revealed that Mr Cheney had in fact recieved 3 purple hearts, a silver and two bronze stars for valor above and beyond while commanding swift boats up and down the Mekong Delta. Only a true patriot would hide a meritorious service with a five deferrment/better things to do argument.

He went on: "In 1996 and 1997, DFAS engaged with limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. During this process the microfilm payroll records of numerous service members were damaged, including from the first quarter of 1969 (Jan. 1 to March 31) and the third quarter of 1972 (July 1 to Sept. 30). President Bush's payroll records for these two quarters were among the records destroyed. Searches for backup paper copies of the missing records were unsuccessful."

Education Secretary Rod Paige was overheard commenting "I hope the kids don't get wind of this" and promiced to raise the homework excuse alert to magenta.

I Feel so Patriotic

Brought to my attention by Digby.

When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security
Saturday June 5, 2004
The Guardian

As it turned out, I was to spend 26 hours in detention. My crime: I had flown in earlier that day to research an innocuous freelance assignment for the Guardian, but did not have a journalist's visa.

Yes folks-this is our new America. This is not the first time I have read this story. A few months ago it was an Austrailian Journalist describing a similar scenario.

Three journalists from Australia were recently detained at American airports and sent back home for not having an I-visa, a requirement for journalists entering the U.S. Angered by what it says is the government's heavy-handed approach to immigration laws, the ASNE is sending letters to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to call on Congress to extend the nation's visa waiver program to members of the foreign press.

While looking around I came up with this ,

Last year, at least 13 foreign journalists were detained and deported at U.S. airports -- most in Los Angeles -- according to the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. At least one more journalist was similarly turned away this year after being detained, interrogated and strip-searched.

and this,

In recent months, journalists from France, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, Austria and elsewhere have been detained at US airports, handcuffed and expelled from the country for not having visas. Customs officials had routinely waived the visa requirement in the past, but that changed with the September 11 terrorist attacks.

So we're not talking about isolated occurances. Back to Elena's tale of intrigue.

Since September 11 2001, any traveller to the US is treated as a potential security risk. The Patriot Act, introduced 45 days after 9/11, contains a chapter on Protecting The Border, with a detailed section on Enhanced Immigration Provision, in which the paragraph on Visa Security And Integrity follows those relating to protection against terrorism. In this spirit, the immigration and naturalisation service has been placed, since March 2003, under the jurisdiction of the new department of homeland security. One of its innovations was to revive a law that had been dormant since 1952, requiring journalists to apply for a special visa, known as I-visa, when visiting the US for professional reasons. Somewhere along the way, in the process of trying to develop a foolproof system of protecting itself against genuine threats, the US has lost the ability to distinguish between friend and foe. The price this powerful country is paying for living in fear is the price of its civil liberties.

Thank you Mr. Asscroft

At this moment, the absurd but almost friendly banter between these men and myself underwent a sudden transformation. Their tone hardened as they said that their "rules" demanded that they now search my luggage. Before I could approach to observe them doing this, the officer who had originally referred me to his supervisor was unzipping my suitcase and rummaging inside. For the first time, I raised my voice: "How dare you touch my private things?"

"How dare you treat an American officer with disrespect?" he shouted back, indignantly. "Believe me, we have treated you with much more respect than other people. You should go to places like Iran, you'd see a big difference." The irony is that it is only "countries like Iran" (for example, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe) that have a visa requirement for journalists. It is unheard of in open societies, and, in spite of now being enforced in the US, is still so obscure that most journalists are not familiar with it. Thirteen foreign journalists were detained and deported from the US last year, 12 of them from LAX.

The unmitigated gall to treat this mini potentate with anything less than glowing respect. "you should be lucky we don't have a hood and pyramid waiting for you" the jackass might as well have said.

After my luggage search, the officer took some mugshots of me, then proceeded to fingerprint me. In the middle of this, my husband rang from London; he had somehow managed to locate my whereabouts, and I was allowed briefly to wipe the ink off my hands to take the call. Hearing his voice was a reminder of the real world I was beginning to feel cut off from.

Three female officers arrived to do a body search. As they slipped on rubber gloves, I blenched: what were they going to do, and could I resist? They were armed, they claimed to have the law on their side. I was an anonymous foreigner who had committed a felony, and "those were the rules". So I was groped, unpleasantly, though not as intimately as I had feared. Then came the next shock: two bulky, uniformed and armed security men handcuffed me, which they explained was the "rule when transporting detainees through the airport". I was marched between the two giants through an empty terminal to a detention room, where I sat in the company of two other detainees (we were not allowed to communicate) and eight sleepy guards, all men.

Body cavity searches of female Jounalists (at least by females), 2 year old kids on No-Fly lists, It is clear that Homeland Insecurity is working to keep us safe.

During my surreal interlude at LAX, I told the officer taking my fingerprints that I would be writing about it all. "No doubt," he snorted. "And anything you'll write won't be the truth."

Why does this not suprise me? Oh yeah shes a journalist, Rush says they're are all Liberals and therefor liers, So It would be impossible that she could tell the truth.

Its About Time

Not much else to say about this, but that I hope it is only the beginning.

Frat pranks at Abu Ghraib, Lolita Svengali terrorizes Newport Beach

Susan at Suburban G. brought This to my attention and I will have to address this at length.

At the May 3 start of the Orange County trial of three teenage boys accused of gang-raping an unconscious minor, a defense attorney made a startling assertion: the alleged victim enticed the "sweet," "caring," "kind" defendants into a sexual frenzy and then, while faking unconsciousness, sexually assaulted them. At one point, the attorney, an incredulous Joseph G. Cavallo, blurted out to the jury, "Why isn’t she being charged with this crime?"

Let me get this staight, faking unconsciousness Lolita Svengali, coerces teen-aged stupid-ass, stigamata challanged rich-kids into a whole lot of gangbangin'. Hmmmm- methinks that maybe she (succubus) should be burned at the stake. Please understand that I have read the balance of this article-including an explicit description of the video-yes folks this unconscious LolitasuccubusSvengalinator forced these puritanical teenage boys to make a video-I mean this shit happens all the time.

"She knew how to use her body. She knew how to use sex," said Cavallo, one of at least nine defense lawyers (not including the publicist, a jury consultant and an army of private investigators) representing Gregory Scott Haidl, 18; Kyle Joseph Nachreiner, 19; and Keith James Spann, 19. They’ve pleaded not guilty to 24 felony counts for the July 2002 Newport Beach incident. Referring to a video they made of the incident, Cavallo said, "The boys had every reason to believe she consented: she orchestrated it."

So 7 of 9 or mabe 5 of 9 or 1 of 9 of the borg defence lawyer co-operative which also includes at least another pod of at least 3 others (I mean an army of one springs to mind), are convinced that the Lolita Svengali "orchestrated" the gang bang.

So prior to reading the article in question I made these observations to Sub G's post:

I hardly know where to begin. Knowing nothing about the case and only commenting on the snippet of article, 9 defence lawyers for three teenage defendants and a defence that a 16 year old girl orchestrated the whole thing. Absofreakinlutely rediculous. Thank god the victim is a Jane Doe.

I can with little reservation infer that these fine upstanding gentlemen are the sons of wealth-that there is a trial at all with the reputed videographic and photographic evidence cements the likelyhood. Damn glad I wasn't born scion to old or new wealth.

Frat pranks at abu ghraib and lolita svengalis in newport beach, Irony has indeed lost its mortal coil.

This is disgusting on so many levels. I just hope that these bush jr.s get the justice deserved.

Thank god she's a Jane Doe indeed. She is a minor and I hope that she may have only a vauge rememberance of what happened to her. It is highly unlikely that these poor upstanding amish rich kids could have had the guile to set this all up. They know not of the electron and would be hard pressed to set up a video camera.

"The things she wanted done were done," said John Barnett, counsel for Nachreiner. "It’s disgusting and it’s awful. Who would consent to this? Jane Doe. Nobody is going to argue this isn’t morally outrageous. It is, but it was a choice. . . . This is exactly what she wanted. They believed her when she says she wanted to be a porn star."

Yeah thats the Ticket, and Abu Ghraib was a Fraternity of Freedom Loving Hazefest.

Peter Morreale, who represents Spann, claimed that Doe rarely wore panties and flirted, and that his client "was [then] 17 years old and tripping over himself" to have "consensual sex" with her. On the night of the alleged crime, Doe first rejected their invitation to come to their party.

I have some experience in "Tripping over myself" to have "consensual sex", but without the big house, the pool table and video equipment I didn't have a lot of luck as a teenager.

"They were bummed that they’re not going to get any!" said Morreale. Later, Doe changed her mind and drove to Newport Beach. When she called to say she’d arrive soon the boys "high-fived" each other. He claims the girl promised Nachreiner that she wanted a gang bang. "I’m not advocating this girl wanted to be the next Marilyn Chambers or a deep-throat expert, but that was her mentality," said Morreale.

Such a dissapointing situation at first-I mean how many times have You're best laid plans to aquire a bit a carefree nookie to share with friends, with a wannabee pronstar no less, fallen apart-only to have her change her mind. I mean this is legitimate Amish-lite Penthouse Forum material my friends.

Yeah thats the ticket

F-911

I saw the movie everyone is talking about on saterday. Having paid attention the last
few years, there wasn't much that was news to me. And the things of which I was previously unaware (the inauguration riots-and the congressional objection) I was brought up to speed by others who had posted reviews.

The theatre was about 70% full and there was an ovation at the end of the show. The audiance was mostly subdued and at least one person was seeing it for the second time (he recognized one of our party and came over to chat). There are many things I would have liked to see, but overall I have little to complain about. It is one thing to know what a clusterfuck Iraq is but to be shaken out of my seat by that bomb blast in the dark and the closeup of screaming kids left me grinding my teeth in anger. There were several times that I had to exercise extreme restraint lest I go all cheney on dubya.

I really enjoyed the part when he was asking congress critters to enlist their children. If you haven't seen it yet a little setup. Moore is walking around with a marine who has already done a tour in Iraq and admits that he would rather go to jail than back to Iraq. Now thats some brass and I pray that this guy has not been dissapeared or has to deal with too much freeperville hatred. The first guy they approach actually comes up to Moore hand extended and asks what Moore is up to. Moore hands him a marine brochure and the guy takes it tentatively, realizes that he has no choice but to play along. That guy and I've no idea who he was but he walked right into it and handled the situation admirably, keeping the brochure as he walked away. There were a couple others that spoke shortly before having to move along, but the last guy was priceless he noticed Moore just a little to late to avoid the situation and basically ran and ended up bumping into a woman as he made his getaway "Coward" is what escaped my trap right as he bumped into the lady and kept running. I hope that guy was a staffer 'cause if not he better be a representative of a YELLOW state.

As far as Dubya was concerned he hung himself. I remember reading about the now watch this drive and might have seen a clip of the drive part but I did not realize that "Now watch this drive" came almost immediately on the heels of his yack about terruh. The footage in the classroom was of much better quality than I had previously seen......deer in headlights or maybe astonishement vis a vis "I didn't
think it would be that big". The only time that bush sounded articulate was when he was talking about being the son of the president and the amount of access he had to his father. I mean he still was obviously and arrogent fuckhead, but there seems to have been a time when he was able to string 3 or 4 sentances together into a coherent thought.

Moore made his movie and it is a powerfull indigtment of an arrogent administration and by implication a great takedown of the media. Getting to see the inaugural limo pelted with an egg or two and the escapeing limo were themselves worth the price of admission.


Lastly, where the fuck was Wellstone (may he rest in peace) when the Black caucus needed a Senator?

Kerry/Edwards let the Smackdown begin

Howdi Dowdi Doo.

So the first thing I hear this morning is on the TV in the other room-Tim Russert and Katie Couric yapping about something-wait there it is-Edwards wins the veepstakes. I imediately start searching fort the rem,ote control meanwhile screaming "shut up whore" (I'm talking about Tim primarily). The cause of my wrath? Katie's asking Timmy what he thinks this means. What the fuck could Tim Russerrt possibley contribute to this discussion other than ramp up the Media disinformation campaign. Tim "useful GOP talking point shill" Russert.

I'm obviously in a "mood", but reasonably satisfied with Kerry's choice. If I had the chance to get this news from my regular back channels this post would have started off with less spitriol.

So Kerry/Edwards it is. This might mean that Gephardt's aid was flown out to discuss the Department of labor cabinate post with Kerry, and as Clarke is prohibited form being named the Sec Def (Former military folks have to be out of the military for a certain amount of time-10 years maybe-will fact check this later) but would probably make a great Sec State.

That two America speech that Edwards was using in his campaign will resonate with many. And while I've been around long enough to know that these guys are all to the right side of my thinking It might be possible that Edwards was basically forced to play nice "southern democratic" doggie to get elected and might actually be more progressive than allowed to be-I'm kinda thinking how Souter Kinda gave the republicans conniptions when he didn't always play ball with the wingnut branch of the supreme court-I'm looking at you Scalia (opus dei-natural law-president selecting pussbag), Renquist (happily disenfanchising black folk at the pols in the fifties) and Thomas (if only we could hook up some turbines to Thurgood Marshall's rapidly rotating grave).

After ranting and raving for the first 15 minutes of conscience, my girl informs me that earlier some woman senator was on "talking about his inexperience and how little experiance she had working with him cause he was campaigning all the time" She doesn't follow this stuff like I do but she is well aware that the asshats are in charge. I ask her if it was Libby Dole, she repies "yes, that was her name" big suprise. Of course they are gonna be yappin it up with the Kool-Aid consupting crew. How many other partisans will they trot out to fire up the wirlitzer.

I will return after a perusal of the days news and views.

I Am an Idiot and this is the last time.

What I mean by idiot (and I am) is that I was preparing a cool post about how the ACLU Skokie defence was patriotic. And then the computater locked up and bye bye post. It was the second time that post was wiped.
There is however a lesson to be learned....From now on I will compose the body of crap I write in a text editor, and then copy/paste into blogger. The snippets yanked from other sources can always be retrieved to be used with the fantasmigorical tools provided by blogger-that cool shit that you are proud to have written and possibly the inspiriation that fueled it might be gone forever.

Its really an old lesson-save shit frequently. And it might not really be a bad idea to save that source you are referring to because the ole memory hole is often hard at work.

I'll try to recreate the lost post sometime soon-(hangs head in shame)

Masterbation is Murdidlyurder

Some people are just to freaking retardidlyarded. Now the pro death penalty right to lifers are going after contraceptives. Oh the funditude (and by no means nearly as cool as mulletude). No places like this promote a view that hormonal birth control=abortion, which of course=murder. Now I would like to think that what goes on in any bedroom or closet or (hallway just off of the oval office for that matter) between consenting adults is none of min or anyone elses fucking business, but thats just me. I like to thing that (providing you sincerely believe in god) that you must inevitably make peace with you maker. Over at body and soul Jeanne makes the following observations

With the emphasis on keeping abortion legal, an important issue doesn't come up often enough: Abortion isn't the only reproductive choice conservatives are going after. Since 95% of American women will use birth control at some point in their lives, politicians are understandably reluctant to publicize it, or run a campaign on the issue, but a lot of the same people who want to take away your right to terminate a pregnancy also want to take away your birth control pills.

So meet the funditheocratic thought police. Its not enough to attempt to reduce the number of legal abortions, now contraception is being attacked. I know that this is not exacly news I remember reading about pharmacists refusing to prescribe pills, but fool that I am I did not take it too seriously-I wasn't blogging either.

In the late 80's a buddy of mine printed up a couple of thousand fliers "masterbation is murder-each time you masterbate you kill millions of mini-babies". He had another flier "mentration is murder". He of course was using hyperbole as a form of humor, I know when I first saw the fliers I almost shit my pants laughing my ass off.

Another buddy (and roomate) of mine around the same time hung out with an abortion protester at the local planned parenthood with a sign that said "I'm with stupid" and an arrow. He was welcomed as a fellow good guy and got away with this antic for about 45 minutes until the rather continuous pointing and laughing clued in the anti abortion guy who finally decided to look at the sign. Another 10 minutes of hilarity ensued as the anti guy kept trying to get on the other side of the arrow. Having had is fun I see him walk in the front door with a sign under his arm, I ask him "whats that" he shows me and explains what he has been up to for the last hour.

Seriously though I think the only way you can combat this lunacy is to hammer home the point that every one of us must make our peace with our maker and vengeance is mine sayeth the lord. OK I realize that it is neary pointless to argue with lunatics. Ill just let Jeanne finish it off.

I'm beginning to think Democratic politicians need to spell out more clearly what they mean when they say they support a woman's right to choose. The phrase has become so bland that virtually everyone mentally translates it -- pro-abortion. What pro-choice politicians support is not allowing abortion to be re-criminalized, and birth control methods to be decided by Rick Santorum.

I'm pretty sure that there isn't anything I want Rick Santorum deciding.

E Pleb Neesta

I Wanted to get this post off before the end of the fourth but unfortunately a series of rolling thunderstorms came through last night and lets just say that I have at least a couple of belly up modems, sacrificed to the goddess of ozone production.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I have always found the fundimentalist justification to shove their version of god down my throat unsettling at best. One can interpret the Bible in many ways and I don't think that Jesus would appreciate the use of his words (or more accurately those remembered by the second parties that collected them for posterity) as a baseball bat used by xenophobic hypocracy to batter this country into a theocratic union. I am also certain that Jefferson would not be pleased.

Jefferson's Credo


I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. -- Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800

Platonic mysticism

----- To John Adams, 1813

It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one . . . But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers, live without an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe.

----- To Dr. Waterhouse, 1815

The priests have so disfigured the simple religion of Jesus that no one who reads the sophistications they have engrafted on it, from the jargon of Plato, of Aristotle and other mystics, would conceive these could have been fathered on the sublime preacher of the Sermon on the Mount. Yet, knowing the importance of names, they have assumed that of Christians, while they are mere Platonists, or anything rather than disciples of Jesus.

Unintelligible dogmas

----- To Carey, 1816: N. Y. Pub Lib., MS, IV, 409

I have always wanted to build a time machine (among many other things), and dream of the opportunity to bring some of the framers back to the present. And after we toured the country, watched some television, played some baseball (I'd tell them to keep the bats) we would head off to Washington DC. The sight of Jefferson,Washington, Madison, Hamilton et al, strolling up the mall, Louisville sluggers in hand.....

beer-cooler related explosive program activities

The title was inspired by a post at Atrios, made by a regular known as rorschach. We take attribution somewhat seriouly on this blog as long it is convenient.

Anyway after laughing and remembering the latest scare, I got to thinking that the beginning of the end For King George may very well have started with the famous "Weopons of mass destruction related program activities" quote at the State of the Union adress. Thus began the descent-within a couple weeks David Kay stated that there were no WMD's-oops, Then that disastrous Meet The (Lapdog) Press interview, March in Iraq, Fullujah, That brilliant Press Conference, Then Abu Ghraib, 911 commision and Micheal Moore- anyway I gotta run to a cook-out. I was going somewhere with this...

Twilight Zone Marathon continues...

Forgot about this one. The setup: Three Bikers roll into a small town rent a house and recieve delivery of a couple of metal containers in an otherwise empty house. A neighbor (attractive young and female) parts the curtain and watches them with a lustfull curiosity.

Then the spooky powers are revealed.

Now I'm pissed. The father of the afformentioned young neighbor is slagging on Ham radio operators for causing the interference to their tv sets. Now I admit that an Alien Beatnik Biker Dude Ham Radio Operator would be a pretty cool thing to be and all-And I would just need become an Alien, master the beatnik and the biker dude parts and I'd have it covered. Now I am all for any TV exposure of Ham Radio as it is a really cool hobby, but clearly the antenna he makes notice of on the roof of the Alien Beatnik Biker Dudes newly rented house is designed to operate on frequencies higher than TV channels of the time. Whats the point you say-none really-I probably would have made a decent continuity director is all.

So off the soapbox and back to the story.

By now it should be clear that these Beatnik Biker Dudes are in fact Aliens. And they have condemmed the people of earth to death and are using that previously discussed antenna to communicate with the mother planet.

The plot hinges on the fact that one of the ABBD (Alien Beatnik Biker Dudes as opposed to Anybody But Bush Democrat) falls for the neighbor girl and decides that the earth is worth saving.

So Far We have Beatnik Biker Dudes-Good

Then we find that the above are Aliens-Cool

Then we have a mention of Ham Radio -very cool

But in a negative and inaccurate light-Not so cool

The determination of Humanity as nasty, brutal and deserving extermination-on the fence

Dissenting Alien Beatnik Biker Dude siding with Humanity-rebellious aliens are cool

Dissenting biker dude carried off to funny farm for aliens by alien sherrif-not so good.

Anyway the aliens end up carrying out their plans-oh well


All in all a great episode. How often does one get to mention beatniks bikers ham radio and aliens and throw in a link to the amateur radio relay league in one post? Not often thats fer sure. Gotta love Rod Serling.

As promised

I like to peruse these vendors of news, humor and opinion. I was trying to figure out a way to weld blog to a candymachine as one of my favorite pursuits, involves greco-roman matches with the lexicon, but it hasn't come to me yet. So starts the blogroll (until I figure out how to do links on the right side-which I will-as soon as I can put this shiny toy down for a minute).

Atrios
Billmon
Steve Gilliard
Bartcop
What the F*ck is it now
Juan Cole
Horkulated

This should suffice for now, but wait, I should probably honor those who introduced me to the political blogsphere

Bad Tux features Linux and leftleaning libertarian veiwpoints mostley dormant

mahablog introduced me to a variety of places.

There you go


xoxox,
kent

At least its keeping me off the streets

While setting up this space (a work in progress) I was contemplating the title choice- see about 3 or 4 months ago I was perusing the comments section at Atrios and the man himself had left a post containg the name of this blog. I was immediatley taken by the imagery and requested its use as the title of an as yet to be created blog. Shortly thereafter came the reply "steal anything" said Atrios. "Cool" I thought.

It has taken several months to get to this point cause quite frankly there are some brilliant bastards out there that usually consume a good deal of my reading time and also I'm not sure I'd ever hold a candle to these folks-I'm talking about Atrios, Billmon, Digby, Bartcop, The Rude Pundit, and many others.

Lots has happened in the interim-essentially the implosion of Commander Codpiece's administration-So I hesitated for a moment setting up the title because I felt the possible dimishing of relevance as we move closer to November and we may well no longer have the Codpiece to kick around anymore. I guess I just liked the name too much and as I discovered that you could have a separate url, I decided that I could put the other candidate up there.

Now Uncle-Tomfoolery (the othere candidate) was something that came to me while reading Steve's takedown of Bill Cosby's latest attempt to tell poor black folk how to behave. So I threw that up as the address of this site cause I want people to think I'm clever and stuff.

On a more serious note I feel uniquely qualified to discuss issues of Race. Having grown up a person of color in a liberal college town, in a state that always votes for republican presidential candidates. Having a genetic composition spanning three continents (Europe, Africa, North America) contributed to an early disdain of racism, which I first encountered as a three year old at the grocery store with mom. You pick up that funny vibe early. It really hit home when we shopped with dad-double the vibe. It seems that a white man with brown kids is worth more vibe than a black woman with brown kids-never figured out why-I guess moral relativism (much derided in wingnutsphere and freeperville) has always walked hand in hand with bigotude.

Besides paragraphs starting with Anyway (and occasionally anyhoo) streaming piles of conscience, posts starting with on a more serious note will invariably contain some SNARK-the recent rumors of a shortage of same notwithstanding.

Untill I figure out how to edit this place the next post will be a blogroll of sorts so if you stumble upon this place you can quickly run screaming to much more interesting places.

Nothing to see here-move along

Can't keep my hands off the cod, will blindness ensue ?

stream continued....

So as anyone with a new toy can attest, ill have to get a little bit of this out of my system.

So now its the Red hot chilli peppers (Kalifornication-btw) and one of two episodes (that I know about) of the twilight zone featuring William Shatner. One of my favorite things about the show is watching a lot of folks before they were famous. For instance I may have allready missed it but the one that has Dennis Hopper as a neo Nazi is a great one. Anyway the episode on now is not the one (Terror at 20000 feet) with the Yeti tearing up the plane (ripped off to great effect by the simpsons for one of their halloween specials).

Anyway it is becoming clear to me that anyone who visits this spot will probably be met with a combination of the stream of conscience blathering on and hopefully some insightfull seriou commontary sprinkled with links to fun stuff. And maybe a little cat blogging (we have 6) and too many paragraphs that start with anyway.

The bananna has only mildly taken the edge off and I couldn't help myself and had to have more coffee so the fingers are still shaking on the keyboard and I ponder the possibility of hairy palms...

I'm Back

So now that I have said my piece over at Steves, flush with inspiration I am gonna try out a little stream of conscience type of thing to fill up some space and
get used to this here bloviating.

At this moment in the cod cave we are enjoying the fourth with the twilight zone marathon, while listening to the Shostakovich Violin concerto which is an absolutly fantastic piece. I like this Mullova recording almost as much as I love the Oistrakh-which is no longer in my possesion and very difficult to get a hold of. For fans of Mozart's Requiem and Beethovens 9th I reccomend the academy of ancient music version conducted by Christopher Hogwood.

Shostakovich has finished and Tommy has started up and my fingers are shaking due no doubt to a little apprehension-a bit of self doubt-too much coffee and not enough breakfast. Entwhistle can play the french horn very well by the way-

be back soon must rectify need for food

Howdy Folks

I've been contemplating setting up one of these for a while. My hand has been forced by an attempt to comment on a post by Steve Gilliard a place I visit almost daily. The name was ripped off from Atrios (with approval) and appealed to my sick sense of humor and love of brilliant verbal imagery.

I hope this is a start of a new friendship, and before I continue, I must return to Steves place and
make that comment.

cheers